Portside

True Detective has plenty of issues, but misogyny isn’t one of them.

Unite Here Local 8 and Space Needle management have been through 11 federal mediation sessions over the last three years. Now management will implement pay raises contained in its last offer.

The heartless combination of the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the House Republicans flatly shunning the immigration bill and the series of police murders of unarmed Black men should be a wakeup call about the grave dangers posed by the far right and may give rise to a renewed motion among African Americans that could give much needed new impetus and political focus to the progressive movement.

New investigative reports from two prominent nonprofit news organizations and the International Campaign for Responsible Technology ICRT link the legacy of harm to electronics workers and communities in Silicon Valley to continuing harm to electronics workers globally, particularly in South Korea, Vietnam, and China. Two feature stories from this hard-hitting new series tell this compelling story and underscore urgency to create safe, sustainable electronics industry.

Tula Connell draws insights from the award winning Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert (2014) to understand the events at Rana Plaza and the role of cotton empire today. She also updates us on the efforts of workers to gain rights, and what is blocking it..the empire of cotton.

Based on estimates from the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA), about 14% of the population have received inaccurate and/or delayed water bills for months. Campaign to Reform PWSA, hopes to end what they see as the PWSA's coercive attempts to shake down citizens for money. They also hope to alter PWSA to be more transparent and responsive, because right now PWSA has become a smokescreen for Veolia Environment, largest private water company in the world.

If you're like most people in the United States, you have a vague awareness that the U.S. military keeps lots of troops permanently stationed on foreign bases around the world. Have you ever really investigated to find out how many, where exactly, at what cost, to what purpose, and in terms of what relationship with the host nations?A wonderfully researched new book, six years in the works, answers these questions in a manner you'll find engaging.

Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by the police on the sidewalk outside a shop a year ago this Friday. The battle over his death isn’t only about policing, but about public space. It’s about real estate and urban renewal, lines that should not be crossed, and places that are off limits to certain people. And it’s about public places where African-Americans and others are supposed to be invisible, without access to their infrastructure and amenities.

The recent riots at the for-profit Kingman Prison in Arizona are focusing renewed attention on that state legislature’s long, cozy relationship with the private prison industry. Prisoner unrest the July 4th weekend left 15 wounded and forced the transfer of 1,000 inmates to other facilities. The same facility, run by Management Training Corporation, suffered a major riot in 2010. The repeated failings of for-profit prisons have led Arizonans to ask some big questions.

On July 2, the states attorneys general in Louisiana and four other Gulf Coast states celebrated an $18.7 billion settlement with BP over claims from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. But, according to the Public Interest Research Group, at least $13.2 billion in the settlement is not defined as a penalty, meaning BP could potentially get billions in tax breaks, even on payments it made to restore natural resources damaged by the spill.