CAMDEN, N.J. — The 13,700-student Camden school district became the fourth school system Monday to come under state control.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, faced with a school district that has the second lowest graduation rate in the state, a declining enrollment and high poverty said Camden’s system is broken and that the state is taking over Camden City Public Schools immediately.

“Just because we can’t guarantee a positive result or we have had mixed results in …

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Richard Wolff, welcome back to Democracy Now! Why is Cyprus so significant?

RICHARD WOLFF: Well, Cyprus is significant for several reasons. First, it marks an escalation in what we call austerity economics. It is an effort to pay for the cost of this now six-year-old global crisis in a new way. It is an effort to fund the bailouts of banks in a new way. And the new way was agreed last week by the European …

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As word dribbled out today about which Chicago public schools will be closed, some parents renewed their charges that minorities are being unfairly targeted while principals accused CPS of “slash and burn.”

CPS officials are expected to release a list this afternoon of about 50 schools slated for closing, many educators, parents and students at targeted schools got word earlier today.

Natasha Norment, 28, said she was “very disappointed” after learning Wednesday evening through a news report …

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CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s economy is edging closer to collapse, and now there is one less place the government here can turn to for much-needed financial aid.

After promising $5 billion in soft loans and grants to help curb the Egyptian pound’s recent slide against the dollar, the tiny but vastly wealthy Gulf nation of Qatar is now backing off pledges of any further funding for the cash-strapped nation.

Observers saw Qatar and its royal family as …

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Community and pro-democracy activists in Detroit have no intention of rolling over and playing dead for Kevyn Orr, the city’s new ’emergency manager’ appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who will begin his contract to run the city as a one-person government on Monday.

Called a “bloodless coup” by some, the appointment of an ’emergency financial manager’ (EFM) will allow Orr to take full control over the city’s resources now that the city council and school …

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With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.

The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady …

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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – To celebrate its role as host of an exclusive geopolitical club, the seaside city of Durban is having a beach party.

There will be Chinese and Russian DJs, beach volleyball, a sand-sculpting contest and even a performance by legendary jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela — an odd way to boost support for an annual summit where currency swaps and a new development bank will top the agenda.

South Africa, the newest entrant to the …

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Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today.

Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films.

Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com/user/jsjkim, …

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota routinely violates the federal law governing foster care and adoptions for American Indiana children by holding improper hearings after children are removed from homes, two tribes allege in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The Oglala Sioux and Rosebud Sioux Tribes, along with three Native American parents, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Rapid City, alleging the state is violating the Indian Child Welfare Act. The lawsuit is part of an …

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On March 14, the day before the trustees at San Francisco Community College District handed in the report that may decide the life or death of California’s largest community college, student and faculty marchers headed downtown to City Hall. A sinuous line of hundreds of chanting, banner-waving people stopped traffic on Mission Street, the main artery through the city barrio. Their mood combined equal parts of desperation at the prospect of the closure of the …

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