Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy, 11/05

[SVPete]

Legal Challenge Overturns Scholarship Limited to Black Students in California

https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2025/11/04/legal-challenge-overturns-scholarship-limited-to-black-students-in-california-n3808559

This summer the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit to end a scholarship available to University of California Sand Diego (UCSD) students. The group sued on behalf of a student named Kai Peters who was a UCSD student but who was not eligible to apply for the scholarship because he is white.

The Black Alumni Scholarship Fund (BASF) awards up to $10,000 to students who maintain a 2.7 GPA and participate in various programs like student mentoring. Kai would gladly participate, but the program is exclusive to black students. He is white, and therefore ineligible.

UCSD founded BASF in 1983 as a state-run, race-based scholarship program. When voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996, banning discrimination in public education, UCSD simply outsourced the program to an off-campus nonprofit. Now nominally private, BASF nevertheless maintains an inextricable partnership with UCSD—a public university constitutionally prohibited from engaging in racial discrimination.

...
Soon after the lawsuit was filed, the BASF agreed to settle the case by changing the name of the scholarship and opening it up to all students.

The attempt to launder the scholarship $$ through a sham didn't work. UCSD needs to be watched carefully. Their sham reveals an intent to violate Proposition 209.

[SVPete]

California Republicans sue over new U.S. House map approved by voters

https://srnnews.com/california-republicans-sue-over-new-u-s-house-map-approved-by-voters/

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Republicans filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to block a new U.S. House map that California voters decisively approved at the ballot.

Proposition 50, backed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, is designed to help Democrats flip as many as five congressional House seats in the midterm elections next year. The lawsuit claims the map-makers illegally used race as a factor to favor Hispanic voters, and asks the court to block the new boundaries ahead of the 2026 elections. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The lawsuit was filed by The Dhillon Law Group, the California-based firm started by Harmeet Dhillon, who is now an assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.

“The map is designed to favor one race of California voters over others,” Mike Columbo, whose plaintiffs include a state Republican lawmaker and 18 other voters, said at a news conference Wednesday. “This violates the 14th Amendment, guarantee of equal protection under the law, and the right under the 15th Amendment.”

[enslaved1]

Voter Turnout Highest in Half Century as Mamdani Phenomenon Galvanizes Electorate

The number of voters casting ballots in the tense three-way race for mayor between Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa broke records, with more than 2 million check-ins, according to the city Board of Elections.


By comparison, 1.1 million ballots were cast in the entire 2021 election won by Eric Adams, and the last election to see such numbers was in 1969, when John Lindsay, running on a third-party line, won a second term against two rivals.

Polls closed at 9 p.m. The in-person votes and absentee ballots tallied so far account for 34% of the city’s roughly 5.3 million registered voters.

Record turnout, but still barely a third of registered voters....

[SVPete]

Moody Bible Institute sues Chicago Ed Board for alleged religious discrimination

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/moody-bible-institute-sues-chicago-ed-board-religious-discrimination-refusing

The Moody Bible Institute is suing the Chicago Board of Education for alleged religious discrimination because it won't allow students from the private evangelical Christian Bible college to participate in the public school system's student-teaching program – citing Moody hiring only prospective employees who follow like-minded religious beliefs.

The federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday on Moody's behalf by the group Alliance Defending Freedom.

Moody hires employees that live out the college's biblical beliefs and values, including those on marriage and sexuality.

Moody Bible Institute has been in Chicago for nearly 140 years. it's not an obscure new fly-by-night. Its operations and hiring practices have been discoverable to anyone who cared, but bigots in the Chicago Board of Education simply want to sabotage the career prospects of Christian students working to become teachers.

[SVPete]

Transportation Sec Duffy: 'We are going to go after the CDL mills'

https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/duffy-we-are-going-go-after-cdl-mills

Safety concerns, two triple-fatals involving 18-wheelers and a closer look at commercial driver’s licenses has led the U.S. Department of Transportation to say, “We are going to go after the CDL mills.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at a news conference said some schools for CDLs throughout the country are saying applicants can operate a tractor-trailer rig when in fact they cannot. Also, he said, many do not check citizenship or proficiency in the English language.

“A lot of these students are coming through these schools,” Duffy said. “They can’t speak the language, and many of them are not proficient in the English language. Many of them don’t have the skills to operate big rigs on the roads, but nonetheless, the schools are certifying that they are qualified.

Hate-Trump lawsuit in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ..............

[enslaved1]

The Guy Fawkes Mask: A Masterclass in Symbolic Reuse

I talk about Guy Fawkes and history as inspiration for art and other things every year, and while looking up some more stuff for the students, came across this, what marketing folks can learn from the Gunpowder Plot.  Kind of funny, IMHO.