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Thirteen Angry Men

Valeria Costa-Kostritsky KRB Blog
A 2009 study found that in Paris, individuals perceived as ‘black’ or ‘Arab’ were, respectively, six and eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than individuals perceived as ‘white’. Sihame Assbague, a spokesperson for Stop le Contrôle au Faciès, finds this baffling: ‘We have a left-wing government caving to a really right-wing police union.’

In a Win for Opponents of Mountaintop Removal, W.Va. Govt Decides to Study Health Impacts

Laura Michele Diener Yes! Magazine
On March 13, Randy Huffman, the secretary of the DEP, acknowledged for the first time that reviewing the existing research is necessary. Four days later, the administration of Governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced that the state would conduct an official review of those studies, under the leadership of the state Bureau for Public Health’s commissioner, Dr. Rahul Gupta.

AFSCME Relocating Conference Out Of 'Disgust' Of Religious Liberty Law

Daniel Strauss Talking Points Memo
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders announced AFSCME was relocating its 2015 National Women's Conference from Indiana out of disgust at its passage of a Religious Liberty Law. He called it an un-American law.

Political Revolutionaries, International Conspiracies, and the Fearful, Frenzied Elites

Andrew Benedict-Nelson Los Angeles Review of Books
Repression visited on social movements by conservative ruling elites has always been accompanied by a heavy dose of paranoia on the part of both the upper classes and their supporters. Adam Zamoyski has written a new history of this phenomenon, showing how it was a staple of early 19th Century European politics. In this review, Andrew Benedict-Nelson takes a look at this entertaining and intriguing story.

Movement to Increase McDonald's Minimum Wage Broadens Its Tactics

Steven Greenhouse The New York Times
While the fast-food movement may not be close to persuading McDonald’s to adopt a $15 minimum wage, even the campaign’s critics acknowledge it has achieved some of its goals by prompting a national debate about low-wage work and nudging various cities and states to raise their minimum wage.

Movement to Increase McDonald's Minimum Wage Broadens Its Tactics

Steven Greenhouse The New York Times
While the fast-food movement may not be close to persuading McDonald’s to adopt a $15 minimum wage, even the campaign’s critics acknowledge it has achieved some of its goals by prompting a national debate about low-wage work and nudging various cities and states to raise their minimum wage.

Cubans Review Recent Polish Film "Ida"

Rolando Pérez Betancourt GRANMA
"Ida" swept the European awards and finally won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Its director, Pawel Pawlikovski, resorted to an aesthetic of the 60s (Wajda, Godard) not because of mere retro desire, but because the events the film depicts and the resulting emotional impact occurred at the beginning of that decade. Betancourt writes: "Ida", with its aesthetic of loneliness masterfully portrayed in a black and white format, is a "tour de force".

The Jewish Establishment Has Banned These Four Valiant Jews. Why?

Philip Weiss Mondoweiss
The four American Jews above are on a national campus tour. All in their 70s, they are veterans of the civil rights movement; they went south 50 years ago to help free our country from Jim Crow, risking their lives for equal rights.But they have been banned from speaking at Hillel, the Jewish campus organization, because they have come out in favor of Palestinian human rights.

Vermont About to Become a Hellish Place for People to Work in?

Michael Arria Alternet
Steve Howard, executive director of the VSEA, told NPR recently, “Before you take money out of the paychecks of snowplow drivers, nursing assistants, custodians and administrative assistants … we believe you have a moral obligation to ask for a greater contribution from a broad-based revenue source paid mostly by the wealthiest Vermonters who have had all the economic gains of the last decade.”