The kickoff of the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle this week wasn't quite the paean to the global economy that officials had in mind. The fracas goes to the heart of an ongoing controversy over globalization.
Unions say that cheap labor abroad undercuts the clout of American workers.
The number of women imprisoned for drug offenses has soared. According to a study by the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit research group that advocates prison reform, from 1986 to 1996, such sentences grew by a startling 900 percent. While more men than women are in jail for drug crimes overall, it seems that mandatory sentencing policies affect female offenders disproportionately. For retailers this year, 'tis the season to be petrified. The good news for consumers is that vendors are falling all over themselves to make the shopping experience as hassle-free as possible.