Portside

Leonard Nimoy's passing reminds us of the spirit of wonder and discovery represented by Spock and the Star Trek series. He not only inspired millions of us to become scientists, but he inspired us to understand the importance of questioning all authority. Part of Nimoy's gift was his ability to project serene confidence and compassion for humankind at the same time that we assumed he knew the deepest secrets of the universe.

Why is Netanyahu hysterical? Why is he rallying the GOP and a majority of Congressional Democrats against Obama's "bad deal"? What makes him desperate is the threat that serious diplomacy poses to the policies and ambitions of Israel's extremist right wing government. The Iran negotiations reveal a fissure between strategic interests of the United States and those of Israel's occupiers and expansionists.

The Central Park Five - five young African American men were arrested, charged and convicted.- wrongly. News headlines blasted from the press captured the nation's attention. Last June, under Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City agreed to pay the Central Park Five a $41-million settlement - giving the men about $1 million for each year of wrongful imprisonment. "The Bullpen," is a play related to similar experiences in the NYC incarceration system.

The European Left Party (EL) demands a different Europe, a Europe that guarantees equality and decent work for women. Women want a decent job, a job based on “equal pay for equal work”, one that respects the personality of women workers and provides a salary that allows for a decent life and access to social benefits.

1700 of Columbia's 2800 graduate and research assistants sign cards saying they want to unionize.

Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in King v. Burwell, a case that threatens to yank the tax credit away from millions of people.If the Court goes for King, Obamacare as we know it might end. Most people who will be affected by this case do not realize they will be.

Johannesburg’s inner city has seen dramatic change in the past 20 years. As apartheid began to collapse, laws that kept the black majority out of cities were first disregarded and then repealed. As black people moved in, whites fled to suburbs. The inner city dramatically degraded, with neglected buildings, fewer services and crime. Now this image of downtown Johannesburg is beginning to shift, with the arrival of property developers who are creating affluent enclaves.

One of the challenges we face is that people talk about the death penalty as if it’s a choice between the death penalty and no punishment. In a 21st-century society we have so many ways to incapacitate people who are a legitimate threat to public safety and impose punishments that are serious and substantial, that express community outrage without executing people.

Blacks make up 67 percent of the population in Ferguson. But they make up 85 percent of people subject to vehicle stops and 93 percent of those arrested. Blacks are twice as likely to be searched as whites, but less likely to have drugs or weapons. The report found that 88 percent of times in which Ferguson police used force it was against blacks and all 14 cases of police dog bites involved blacks.

As more states feel they’ve been put at a competitive disadvantage by their right-to-work neighbors, the pressure only increases to follow suit and enact their own right-to-work laws. And after a while, a national right-to-work law might not be far behind. “I suspect that will happen within the next decade,” says Marquita Walker, an associate professor of labor studies at Indiana University.