Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

August 2019

August 30, 2019

Sidney's Picks: Union Approval Soars, Solitary Kills

Photo credit:

SEIU Local 99, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

Union approval nears 50-year high.
When solitary is a death sentence.
You’re reading that hurricane map wrong.
“The Reasonable Rebels”

August 23, 2019

Sidney's Picks: Vaccines, Coal, and the Service Industry

Photo credit:

Dr. Partha Sarathi Sahana, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

US won’t provide flu vaccines to migrants in detention, even though at least three kids have died of the flu in custody
Life in the Service Industry: Low wages, bad tips, unreliable hours
Unpaid Blackjewel miners continue their standoff.
Inside Trump’s bizarre campaign to free rapper A$AP Rocky from Sweden.

August 16, 2019

Sidney's Picks: 1619 and the Koch Safety Crisis

Photo credit:

Kevin Jarrett, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

The New York Times’ groundbreaking 1619 Project marks the 400th anniversary of slavery in America and traces its legacy to the present day
An ICE officer steered his truck into a crowd of protesters that included children and a wheelchair user–then calmly parked and went to work
The worker safety crisis at Koch-owned Georgia Pacific
How Gamergate touched off a new culture war

August 9, 2019

Sidney's Picks: ICE Raids, Insulin, and A Fat Rideshare Raise

Photo credit:

Thomas Hawk, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

As the nation grieved the deadliest anti-Latino hate crime in living memory, the Trump administration launched massive immigration raids, separating families and losing track of kids.
Alexa, stop using child labor!
Summer’s hottest domestic terror defense: Trump Made Me Do It
Lifelong Detroit resident dies of diabetes on the streets of Iraq, a country he’d never even visited, after ICE deported him there.
El Monte, California passes a $30 minumum wage for rideshare drivers, the nation’s highest!

August 2, 2019

Sidney's Picks: Kentucky Miners Occupy the Tracks; California Might Reform the Gig Economy

Photo credit:

“Canary in a Coal Mine,” by Thomas Hawk, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News

Kentucky coal miners say they will keep blocking coal trains until they get paid by the Blackjewel mine. The mine sent out paychecks knowing they would bounce and failed to post a legally-required bond.
“Military romance scams” ensnare lonely Americans on facebook.
California bill could reform the gig economy to benefit workers.
How one “outdoor cat” destroyed an entire bird sanctuary.