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Supreme Court set to rule on legality of affirmative action in college admissions. Here's what to know

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

The Supreme Court is set to rule any day on a case that could prevent universities from considering race as a factor in their admissions process, potentially throwing a wrench in the process many top U.S. institutions use to select from their applicant pool.  The conservative-leaning court is considering two similar cases against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) brought on by the conservative group Students for Fair Admissions, which has argued the schools’ admission processes have discriminated against white and Asian American applicants. If the court rules for the students, the decision would upend decades of precedent for the limited use of race as a factor in the process, making it one of the biggest reversals for the Supreme Court since it overturned Roe v. Wade last year.The case also has the potential to force many of the country’s top institutions to change the way they admit students and find race-neutral alternatives to promote d...

A researcher wants to study the effect of Denver’s reform policies. The superintendent has qualms.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero doesn’t want a University of Colorado Denver researcher to access student data to study the effects of the previous decade’s education reform policies. Parker Baxter, who directs the University of Colorado Denver’s Center for Education Policy Analysis, was the lead author of a study released last year that found significant improvements in student test scores and graduation rates during the time Denver Public Schools was most invested in education reform strategies. Two critiques of the study were that it didn’t isolate the effects of particular strategies, such as closing schools with persistently low test scores or opening new charter schools, and that it didn’t fully account for changes in the student population of Denver, which grew by some 20,000 children during the same time period. Related ArticlesEducation | How rising violence, kids with guns have pushed Denver’s school board toward bringing police back to campus Educ...

Colorado plastic surgeon acquitted of homicide in teen patient’s death, convicted on lesser charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

Family photoEmmalyn Nhi NguyenA Colorado plastic surgeon on Wednesday was found not guilty of the most serious charges he faced in a teenage patient’s death, but was convicted on less serious counts after a week-long jury trial in Arapahoe County District Court.Jurors found Dr. Geoffrey Kim not guilty of negligent homicide in the death of 19-year-old patient Emmalyn Nguyen, but found him guilty of attempted reckless manslaughter and guilty of obstructing a telephone after he failed to call for help for hours after Nguyen suffered cardiac arrest.Attempted reckless homicide is a Class 5 felony in Colorado, which is typically punishable by between one and three years in prison. Obstructing a telephone is a misdemeanor. Kim is set to be sentenced on Sept. 8.Nguyen went to Kim for breast augmentation surgery in August 2019, when she was 18, but she suffered cardiac arrest after receiving anesthesia, fell into a coma and died 14 months later, in October 2020.Prosecutors argued that ...

Flagler Reservoir closed by recent heavy rains and flooding

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

Flagler Reservoir has been closed by heavy rains that have caused water to breach the spillway and flood roads in the area.The closure is ordered to address safety concerns created by the flooding, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a news release.Flagler Reservoir, in the Flagler Reservoir State Wildlife Area, will be closed indefinitely, the CPW said.“We are closing it to protect the public,” CPW Director Jeff Davis said in the release. “It is not safe to drive on the county road that crosses the dam. And CPW is concerned about the houses below the dam in the event we get more rain in the area later this week, as forecast.”Flagler Reservoir is a part of the 400-acre wildlife area located about five miles east of the town of Flagler. The reservoir is north of Interstate 70 in Kit Carson County.The reservoir was drained in August 2017 under a release order from the Colorado Division of Water Resources, according to the release. The gate on the dam has remained open and the reservoi...

Denver man arrested for allegedly soliciting Texas 15-year-old

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

DENVER — A Denver man was arrested for allegedly soliciting a Central Texas teen.The 15-year-old disappeared from the backyard of her home in Copperas Cove, Texas — located 75 miles north of Austin — around 7:30 p.m. on Monday. It is believed she was picked up by a man in an unknown vehicle.The teen had been communicating with the man through social media, according to the Copperas Cove Police Department.Copperas Cove PD, with help from the Texas Department of Public Safety Fusion Center, identified the man as Simon Ryan Salais IV, 33, of Denver.Full story via Denver7

Return to Oz: Going Up David Lynch’s Butt With Movies About Movies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

It’s more difficult than it’s ever been to get a film distributed and into actual brick-and-mortar movie theaters, but here comes Alexandre O. Philippe’s ruminative crit-essay Lynch/Oz, a documentary, it seems, only a film critic could love. And who cares about them? Can precious screen space suffer the indulgence of a speculative non-narrative film about film, not to mention a deep-reading geekfest about David Lynch, America’s most recalcitrant niche auteur?But wait, haven’t we already been served plenty of ripe plates of critical-theoretical exegesis, like Philippe’s 2017 78/52 (a 91-minute exploration of Psycho’s shower scene) and 2019 Memory: The Origins of Alien; Nina Menkes’s Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (2022); Kent Jones’s Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015); Ross Lipman’s NotFilm (2015); Rodney Ascher’s pro-am doc on The Shining, Room 237 (2012); Mark Cousins’s 15-hour The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011); etc.? Are the movie geeks on the rise? Is everyone a film critic now — even f...

Wisc. Gov. vows to veto budget if GOP cuts diversity funds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

By Todd Richmond | Associated PressMADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday in a newspaper report that he won’t sign the state budget if Republican lawmakers follow through on their plan to cut funding for the state university system’s diversity officers, escalating a bitter fight over dollars for the state campuses.Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he wants to cut $32 million from the UW System in the state’s 2023-25 budget, an amount he said is equal to what the system spends on diversity officers. He said during a news conference Wednesday that diversity efforts have become liberals’ “new religion” and tax dollars shouldn’t be used to help them.“For people on the left, (efforts to promote diversity have) become their new religion,” Vos said. “They no longer go to church on Sunday, but boy, are they trying to make sure everybody is evangelized on campus, that’s ther...

National pundits turn on John Fisher after A’s fans’ show strong ‘reverse boycott’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

OAKLAND — A’s fans converged on the Coliseum this week to show the world that they still want their team, and it was John Fisher, the team’s owner, who had turned his back with the intention to move their club to Las Vegas.Tuesday’s “reverse boycott” drew a season-high 27,759 fans endlessly chanting “Sell the Team!” and an assortment of often vulgar anti-Fisher missives. But was it just noise or did it resonate outside of the Bay Area?“I think for the average fan that may not pay attention day-to-day, it’s easy to think A’s fans aren’t showing up and the fanbase does not exist,” ESPN national baseball writer, Joon Lee said in a phone interview Wednesday. He added that the boycott is “such an in-your-face example of how the fanbase shows up when things are good. We’ve seen this in the past, too, when the A’s are good.”CBS Radio host Jim Rome went to bat for A’s fans on his nationally syndicated show on Wednesday, notin...

Storm system brings heavy damage to the South

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

Associated PressALBANY, Ga. — Damaging winds and possible tornadoes toppled trees, damaged buildings and blew cars off a highway Wednesday as powerful storms crossed the South from Texas to Georgia.The National Weather Service issued numerous tornado warnings, mainly in southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia, and cautioned that gusts of hurricane-force winds exceeding 90 mph (145 kph) were possible in parts of northeast Louisiana and central Mississippi. Some areas also were pelted with large hail.Forecasters said severe storm threats could persist into Thursday, with the greatest risk across southern Alabama and Georgia into the Florida Panhandle as well as Oklahoma and parts of northern Texas and southern Kansas.Felecia Bowser, meteorologist in charge for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Florida, called the far-reaching inland storm system unprecedented for this time of year.“In June, we’re usually gearing up more for tropical weather,” Bowser said. ...

Grand jury indicts Daniel Perry in subway chokehold death

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

By Michael R. Sisak | Associated PressNEW YORK — A man charged with manslaughter for putting an agitated New York City subway rider in a fatal chokehold has been indicted by a grand jury, an expected procedural step that will allow the criminal case to continue.Daniel Penny was charged by Manhattan prosecutors last month in the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who struggled in recent years with homelessness and mental illness.Grand jury proceedings are secret and spokespeople for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment Wednesday, but the indictment was confirmed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.“I appreciate DA Bragg conducting a thorough investigation into the death of Jordan Neely. Like I said when the DA first brought charges, I have the utmost faith in the judicial process, and now that the Grand Jury has indicted Daniel Penny, a trial and justice can move forward,” Adams said in a statement.Neely was shouting at...