Jared Bernstein: Has the Beveridge Curve Really Shifted? |

By Jared Bernstein
August 13th, 2014

The Beveridge Curve (BC) is a favorite tool of labor economists showing the inverse relationship between job openings and unemployment. It’s thus a kind of index of strength of labor demand: when the job market is tight, there’s low unemployment and more unfilled openings/job vacancies, and vice versa.

Continue reading Jared Bernstein: Has the Beveridge Curve Really Shifted? |

California Parents Complain: SexEd Textbook ‘Equivalent To Pornography’ | ThinkProgress

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A California school district has agreed to temporarily shelve a ninth grade sex education textbook after parents complained it included material that’s inappropriate for teenagers, including information about masturbation, orgasms, and erotic touch. The parents asking for the removal of Your Health Today have compared the book to porn.

Continue reading California Parents Complain: SexEd Textbook ‘Equivalent To Pornography’ | ThinkProgress

UPDATED: It’s a miracle #MichaelBrown even graduated from this beleaguered school

UPDATE:
I called Normandy high school today and asked the person who answered the phone to confirm or deny that the entire class of 2014 had to share graduation gowns for their pictures. The person denied the story.

August 14, 2014
Mark Sumner

In Pluto’s diary on the life of Michael Brown, you might notice one detail that’s both touching and disturbing:

Mike’s graduation photograph was taken in March 2014, still many months ahead of when he would be able to graduate in August. Imagine the “why” of this fact:

The grinding poverty in Mike’s world only allowed Normandy High School to acquire two graduation gowns to be shared by the entire class. The students passed a gown from one to the other. Each put the gown on, in turn, and sat before the camera to have their graduation photographs taken. Until it was Mike’s turn.

What kind of American school would have to share robes across the entire senior class? Continue reading UPDATED: It’s a miracle #MichaelBrown even graduated from this beleaguered school

Ferguson, Missouri’s Complicated History of Poverty and Racial Tension | The New Republic

You Can’t Understand Ferguson Without First Understanding These Three Things – Reflections from a former state senator from St. Louis

By

You can’t really understand Ferguson—the now-famous St. Louis suburb with a long history of white people sometimes maliciously, sometimes not, imposing their will on black people’s lives—unless you understand Kinloch. Continue reading Ferguson, Missouri’s Complicated History of Poverty and Racial Tension | The New Republic

Maya Angelou: “Because if You Were Black You Never Felt Really Safe” | BillMoyers

The racial divide that exists in communities like Ferguson, Missouri, and the effect it has on the lived experience of white and black people, reminded us of a conversation from last week’s show in which poet Maya Angelou remembers how, as a little girl, she hated going to the white neighborhood in her hometown of Stamps, Arkansas, because she felt unsafe and unprotected there.

Continue reading Maya Angelou: “Because if You Were Black You Never Felt Really Safe” | BillMoyers

Cable News’ Depiction of Mike Brown | MSM and Ferguson

August 17, 2014

Jesse Williams’ very eloquent thoughts on Mike Brown’s depiction in cable news shows:

I was irritated and distracted as I watched a panel discussion on CNN yesterday. What was the source of my irritation? Continue reading Cable News’ Depiction of Mike Brown | MSM and Ferguson

Rev. William Barber’s electrifying speech at Netroots Nation 2014

| Daily Kos

Reverend William Barber visited Netroots Nation and provided an inspirational speech that electrified the entire room. Most importantly, Rev. Barber gave a history lesson on moral fusion movements. Rev. Barber described the moral fusion movement in the context of the first and second reconstruction. He is imploring the effecting of the third reconstruction.

Continue reading Rev. William Barber’s electrifying speech at Netroots Nation 2014

Rand Paul: Opportunist or Ferguson’s Libertarian Civil Rights Hope?

Senator Rand Paul published an op-ed in Time Magazine and gave a speech this week about Ferguson Missouri and Civil Rights. Given Senator Paul’s long-held views on civil rights, how should we interpret this latest effort? Is it opportunism or a genuine attempt at curing a longstanding social wrong? Let’s examine the record: Continue reading Rand Paul: Opportunist or Ferguson’s Libertarian Civil Rights Hope?

@RepJohn Lewis Calls For #MartialLaw in #Ferguson | MSNBC

Congressman John Lewis – a recognized leader of the Civil Rights Movement – spoke out Thursdayon the police violence in Ferguson, Missouri, during an msnbc interview saying President Obama should use the authority of his office to declare martial law to “federalize the Missouri national guard to protect people as they protest.”

Continue reading @RepJohn Lewis Calls For #MartialLaw in #Ferguson | MSNBC

War Gear Flows to Police Departments | NYTimes

NEENAH, Wis. — Inside the municipal garage of this small lakefront city, parked next to the hefty orange snowplow, sits an even larger truck, this one painted in desert khaki. Weighing 30 tons and built to withstand land mines, the armored combat vehicle is one of hundreds showing up across the country, in police departments big and small.

Continue reading War Gear Flows to Police Departments | NYTimes