Portside

Consumers gravitate to favorite mouthfeel behaviors, whether it involves chewing, crunching, "smooshing" or sucking. The Understanding & Insight Group (U&I) has found a previously unrevealed, unexpressed need that drives texture preferences: mouth behavior. The truth is that individuals have a preferred way to manipulate food in their mouths (mouth behavior) and this BEHAVIOR determines the food textures they will prefer.

The United States and European allies have launched wars on the Middle East creating an enormous refugee crisis. The same nations threaten Russia. The question of maintaining peace with Iran is on the tip of everyone's tongue. Even in Asia, Pacific and Africa, the biggest military buildup is by the U.S. So why does Japan, of all places, have streets full of antiwar demonstrations for the first time since the U.S. war on Vietnam?

In a major victory for prisoners' rights, California has agreed to greatly reduce the use of solitary confinement as a part of a legal settlement that may have major implications in prisons nationwide. The decision on Tuesday, September 2, 2015 came following years of litigation by a group of prisoners held in isolation for a decade or more at Pelican Bay State Prison, as well as prisoner hunger strikes.

As presidents, celebrities, dignitaries and a plethora of VIPs descended on New Orleans to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Katrina, activists in the streets of New Orleans were also getting organized.

Now, a new photo exhibition at Los Angeles’ Union Station captures images of modern-day Rosies working in manufacturing. The Jobs to Move America coalition and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy are hosting the “Women Can Build: Re-Envisioning Rosie” portrait series, which aims to celebrate the women who are building America’s transportation system—and put pressure on major companies to recruit and train women for high-paying manufacturing jobs.

Phillips 66 proposes an Oil Train offloading facility in San Luis Obispo County to ship 3 million gallons per day of volatile and toxic crude by rail in outdated and unsafe oil tank cars into California, including through Inland Empire and LA Harbor, Downtown LA and the San Fernando Valley. Recently LA City Councilman Mike Bonin introduced a resolution and the entire Council approved asking the San Luis Obispo County Supervisors to deny Phillip 66's request.

Union density went up in New York City and New York state this past year, according to a new study by Ruth Milkman and Stephanie Luce. They also found that nearly nearly 40 percent of black workers of New York City are union members. Unions raise wages for all workers compared to nonunion workers, but the pay boost is larger for black workers. Unions also help reduce inequality between nonblack and black workers.

Majority of staff vote to join the News Guild, making Al Jazeera America the fifth digital newsroom to have launched a unionization effort this year

AMC's "Humans" demonstrates exactly how complicated it is to outsource something as personal as domestic work and care.

Review by Paul Buhle founder of the Oral History of the American Left at Tamiment Library, New York University, and co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the American Left.