Latham, Aaron. Orchids for Mother. New York: Little, Brown, 1977. Aaron Latham has written seven books, only two of them novels. Of the two novels, only one can be categorized in the espionage genre. Nonetheless, Orchids for Mother stands as one of the major American contributions to the genre. The novel focuses on the competition…
Joe Berry has distributed this message to his extensive contact list and has asked that it be disseminated more widely. Having spent many hours talking to folks about coming to the COCAL conference [www.cocalinternational.org], both this upcoming one in New York City August 4-6, 2014, and previous ones, I am moved to list the most…
The “real problem” behind the exploitation of adjunct faculty is quite obvious: universities have continued to produce a reasonable number of Ph.D.’s but no longer are willing to hire a reasonable number of them into full-time, never mind tenure-track, positions. This situation will change when enrollment in graduate programs starts to contract, and even to…
If one wants to know what to expect after the Supreme Court’s decision on the Hobby Lobby case, one need only to look at what has followed two other recent and controversial decisions by the Roberts Court. In April, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court upheld a Michigan ban on affirmative action. Justice Roberts…
I know nothing about the situation at Northern New Mexico College beyond what has been posted on this blog, but here is an open letter from the institution’s president in which she attempts to identify and to address the issues there. _________________________ A Letter from Dr. Nancy “Rusty” Barceló, President of Northern New Mexico…
John’s keynote was covered in the following two articles by Renata Birkenbuel published in the Montana Standard, and they are reprinted here with the permission of that newspaper [http://mtstandard.com/]. This first article appeared ahead on the AFL-Cio meeting on June 13: Anaconda Man Documents 2011 Unionbusting Attempt in Ohio “It’s the people in the…
Thomas E. Perez, Secretary of Labor: “Home care workers do heroic work, providing high-quality, compassionate care that allows seniors and people with disabilities to live at home with independence and dignity. “By organizing together, these workers have improved both their own working conditions and the quality of services they provide. The demand for skilled home…
If you have not been following the cases before the Supreme Court in this session, or if you have been but have simply lost track of this important labor case in the midst of the other cases that have attracted much more intense media coverage, the following is the lead to an article disseminated by…
Writing for the New York Times (June 24, 2014), in a column titled “The Reality of Student Debt Is Different than the Cliches,” David Leonhardt reviews a recent study released by the Brookings Institute. These are the main assertions: (1) Student debt, on average, has actually not increased significantly. (2) Because the earnings of college…