Portside

The day after the Army handed down its decision on the Dakota Access Pipeline, it announced a public hearing on water permits for another controversial Energy Transfer Partners project: the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, which would cut through the ecologically important Atchafalaya Basin wetlands in south central Louisiana. The hearing will take place in Baton Rouge on Jan. 12.

Instead of gifting sugar-laden sweets, try giving more nutritious snacks. Here are some fun ideas that serve as enjoyable and thoughtful gifts, and which can be motivational nudges toward living a healthier lifestyle.

While the U.S. set up the electoral system in the Philippines, the feudal/comprador classes manipulate it so that personalities, not ideology, and bribery determine the outcome. Democracy in the Philippines is actually the rule of the privileged minority of landlords, bureaucrat capitalists, and business partners of foreign mega-corporations (called compradors) over the majority. All presidential candidates promise change for the better.

About 8% of teachers leave the field each year, due to long workdays, low salaries and challenging conditions. Some predict a gap of 112,000 teachers by 2018. Some states are lowering the bar for teaching jobs. But there are plenty of good ideas about how to support teachers and improve the jobs in order to lower turnover and improve morale.

Whether or not you agree with Lady Gaga’s estimation that American women are “fighting for their lives” following Trump’s win, the timing of the Republican nominee’s victory and The Handmaid’s Tale‘s spring 2017 premiere seems well-timed.

Amazon subcontracts to local courier companies that use drivers who are considered independence contractors. These companies are less expensive than Fedex or UPS and they are not unionized. Amazon provides them with phones that track their packages and delivery progress, and workers need to average a delivery every 2 minutes in order to meet demand.

After running against Goldman as a candidate, Donald Trump licks the boots of the world's largest investment bank

Three big films were set in Los Angeles this year but none casts light on the city’s millions of Latinos

It’s not enough to know the science (or history). You have to know the pseudoscience (or pseudohistory) inside and out. You have to know how science has been twisted, the studies that pseudoscientists will reference, and how they will misrepresent them. It takes a special skill set to combat pseudoscience and science denialism, and few academics have it.

Ta-Nehisi Coates explores President Barack Obama’s journey to the White House