California wants to shut down a Christian school accused of punishing students for being gay
River View Christian Academy bills itself as a place where parents can send kids who “are going down the wrong path.” It’s run by a small nonprofit called Teen Rescue, which emphasizes that it holds socially conservative views. The school said that it doesn’t employ any psychologists, counselors, psychiatrists, nurses, or social workers, and students say there are no teachers on staff.
And now California's government is taking action against it, following a BuzzFeed News investigation last year detailing accusations that officials failed to report abuse and punished kids who said they were gay or bisexual.
Attorneys for the school argue the state law that California’s government is using to regulate the facility infringes on its religious rights, and filed a lawsuit challenging the statute’s constitutionality. Court documents from the ongoing legal battle between the state and River View not only corroborate many of the details of the BuzzFeed News investigation but also raise new concerns about the treatment of students currently enrolled at the school.
Trump said he would accept dirt on 2020 election opponents from a foreign government
In the same interview, he dismissed suggestions about contacting the FBI about possible interference in a US election.
“I think I’d take it,” the president told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos about a potential offer for dirt on a political opponent from a foreign government. “I’ve seen a lot of things over my life. I don’t think in my whole life I called the FBI.”
Trump has in fact reached out to the FBI. Most notably in 1981, he reached out to the FBI before opening a casino in Atlantic City, said he was concerned about organized crime in the city, and offered to "cooperate" with FBI agents.
It was a busy day for Trump: He also invoked executive privilege to block Democrats from getting documents about the census citizenship question, having earlier, uh, liked a tweet about how Rihanna is a “work/life balance queen.”
Snapshots
Victory Fund, a major LGBT political group, is planning to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in its history: Pete Buttigeig. The openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is set to formally receive the group’s backing June 20 in Boston, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News.
A former Stanford University sailing coach became the first person to be sentenced in the national college admissions scandal. John Vandemoer admitted to accepting $610,000 in bribes, which he put toward the sailing team, to designate two prospective recruits as students. He avoided being sent to prison.
Police in Dallas have arrested the man they believe killed three women. Kendrell Lavar Lyles was charged with three counts of murder. One of his alleged victims was Muhlaysia Booker, a 23-year-old black transgender woman. The arrest comes as investigators work to solve a spate of murders of young, black transgender women in the area.
A male student used Snapchat's gender filter to pose as an underage girl online and caught a cop. Robert Edward Davies, an officer with the San Mateo Police Department, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of contacting a minor to commit a felony, San Jose police said.
Protests are continuing in Hong Kong, with police using tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets on demonstrators. They're protesting a proposed bill that would allow people to be extradited to mainland China. While the protests have been largely peaceful, photos from Wednesday show increasing use of force by police.
A picture featuring 15 tech men and 2 women looked doctored. The women were photoshopped in.
BuzzFeed News reporter Ryan Mac thought a photo GQ published of Silicon Valley executives looked edited to include two women — so he dove into a two-day "investigation" to uncover the truth. It turns out (after much mockery from his coworkers) he was right: The photo given to GQ had been modified.
Below, you can see the before and after images. The original image was doctored to include Peek CEO Ruzwana Bashir (far left) and SunRun CEO Lynn Jurich (left-center). The manipulated image, published by GQ, was provided by a representative for Italian designer Brunello Cucinelli, whom they were visiting.
For some, the incident was the perfect encapsulation of the tech industry, where issues around diversity are just an image problem that can be solved with a quick fix. “Photoshop the change you want to see in the world,” one Twitter user wrote.
A teen learned a lesson about oversharing on social media after her saga with her cheating ex went viral
Kylie Griswold discovered her boyfriend had cheated on her, so she posted photos to his Snapchat and then publicly shamed him on her Twitter account.
My bf cheated on me so I logged into his snap & posted these on his story. Xoxo enjoy
Several thousand retweets and five days later, she decided to get back together with him — and abuse followed, with strangers viciously shaming her for her decision.
Still, Griswold said, "it was truly an experience filled with growth." She has realized "the mistake of making my life too public," she later tweeted.