Portside

Sesame Street is going to introduce a new cast member next month. Her name is Julia and she’s a puppet with autism.

America’s mega-state is now clearly its leftmost, too—and on social insurance, climate change, and immigrant rights, it has more capacity and desire to defeat Republican reaction than any other institution.

Can Democrats reconquer the Lone Star State?

Pay discrimination based on sex has been illegal since the Equal Pay Act was passed way back in 1963. Still, the pay gap remains at 22 cents on the dollar for full-time, year-round work, and it hasn’t moved in over a decade. At that pace the gap won’t close until 2059, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. African-American women won’t meet the benchmark until August. Native American women must wait until September. And Latino women until November.

Why the Writers Guild of America is moving closer to a strike

If you really want to understand how Moscow sees U.S. intelligence, turn off the congressional hearings and start watching “Adaptation.”

When your reforms are getting negative attention from the SEC and FBI, perhaps you need another word to describe them.

An increasing number of people are realizing that the entrepreneurial hucksters promoting “sharing” are abusing the deeper meaning of “trust,” “collaboration” and the simple generosity of spirit that makes people human.

An evolutionary arms race keeps humans and bacteria right where they started.

Cotton is so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible, yet understanding its history is key to understanding the origins of modern capitalism.