Free Republic

Several prominent academic mathematicians want to sever ties with police departments across the U.S., according to a letter submitted to Notices of the American Mathematical Society on June 15. The letter arrived weeks after widespread protests against police brutality, and has inspired over 1,500 other researchers to join the boycott. These mathematicians are urging fellow researchers to stop all work related to predictive policing software, which broadly includes any data analytics tools that use historical data to help forecast future crime, potential offenders, and victims. The technology is supposed to use probability to help police departments tailor their neighborhood coverage...

“In 2020, Hollywood should know better than to cast cis people in roles about the transgender experience, but we're still having to remind the industry that trans people should be able to tell their own stories onscreen,” Refinery 29 griped, lecturing, “[T]he fact that she was considered for the role speaks to a disturbing pattern of minimizing the lived experience of trans people.”

The Pentagon said in a statement late Tuesday evening that it had no corroborating evidence that Russian operatives offered bounties to the Taliban for American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. “The Department of Defense continues to evaluate intelligence that Russian GRU operatives were engaged in malign activity against United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan. To date, DOD has no corroborating evidence to validate the recent allegations found in open-source reports,” said Chief Pentagon Spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.

Gay Pride was held today in Chicago. Hundreds, if not thousands, flocked to the annual party in downtown Chicago. Of course, the media cheered this crowd since it was not a Trump rally.

"And we have got to come to moment we put all that behind us and come together.”

LOS ANGELES – Barack Obama hasn’t been the president for nearly two years, but his fame is still spreading – at least when it comes to naming things after him. The nation’s first African-American president need not go far around the country these days to find something that carries his name. There’s Barack Obama Way in New Albany Township, Indiana, and Barack Obama Boulevard in Pahokee, Florida. There’s a long list of schools now named for him, like Barack Obama Academy for Academic & Civic Development in Plainfield, New Jersey, and Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond, Virginia. Obama even...

David Hogg, supposed victim of the Parkland shooting and anti-gun activist, got the letter 42,749 applicants hope to receive from Harvard: an acceptance letter. In 2018, Harvard accepted only 4.59 percent of applicants, roughly 1,900 persons. Once Hogg’s tweet that announced the good news went viral, eyebrows across the United States were raised in befuddlement. Hogg’s highest SAT score is 1270, and the average SAT score for admissions into Harvard is roughly 1480. Americans who ascribe to the ideology of meritocracy rightfully struggle with the idea that Hogg is able to meet Harvard requirements with a score approximately 200 points...

Governor-elect Gavin Newsom's wife has gone through several titles as a political significant other: first, "first girlfriend," as she started dating the then-mayor of San Francisco. Now, Jennifer Siebel Newsom wants to be known as "first partner." Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker, started dating Newsom, 51, in 2006, after his divorce from Kimberly Guilfoyle was final. The two married in 2008, while he was mayor. Newsom was elected lieutenant governor in 2010. The two have four children. Guilfoyle, 49, is now dating Donald Trump Jr., the son of President Trump.

"To everyone causing so much negativity: I mean no disrespect to the Chinese culture. I’m simply showing my appreciation to their culture. I’m not deleting my post because I’ve done nothing but show my love for the culture. It’s a f---ing dress. And it’s beautiful," she tweeted on Saturday.