Portside

While healthcare workers in Liberia threatened to strike over the dangers of treating ebola patients, nurses in California rallied to demand better training and safety measures to protect nurses handling ebola in the United States.

Are hospitals prepared for dealing with Ebola? The National Nurses Union took a survey of nurses. So far, they say, the data received in the union's survey of more than 1,900 registered nurses at more than 750 hospitals in 46 states and the District of Columbia wasn't encouraging.

Last February, Morales and some of his colleagues, as well as parents whose students attend Holyoke public schools, spoke at a school committee meeting (the equivalent of a school board) and protested a directive from higher-ups to post students’ test scores on the walls of their classrooms, complete with the students’ names. Morales thinks his standing up to the administration has cost him his job. And a preliminary finding from the Ma. Department of Labor backs him up.

Morales, who became Bolivia's first indigenous leader in 2006, will now be able to extend his "indigenous socialism", under which he has nationalized key industries such as oil and gas to finance welfare programs and build new roads and schools.

Weeks after his 1492 landing in the Americas, Columbus thought he had found a large enough supply of gold and slaves to persuade the Christian "Sovereigns within three years [they] would undertake and prepare to go and conquer the Holy Places."Pope Urban II had launched the first Crusade four hundred years before. He hoped the current Pope would ask him to lead "50 thousand foot soldiers and five thousand horsemen" to march on Jerusalem. He never abandoned this hope.

Actor, author, activist Ruby Dee took her final bow at home in New Rochelle, New York on June 11, 2014. She was a gifted and talented woman who joined with her late husband, Ossie Davis, to produce and present some of the most enjoyable and inspirational stage productions and movies of the last half century.

Ever since the Occupy movement hit the streets, an explosion of worker unrest - especially among Walmart employees, workers at fast-food chains, janitors, and hospital workers - has shaped the political life of America's cities.

Vietnam is justified in protesting the Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea. China is right in countering the US military buildup in southeast Asia. Duncan McFarland, who was in Vietnam at the height of the dispute in early reports from Vietnam and China. His conclusion: The working class should resist divide-and-conquer.

New York public school teacher Kate Abell responds to earlier Portside post, on Common Core, adding the perspective of a math educator. "The Common Core Math Standards are far and away the best tool for supporting teachers in the teaching of mathematics that I have ever encountered. The standards themselves are written in a way to help teachers deepen their own understanding of mathematics, make connections between math topics.. and pass this on to their students."

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