Portside

The South, where 55 percent of America's black population lives, is increasingly looking like a different country. Fewer children can read; more adults have HIV; its residents suffer from the shortest life expectancies of any in the United States. Six of the eleven states that made up the former Confederacy are at the bottom. That deprivation tends to be concentrated in the parts of these states with disproportionately large African American populations.(long article)

The Liberal Government in Quebec is attempting to pass a bill that would mandate a 50-50 split between municipalities and unionized workers on pension contributions and future deficits. Over 122,000 municipal workers and retirees would be affected. The bill would freeze the automatic indexing for current retiree pensions. Unions are fighting back.