Portside

The latest numbers, when put in context, hardly impress

Why are school districts paying millions in "finder's fees" to an organization that places people without education degrees to teach in urban schools—even where applications from veteran teachers abound?

France’s Socialist government had called for a Republican march, but so many citizens responded to the call it became more of a crowded shuffle along the 3km route. President Obama's decision to skip the Paris march raises eyebrows.

In anticipation of the new genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt, the North American Congress on Latin America is running free episodes from the web series Dictator in the Dock directed by Pamela Yates. Yates recalls Rios Montt’s first conviction in 2013 upon which the film is based. On Monday, Guatemalan Judge Janeth Valdez was forced to recuse herself from the second trial. All proceedings are suspended until a new tribunal is formed.

Alexis Tsipras, leader of Greece's Syriza Party (Greek Coalition of the Radical Left) and the Parliamentary Opposition is interviewed by British reporter Paul Mason. Tsipras and his anti-austerity Syriza Party are favored to win the January 25 parliamentary elections, which would send shock waves throughout the European Union. “We want a state that stands by its citizens,” Tsipras says.

According to a new report, roughly 1 million of the nation’s poorest people will be cut off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the course of 2016, as states move to limit food stamp benefits for unemployed adults who aren’t disabled or raising minor children. These individuals, most of whom don’t qualify for other help, will lose their food assistance benefits after three months regardless of how hard they are looking for work.

On January 2, Palestine became the 123rd state to sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In response, after first orchestrating the rejection of a UN Security Council resolution to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land by 2017, the U.S. and Israel announced their intent to punish the Palestinians. Signing the Rome treaty to abide by international law and seeking recourse to international law “is entirely counterproductive,” the U.S. says.

Even with the world's attention focused on the tragic events in Paris, the failure of the mainstream media to cover the bombing of the NAACP office in Colorado Springs is nonetheless a glaring example of the U.S. media's treatment of social movements. Colorado Springs residents had to learn of the NAACP bombing through social media. The complete lack of coverage of the NAACP attack shows the mainstream media is ready to move past the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

This localist agenda is part of Mayor Spencers ambitious program to create a fairer and more sustainable local economy whose businesses stay put and where money spends more time circulating locally among networked enterprises. His administration is promoting worker cooperatives, energy efficiency, public banking, a local food shed and urban agriculture, remunicipalization of jobs (like the Socialists before them), and creating new jobs by reclaiming the citys waste.