Portside

Apart from water and air, humble sand is the natural resource most consumed by human beings, using 40 billion tons of sand and gravel every year. And the recent worldwide construction boom—all those mushrooming megacities, from Lagos to Beijing—is devouring unprecedented quantities. In some places multinational companies dredge it up with massive machines; in others local people haul it away with shovels and pickup trucks. Everywhere, sand mining wreaks havoc.

It's been 31 days since the release of the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing report, but already the number of fatal police encounters is over 100. More than three people were killed by police each day in March in America. Too many of last month’s victims fit a profile we know all too well – many unarmed men of color, some with psychiatric disabilities. This isn’t a problem of a few rogue police departments; this is a systemic national crisis.

The U.S. will ensure Iran will remain an adversary even if a nuclear agreement is reached. The false nuclear weapons narrative is the latest episode in the long-running drama of U.S. enmity toward Iran, which began three decades ago when Iran took U.S. diplomats hostage after the U.S. gave asylum to the Shah. Despite many other opportunities for cooperation, this cold war will continue solely because the U.S. has a vested interest in demonizing Iran.

The Next System Project. Wealth Inequality in America. George Carlin: How Does Our Economic System Work? Leonard Cohen -- Everybody Knows. Introducing Anti-Unionol.

Federally backed student loans have been available in this country, in one form or another, since the 1950s. But student debt has only reached crisis proportions in recent decades.

Emails between officers and city official – including one joking about stoning Muslim women and image used to mock Michelle Obama – now made public

In which the Senator Professor makes all the right people nervous.

According to Pew Research, most Americans believe the economic system unfairly favors the wealthy, but 60% believe that most people can make it if they’re willing to work hard.