On World Refugee Day in June, the Tent Partnership for Refugees released a study showing that 44% of consumers in Italy, France and Germany were more likely to buy products and services from companies that hire or help refugees, compared with 14% who said they would be less likely to do so.
Culture
New UCLA-based Manufacturing Institute Puts Academia on Economic Map
President Obama last week awarded $70 million to the University of California, Los Angeles, to launch a Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute that will spur digitized, energy-efficient, sensor-driven manufacturing in five regional hubs, promising academic institutions a robust new role in the U.S. economic landscape.
Israeli Scholar Advocates for Class-based Affirmative Action
SAN FRANCISCO – Class-based affirmative action programs can do more to increase socioeconomic mobility than race-based programs alone, according to sociology professor Sigal Alon of Tel-Aviv University, speaking recently at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education where she presented her book Race, Class, and Affirmative Action.
San Jose State Scrambling to Address Racial Tensions
SAN FRANCISCO — Last week’s campus protest, following a verdict that handed three White, former San Jose State University (SJSU) students reduced jail sentences for what many perceived to be a hate crime, has put new pressure on administrators to hire a chief diversity officer to handle festering racial tensions at the Bay Area college.
Kate Williams, At Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Wins 2014 Purpose Prize
Kate Williams spent decades as a human resources professional for top pharmaceutical and technology companies in California — and as a sighted person. But in 1989, at age 47, she began to lose her vision, due to the rare degenerative disorder Pseudoxanthoma elasticum.
Spain’s Rebellion Moves to Print
La Marea, Spain’s radical new monthly magazine, operates out of a narrow, lime green-colored office space in southeastern Madrid, in the working class stronghold of Vallecas. There is a small foyer with a couch to receive visitors; some cramped desks with three second-hand computers bought at 70 euros a piece; and a back room with a tiny kitchenette and one sprawling glass-and-mosaic table where the staff holds meetings. There is no rent because the magazine’s editors worked out a deal with the small web business that agreed to share its space; La Marea covers the monthly 100 euro electricity bill, and that is all.
A Naval Commander for the 99% Stands Trial
Consider the story of Leah Bolger, the latest American hero up on trial: She is a young female artist in the Midwest. She joins the Navy at 22, is made commander and serves two decades as an anti-submarine warfare specialist. After retiring she joins Veterans for Peace and becomes the organization’s first female president. Then, in October of 2011, she commits the crime of interrupting a public congressional hearing of the Super Committee to deliver a message from the 99 percent: End the wars and tax the rich to fix the deficit.
Occupying War
There is the military kind of war and then there is the kind of war that happens in the streets. The first produces veterans. The second, gangbangers.
Dr. Valdes molds ‘Kaiser for the uninsured’
Ana Valdes, the multilingual medical director at St. Anthony’s Medical Clinic, almost didn’t become a doctor.
Kao revolutionizing care for the elderly, dying
Helen Kao watched three of her grandparents suffer from dementia so perhaps it’s no surprise she chose to go into geriatrics. What’s more surprising is the way the 37-year-old physician at UCSF Medical Centeris now transforming the way elderly and dying patients are cared for in San Francisco.