Portside

The so-called “racial discipline gap” has been documented since an influential report by the Children’s Defense Fund first identified the racial disparity of suspension rates in 1975. In the 40 years since the report’s release, national organizations, schools, educators, and other stakeholders have all shined a light on the disparity, with little demonstrative success. If anything, new data shows the problem has markedly increased since it was first identified.

Recently the mainstream media has portrayed the political crisis in Brazil as a result of internal corruption and the lack of economic growth, which is blamed on the President Dilma Rousseff and the Workers’ Party. What is rarely mentioned, however, is that Brazil is experiencing a historical divide. Some Brazilians believe President Rousseff hasn’t followed the dictates of neoliberalism closely enough, while others argue the corporations have far too much power.

Two years after Katrina, in 2007, the Pentagon released its first major report on climate change, warning of an “age of consequences” in which “altruism and generosity would likely be blunted.” An EU security report followed which said climate change “threatens to overburden states and regions which are already fragile and conflict prone.” And soon, the national security strategies of the global north would be rewritten to offer the same dystopian vision.

The latest brilliant plan to curtail Isis in the Middle East? Give weapons to members of al-Qaida. This week former ex-CIA director Gen. David Petraeus publicly broached what columnist Trevor Timm termed this “dangerous and crazy idea.” But, according to Timm, Petraeus is probably not the only one in Washington who thinks working with and arming members of the al-Nusra front in Syria is a good idea. It’s preposterous, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try it.

A coalition of reproductive rights groups and healthcare providers filed a formal request Thursday for the U.S. Supreme Court to permanently block enforcement of key provisions in Texas’ extreme anti-choice law. "Without the Court's intervention, the impact on Texas women will be immediate and devastating," says the Center for Reproductive Rights. Women’s health groups say if the law is allowed to go into effect 31 of the 41 women’s clinics in Texas will be closed.

Labor Day Weekend, a time to acknowledge the burdens of hard work, Washington state poet Ira Woodward plays on the phrase "raising the floor"--meaning not only a moment to rest, but also time to raise the wages of working people.

In the complaint the UFCW accused Wal-Mart of using plumbing problems as an excuse to close a store in Pico Rivera, California, in retaliation against workers there who have been active in attempts to organize for better pay and benefits. The other four stores were included as cover, the union claimed.

The Rowan County, KY, clerk's office issued a marriage license to Will Smith and James Yates this morning. Five of the six deputy clerks in the office say they will comply with the court order to give out licenses while county clerk Kim Davis is in jail. Kim Davis' husband Joe, meanwhile, remains defiant. “Just because five Supreme Court judges make a ruling, it’s not a law," he said.

Some people have a tendency to believe more; if you have tons of experience with pictures of the Virgin Mary, there's a greater likelihood that those higher parts of your visual system are going to match up the arbitrary stuff you're seeing to the template of the Virgin Mary you have in your brain.