The Big Lie about Mayor Bill de Blasio and Charters

Diane Ravitch Diane Ravitch's blog
The question before the Mayor is whether he will continue to fund a dual school system–one sector able to choose the students it wants–and the other sector serving all. He is trying to have it both ways, and it doesn’t work. He gave the charter lobby almost everything it wanted, and they still came after him as if he had given them nothing at all.

HIV Gene Therapy Using GM Cells Hailed a Success After Trial

Ian Sample The Guardian
A radical new gene therapy for HIV using genetically modified cells mimics a rare but natural mutation that makes about 1% of the population resistant to the most common strains of HIV. Scientists were cautious not to draw strong conclusions from the small scale trial, which was designed to assess the safety of the therapy, but the early signs have raised their hopes.

The Great U-Turn

Robert Reich Robert Reich's blog
In the 1950s and 1960s, the richest 1 percent took home 9 to 10 percent of total income. Today the top 1 percent gets more than 20 percent.

Aida Flash Mob

How many ways could you arrive at a flash performance of Verdi's Aida? Start with a violinist on a Harley ...

The Story of American Folk Music

This telling begins with John Lomax and Huddie Ledbetter, then moves on to Woody Guthrie, the seeds of the protest movement, Pete Seeger and left politics.

Kids for Cash

Documentary: the true story of a judge who harvested cash from sending kids who came before him to prison.

Creation Science 101

To understand creation science, you should get straight the difference between a cynic and a hypocrite.

A Quarter Century Without a Raise

Gregory N. Heires The New Crossroads
It is time to raise the sub-minimum wage. The tipped wage of restaurant workers has been stuck at $2.13 an hour since 1991. A proposed bill in Congress would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016 and the sub-minimum wage to $7.10 by 2019.