Portside

Employees of Newton based Medical Resources Corp in Boston voted to Unionize. They will be members of Service Employees International Union Local 1199.

As the United States and Cuba start to restore full diplomatic relations, here is a picture of an aspect of the dysfunctional relationship that has existed between our two countries. The release and return to Cuba of the last of the "Cuban Five" helped pave the way for the new stage in US-Cuba relations. Here is the backstory of that group, told, as Chris Serres says, by Fernando Morais in a new, well-researched, "cinematically vivid" account.

This Sunday, Greek citizens will debate two alternatives: austerity and depression without end, or the possibility of deciding their own destiny in a context of huge uncertainty. None of the options are nice. Both could lead to even worse social disruptions. But while with one of them there is some hope, with the other there is not.

Puerto Rico’s debt dwarfs Detroit’s when it went bankrupt. But as a U.S. territory, the island cannot file for bankruptcy without new legislation from Congress.

Nearly 500 years since Galileo was found guilty of heresy, the Holy See is leading the rallying cry for the world to wake up and listen to scientists on climate change. Multi-faith leaders will walk alongside scientists and campaigners, hailing from organisations including Greenpeace and Oxfam Italy, marching to the Vatican to celebrate the pope’s tough stance on environmental issues.

Moynihan and his defenders were not wrong in regarding “compensatory treatment” as an embryonic form of what a decade later came to be called affirmative action. In retrospect, the conflict between civil rights leaders and liberals over the Moynihan report was a dress rehearsal for the bitter and protracted affirmative action battle.

Calling Roof a terrorist helps historicize the nature of organized violence against African-Americans and other oppressed communities. But it needs to be done with an eye to dismantling the architecture of the war on terror.

From 100 hours of recently unearthed audiotapes recorded over decades, the Liz Garbus film weaves together Nina’s narrative, told largely in her own words. Rare concert footage, archival interviews, along with diaries, letters, interviews with Nina’s daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, friends and collaborators, make this the most authentic, personal and unflinching telling of the extraordinary life of one of the 20th century’s greatest recording artists.

Personal care attendants will see their wages increase to $15 per hour in Massachusetts, while fast food workers in New York State may soon see a large pay increase as well.

Hate Inc.; Ford Foundation restructures; Comedians lead; Surviving in Brooklyn; Ramadan Mubarak