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In only the second case decided since the recent death of Justice Scalia, the United States Supreme Court today reached a decision [PDF] in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, deadlocking in a four-to-four tie that upholds an earlier circuit court ruling finding agency fees for non-union teachers to be constitutional, but that sets no precedent for future cases.
comment posted at 2:16 PM on Mar-29-16

“Our society is so ageist that younger people don’t want to sit next to older people because they think they’re boring, and older people might think they have nothing to say to younger people." So says Ashton Applewhite, a blogger that has just published a book about ageism.
comment posted at 2:05 PM on Mar-29-16

The original Jewish ghetto is turning 500 years old this year. Venice will be commemorating the anniversary with nine months of events, including a mock trial featuring the main characters from The Merchant of Venice arguing their case before U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
comment posted at 9:39 AM on Mar-28-16

After the damp squib that was the X-Files miniseries, UFOs have had a mostly good week. Star quarterback Aaron Rodgers admitted he saw one and Hillary Clinton pledges to get to the bottom of the mystery. Renewed interest in UFOs even reached the petty criminal demographic as a display piece was stolen from the UFO Museum in Roswell, NM this week.
comment posted at 6:01 AM on Mar-26-16

This past weekend saw the latest eruption in a long-running campaign to shame the New York Times into no longer publishing trend pieces in its Styles section. It’s a tradition that goes back more than a decade—remember Jennifer 8. Lee’s canonical “man date” story or Warren St. John’s paradigm-shifting “Metrosexuals Come Out”?—and one that owes its longevity to the tantalizing sense of superiority many readers of trend pieces experience when scolding the often lovely and exuberant reportorial form as an affront to serious journalism.
comment posted at 12:52 PM on Mar-25-16

Today, Nebraska unveiled a new license plate design to commemorate the state's 150th anniversary. It's a simple design, particularly when contrasted with past plates. The sole design feature is that of The Sower, the statue that's mounted on top of the State Capitol in Lincoln. Being the Internet, there's already reaction to the new design, particularly as to what The Sower appears to be doing with his hand.
comment posted at 3:53 PM on Mar-22-16

"...parrots, among the oldest victims of human acquisitiveness and vainglory, have become some of the most empathic readers of our troubled minds. Their deep need to connect is drawing the most severely wounded and isolated PTSD sufferers out of themselves. In an extraordinary example of symbiosis, two entirely different outcasts of human aggression — war and entrapment — are somehow helping each other to find their way again." What Does A Parrot Know About PTSD? [NYT]
comment posted at 1:13 PM on Mar-22-16
comment posted at 2:50 PM on Mar-22-16

San Francisco had been a place where some people came out of idealism or stayed to realize an ideal: to work for social justice or teach the disabled, to write poetry or practise alternative medicine – to be part of something larger than themselves that was not a corporation, to live for something more than money. That was becoming less and less possible as rent and sale prices for homes spiralled upward. What the old-timers were afraid of losing, many of the newcomers seemed unable to recognise. (slTheGuardian)
comment posted at 12:53 PM on Mar-21-16

While buying groceries for rich people, I realized upward mobility in America is largely a myth. (slBuzzfeed)
comment posted at 6:30 AM on Mar-20-16

I knew the price of my new home in Kirkwood, just not what it would cost the neighbors who’d lived there for generations An examination of the racial and economic cycles of change in one Atlanta neighborhood, with a nice touch of soul searching and empathy.
comment posted at 12:48 PM on Mar-19-16

Florida and West Virginia have joined the list of states that allow "advanced practice" nurses to practice what have traditionally been physician-only medical procedures, including prescribing drugs. The changes in West Virginia came about largely via an alliance of the AARP, the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, and the liberal West Virginia Citizen Action Group..
comment posted at 2:32 PM on Mar-18-16

Toddlers were responsible for more gun deaths than terrorists in the US in 2015. Gun rights advocate Jamie Gilt was recently shot in the back by her 4 year-old son, who used a loaded gun she'd left with him in the backseat of the car. These numbers don't seem to include deaths from older children, like the 11 year-old who shot and killed an 8 year-old last year, because she wouldn't let him play with her puppy.
comment posted at 10:48 AM on Mar-13-16

"Law enforcement must be legally able to collect information ..." – Barack Obama, at sxsw. (Full video of talk.) Contrary to the official change.gov agenda item of "Safeguard our right to Privacy," President Obama has come out in favor of law enforcement. This comes at the heels of an article stating that NSA intercepts will be shared with other intelligence agencies, bypassing parallel construction.
comment posted at 8:18 AM on Mar-12-16

"Savage has this down to a kind of science. And it works. His fans treat him like a philosopher-king. The Amazon reviews for his books are brimming with regular people hungry for a straight shooter who calls it like he sees it. It’s an easy performance to fall for." - Kaleb Horton on Michael Savage. The Trump appeal, and reaping what ring-wing media sows
comment posted at 2:45 PM on Mar-11-16

World's largest cruise ship, "Harmony of the Seas" The 120,000-tonne, 16-deck ship set off on Thursday from Saint-Nazaire, western France for a three-day offshore test. Harmony of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, set off on Thursday on its first sea trial from Saint-Nazaire, western France, with just two months to go to delivery. The city’s STX France shipyards began building the €1bn ($1.1bn) mammoth for US shipbuilder Royal Caribbean International (RCI) in September 2013. Thousands of people gathered at the dock to watch as the 120,000-tonne ship was helped out to sea by six tugs.
comment posted at 8:19 AM on Mar-11-16

We are glad you are here! This blog was created for us to address the many questions people have about farmers and modern day agriculture. We hope that our blog will be a source of answers for people who are searching for the truth! ... This blog will focus mainly on family farmers like us who live in the Midwest and grow typical Midwest crops and livestock (wheat, corn, soybeans, sorghum, cattle, etc). There are countless other farmers out there who grow all sorts of different things (fruits, veggies, nuts, etc.) and raise all sorts of different animals (swine, poultry, dairy, etc.), but since my expertise lies solely on Midwest USA farmers, that’s what I will generally be referencing! The point to take away here is that we need to appreciate all farmers, no matter what kind they are, and we should all do our best to thank those who help grow our food!
comment posted at 1:31 PM on Mar-10-16

Thomas Frank, perhaps most notable for using his home state of Kansas as a case study for the transformation of the United States by the Republican Party's embrace of the Southern strategy and the Reagan revolution, now draws out the difference between the treatment of Trump's appeal by the mainstream press versus what Trump seems to emphasize in his speeches.

Millions of ordinary Americans support Donald Trump. Here's why (SLGrauniad)

comment posted at 8:24 AM on Mar-10-16
comment posted at 10:48 AM on Mar-10-16

"​Hey, I'm not going to womansplain feminism to the readers of Esquire! That's not happening on my watch! You're sophisticated, 21st century men with a copy of the El Bulli cookbook, a timeless pair of investment brogues and a couple of Joni Mitchell albums — for when you want to sit in your leather armchair, and have a little, noble, necessary man-cry." [slEsquire, Caitlin Moran]
comment posted at 3:43 PM on Mar-9-16

Shocking As It Is to Believe, the Theater May Be in a New Golden Age One reason: Audra McDonald, Broadway’s greatest voice, is back.
comment posted at 11:13 AM on Mar-9-16

the 30-year economic betrayal dragging down Generation Y’s income, its time for the 2016 monthly millennial news roundup, money spent in waste according to the politbureau, millennials, the new pointdexters snitchin' away to get ahead, investors scurry to understand them, shallow and lazy says the critics, swimming against the economic tides says some, suck it up and bootstrap says some others, and someone else says its the polar opposite. thankfully, Dave Mustaine says it like it is.
comment posted at 7:28 AM on Mar-9-16

...binge-watchers reported higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression than their non-binge-watching counterparts. The study found 77 percent of participants watched TV for two hours... link to paper: Viewing Patterns and Addiction to Television among Adults Who Self-Identify as Binge-Watchers
comment posted at 3:58 PM on Mar-8-16

When Middle East correspondent Carla Power began studying the Koran with a conservative Islamic scholar, she wasn’t expecting to learn that it nowhere advocates the oppression of women - or that Islam has a rich history of forgotten female leaders.
comment posted at 12:28 PM on Mar-8-16

There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It's the dismissal of science, the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility.
comment posted at 2:57 PM on Mar-7-16

If you’re expecting me to end this essay on an uplifting note—“I’ve come to appreciate my inevitably middle-aged face, which shows proof of hard-won wisdom and a well-lived life”—you can forget it. I will never not blanch at photographs showing the accents grave and aigu on either side of my nose, not to mention my multi-circumflexed forehead. That’s decrepitude, not character.

Nell Beram: I’m Middle-aged and I Look It — But Don’t Ask Me to Like It
comment posted at 9:08 AM on Mar-7-16
comment posted at 2:09 PM on Mar-7-16

Bad Lip Reading - Ted Cruz
comment posted at 3:20 PM on Mar-2-16

"Those morons out there? Shucks, I could take chicken fertilizer and sell it to them as caviar. I could make them eat dog food and think it was steak. Sure, I got 'em like this... You know what the public's like? A cage of guinea pigs. Good night you stupid idiots. Good night, you miserable slobs. They're a lot of trained seals. I toss them a dead fish and they'll flap their flippers." That may sound like Donald Trump talking, but it's actually Andy Griffith, as huckster demagogue Lonesome Rhodes in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd. WaPo examines the movie that foretold the rise of Trump.
comment posted at 9:37 AM on Mar-2-16
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comment posted at 12:01 PM on Mar-2-16

This collection of six Saturday Evening Post from decades past depict a significant change in grocery shopping, from the time when grocers picked and weighed all items for the shopper, to the modern "self-service" stores we know today, including the now ubiquitous (to the point of invisibility) tool that lead to this change. The shopping cart (or shopping carriage, buggy or trolley, seen here in its original form) is far from glamorous, but when he invented the combination basket and carriage, Sylvan Goldman changed how people shopped: an Oklahoma Story.
comment posted at 2:03 PM on Mar-1-16

#StarbucksItalia WIRED Here’s how Americans do coffee: We stroll into shops and order our lattes, often sprinkled with a dose of cinnamon or mint syrup, and hang around, sipping luxuriously on our drinks. We enjoy the Wi-Fi and the cushy couches. Sometimes, we’ll bring our laptops and try to get a couple hours of work done. This isn’t how it works in Italy....
comment posted at 8:59 AM on Mar-1-16

The March 1st round of voting in US primaries and caucuses is today. Since 1988, no candidate has won his party’s nomination without winning Super Tuesday. With early voting and absentee voting already happening, the people of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia will turn out for both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans in Alaska will hold caucuses, as will Democrats in Colorado. Democrats in American Samoa also nominate. On the Republican side, with 661 delegates to be allocated today, Donald Trump currently holds the delegate lead. On the Democrat side, with 865 delegates to be delegated today, Hillary Clinton currently holds the delegate lead. (A more visual delegate tracker) The actual POTUS election odds continue to make Hillary the favorite, from Donald with the rest at long odds. Politico has more information on today, as does the Wall Street Journal and 538. With variable weather for voters, Nate Silver being cautious about assumptions and Obama's surprise endorsement of Trump, it's all to play for.
comment posted at 5:24 AM on Mar-1-16

Many cities have either thinking about or have been upping their minimum wages as their residents have struggled to keep up with the inflated cost of living that living near large urban centers. Birmingham, AL was the latest city to plan to up its minimum wage to $10.10 last week.

The Alabama state legislature immediately stripped away the ability for Alabama cities to set their own minimum wages.
comment posted at 7:15 PM on Feb-28-16

Melissa Harris-Perry (previously) published this letter to her staff yesterday, announcing her decision not to appear as part of MSNBC's weekend election coverage, after several instances in which MSNBC bumped her weekend morning show.
comment posted at 1:26 PM on Feb-27-16

Odetta sings The Foggy Dew

Odetta recorded a haunting version of ‘Foggy Dew’ for her third album My Eyes Have Seen (Vanguard records, 1959). Often referred to as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement”, the African-American Civil Rights activist, actress and singer’s debut album ‘Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues‘ was released on Tradition Records whose president and director was Paddy Clancy of the Clancy Brothers.

comment posted at 6:24 AM on Feb-27-16

Controversial prof booted by University of Missouri Board of Curators. Communication faculty member Click rose to fame and notoriety for her role in recent protests against Missouri's administration, where she called for two journalists, one a student, to be blocked or removed from a protest site. Images and video of her circulated widely.

Recently Click was suspended by Mizzou, and also charged with assault by local prosecutors. She ended her appointment with the university's journalism department. A group of state legislators wanted her gone. A similarly-sized group of faculty publicly supported Click.
comment posted at 9:15 AM on Feb-26-16
comment posted at 10:25 AM on Feb-26-16
comment posted at 12:09 PM on Feb-26-16

Rebecca Solnit: 80 Books No Woman Should Read.
comment posted at 9:22 AM on Feb-26-16

The New York State attorney general’s office accused four major retailers on Monday of selling fraudulent and potentially dangerous herbal supplements and demanded that they remove the products from their shelves. The authorities said they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart — and found that four out of five of the products did not contain any of the herbs on their labels. The tests showed that pills labeled medicinal herbs often contained little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies. [NYTimes], [WaPo]
comment posted at 6:34 AM on Feb-26-16
comment posted at 7:39 AM on Feb-26-16

To Black Girls Everywhere by Linda Chavers
comment posted at 11:05 AM on Feb-24-16

What It’s Really Like to Work in Hollywood* (*If you’re not a straight white man.) (SLNYTimes, Interactive)
comment posted at 9:53 AM on Feb-24-16

Lithub commends twenty undeservedly neglected writers to our attention. Stephen Sparks offers two lists: Ten Great Writers Nobody Reads and 10 More Writers Nobody Reads. The authors, men and women, of various races, come from all over: Brazil, France, Britain, Honduras, the United States, the Maghreb, Italy, Germany, and Zimbabwe.
comment posted at 10:44 AM on Feb-23-16
comment posted at 12:55 PM on Feb-23-16

The moment of truth: We must stop Trump "Democrats, your leading candidate is too weak to count on as a firewall. She might be able to pull off a general election victory against Trump, but then again she might not. Too much is uncertain this year. You, too, need to help the Republicans beat Trump; this is no moment for standing by passively. If your deadline for changing your party affiliation has not yet come, re-register and vote for Rubio, even if, like me, you cannot stomach his opposition to marriage equality. I too would prefer Kasich as the Republican nominee, but pursuing that goal will only make it more likely that Trump takes the nomination. The republic cannot afford that."
comment posted at 9:47 AM on Feb-23-16
comment posted at 12:14 PM on Feb-23-16

Almost a quarter of the votes in the last US presidential election were cast by women without spouses, up three points from just four years earlier. They are almost 40% of the African-American population, close to 30% of the Latino population, and about a third of all young voters. The most powerful voter this year is The Single American Woman.
comment posted at 11:50 AM on Feb-22-16