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Media Bits & Bytes - Summer Beach Reading Edition

Portside
US Army Blocks Access to Guardian Website, Americans Get More Leisure Time, Whether They Want It or Not; Ed Snowden Tries to Cool It to Stop Snooping; Paula Deen Hires DC's Real Fixer Queen; Big Tech And Gay Rights Arm-in-Arm; Fire Island Gets Switched to the Slow Lane on the Broadband Highway

Tidbits - May 9, 2013

Portside
Reader's Comments - End of the War in Viet Nam; Paid Sick Leave Law in New York; Guantanamo; Dodging Corporate Taxes; Working Class; Education; Health Care; Songs for May Day; Interview with Rene Gonzalez; What Can I Do - Portside emails have suddenly stopped? Alert for Earthlink, Mindspring, IGC PeoplePC readers Announcement - New York City Troublemakers School, May 18; International Forum on Globalization - Peoples of the Pacific - Berkeley Teach-In - June 1 & 2

labor

NYC Fast-Food Workers Fight Back Against Super-Sized Corporations

Peter Rugh The Indypendent
The ongoing organizing effort of fast-food workers has highlighted the highly exploitative conditions faced by those at the deep fryers and cash registers of America’s most profitable fast food outlets, which include Burger King, McDonald’s, Dominos, Pizza Hut and KFC. The actions and considerable media attention has also begun to chip away at the conventional image of a fast-food worker as someone who bears her servitude with a youthful grin.

We Want Our City Back: What's at Stake in the Floyd v. City of New York Trial

Annette Dickerson Amsterdam News
On March 18, a historic case against the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program will commenced in a Manhattan federal courtroom. Floyd v. City of New York is part of a citywide movement to end this shameful, massive violation of rights and to help bring about the day when all New Yorkers will be treated by their government as equally entitled to walk the streets of their city without harassment.

New York's Police Union Worked With the NYPD to Set Arrest and Summons Quotas

Ross Tuttle The Nation
Audio obtained by The Nation confirms an instance of New York City's police union cooperating with the NYPD in setting arrest quotas for the department's officers. Critics of quotas say the practice has played a direct role in increasing the number of stop-and-frisk encounters since Mayor Michael Bloomberg came to office. Patrolmen explained the pressure to meet quota goals has caused some officers to seek out or even manufacture arrests to avoid department retaliation.

Tidbits - Reader Comments - Announcements - Feb 7, 2013

Portside
Reader comments on Literature for Labor Activists - A Novel Idea: Fiction for Labor Activists; Academic Freedom Under Attack at Brooklyn College and AFT President Randi Weingarten's Letter to Brooklyn College President; and on Postal Cuts; Henry Wallace; The Treaty of Guadalupe Idalgo. This Sunday, Unity March & Rally

Academic Freedom Under Attack at Brooklyn College

Karen L. Gould; Corey Robin
Brooklyn College president stands firm, "Our commitment to the principles of academic freedom remains steadfast." At the same time, the New York City Council, has laid down a gauntlet: if this event goes forward, the Council will withdraw funds from CUNY and Brooklyn College. As Glenn Greenwald points out, this is about as raw an exercise of coercive political power - and simple a violation of academic freedom - as it gets.

labor

Still on Strike, a Bus Union Sees a Threat to Its Culture

Al Baker The New York Times
Each August, just before the start of school, more than 1,000 drivers for the Atlantic Express school bus company gather in a lot in the shadow of Citi Field in Flushing, Queens. For the drivers, it is the event of the year, one repeated at lots all over the city, and is known simply as “the pick.”
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