Portside

The N.C. Chamber of Commerce, a familiar player in state Supreme Court elections, has spent $450,000 on a TV ad supporting the conservative justice. As many ads in court races do, it touts him as tough on crime.

The decision is extremely important. Especially since the 1981 PATCO air traffic controllers strike – when President Ronald Reagan fired all the controllers, who struck over safety issues, and permanently replaced them – employers routinely fire striking workers and bring in “permanent replacements,” or threaten to, sometimes even before a strike begins.

In the California primary, the independent voters registered as NPP, or no party preference, can vote in the Democratic primary. They can ask for a ballot and they are allowed to vote. The Orange County poll workers were told if NPP voters ask for a Democratic Party ballot to vote for Bernie or Hillary, they are not to be given regular ballots, but provisional ballots.

Reeves’ injunction barred all “agents, officers, employees, and subsidiaries” of Mississippi from treating same-sex couples differently from opposite-sex couples. HB 1523 explicitly contravenes this order, granting circuit clerks the total freedom to turn away same-sex couples while continuing to license opposite-sex couples.

An interview with Michael Lebowitz

Trump University is an outrage. But the lesson to learn goes beyond Trump himself and his alleged crookedness. What’s also likely true is that this egregious institution is yet another example of how profit-making and education are a bad mix for all except the few who are able to bank the results.

We can only guess as to why a group of Neanderthals built a series of large stalagmite structures in a French cave 175,000 years ago – but the fact they did provides a rare glimpse into our extinct cousin’s potential for social organisation in a challenging environment.

"This is a huge reversal from the days when President Obama sought a so-called 'grand bargain' with Republicans that included cuts to Social Security benefits."