Portside

Sonoma County’s premium wine industry in San Francisco North Bay has become a magnet that attracts developers from around the country, across oceans, and nearby. They move heavy industrial operations into rural areas and expand them into event centers and commercial bottling operations. Under the pretense that they are merely agriculture, rather than alcohol-producing factories, large wineries wineries over-use precious, limited resources—such as water, air, and land.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying the deal establishing the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB). It's hoped the new bank will stamp the growing influence of the BRICS. The NDB is expected to become one of the world's key institutions. The money will be used to finance development projects in the emerging economies.

What if you lived in a country that allowed its Navy to fly the loudest aircraft in the world over your home day and night, generating sonic booms that rattled the windows of people living in a neighboring country, and test new weapons in areas that would knowingly harm, or possibly kill, humans and wildlife? Welcome to the United States, which has a military with an increasing domestic expansion that may soon be coming to your town, city or national forest.

Torture and the mistreatment of detainees in the custody of intelligence personnel is, was and shall continue to be unethical and morally wrong. Under US law, torture and mistreatment of detainees is also very illegal. Even the most junior level intelligence officials know that this is, and has been, the case for decades. US torture programs were authorized at the highest levels of government knowingly violating US law.

Jails admit nearly 12 million people every year. Yet they are largely off the radar of critics of mass incarceration. However, as a new report by Vera Institute and actions by activists around the country demonstrate, jails matter.

3D food printing is still in its initial stages of research, development, and practical implementation, but major companies and national organizations are already making headway into making the technology a reality in the near future.

Teachers at the largest charter school organization in Los Angeles have launched a drive to unionize, a move that could alter the path of school reform in the city. Nearly 70 teachers and counselors at Alliance charter schools say they intend to partner with UTLA. More than 100,000 students, or 15% of LAUSD enrollment, attend charters, the most of any system in the U.S.

In criticizing capitalism for mass consumption instead of exploitation, The Americans uses Soviet characters to valorize austerity.

Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, the first retrospective of the American artist’s paintings in two decades, originated at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University on January 30, 2014, the start a national tour. It has now stopped at its rightful home: Chicago.

Fanon was not a Marxist but he strongly believed that capitalism with imperialism and its divisions enslave people. His precocious diagnosis of the incapability of the nationalist elites in fulfilling their historical mission demonstrates the continuing relevance of Fanon’s thought today.