Portside

The principles of democratic self-determination are hamstrung by the powerful Troika—the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission (the EU’s legislative and operational council)—which a disempowered citizenry increasingly views as an automaton that squelches democracy as it protects the interests of the power elite.

Recently, San Francisco photographer Thomas Bachand tried to get the route from the State Department and the State Department claims not to have any GIS data on the route—or to know who within the federal government does. Which raises a final question: If no one can share the route, how can anyone approve it?

The struggle for justice continues now outside the Florida courtroom. The NAACP is petitioning the United States Department of Justice to seek justice for slain teenager Trayvon Martin by filing civil rights charges against Zimmerman. Within three hours of the online posting of the petition late Saturday evening, more than 100,000 Americans had signed it. The response was so intense that the group’s website crashed Sunday morning.

Researchers are coming to understand just how individualized human physiology and human pathology really are. That’s one reason that, despite the rigorous monitoring of clinical trials, 16 novel medicines were withdrawn from the market from 2000 through 2010, a figure equal to 6 percent of the total approved during the period. The pharmacogenomics of each of us — the way our genes influence our response to drugs — is unique.

The hope reformers once had that risky trades made overseas by American banks might be regulated were crushed on Friday. Democrats cozy with Wall Street are just fine with that.

Amid the ruckus over its voting rights and gay marriage rulings, the justices quietly accepted a pair of cases that could make it nearly impossible for private sector unions to organize new members.

BART strike aftermath: Arrogant techies channel Russian aristocracy and declare class warfare.