Portside

The jobless recovery means massive speedups for many workers you depend on.

It’s no surprise that WellPoint and its affiliated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are the biggest contributors in a $37.5 million campaign to stop Proposition 45, which would require the insurers to get state approval to raise rates. The measure would require approval by the elected state insurance commissioner for changes in health insurance rates or anything else that’s part of a policy.

National Nurses United may be proof that unions are not all on their way out: Some are very much alive, although they may look a little bit different than they used to. “Nurses United is among the most innovative and bold of U.S. unions,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at Berkeley. “They’ve emerged as a powerful voice in defense of people who receive health care treatment.”

Beware of Social Engineering; Secret World Content Scrubbing; Racist History of Ebola Coverage; Culture Wars I: GamerGate; Culture Wars II: Progressives Break Through with Pop Culture; Zuckerberg Sez Who You Are; Verizon Knows Where You Go and Wants to Give You the News

"If we don’t have a responsive democracy, all the debates [on progressive issues we care about] aren’t real debates. When elections are not democratic, even the most populist discussions become superficial, disconnected from real power; they are theatre."

The Israeli Defense Ministry stated Sunday it has closed its Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings to Gaza in response to a single rocket fire from Gaza, which resulted in no injuries, deaths, or damages. Palestinian rights campaigners warn that the closures are especially dangerous as traumatized and displaced Gaza residents struggle to rebuild from Israel’s recent seven-week military assault in which 2,000 Palestinians—at least 75 percent of them civilians—were killed.

Unions exist in only a handful of schools, all of them Conservative movement-affiliated or pluralistic, and the number is dropping. Over the past year, three Conservative Jewish day schools have effectively eliminated their teachers unions. Perelman Jewish Day School, an elementary school just a few miles away from Barrack, and the Solomon Schechter School of Greater Boston have both declined to negotiate with their teachers unions.

In what appears to be the largest-ever joint protest by senior Israeli security personnel, a group of 106 retired generals, Mossad directors and national police commissioners has signed a letter to PM Netanyahu urging him to “initiate a diplomatic process” based on a regional framework. Retired generals have occasionally made joint statements in the past, but never in such numbers and rarely on political matters that aren’t directly related to army business.

The bargaining power of most American workers is at a historical low point. The best way to restore it is to get the economy back to full employment.

Mayor Emanuel replaces the outgoing treasurer with another executive from his friend's investment firm.