San Antonio Current's News Editor Lisa Sorg recently traveled to Chiapas and found that biopirates are pillaging the region in search of the perfect prescription. "The innocuously named 'life sciences' industry is threatening life itself. Through biopiracy -- stealing plants to patent and later manufacture profitable drugs -- corporations such as Merck are undermining biodiversity," Sorg writes. This is the first installment in an occasional series about issues facing Southern Mexico and its indigenous people.

Nannies in New York, often overworked, underpaid, ignored and invisible, are beginning to wake up and rattle their chains. The Village Voice this week examines efforts by Domestic Workers United to organize and lobby for their rights. "It will be the first time in history that the city acknowledges the special burdens of domestic workers and considers reforms to relieve them," reporter Chisun Lee writes.