New York Times sports reporter John Branch wins the January Sidney Award for his outstanding three-part series on the life and death of Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard, who died last spring of a drug overdose at age 28 after a two-year struggle with congitive decline, depression, and addiction. At autopsy, his brain was found to be riddled with the signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease similar to Alzheimer’s, caused by repeated blows to the head.

Branch’s series has ignited a fierce debate over the role of enforcers, professional fighters, in the National Hockey League. Officially, fighting is against the rules, but since the only consequence is a 5-minute penalty for combattants, fighting isn’t effectively banned at all. Like many enforcers, Boogaard could barely skate or pass, so taking him off the ice for 5 minutes wasn’t much of a deterrent.

In fact, fighting provides a “back door” into the NHL for big kids who are willing to take a lot of punishment, but who lack the skills to play pro hockey. As Branch reveals, these players can pay a terrible price for their shot at “The Show,” as the NHL is known.

Read my Backstory interview with Branch here.

[Matthew D. Britt, Creative Commons.]

Indiana is poised to become the next front on the Republican war on organized labor, reports Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times:

INDIANAPOLIS — Nearly a year after legislatures in Wisconsin and several other Republican-dominated states curbed the power of public sector unions, lawmakers are now turning their sights toward private sector unions, setting up what is sure to be another political storm.

The thunderclouds are gathering first here in Indiana. The leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature say that when the legislative session opens on Wednesday, their No. 1 priority will be to push through a business-friendly piece of legislation known as a right-to-work law.

If Indiana enacts such a law — and its sponsors say they have the votes — it will give new momentum to those who have previously pushed such legislation in Maine, Michigan, Missouri and other states. New Hampshire’s Republican-controlled Legislature was the last to pass a right-to-work bill in 2011, but it narrowly failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto by the Democratic governor; an Indiana law would re-energize that effort.

Right-to-work laws prohibit union contracts at private sector workplaces from requiring employees to pay any dues or other fees to the union. In states without such laws, workers at unionized workplaces generally have to pay such dues or fees.

Unions have vowed to fight the plan to turn Indiana into what they call the “Mississippi of the Midwest,” that is, a sparsely unionized, low wage economy.

Crushing unions would also help ensure permanent Republican dominance in state politics. Unions are not only advocates for their members, they are major political players who usually align themselves with Democrats.

[Image credit: Cuksis, Creative Commons.]

Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags, HBO’s critically acclaimed documentary is now available on DVD:

“Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags” brings to life the vibrant, unexpected history of the Garment District, which for many years was the heart and soul of Midtown Manhattan, but is now in danger of disappearing. For thousands of immigrants the garment industry was a path to their American Dream, but today most of those jobs are gone. A microcosm of the economic and social forces transforming our nation over the past one hundred years, “Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags” tells the story of this vanishing industry through the voices of the people who have experienced its highs and lows.

Manhattan’s Garment District was a birthplace of organized labor, an engine of New York’s fashion industry, and a source of jobs since the 19th century. Filmmakers Mark Levinson and Daphne Pinkerson describe how automation, deregulation, and outsourcing have sapped the economic health of the Garment District and the U.S. clothing manufacturing sector at large.

[Photo credit: Laughing Squid, Creative Commons. Sculpture of a garment worker in New York’s Garment District.]

2011 has been a banner year for the gay rights movement, and a lackluster one for the pro-choice movement. The confrontational tactics of marriage equality activists and opponents of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell have paid off while conciliatory pro-choicers have gotten the cold shoulder from their Democratic allies, including a humiliating snub by the Obama administration on Plan B OTC.

Sidney Award-winner Irin Carmon asks what reproductive rights advocates can learn from the LGBT liberation movement.

[Photo: The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village that became a crucible for the modern gay rights movement after patrons stood their ground after a 1969 police raid. The Stonewall is now a National Historic Landmark. By Skinnylawyer, Creative Commons.]