Justin Bare

Dear friends, We are excited to announce that Kshama Sawant is now on the ballot! Since we launched Kshama’s independent socialist campaign last summer, we have talked to tens of thousands of working people in Congressional District 9 and won support from donors in all 50 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico. That support has translated into over 800 working people signing up to volunteer and $525,000 raised from over 4,500 donors, with a median donation of just $25.

This week we're talking about fungus two ways. One that can survive exclusively on polyurethane and another that can replace Styrofoam. Both polyurethane and styrofoam are not biodegradable, so without a solution, all the plastic bottles and old toys we throw out every year will be sitting in landfills for centuries. Yes, you can recycle plastic, but that just means turning it into another product and recycling hasn't sufficiently slowed the production of new plastic.

“Harry Benson: Shoot First” is an engaging but too worshipful documentary about Mr. Benson, a photographer who has been taking noteworthy pictures since the early days of the Beatles. The film, by Justin Bare and Matthew Miele, would be better if it spent less time gushing about how great Mr. Benson is and more time confronting some of the questions his approach raises. Mr. Benson, a Scotsman now in his late 80s, has taken photographs for People, Life and numerous other publications.