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Tidbits - March 6, 2014

Reader Comments - International Women's Day; Cecily McMillan; Ukraine; Venezuela; Are Unions Necessary?; Gov. Christie and Bridgegate; What the Hell Is Barack Obama's Presidency For?; War in Iraq; Announcements - Dignity in Action -San Francisco -Mar 8; Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Commemoration -New York - Mar 25; New book - Save Our Unions: Dispatches from A Movement in Distress; Today in History - Supreme Court rules in Dred Scott - March 6, 1857

Breathless in Beijing

Jayati Ghosh Frontline (India)
The air pollution in Beijing in mid-February was more than 10 times the WHO-prescribed safe limit. It led to the authorities shutting down chemical, metallurgical and other such industries, besides banning outdoor barbecues and even asking people to stay indoors.

The Third Party That's Winning

Sarah Jaffe In These Times
With new strategies, the Working Families Party is shaking up the two-party system.Bertha Lewis knows perhaps better than anyone else how hard those fights can be. But she thinks they're worth it. "Sometimes, in years past, you couldn't tell a Democrat from a Republican. No one wanted to talk about race; no one wanted to talk poverty. This conversation that we're having nationally about inequality is because [groups like WFP] kept to our principles and our ideas...' "

Spheres

M. Wuerker amuniversal.com

A Quarter Century Without a Raise

Gregory N. Heires The New Crossroads
It is time to raise the sub-minimum wage. The tipped wage of restaurant workers has been stuck at $2.13 an hour since 1991. A proposed bill in Congress would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016 and the sub-minimum wage to $7.10 by 2019.