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How Chicago Activists Won a Trauma Center at U of C

CLAIRE BUSHEY Crain's
University of Chicago Medicine didn't want an adult trauma center. What caused its change of heart? In part one of our two-part series, we examine how activists and their allies upped the pressure on the prestigious university health system.

Can Neighborhoods Be Revitalized Without Gentrifying Them?

Michelle Chen The Nation
The Baltimore Housing Roundtable, a coalition of grassroots groups, envisions a plan to curb displacement and rationalize the twisted housing market. It sees joint ownership as a path to revitalizing community oriented housing.

Finally, the U.S. Steps Closer to Racial Healing With a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Yessenia Funes Yes! Magazine
For other countries with racist histories, like South Africa and Canada, healing has involved national Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, public hearings that openly acknowledge what happened and begin the process of resolution. The United States has had only one, which took place in Greensboro, North Carolina, from 2004 to 2006, but nothing of the kind has taken place at the national level. This year, that began to change.

Taking It to the Street

Jill Leovy American Scholar
In this review, Jill Leovy looks at two new studies of contemporary US poverty.

Anita Hill on HBO Film 'Confirmation,' Joe Biden's Legacy and Bill Cosby

Tessa Stuart Rolling Stone
"In the eyes of the Senate, it was about [Clarence Thomas'] gender. It was about male privilege. Who do you believe? You believe the guy who is a guy like you. Even the public -- 70 percent of the public when polled after the hearings, believed Clarence Thomas. They were willing to dismiss my experience as insignificant, both racially and in terms of gender... We've got to make the decision that we're going to reject people who behave badly, who are sexually abusive."

Women’s Economic Agenda Creating an Economy That Works for Everyone

Economic Policy Institute
Over the last several decades women have entered the workforce in record numbers and made great strides in educational attainment. Nevertheless, when compared with men, women are still paid less, are more likely to hold low-wage jobs, and are more likely to live in poverty. Gender wage disparities are present at all wage levels and within education categories, occupations, and sectors—sometimes to a grave degree.

'Just the Beginning' as 400 Arrested on Capitol Steps Protesting Big Money in Politics

Lauren McCauley Common Dreams
'If you choose to defend the status quo of corruption, there's going to be growing nonviolent resistance in the streets, at the Capitol, at your fundraisers, and in the polls, to say that we will not take it anymore.' Each day has a different theme: Tuesday, “Elders Standing for Democracy Spring”; Wednesday, “Racial Justice Day”; Thursday, “Labor Solidarity Day”; Friday, “Youth and Student Day” and Saturday, “Climate Justice Day.”

 Nothing About the 1994 Crime Bill Was Unintentional

Bruce Shapiro The Nation
 The 1994 crime bill was never mostly about crime. It was designed from the beginning as a political symbol. Back in the 1990s, crime was to Bill Clinton as illegal immigration is to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz today: a way of reassuring fearful, alienated white voters. Like other New Democrats, Clinton had years earlier decided that the party’s best hope to win those voters back into the fold was to align themselves with a more conservative criminal-justice policy.