Archive
Clamping Down on the Labor Extortion Racket
This Labor Day, you can mull some good news about American jobs for a change. Take the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour — please! That poverty pay is a shameful stain on our extremely rich nation. But don't count on Washington, D.C. to lift our wage floor....
Ferguson Exposes the Creeping Militarization of Police Forces
The tragedies unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri, are doubly infuriating.First, there is the obvious outrage of yet another unarmed black teenager being stopped by one of the town's white police officers as he was walking to his grandmother's home. A scuffle...
Racism Goes Postal
In OtherWords: August 13, 2014
This week in OtherWords, William A. Collins and I explain why most efforts to block the spread of green energy are losing and Ron Carver reflects on how Mississippi has (and hasn't) changed half a century after the Freedom Summer. Our longtime columnist Donald Kaul...
As Mississippi Moves on, a New Struggle Arises
Fifty years ago, shortly after the Ku Klux Klan abducted and murdered civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, I was sitting in one of Starkville, Mississippi's few black-owned cafes when Police Chief Thomas Josey stormed in and...
Extreme Makeover: Canal Edition
Panama! Panama-ah-ah-ah! The lyrics from the eponymous Van Halen song could just as easily be the nation's port policy — if the country had one. Panama is nearing completion of retrofitting the Panama Canal to accommodate much larger ships. The prospect of these ships...
Port Truck Drivers Draw a Line in the Sand
Imagine your boss suddenly told you that from now on you were going to be considered an independent contractor. You'd have to pay for your office space, supplies, and equipment. Your employer would deduct those expenses from your paycheck. And you'd have to pay all...
Solar Power Gets Hot, Hot, Hot
With so many homeowners and businesses making greener energy choices, private utilities — along with big oil, gas, coal, and nuclear companies — see the writing on the wall. Unlike some other denizens of the fossil-fueled set, this gang isn't beating oil wells into...
No Appetite for Fixing School Lunch
You can lead a kid to vegetables, but you can't make her eat. Especially if the food doesn't taste good. That's what the government found out in the wake of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. I was active in advocating for school lunch reform at the time. The...
A Ticket to Sarah Palin’s Funhouse
I figured the Texas lineup of Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Rick Perry, and a carnival sideshow of far-right Congress critters assured my state the glory of being the hands-down winner of the 2014 blue-ribbon prize for "Goofiest Politicos in America." But now, a former winner...
