Portside

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the influence of the former German Democratic Republic is more than the united Germany wants to admit. In social policy areas such as health care, women in the workplace, education, youth football and recycling, the country has looked to the East.

A joint investigation by National Public Radio and Mine Safety and Health News found thousands of mine operators fail to pay safety penalties while they continue to manage dangerous — and sometimes deadly — mining operations. Most unpaid penalties are between two and 10 years overdue; some go back two decades. And federal regulators seem unable or unwilling to make mine owners pay or improve working conditions.

A Republican-controlled computer system allegedly meant to identify fraudulent voters, may have contributed to GOP victories in Senate races in Colorado and North Carolina, and a tight gubernatorial race in Kansas. While Interstate Crosscheck has not discovered a single instance of voter fraud, it was used by Republican elections officials in 27 states to purge thousands of voters, a high percentage of whom were minorities, from the voting rolls.

One weapon in a Union's arsenal is using Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) complaints against an employer. In this article, Attorney Robert Schwartz explains the basic uses of ULP's.

Twain aims a blast of laughter at a society making itself sick with its consumption of “sweet-smelling, sugar-coated lies,” believing that it is allegiance to the truth and not the flag that rescues the citizens of a democracy from the prisons of their selfishness and greed.

Organizers are expecting to see protests in 1,600 stores.

America is on edge about the Ferguson grand jury decision. But justice is about what comes after that. There will come a day soon when the protests, in whatever shape they take, fall off the front page. No matter what happens, justice will still be possible.

Republicans find Obama's display of leadership "deeply offensive."