Portside

Reader Comments: Stand with Ilhan; Venezuela; The Border and Separation of Families; Virginia Politics; Angela Davis; Anti-Semitism; Iran; Rhiannon Giddens; Announcements: Teacher Strikes; Black History Month activities; Triangle Fire; and more....

Virginia is one of a handful of states that has yet to utilize the Affordable Care Act’s provision to expand Medicaid access. Republicans in the state legislature have been blocking the move, but the Democratic wave in November makes the body nearly evenly split.

No one expects a laptop to last for 10 years. How can we expect these machines, many of which were designed and engineered in the 1990s, to keep running without increased failures?

Reader Comments- Race inequality...by the Numbers; Darren Wilson Acquittal; Workers and Students Leave Jobs, Classes in Nationwide Walkout for Ferguson; Thanksgiving; Univ of Virginia Finally Confronts Its Rape Problem; Madison Teachers Recertify Union; Walmart Black Friday Protests; Price of 13-Year War on Terror; Chile; Israel's Jewish State Bill; 2014 and Future Elections; ALEC Blueprint for 2015; Wanted: A Challenge to Clinton; Chicago's Mayoral Race (correction)

Elections show the tide can turn against the unholy alliance of big business, the Tea Party, and the religious right. Growing protests - the "Moral Monday" movement in North Carolina, militant immigrant rights activism, battles to protect women's health clinics from state budget cuts, strikes by low-wage workers, civil disobedience actions to challenge voter suppression, & campaigns against global energy corporations. Virginia - win in a race lost by 17 points in 2009.

A Florida coalition is working to amend the Florida state constitution so that it guarantees voting accessibility for all citizens—a state-level voting rights act. “We’re focusing on legislation that grants an explicit right to vote in Florida,” says Katherine Culliton-González. “It would aim at big picture issues and make voting a fundamental right so no election law changes could happen that would take us back in time.”