SCOTUS Takes on Affirmative Action

Affirmative action, a policy meant to make it easier for minorities to go to college and get jobs, has been criticized by many as a system that only creates more racial discrimination and doesn’t actually help minorities. In 2014, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina, claiming that the two colleges give preference to Blacks and Latinos over White and Asian applicants.

The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, voted in favor of SFFA, asserting that it is unconstitutional for institutions such as Harvard and the University of North Carolina to accept or reject prospective students based on race.

“Because Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful endpoints, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in the majority opinion. Rather, “the student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual – not on the basis of race.”

Roberts added that race should only be of note when it is “concretely tied” to a “quality of character or unique ability” that the applicant possesses. For example, “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise” would be permitted.

Roberts was joined by Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, the conservatives of the court, while Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson dissented.

“Because the Court cannot escape the inevitable truth that race matters in students’ lives, it announces a false promise to save face and appear attuned to reality,” Justice Sotomayor said in the Court’s minority opinion.

Colleges are still permitted to take other race-related considerations into account, such as the number of languages a student speaks and whether the student is a first generation college applicant. However, Sotomayor insisted that still, these “factors are not ‘interchangeable’ with race.”

Not every college will be forced to adhere to these restrictions. For example, U.S. military academies will be permitted to continue considering the applicant’s race. The Court’s ruling may not apply to colleges in certain states.

“The Court has effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions. And I strongly—strongly disagree with the

LA Hotel Workers Strike

Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California walked off the job on Sunday demanding higher pay and better benefits, just as hordes of tourists descended on the region for the Fourth of July holiday.

“Workers have been pent up and frustrated and angry about what’s happened during the pandemic combined with the inability to pay their rent and stay in Los Angeles,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, the union representing the workers. “So, people feel liberated, it’s Fourth of July, freedom is reigning in Los Angeles and hotel workers are leading that fight.”

Representatives for the hotels have said that the union had not been bargaining in good faith and that leaders were determined to disrupt operations.

“The hotels want to continue to provide strong wages, affordable quality family health care and a pension,” Keith Grossman, a spokesperson for the coordinated bargaining group consisting of more than 40 Los Angeles and Orange County hotels, said in a statement.

The strike is part of a wave of recent labor actions in the nation’s second-largest metropolis, where high costs of living have made it difficult for many workers — from housekeepers to Hollywood writers — to stay afloat.

Workers across Southern California in a range of industries have in recent months threatened to strike or walked off the job, displaying unusual levels of solidarity with other unions as they push for higher pay and better working conditions.

Dockworkers disrupted operations for weeks at the colossal ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach until they reached a tentative deal in June. And screenwriters have been picketing outside the gates of Hollywood studios for about two months.

Hugo Soto-Martinez, a Los Angeles City Council member who worked as an organizer for Unite Here Local 11, said the breadth of industries locked in labor fights demonstrated frustration especially among younger workers, who have seen inequality widen and opportunities evaporate.

“It’s homelessness, it’s the cost of housing,” he said. “I think people are understanding those issues in a much more palpable way.”

The hotel workers’ strike comes just as the summer tourism season ramps up, and labor leaders say they are hoping to capitalize on that momentum.

Last year, tourism in the city reached its highest levels since the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board. (© The New York Times)

Philly Shooting Rampage

send my prayers to the victims,” Kenney said.

Police were called to the scene when the shooting first began. While they were there, they heard more gunshots. They were able to corner the shooter in an alley and arrest him.

Aspartame a “Possible Carcinogenic”

On Monday, five people were killed and two children were injured in a shooting in southwestern Philadelphia.

The shooting spanned several blocks. Several cars were damaged in the spree.

Officers managed to track down the suspect, who was wearing a bulletproof vest stocked with several ammunition magazines and was carrying two guns and a scanner, according to the commissioner.

Philadelphia is hardly the only city to have recently experienced such carnage due to gunfire. There were at least six mass shootings in the first three days of July, including another Monday night in Fort Worth, Texas, that left at least three people dead and eight wounded. Another shooting in Baltimore on Saturday left two people dead and 28 others injured.

They were among at least 341 mass shootings in the U.S. this year. A mass shooting is defined as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.

“This devastating violence must stop,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said in a tweet Monday evening.

“My heart is with the loved ones and families of everyone involved, and I

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is expected to declare later this month that aspartame, a sugar alternative used since the 1980s in countless food products, can “possibly” cause cancer in humans.

“IARC has assessed the potential carcinogenic effect of aspartame (hazard identification),” a spokesperson from IARC stated. “Following this, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (Jecfa) will update its risk assessment exercise on aspartame, including the reviewing of the acceptable daily intake and dietary exposure assessment for aspartame. The result of both evaluations will be made available together, on 14 July 2023.”

The IARC has three categories for products and behaviors that are linked to cancer: “possibly carcinogenic,” “probably carcinogenic,” and “carcinogenic.” The expected decision to classify aspartame in the first category has already been disapproved by many. In the past, the cancer research group has been criticized for saying that certain activities, such as using a smartphone, can “possibly” cause cancer and that eating red meat and working late at night can “probably” cause cancer.

“Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly researched ingredients in history, with over 90 food safety agencies across the globe declaring it is safe, including the European Food Safety Authority, which conducted the most comprehensive safety evaluation of aspartame to date,” Frances Hunt-Wood, secretary general of the International Sweeteners Association, said, adding that the “IARC is not a food safety body.”

Professor emeritus Kevin McConway, who taught applied statistics at the United Kingdom’s Open University, said that such a classification “does not mean that a substance actually presents a risk to humans in normal circumstances.”

“Back in 1981, they established an acceptable daily intake of aspartame, of 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day. To consume over that limit would require a very large daily consumption of Diet Coke or similar drinks,” he noted.