Today’s Headlines: Supreme Court bans affirmative action in college admissions

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Supreme Court bans affirmative action in college admissions

In another major reversal, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action policies at colleges and universities that use race as a factor in deciding who is admitted.

In a pair of decisions, the six conservative justices ruled that Harvard, the nation’s oldest private college, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the oldest state university, were illegally discriminating based on race and violating the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the Constitution forbids treating people differently based on their race.

More politics

• The Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action triggers angst on campuses about how to promote diversity without considering race in admissions decisions.
• Supreme Court rules against race-based admissions policies, but not helping students who suffered bias or hardships.
• A lot of what you’ve heard about affirmative action is wrong.
• Some Asian Americans believe college officials will find ways to get around the ban and ensure they admit enough underrepresented students, including Black Americans and Latinos.

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Homelessness jumps 9% in L.A. County, 10% in the city

Homelessness continued to rise dramatically, increasing by 9% in Los Angeles County and 10% in the city of Los Angeles last year, in a stark illustration of the challenges faced by officials trying to reduce the number of people living on the streets.

Efforts to house people, which include hundreds of millions of dollars spent on shelter, permanent housing and outreach, have failed to stem the growth of street encampments, as reflected in the annual point-in-time count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

• Faced with another bad homelessness count, L.A. reacts with frustration.

California’s reparations proposal moves to Newsom

After two years of deliberations, California’s Reparations Task Force is sending its final report and recommendations to the state Capitol, where Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers will ultimately decide how the state should atone for slavery.

The governor and state Legislature began the historic process in 2020 with the goal of establishing a path to reparations that could serve as a model for the nation.

UCLA to expand in downtown L.A. with the purchase of a historic building

In another milestone move to expand its reach, UCLA announced that it has purchased a landmark building in downtown Los Angeles for satellite classes, aiming to widen access at the nation’s most popular university and help revitalize the city’s historic core.

UCLA purchased the 11-story, Art Deco-style Trust Building on Spring Street, and expects to begin classes in it later this year — initially through its large Extension program.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Goat herder Michael Choi of Fire Grazers Inc. moves a herd of 300 goats on a hillside below multimillion-dollar homes in Rancho Palos Verdes. Read more: “These bleating firefighters have an insatiable appetite for wildfire fuel — weeds�

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

CALIFORNIA

Amid crumbling cliffs, Orange County considers moving its famously scenic rail line inland. Landslides in Orange County continue to disrupt the coastal rail line that carries Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner. Is it time to trade stunning views for a reliable route?

What wet winter? California prepares for peak wildfire season. Gov. Gavin Newsom and California fire officials outline plans for “peak� fire season.

Downtown Los Angeles hasn’t hit 80 degrees in 59 days — a new record for May and June. The extended days of gloominess in L.A. are due to a persistent upper-level trough of low pressure over the West Coast, according to meteorologists.

NATION-WORLD

The woman who allegedly killed her husband, then wrote a kids’ book on grief is sued for $13 million. The lawsuit accuses Kouri Richins of taking money from her husband’s bank accounts, diverting money intended to pay his taxes and obtaining a fraudulent loan, among other things, before his death in March 2022.

A professor and two students were stabbed in a gender studies class at a Canadian university. “The guy basically walked in and asked the teacher if he was the professor. He said, ‘Yeah.’ Then he pulled out a knife, and after that, everybody just ran out,� one student told CTV.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

A teen allegedly kills a man who is attacking his mom. Nicki Minaj offers him college tuition. On Tuesday, Minaj shared an Instagram story praising the teen who was seen on video taking lethal action to defend his mother as she was brutally attacked at a South Side Chicago hot dog stand last week. She called him “a true hero.�

Chris ‘Spanto’ Printup, founder of L.A.-based clothing line Born X Raised, dies at 42. His brand Born X Raised launched in 2013 and amassed a cult-like following in the city, with collaborations with the Dodgers and Rams.

Grammy Awards announce dates for the 2024 ceremony and reveal nominations. The 66th Grammy Awards will take place Feb. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles, organizers said. Nominations for music’s most prestigious awards show will be revealed Nov. 10.

BUSINESS

Virgin Galactic launches commercial flights for space tourists. For years, British billionaire Richard Branson vowed that commercial space flights with his firm Virgin Galactic were just around the corner. On Thursday, that hype finally became reality.

As a hotel workers strike looms, Anime Expo attendees sound off. The largest U.S. hotel workers strike in recent memory and the largest anime convention in North America are both set to kick off this weekend in the same downtown Los Angeles spot — with all the attendant agitation playing out on social media.

Airlines are already strained, and LAX expects its busiest days in years for the Fourth of July. Beginning Thursday through July 10, Los Angeles International Airport is expecting some of its highest daily passenger counts since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

SPORTS

How did USC and Turnkey miss on Mike Bohn? Search firm industry insiders expose flaws. Turnkey spoke with more than two dozen references as part of its process, according to a source with knowledge of the search not authorized to speak publicly. But there were others working closely with Bohn at Cincinnati who could have provided a more complete picture.

A woman claimed Kobe Bryant promised her a stake in an investment. Now she owes Vanessa $1.5 million. According to the petition, “Molly Carter sued the Bryant family for many millions of dollars, asserting that, mere months before his passing, Kobe Bryant ‘verbally promised’ her equity in his largest investment, the sports drink company, BodyArmor.�

OPINION

Opinion: The Supreme Court’s ultimate ‘judicial activism’: striking down affirmative action in college admissions. A bloc of six right-wing justices has gone against 50 years of precedent and the Constitution itself. The harm to students of color will be swift.

Column: Sure, people are moving to Texas. But not for the reasons Gov. Greg Abbott claims. “Abbott’s ideal Texas household is white, Anglo, cisgender and straight. The three-term governor has made that clear through the policies he pursues. Which is why we should all be disturbed that 30 million people live under his leadership,� LZ Granderson writes.

Column: Meet the new Tucker Carlson, worse than the old Tucker Carlson? “With Watters’ elevation, Fox seems to have decided it needed a younger version of the noxious Carlson to win back the viewers so angered by his defenestration that they turned to the even-more-deplorable Newsmax in protest,� writes Jackie Calmes.

YOUR WEEKEND

Downtown Los Angeles can be seen in the background through haze and smoke with Fourth of July fireworks going off in various neighborhoods, as seen from Whittier looking west on this eight-second single exposure.

(Raul Roa/Los Angeles Times)

41 places to watch dazzling Fourth of July fireworks in L.A. Whether you want to stay close to home or go event-hopping, here is a list of places where you can ring in the nation’s 247th birthday with all sorts of firework displays as well as laser and drone shows.

The best places to crack open tinned fish in L.A. Whether you’re grocery shopping or dining out on the town, here are 12 restaurants, wine bars and markets that are stocked with tinned fish this summer.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

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Opinion | What the fat-shamers don’t get about Lizzo. “I’ve witnessed live concerts where she passionately sings, raps, plays the flute and dances. Her mic is on every night. It takes an astonishing amount of athleticism to perform like this. I challenge her trolls to go on tour with her for even a day to see if they could physically sustain a three-hour set,� Danielle Pinnock writes. Washington Post

Discrimination isn’t just infuriating. It steals Black people’s time. What if you are an average Black American and you live to age 70.8? What if you cross the street once a day? Then you’ve spent about 17.16 hours longer waiting to cross the street than you would have if you were white. That’s more than a full waking day of your life taken by discrimination. Vox

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Famed American torch singer Lena Horne at a press reception at the “Talk of the Town� theatre-restaurant in London’s West End, March 24, 1961.

(Bob Dear / Associated Press)

On this day 106 years ago, singer and civil rights activist Lena Horne was born.

“Stormy Weather� was her signature song as well as a chillingly apt metaphor for her career. Long celebrated for her striking beauty and silky voice, she overcame profound racism on her way to becoming one of the best-known African American performers in the country.

When she died in 2014, the Times wrote about the glamorous singer’s legacy and how she went on to become “one of the legendary divas of popular music.�

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