The Good Place or The Bad Place?

A Cal State professor published eugenics-linked papers. Now come calls for a reckoning The campus of Cal State East Bay. The campus of Cal State East Bay.(Cal State East Bay) By NINA AGRAWALSTAFF WRITER OCT. 31, 20206 AM A professor emeritus at Cal State University East Bay has been accused of publishing racist teachings linked to the discredited field of eugenics, forcing the university to decry “repulsive” viewpoints while defending the right to freedom of speech. The writings of economics professor Gregory Christainsen date back several years, including in publications identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center — which tracks extremist groups nationally — as having white supremacist ideologies. The writings include passages in which he compares the brain sizes and IQs of sub-Saharan Africans and Latinos to whites and Europeans, attributes the wealth of nations to those IQs, and rationalizes employment and pay discrimination along racial, ethnic and gender lines. The controver...

The concerted campaign that got public health experts to declare racist policing a crisis Attendees at a public health meeting protest police violence A 2018 rally helped convince the American Public Health Assn. to support a resolution to recognize police violence as a public health issue.(Photo courtesy of Emma Rubin) By DEBORAH NETBURNSTAFF WRITER OCT. 20, 20203 AM In the weeks after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, dozens of city councils, mayors and governors approved resolutions condemning police violence and calling racism a public health crisis. One of the most strongly worded statements, passed unanimously by the Goleta, Calif., City Council, proclaimed that “Black people in America continue to live in fear of losing their lives at the hands of law enforcement.” But long before these resolutions denounced racist policing practices, the largest organization of public health workers in the world was locked in a multiyear debate over a policy statement...

Tens of thousands protest outside L.A.’s Turkish Consulate in solidarity with Armenia Protesters with red blue and orange Armenian flags raise their fists in a park Members of the Armenian American community and supporters gather Sunday at Pan Pacific Park in Los Angeles before marching to the Turkish Consulate in Beverly Hills.(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) By LILA SEIDMAN OCT. 11, 20206:28 PM UPDATEDOCT. 11, 2020 | 11:12 PM Tens of thousands of demonstrators protested outside the Turkish Consulate in Beverly Hills on Sunday afternoon in a show of solidarity with Armenia in its battle with neighboring Azerbaijan over a tiny separatist region on the border of the former Soviet republics. The crowd was estimated at 35,000 people, at its height stretching down Wilshire Boulevard from Fairfax Avenue to La Cienega Boulevard, Beverly Hills Police Lt. Todd Withers said. The Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Station later tweeted that the crowd had reached 100,000. Protesters i...

Champion of poor or demagogue? Mexico’s president remains popular despite stalled economy, pandemic and crime A member of the National Front Anti-AMLO (Frena) holds up a Mexican flag in front of a line of riot police A member of the National Anti-AMLO Front holds up a Mexican flag during a protest against Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City’s zócalo square on Sept. 23. (Pedro Pardro / AFP/Getty Images) By PATRICK J. MCDONNELL, KATE LINTHICUM OCT. 9, 20202 AM MEXICO CITY — The Mexican economy is cratering, homicides are rising at a record rate, and the COVID-19 death toll has surged past 80,000. For any other leader, the torrent of bad news might herald a political reckoning. Not for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Yes, protesters have been camped out in downtown Mexico City calling for his resignation and drawing outsized media attention. But the left-wing populist saw his approval rating rise from 56% in June to 62% in September — according to poll...

Newsom names first openly gay justice to the California Supreme Court Gov. Gavin Newsom named Martin Jenkins, his Judicial Appointments secretary, to the California Supreme Court. Jenkins would become the first openly gay man on the court. By MAURA DOLAN, PATRICK MCGREEVY OCT. 5, 202012:01 PM UPDATED4:52 PM SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday appointed Martin Jenkins, a moderate Black former prosecutor and judge, to the California Supreme Court. Jenkins, a 66-year-old Democrat, is now Newsom’s judicial appointments secretary. He will become the first openly gay justice on the California Supreme Court, and only the third Black man ever to serve on the state’s highest court, the governor’s office said. Jenkins has been considered a candidate for the state’s top court for years, but former Gov. Jerry Brown passed him over for younger people from elite law schools. Unlike Jenkins, Brown’s choices had no prior judicial experience. “Justice Jenkins is widely respected among lawy...

L.A.’s poorest patients endure long delays to see medical specialists. Some die waiting Pink flower petals in a ring around a man's photo on his gravestone Majid Vatandoust died of colon cancer at age 52, three years after his request for a colonoscopy was denied by a specialist working for L.A. County despite tests that showed early indicators of colon cancer.(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options By JACK DOLAN, BRITTNY MEJIA SEP. 30, 20205:01 AM UPDATEDOCT. 3, 2020 | 6:42 PM Isabel Lainez was a familiar face at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center when she showed up one day desperately seeking help. The 60-year-old often visited the hospital’s courtyard pulling a wheelie bag filled with jewelry that she sold to nurses and other workers on their lunch breaks. Now she was struggling with frequent urinary tract infections that had stopped responding to antibiotics. She wet herself so frequently — on the bus, in the car, in an elevator — t...

Trump plans to slash refugee admissions to U.S. to a new record low Abdisellam Hassen Ahmed, a Somalian refugee, arrives at Salt Lake City International Airport in 2017. Abdisellam Hassen Ahmed, a Somalian refugee, arrives at Salt Lake City International Airport in 2017.(Rick Bowmer / Associated Press) By ASSOCIATED PRESS OCT. 1, 20203:09 AM SAN DIEGO — The Trump administration has proposed further slashing the number of refugees whom the United States accepts to a new record low in the coming year. In a notice sent to Congress late Wednesday, just 34 minutes before a statutory deadline to do so, the administration said it intended to admit a maximum of 15,000 refugees in fiscal year 2021. That’s 3,000 fewer than the 18,000 ceiling the administration had set for fiscal year 2020, which expired at midnight Wednesday. The proposal will now be reviewed by Congress, where there are strong objections to the cuts, but lawmakers will be largely powerless to force changes. The reduction of ...

  Breonna Taylor’s death shocked the nation. In Louisville, many Black people are far from surprised A mother and son attend a demonstration in downtown Louisville, Ky., in honor of Breonna Taylor.  (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options By  KURTIS LEE SEP. 27, 2020 1:53 PM   UPDATED 8:29 PM LOUISVILLE, Ky.  —    It felt like a small army had camped for a brief pause in an unending battle. Protesters leaned against a wall inside the restaurant, charging cellphones. Others sat at the bar, sipping water and resting their feet. One man curled up and took a nap. During 123 days and counting of protests here — sobs, chants, tear gas and disappointment — for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman shot to death by police inside her Louisville apartment six months ago, America’s reckoning with generations of racial injustice has been a relentless vigil. For Tawana Bain, transforming her restaurant, where before pandemi...