The Department of Justice’s civil rights division was once known as the crown jewel of the agency, but under Trump it has become just another tool of this administration’s politicized and racialized attacks targeting Black, Latino and other people of color.
The latest examples are the sham findings of discrimination the division issued against the medical schools of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Yale University for admitting high-achieving Black and Hispanic students. The administration is cynically wielding its anti-discrimination authority to tear down civil rights advances at the cost of equal educational opportunity.
In its findings, the justice department claimed the grades and test scores of Black and Hispanic admitted applicants were less competitive than those of white and Asian admits and said the schools intentionally discriminated against white and Asian applicants. But the justice department’s conclusions overstate the difference in scores between applicants and ignore other applicant data completely, including student transcripts, letters of recommendations and essays.
The differences among GPAs and test scores – one standard deviation or less – were too small to be legally or statistically significant and may be explained by random factors unrelated to race. Comparatively, two standard deviations is the commonly accepted threshold that federal courts and social scientists consider statistically significant in racial discrimination cases.
The Department of Defense moved this week to dramatically reduce the number of recognized religions, faiths and belief systems from more than 200 all the way to 31.
The New York State Senate and Assembly have passed three high-profile bills, including regulations on data centers, surveillance pricing, and civil orders of protection in stalking cases.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the presence of New World screwworm in a 3-week-old calf in Texas on June 3, marking the first known U.S. case in decades and the closest the parasite has come to reestablishing itself north of the Mexico border since its eradication in the 1960s.
Palestine casualty count: Over the last 24 hours, 11 Palestinians were killed and 32 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,956 killed, with 173,043 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 947 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,935, while 781 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The British government has said Jordan's custodianship of Jerusalem's holy sites "must be respected" in a statement to Middle East Eye.
A Russian drone struck a private residential home in Konotop late Thursday evening, injuring five civilians, including three children, local authorities said.
A Los Angeles county jury has found the socialite Rebecca Grossman and former MLB player Scott Erickson negligent in the deaths of two young brothers whom Grossman struck as she drove in Westlake Village in September 2020.\
The United States has announced fresh economic sanctions on Cuba’s president and some of his immediate family, alongside members of the Castro family, in Washington’s latest ramping up of pressure on its communist-led neighbour.
