Portside

Highlighting the failure of the U.S. government to keep adequate records on the number of civilians killed by police, news outlets are now tallying the lives lost to police violence. According to a new database launched by the Guardian on Monday, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are killing people at twice the rate calculated by the U.S. government. The data further illustrates “how disproportionately” black Americans are killed by police.

The Obama Administration continues to champion Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández as a key regional partner and wants to send even more money to his corrupt regime. Hernández’s government, on a six-year-long march against human rights, the rule of law and civilian policing, is now embroiled in an exploding corruption scandal. Just how heinous does the Honduran regime have to be before the U.S. stops supporting it?

Los Angeles poet Bonnie S Kaplan works with former prisoners and parolees, easing the transition back to the community. Her poem Our Aquarium hints at the difficulties of adjustment.

Representatives of 11 different unions have begun negotiations with General Electric Co. This will be the first round of negotiations since GE announced their return to being a manufacturing company and the selling off of GE's financial companies.

"Close to half of all county expenditures were spent on just five percent of the homeless population, who came into frequent contact with police, hospitals, and other service agencies, racking up an average of $100,000 in costs per person annually." That's a ton of money. And it's why the simplest solution to ending homelessness — giving them homes — makes so much sense.

If a study doesn’t even list how many people took part in it, or makes a bold diet claim that’s “statistically significant” but doesn’t say how big the effect size is, you should wonder why. But for the most part, we don’t. Which is a pity, because journalists are becoming the de facto peer review system. And when we fail, the world is awash in junk science.

A growing number of cities -- including Seattle, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Newark and others -- are now led by progressive mayors. What they can learn from Sanders is that good ideas are not sufficient. Creating more livable cities requires nurturing a core of activist organizations that can build long-term support for progressive municipal policies.

Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic. The NSA’s activities run “smack into law enforcement land,” said Jonathan Mayer, a cybersecurity scholar. “That’s a major policy decision about how to structure cybersecurity in the U.S. and not a conversation that has been had in public.”