Jose Garcia
Jose Garcia's JournalHarvard Rated Asian-American Applicants Lower on Personality Traits, Lawsuit Says
Source: The New York Times
Harvard consistently rated Asian-American applicants lower than any other race on personal traits like “positive personality,” likability, courage, kindness and being “widely respected,” according to an analysis of more than 160,000 student records filed Friday in federal court in Boston by a group representing Asian-American students in a lawsuit against the university.
Asian-Americans scored higher than applicants of any other racial or ethnic group on admissions measures like test scores, grades and extracurricular activities, according to the analysis commissioned by a group that opposes all race-based admissions criteria. But the students’ personal ratings significantly dragged down their chances of being admitted, the analysis found.
“It turns out that the suspicions of Asian-American alumni, students and applicants were right all along,” the group, Students for Fair Admissions, said in a court document laying out the analysis. “Harvard today engages in the same kind of discrimination and stereotyping that it used to justify quotas on Jewish applicants in the 1920s and 1930s.”
Harvard’s own researchers cited a bias against Asian-American applicants in a series of internal reports in 2013. But Harvard ignored the findings, the court papers said, and never publicly released them.
Read more: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/us/harvard-asian-enrollment-applicants.html#click=https://t.co/Lc98XzalRR
Cuomo Stretches Lead Over Cynthia Nixon in 2018 Election Poll
Source: New York Times
ALBANY — With exactly three months to go until the Democratic primary for governor, the two-term incumbent, Andrew M. Cuomo, has slightly stretched his sizable lead over his Democratic rival, the actress Cynthia Nixon, according to a new poll.
Mr. Cuomo, 60, holds a 35-point advantage among likely voters over Ms. Nixon — 61-26 percent — according to the Siena College poll released on Wednesday. His lead over the Republican candidate, Marcus J. Molinaro, is narrower: 19 points, 56 to 37 percent, though Mr. Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, is little known by most voters, the poll found.
Ms. Nixon had trimmed Mr. Cuomo’s lead to 31 points in an April poll by Siena, continuing a steady rise in voter surveys since declaring her candidacy in March. But the last month has seen Mr. Cuomo’s glossy coronation as the party’s preferred candidate at the state convention in late May, forcing Ms. Nixon — making her first run for public office — to begin petitioning to challenge him on the Sept. 13 ballot.
There were some off-putting findings for Mr. Cuomo, including a 44 percent unfavorability rating, a tie for the highest result found by Siena’s pollsters during the governor’s seven-plus years in office. Only 40 percent rank his performance as governor as “excellent” or “good” while 59 percent rate it as “fair” or “poor.”
Read more: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/nyregion/cuomo-cynthia-nixon-poll.html
He calls himself pro-labor. But he laid off campaign workers trying to unionize
Source: The Miami Herald
WASHINGTON
David Richardson, the self-styled progressive Democrat seeking to replace Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Congress, says he stands shoulder-to-shoulder in solidarity with his campaign staff after they became the first political campaign in Florida to unionize last week.
But there are fewer campaign workers standing with Richardson today. That's because he laid off eight paid campaign employees at the end of a contentious months-long unionization effort.
"David wanted to be able to fire anyone at will and that wasn’t acceptable to us," said Isaiah Ghafoor, who worked as a field organizer for Richardson from March until he was one of eight Richardson staffers laid off two weeks ago. "Two days after a heated bargaining session, seven field organizers were laid off and the finance manager."
Though the unionization effort was ultimately successful, the timing of the layoffs and the Richardson's campaign's argument to staffers that existing Florida labor laws were sufficient enough to protect staffers' rights contrasts with public statements by his campaign that he will "oppose efforts that are anti-union or that weaken the ability to organize and bargain collectively" if elected to Congress.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article212822109.html
What Happened to Jill Stein's Recount Millions?
Shortly after the 2016 election, Jill Stein raised more than $7 million from shell-shocked liberals eager to pursue a swing-state recount. Nearly two years later, the U.S. Green Party’s last candidate for president is still spending that money.
Ongoing litigation, travel costs, and staff salaries are also likely to eat up whatever is left, meaning those who donated to Stein are unlikely to receive a once-promised chance to vote on how the post-recount money would be spent. Nor have donors been given much of a window into how Stein is actually spending their donations.
The last FEC filing from the Stein campaign was for the month of September 2017. And the last update from the campaign itself came in a post on April 20, in which it said it was down to $932,178 in recount funds.
"It is strange that they would just stop filing reports given they were a legitimate, professional campaign, and despite still having more than a million dollars in cash on hand,” Andrew Mayersohn, a researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics, told The Daily Beast.
More: https://amp.thedailybeast.com/what-happened-to-jill-steins-recount-millions?__twitter_impression=true
Sanders to run as a Democrat -- but not accept nomination
Source: Politico
Bernie Sanders is running for the Democratic nomination in Vermont — but he won’t accept it if he wins.
The famously independent senator, who briefly joined the Democratic Party to run in the 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary only to un-enroll later, officially announced Monday that he would seek a third term in the Senate this fall. He also said that he’ll pull the same maneuver that he did in his 2006 and 2012 Senate races: Running as a Democrat, declining the nomination when he wins and then running as an independent.
The move makes it virtually impossible for another Democrat to seek the party’s nod. And it allows Sanders to loom large in the party primary in August, but still preserve his independence.
But the move also comes at a time when Sanders supporters are pushing for changes to the presidential nominating process as part of the Democratic National Committee unity reform commission. One priority is to open up the party’s primaries to voters who aren’t registered as Democrats.
Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/story/2018/05/21/bernie-sanders-democrat-independent-vermont-601844
Florida to monitor Broward election chief after judge finds 'unlawful' ballot destruction
Source: Politico
MIAMI — The elections supervisor in Florida’s second-most populous county broke state and federal law by unlawfully destroying ballots cast in Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s 2016 Democratic primary, a judge ruled Friday in a case brought by the congresswoman’s challenger who wanted to check for voting irregularities.
In light of the ruling, Gov. Rick Scott’s administration — which has expressed concerns with how Broward County Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes has handled the case — told POLITICO that he’s reviewing the judge’s order and will have her office monitored.
“During the upcoming election, the Department of State will send a Florida elections expert from the Division of Elections to Supervisor Snipes’ office to ensure that all laws are followed so the citizens of Broward County can have the efficient, properly run election they deserve,” Scott’s office said in a written statement.
Snipes and her lawyer, Burnadette Norris-Weeks, did not return an email from POLITICO for comment, though a consultant working on the office’s behalf confirmed its receipt. Snipes’ predecessor was removed from office by former Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Senate for botching the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/05/14/florida-to-monitor-broward-election-chief-after-judge-finds-unlawful-ballot-destruction-in-wasserman-schultz-race-415832
Four Women Accuse New York's Attorney General of Physical Abuse
Source: The New Yorker
Eric chneiderman, New York’s attorney general, has long been a liberal Democratic champion of women’s rights, and recently he has become an outspoken figure in the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment. As New York State’s highest-ranking law-enforcement officer, Schneiderman, who is sixty-three, has used his authority to take legal action against the disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, and to demand greater compensation for the victims of Weinstein’s alleged sexual crimes. Last month, when the Times and this magazine were awarded a joint Pulitzer Prize for coverage of sexual harassment, Schneiderman issued a congratulatory tweet, praising “the brave women and men who spoke up about the sexual harassment they had endured at the hands of powerful men.” Without these women, he noted, “there would not be the critical national reckoning under way.”
Schneiderman is facing a reckoning of his own. As his prominence as a voice against sexual misconduct has risen, so, too, has the distress of four women with whom he has had romantic relationships or encounters. They accuse Schneiderman of having subjected them to nonconsensual physical violence. All have been reluctant to speak out, fearing reprisal. But two of the women, Michelle Manning Barish and Tanya Selvaratnam, have talked to The New Yorker on the record, because they feel that doing so could protect other women. They allege that he repeatedly hit them, often after drinking, frequently in bed and never with their consent. Manning Barish and Selvaratnam categorize the abuse he inflicted on them as “assault.” They did not report their allegations to the police at the time, but both say that they eventually sought medical attention after having been slapped hard across the ear and face, and also choked. Selvaratnam says that Schneiderman warned her he could have her followed and her phones tapped, and both say that he threatened to kill them if they broke up with him. (Schneiderman’s spokesperson said that he “never made any of these threats.”)
A third former romantic partner of Schneiderman’s told Manning Barish and Selvaratnam that he also repeatedly subjected her to nonconsensual physical violence, but she told them that she is too frightened of him to come forward. (The New Yorker has independently vetted the accounts that they gave of her allegations.) A fourth woman, an attorney who has held prominent positions in the New York legal community, says that Schneiderman made an advance toward her; when she rebuffed him, he slapped her across the face with such force that it left a mark that lingered the next day. She recalls screaming in surprise and pain, and beginning to cry, and says that she felt frightened. She has asked to remain unidentified, but shared a photograph of the injury with The New Yorker.
In a statement, Schneiderman said, “In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity. I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in nonconsensual sex, which is a line I would not cross.”
Read more: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/four-women-accuse-new-yorks-attorney-general-of-physical-abuse/amp?__twitter_impression=true
George Zimmerman charged with misdemeanor stalking
Source: NY Daily News
George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchdog who was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, has been charged with misdemeanor stalking.
Zimmerman threatened and harassed a private investigator in December 2017, according to the Brevard and Seminole State Attorney's Office.
The Seminole County Sheriff's Office conducted an investigating into the allegations and notified the state attorney's office of its findings on March 14, prosecutors said.
In July 2013, Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting death of Martin, who was killed on Feb. 26, 2012. His death sparked outrage from activists, including the Black Lives Matter movement, and protests nationwide.
Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/news/national/george-zimmerman-charged-misdemeanor-stalking-article-1.3976166%3foutputType=amp
Alan Grayson to take on fellow Democrat Darren Soto
Source: Tampa Bay Times
WASHINGTON – Alan Grayson will announce Tuesday he'll challenge Congressman Darren Soto of Orlando, taking on a fellow Democrat he faults for not joining in a push to impeach President Donald Trump.
"The people who are appalled by the Trump presidency are demanding it," Grayson told the Tampa Bay Times prior to filing candidate papers. Soto has not joined liberals in voting to proceed with impeachment.
"The district is, if anything, more anti-Trump than the country by a significant margin," Grayson said. "These are critical times. I mean, the president is trying to dismantle democracy."
Party leaders have worked to quiet impeachment talk — Republicans are fashioning it into a rallying cry – but grassroots activists want to see it happen. "I think there are a lot of Democrats who are in fact concerned that there is not enough leadership and spine in the party to stand up to the bullying president."
Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/05/01/alan-grayson-to-take-on-fellow-democrat-darren-soto/
MSNBC's Joy Reid says no proof of blog hacking found, apologizes for past views
Source: NBC News
MSNBC host Joy Reid said on Saturday that she has no proof her now-defunct blog was hacked to include homophobic posts recently surfaced by an anonymous Twitter user, and she again apologized for views she'd expressed in the past.
"I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things because they are completely alien to me," Reid said in an on-air monologue on her show "AM Joy" on Saturday. "But I can definitely understand based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past why some people don]t believe me. I have not been exempt from being dumb or cruel or hurtful to the very people I want to advocate for. I own that. I get it."
Earlier this month, Twitter user @Jamie_Maz, whose identity is not publicly known, published several screenshots purported to have been acquired through the Internet Archive of Reid's one-time blog, Reid Report. Reid apologized in December for "insensitive" blog posts from roughly a decade prior.
Read more: www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna869771
If you screw up, just apologize and move on. This would have been a one day story if she had just done that.
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