News >>

This Just In

Photos: Howard Zinn and memorabilia

Zinn throughout the years and his many talents
Photos of Howard Zinn, courtesy of Peter Simon, and Zinn memorabilia from the archives of the Phoenix 's David Bieber

By PETER SIMON AND DAVID BIEBER | February 05, 2010

Howard Zinn: 1922-2010

In Memoriam of the anti-war warrior
Howard Zinn was a fearless revolutionary, but also a father-figure and family man.

By RAYMOND MUNGO | February 03, 2010

Orwell and Shakespeare in a Minute

Second-Hand Books Dept.
"I thought we were going to be talking about windmills," Jenny Sawyer mutters as she looks into the camera, sandwiched between two pigs.

By MARIANNA FAYNSHTEYN | January 27, 2010

Boston teen in Haiti stranded without a country

Lost
Jenny Ulysee was inside her stepmother's hair salon in Mariani, Haiti, when the January 12 earthquake caused a nearby building to buckle and collapse onto the roof of her family's business.

By CHRIS FARAONE | January 27, 2010

Haiti earthquake relief resource guide

How Bostonians can get involved
As ever-more horrific dispatches from Haiti pour in, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the carnage. But even though Haiti requires an almost incomprehensible amount of relief aid to merely staunch the bleeding, there are myriad opportunities for you to help -- and every shred of effort counts.

By PHOENIX STAFF | January 22, 2010

GNU and the free-software movement

You may not know it, but the free-software movement has changed your life
You use Firefox for Web browsing. You know it's a free Web browser that's safe, quick, and has all kinds of add-on modules (there are thousands of these — for chatting, bookmark management, social networking, image-processing, and even federal court-file browsing — at addons.mozilla.org ). It has frequent updates to fix bugs, and every new version seems to find a new cool way to make the Web easier.

By JEFF INGLIS | December 16, 2009

Questioning the Legality of Straight Marriage

One for the Annuls Dept.
When it comes to supporting gay rights, two straight Boston University grads are putting their marriage where their mouths are.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 04, 2009

Courthouse bomber to speak about social change

Censorship averted
After it was initially canceled, a controversial talk by a radical activist will go on Thursday at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Ray Luc Levasseur, who grew up in Sanford, Maine, and became a radical in part due to his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, will talk on campus in connection with a symposium on “social change.”

By RICK WORMWOOD | November 11, 2009

Comic writers go nuclear — they think Amazon's the bomb

Gone Fission Dept.
It was reported last week that "Iran has agreed 'in principle' to an international proposal that could significantly reduce its stocks of uranium."

By MIKE MILIARD | October 07, 2009

Hammer swings through Harvard

Ad lib department
When he was known as MC Hammer, the man born Stanley Burrell famously sold consumers Rick James samples and parachute pants.

By CHRIS FARAONE | September 04, 2009

Whole Foods health-care boycott gathers momentum

Human Rights Watch
Unfortunately for Whole Foods Market CEO and founder John Mackey, those who appreciate his store for the healthy, eco-friendly (read: left-leaning, progressive) lifestyle it promotes are the same citizens who support universal health care.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | August 24, 2009

The Gates case isn't about race

Doesn't Matter If You're Black or White Dept.
The weeks-long hubbub over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. by the Cambridge Police Department has centered on race, understandably, for two reasons: 1) the African-American population has suffered inequitably in its relations with law enforcement across this country, and 2) a race story is easier for the media to tell — and to sell.

By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 05, 2009

Comic-strip author declares war on Jamba

Juice justice
While the Shepard Fairey–AP showdown was busy raising the public-domain bar, a new case concerning intellectual property recently cropped up on the Internet. This one pits David Rees and his defunct Get Your War On ( GYWO ) comic strip against national smoothie giant Jamba Juice.

By LEOR GALIL | August 05, 2009

Stuff happens

A picture is worth 1k words dept.
Thanks to the July 16 Cambridge break-in that wasn't a break-in — you know, the one that led to a boozy biracial four-way with President Obama — the Boston area fell under the international media microscope.

By PHOENIX STAFF | August 05, 2009

Corporate parent kills WBCN

Closing time
WBCN-FM, a/k/a the “Rock of Boston,” has as storied a history as any Boston radio station, but its 41-year run on the local airwaves is ending with a whimper.

By ADAM REILLY AND MIKE MILIARD | July 17, 2009

Loan Groan

A new federal program aims to help overburdened student borrowers
Each month, with miserable certitude, the snail-mailboxes of middle-class twenty- and thirtysomethings are stuffed with student-loan bills, from both federal and private lenders. The balance seems to remain stagnant, even as we mail in check after check.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | July 08, 2009