JACKSON, Miss. — For the first time since President Richard M. Nixon’s divisive “Southern strategy” that sent whites to the Republican Party and blacks to the Democrats, African-American voters have come out in force for a Republican in the Deep South.
The New York Times
The Supreme Court has rejected Massachusetts’ effort to enforce a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-supreme-court-abortion-20140610-story.html
Los Angeles Times
Tracy Murphy was managing a nonprofit agency five years ago when her mother became seriously ill with heart problems. She promptly left her job to care for her, a task that has consumed Ms. Murphy ever since.
The New York Times
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she supports affirmative action in higher education because she believes that alternatives based on geographic or economic status don’t work to ensure a diverse student body.
Washington Post
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to require a higher level of scrutiny for race-based affirmative action was a step toward destabilizing race-conscious admission plans, and universities must find new ways – for now additional ones, but eventually substitute ones – to ensure diversity.
President Obama plans to sign an executive order forbidding companies that do business with the federal government from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, fulfilling a goal that gay rights organizations have sought for years.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obama-discrimination-20140617-story.html#page=1
Los Angeles Times
MIAMI — With the midterm elections only months away, efforts to carry out some of the country’s strictest photo ID requirements and shorten early voting in several politically pivotal states have been thrown into limbo by a series of court decisions concluding that the measures infringe on the right to vote.
The New York Times
Students in Santa Monica High School’s ethnic-studies class took on a touchy subject recently when they analyzed enrollment in Advanced Placement courses. Despite the school’s diversity, most of those taking the college-level classes were predominantly white and from affluent backgrounds, the students found.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-ethnic-studies-20140603-story.html
Los Angeles Times
At a recent soccer practice at Oakland International High School, the boys welcomed Paulos Gurmu, a newcomer from Ethiopia. After hours of running on asphalt under a blazing sun, they sat in a circle to dole out “positivity points.”
Otisville Correctional Facility is a medium-security state prison, 79 miles northwest of Manhattan, on the site of a former tuberculosis sanitarium — with an equalizing element of portent, near the town of Mount Hope. Many of its prisoners are serving life sentences; they are men whom time, as one guard put it “has mellowed out.”