Portside

In a testament to the power of one of the greatest grassroots movements this state has ever seen, Commissioners Dr. Nirav Shah of the Department of Health (DOH) and Joseph Martens of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) have announced today that they will postpone the decision on whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in New York State pending further review of fracking’s impacts on human health.

New National Drone Map * NRA's Jewish Enemies List * NYC Labor Chorus * Westboro Baptist Church Defectors * Gay Rights Bus Visits Christian Colleges * Anonymous Billboards Display Graphic Racial Inequity * Ad Campaign Redefines 'Jihad' * Coke Fights Obesity, Jim Crow * Class Appearances at Downton Abbey * Italians Still Love Il Duce * Gender Bias at Wikipedia * Day Laborers Fear Being Left Out of Immigration Reform * More

American political history can also be told as the story of the great protest movements that periodically well up from the bottom of American society and the impact these movements have on American institutions. There would be no founders to memorialize without the Revolutionary-era mobs who provided the foot soldiers to fight the British; no films about the quandaries of Abe Lincoln during the Civil War without the abolitionists and the thousands of runaway slaves...

Underneath global apparel's glitzy makeup lies an unglamorous underbelly - one of violent working conditions and structural faux pas. Case and point: factory fires. In September 2012, 300 garment workers lost their lives when a factory caught ablaze in Pakistan - two months later, 112 deaths after a similar tragedy in Bangladesh. Add China to the list, and 2012 will go on record as the deadliest year to be a garment worker.

Black History Month with Barbara Ransby, author of the new biography, "Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson. Legendary civil rights activist, singer and actor Paul Robeson - one of the most celebrated singers and actors of the 20th century - attacked, blacklisted and hounded for his political beliefs. Eslanda Robeson, was an author, an anthropologist and a globally connected activist who worked to end colonialism in Africa and racism in the U.S

Many new state workers — ranging from teachers to police officers to street cleaners — will retire with fewer retirement benefits than their current counterparts. Since 2009, faced with ballooning bills and strained budgets, 45 states have either cut pension benefits or increased mandatory employee retirement plan contributions, or both.

You are hearing that the Post Office is “in crisis” and is cutting back Saturday delivery, laying people off, closing offices. Like so many other “crises” imposed on us lately, there is a lot to the story that you are not hearing from the “mainstream” media. The story of the intentional destruction of the U.S. Postal Service is one more piece of the story all manufactured to advance the strategic dismantling of our government and handing over the pieces to billionaires.

Just before breakfast, the government of India secretly hanged Afzal Guru, prime accused in the attack on parliament in December 2001, and interred his body in Delhi's Tihar jail where he had been in solitary confinement for 12 years. Was this execution just? Was the trial fair? Or are the political parties and the institutions of Indian democracy on trial?