Portside

Kids who identify with the hero of J.K. Rowling's popular fantasy novels hold more open-minded attitudes toward immigrants and gays.

In my visits to Israel I've met with and been at demonstrations with the thousands of both Palestinian and Israeli activists who know that Israel is at a turning point, that it faces a clear choice. They assert that it is exactly with one's enemies that one negotiates to find peace. Americans - Jewish or not and whether we wish to or not - have the opportunity and the responsibility to ensure that Israel makes the right choice. The United States is not a bystander.

Israel is not my birthright writes a U.S. Jewish author, raised to think the country was ours by divine right. But this horror in Gaza has challenged even my deepest beliefs. The Haaretz' Gaza reporter, daughter of Holocaust survivors, writes, 'If victory is measured by the success at causing lifelong trauma to 1.8 million people (and not for the first time) waiting to be executed any moment - then the victory is yours.'

San Diego, California and Eugene, Oregon passed legislation guaranteeing 300,000 workers access to paid sick leave. They have become the eighth and ninth cities to do so.

What the Social Security actuaries failed to foresee in 1983, when Social Security was last projected to be in long-term balance, wasn’t the Boomer retirement, but rather the fact that the dismal real wage growth of the previous decade.

Representatives Keith Ellison and John Lewis plan to introduce a bill Wednesday that would make labor organizing a basic freedom no different than freedom from racial discrimination. The legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act to include protections found under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to include labor organizing as a fundamental right.

Viruses can control the levels of bacteria in the gut, to make sure that no one type gets the upper hand. Viruses could maintain the biodiversity within us.

The brand new Local 42 has already begun signing up and swearing in members who work at the VW plant looking toward winning a majority.

Net Corp Buyoffs; Tennessee sticks it to Comcast; Canvas fingerprinting; How Israel does spin; Amazon eats the world; Margot Adler

BREAKING NEWS: The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Tuesday that McDonald's is jointly responsible for workers at its franchisees' restaurants, a decision that if upheld would disrupt longtime practices in the fast-food industry and ease the way for unionizing nationwide.