Portside

There are major problems at the Queens Borough Public Library which is one of the largest public libraries in the country. The President and CEO is paid $391,000 plus major perks. In the past 5 years he has reduced the staff by 130 positions through attrition and 44 layoffs. This has become major news in the New York City media as well as the national library press.

High school minefield; Scholastic plays dirty energy pool; FCC trims Sinclair Broadcasting; Who care's if it's true?; Past, present and future of social media

A decision in favour of Pamela Harris in the Harris v. Quinn case before the U.S. Supreme Court would seriously impact the quality of care provided to tens of thousands of seniors and people with disabilities who use state-supported home care services. It would do this by ruling the collective agreement covering more than 27,000 workers unconstitutional. More broadly, a ruling that the current system is unconstitutional threatens the future of collective bargaining.

Sixty years ago a team of radical, blacklisted filmmakers made Salt of the Earth, a powerful representation of the agency of US workers. Sukhdev Sandhu celebrates a talisman of the American left

Senator Dianne Feinstein openly accused the CIA of spying on congressional staffers as they investigated the agency’s illegal detention and interrogation programs under President George W. Bush.

The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission any day now. Given the Roberts court’s track record, the biggest campaign-finance decision since Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is likely to blow another gigantic hole in the fabric of our democracy.

Is the Russian occupation of the Crimea a case of aggressive expansionism by Moscow or aimed at at blocking a scheme by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to roll right up to the Russia’s western border? WikiLeaks has revealed a secret cable describing a meeting between French and American diplomats that suggests the latter, a plan that has been in the works since at least 2009.