2015 in Review: The Best Ear to the Ground Posts of the Year

As the countdown to the new year begins, we take a look at 2015’s most popular stories.

Iceland Said It Would Take Only 50 Syrian Refugees, So 10,000 Icelanders Offered Up Their Own Homes Sometimes governments fail miserably to reflect the humanitarian desires of their own people. However, Icelanders have proved that the power of the people can be more effective than many believe.

Driving While Black: Chris Rock Takes a Selfie Each Time Cops Pull Him Over Chris Rock posted a selfie on his Instagram account each time he was pulled over by police while driving early in 2015.

Cartier Boss Says Thought of the Poor Rising Up Keeps Him ‘Awake at Night Johann Rupert, the multibillionaire owner of the luxury jewelry company Cartier, admitted to a group of his peers that he fears the poor will rise up and bring down the rich.

Spain Issues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Senior Israeli Officials Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and six other former and current government officials are at risk of arrest if they enter Spain, following the issue of what is effectively an arrest warrant for the group by a Spanish judge.

How Whole Foods Exploits Prison Labor In 2015 it was revealed that many of the supermarket chain’s overpriced products are cultivated by inmates in U.S. prisons who earn a pittance for their labor.

Noam Chomsky on Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders, Syriza and the Power of Activism In an interview in Jacobin magazine, Noam Chomsky predicts what would happen if Bernie Sanders won the 2016 presidential election and comments on the rise of progressive political parties like Greece’s Syriza and figures such as Jeremy Corbyn of the U.K.

Remember John Oliver’s Investigation of Televangelists? The IRS May Have Gotten the Message Comedian John Oliver’s investigation into how some televangelists make inordinate amounts of money led to media speculation about whether the Internal Revenue Service, aka the Tax Man, would audit televangelists.

Neil Young Donates $100,000 in Support of Vermont’s GMO Disclosure Law Singer Neil Young pledged $100,000 to oppose a lawsuit attacking a Vermont law that requires label disclosure when food products contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The Greek Crisis Marks ‘the Beginning of the Collapse of Capitalism’ Missing from the mainstream debate over the Greek economic crisis was “the damaging role that the endless quest for economic growth plays,” wrote journalist Jennifer Hinton at The Guardian.

20 U.S. Billionaires Now Own as Much Wealth as Half of All Americans A report from the Institute for Policy Studies showed that the richest 400 Americans have a combined net worth of $2.34 trillion, which is equal to that of the bottom 61 percent of the U.S. population, or about 194 million people.