"Family Rules Included 'Never Cross a Picket Line and Never Vote Republican'"

"She also said she was born and raised into atheism 'by people who had derived their own atheism from a proud tradition of working-class rejection of authority in all its forms, whether vested in bosses or priests, gods or demons.' She was a student activist, was educated as a scientist—she studied physics at Reed College and earned a PhD in cellular biology from Rockefeller University in 1968—but trained as a teacher and reporter.

"After getting her doctorate, she joined a group of activists trying to improve healthcare for poor New Yorkers, which cemented her love of reporting and writing. 'Health seemed related to biology,' she told the Washington Post in 2005."

Nardine Saad and Dorany Pineda at the Los Angeles Times report the death of Barbara Ehrenreich.