Portside

Leaders and members from twenty organizations will be barred entry into Israel. This also further isolates Palestine, since entry to Palestine is via Israel. One group, AFSC said: Our response to the Palestinian BDS call is in line with our similar support for divestment from apartheid South Africa and boycotts during the civil rights era." Here are statements from the banned groups: Joyce Ajlouny, Rebecca Vilkomerson and Ariel Gold.

The videos of security cops dragging a bloodied physician down the aisle of a United Airlines plane clearly shocked millions of people. United Airlines found itself at the center of public condemnation this week, after a horrifying video of a doctor being forcibly removed from a coach class seat on one of its planes went viral.

Jim Crow laws across the South mandated that restaurants, hotels, pool halls and parks strictly separate whites and blacks. Lynchings kept blacks in fear of mob violence. There were thousands of so-called “sundown towns,” which barred Blacks after dark with threats of violence. So in 1936, a postal worker named Victor Green began publishing a guide to help African American travelers find friendly restaurants, auto shops and accommodations in far-off places.

Interesting new developments calling for end of ban on travel and trade with Cuba, and for full normalization of relations with socialist Cuba, our closest neighbor in the Caribbean. Open letter to Obama signed by former government officials, including ones who served in his Cabinet. Business groups in the U.S. are now clamoring for a change in policy. Today, Thomas Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headed a business delegation to Cuba.

Reader Comments - Science, Climate Change; Angela Davis; Israel; Elections and Labor; Music and Race Relations - Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun; Weathermen; Doctors & Interns as Workers; Mondragón; Golden Rice; Civil War was About Slavery; Announcements - Stop the Attacks on the School Bus Drivers' Union-Boston-Nov 9; Art to End All Wars - Live! Auction-New York-Nov 16; Unions & Child Care: Expanding Access, Raising Standards-New York-Dec 18; Travel-Study Delegations to Cuba

Personalizing Google Maps; Mapping Istanbul’s Protests; National DNA Database; Biometrics and Consumer Behavior