Bad news for students hoping to get into top schools. The biggest names––schools like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and USC––have posted record low admissions rates this year. Yale’s admission rate was less than 6%, while Harvard and Yale both posted rates less than 5%. Stanford has announced that it will no longer post admissions rates, since their low rates only fuel the college-admissions madness amongst college seniors. 

Such low rates contribute to the competitive environment that inspired some 750 families to spend $25 million on bribes. For students who don’t have incredibly rich families, they must work hard––too hard, in fact––to get into university. They pay stupid amounts of money to Kaplan and other test prep giants so that they can game the SAT, they hire private admissions counselors, and when it’s all said and done they take out an average of $30,000 loans per student. Of course, the poorest students often take out the most, and they hope to reap huge rewards.

But for many students, the Singer scam has broken their spirits. The admissions process is so obviously biased and broken, they think, that it’s not worth bothering about. Hopefully more students will realize that admission into a top school isn’t everything––and even admission into any school isn’t everything. What matters is return on investment. 

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Many hoped that the Mueller report would disperse the dark clouds hanging over the Trump administration. Other, wiser voices knew that the report would only fed both sides of the aisles as they bickered over the Trump administration’s alleged corruption, collusion, and whatever else. 

Some Republicans––notably Rudy Giuliani, who called the investigation a “waste of time”––decried the investigation, as the LA Times points out, Mueller successfully cleared a sitting president of what was essentially treason. But now the Trump administration is saying that the media owes everyone an apology for the waste of time, and that they should feel ashamed. 

Most Americans, do not feel the report was a waste a time––they feel that Trump and his campaign have not been exonerated by the report. Jim Himes of Connecticut has said that the report will reveal that there is plenty of reason to be concerned about Trump’s Russian contacts: “When the report comes out, what the American people will learn was that there was plenty of reason to be concerned about the nature of those contacts and the possibility of what those contacts might have met.”

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Attorney General William Barr, who has been widely criticized for his brief summary of the 300-page report, has announced that he will release the report to the public by mid-April. He further announced that he will release the report to Congress without submitting it first to the White House for approval. 

It appears that Barr has backtracked from his intention to submit the report to the White House first––a decision that was widely questioned by experts. Patrick Cotter, former federal prosecutor at the Justice Department and colleague of Barr from the 1990s, has said, “I’m not sure why Barr felt this [submitting to the White House] was the appropriate way to go about handling potentially privileged information.” Cotter went on to explain that Barr had better options he could have pursued, such as setting up an independent committee to review the report for sensitive information.

Barr may also be responding to criticism for his failure to submit the report to the public. Many are furious that no one has seen the report yet––only the Barr letter. Six Democratic committee chairs in the House have demanded that the Mueller report be released by April 2, though Mitch McConnell blocked the release of the report.

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Michael Avenatti is a one man reality show, and news outlets are his cameras. Just after being arrest for allegedly extorting Nike (see below), Avenatti is also wanted for questioning about a trial involving––wait for it––a crazy sex cult. Apparently Avenatti was supposed to represent the Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman, who allegedly secretly retained Avenatti to represent her. Bronfman fainted upon being questioned about retaining Avenatti––yes, fainted––effectively ending the questioning.

Michael Avenatti was arrested earlier this week for allegedly threatening to extort $25 million from Nike. Avenatti claims to have evidence that company employees authorized payments to top high school basketball players families. Avenatti was threatening to make those claims public.

In November of 2018, Avenatti was arrested on charges of domestic violence. Those charges were later dropped. Avenatti also made news for surrendering tapes that incriminated R. Kelly to Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx in Chicago, Illinois.

Avenatti became popular by representing porn star Stormy Daniels’s attorney and suing Trump for defamation when Trump denied the payments. Avenatti then trickled information out to the media and promised to reveal facts that would further humiliate Trump. This catapulted him into the national spotlight.

What comes next in the adventures of Avenatti? It’s hard to imagine where he can go from here.

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Walgreens has announced that it will sell CBD products in in 1,500 stores. For legal reasons, Walgreens can only sell the products in the following states: Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Kentucky, Tennessee, Vermont, South Carolina, Illinois and Indiana. The legal status of CBD is still up in the air, and most companies have decided to wait until there is some kind of certainty, but competition seems to have driven Walgreens into the market.

The announcement comes mere weeks after the pharmacy giant CVS announced it would start selling CBD products in 800 stores across eight states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland and Tennessee. CVS will sell a variety of topical cannabidiol products––things like creams, sprays, and roll-ons, as “an alternative source of relief” for pain.

Even though CBD is getting more popular, you may want to hold off hopping on the CBD bandwagon. Cecilia Hillard, director of the Neuroscience Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, notes “There’s no regulatory agency that’s overlooking (CBD oil’s) purity, its concentration, whether or not there are other things that are present in the oils like pesticides, or molds, or heavy metals and so forth.” So consider CBD to be basically extra-questionable vitamins. It’s better to wait until CBD products are more regulated before you risk wasting your money. 

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The world-renowned Yale University has revoked the admission of a student linked the college cheating scandal. Yale has not announced the student’s exact relationship to the scandal. Rudy Meredith, Yale’s former women’s soccer coach, has been charged with accepting a whopping $400,000 bribe to accept a student who didn’t play soccer. 

USC has likewise blocked students linked to the scandal from registering for classes or collecting their transcripts. 

Various victims of the scam have filed lawsuits.  Jennifer Kay Toy alleges that Loughlin and Huffman’s actions prevented her child from getting into a top school. The $500 billion lawsuit seems fairly ridiculous, but it is a sign of things to come. “I’m now outraged and hurt because I feel that my son, my only child, was denied access to a college, not because he failed to work and study hard enough, but because wealthy individuals felt it was OK to lie, cheat, steal and bribe their children’s way into a good college,” Toy claimed.

William Singer, owner of college admissions companies Key Worldwide Foundation and Edge College & Career Network, the alleged ringleader of the scam, has pled guilty to accepting bribes totaling $25 million and has claimed to have helped over 750 families get their children into college through irregular means.

More about education.

It has been a little over a year since a gunman murdered 17 students on February 14th 2018 in Parkland, Florida. In February, the school held a moment of silence and a half-day to commemorate the anniversary, reported by ABC News. The shooting was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. It catapulted some Parkland students into politics and active participants in the gun control debate. It led to some of the largest youth-led protests since the Vietnam era. 

In the months following the anniversary, however, the Parkland community has been rocked by yet more tragedy: two teenage survivors of the shooting have killed themselves in the past week. Sydney Aiello, 19, took her own life after struggling with PTSD and survivor’s guilt. She also struggled to succeed in college because she was afraid to be in a classroom. 

A few days later, a sophomore survivor took his own life. Police have not yet released his name nor confirmed that his suicide was linked to the shooting, though it is hard to imagine the shooting is not related to his death. 

In light of this second suicide, state officials are debating activating emergency resources to address a mounting mental health crisis. 

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Since nearly his presidency began, the Mueller investigation has been a dark cloud over Trump and his administration. This weekend, Mueller submitted his report to at Attorney General William Barr. Barr has subsequently released the basics of the report. It found no evidence of collusion with the Russians to interfere with the 2016 elections, but it did not conclude one way or another if Trump attempted to obstruct justice citing lack of evidence. 

The Mueller examination involved 500 witnesses and nearly 2,800 subpoenas and lasted nearly two years. 

For those hoping that the report will put things to bed, there is some bad news. In his statement, Barr said that “‘while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” This means that both sides of the political debates surrounding the report will not cool down. Nor are the investigations over––there are still other active investigations into the Trump administration, and House democrats will not be pleased with the Mueller report. 

As to how much of the report Barr will release, he said his “goal and intent is to release as much of the Special Counsel’s report as I can consistent with applicable law, regulations, and Departmental policies.” 

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Nearly seventy years ago, the Chinese invaded Tibet under the guise of “liberating” it from “theocracy.” Since then, China has moved millions of its citizens into Tibet in an effort to overwhelm the Tibetan population and force them to assimilate into Chinese culture. The Chinese kidnapped an important religious leader, the Panchen Lama, and his family, and the Chinese installed their own puppet Lama. Now, the Chinese have come much closer to vocalizing what many observers have long feared: they will do the same with the Dalai Lama. But the Dalai Lama may have already outsmarted Beijing by announcing that he either will not incarnate or will reincarnate in India.

Whatever happens, it is certain that Tibetans loyal to the Dalai Lama will not abide by China’s “tame Lama” policy. That, in turn, will force China to enter a new stage of cultural genocide against Tibet and that will not look good. 

The Tibetans were not the first victims of Chinese cultural genocide. The Chinese are currently committing cultural genocide against the Uighurs, an ethnic minority comprised mostly of Muslims. Recent news suggests that Beijing’s policy against the Uighurs is following a trajectory similar to the evolution of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

As many as one million Uighurs are currently being held in secret concentration camps: “The allegations came from multiple sources, including activist group Chinese Human Rights Defenders, which said in a report last month that 21 percent of all arrests recorded in China in 2017 were in Xinjiang.”

The pharmacy giants CVS is set to start selling CBD oil in 800 stores across eight states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland and Tennessee. CVS will sell a variety of topical cannabidiol products––things like creams, sprays, and roll-ons, as “an alternative source of relief” for pain. 

Cannabidiol, or CBD, was already everywhere, even before CVS announced that it would sell it. Hemp is now a legal crop, which is leading some to hope that CBD is now going to be federally legal (not the case). Some people swear that CBD is a miracle cure, while others thing it’s snakeoil. Which is it? 

 While there are some studies hinting at promising results from CBD, you may not want to jump on the CBD bandwagon just yet. Cecilia Hillard, director of the Neuroscience Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, notes “There’s no regulatory agency that’s overlooking (CBD oil’s) purity, its concentration, whether or not there are other things that are present in the oils like pesticides, or molds, or heavy metals and so forth.”

So before you rush to your nearest CVS, maybe read this New York Times article, which points out that CBD is so unregulated and understudied that, for now, it might be best to save your money.

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Have you ever wondered how anti-vaxxers spread their message? It’s not just through spamming facebook and instagram feeds with their tripe, it’s also through advertisements––particularly through social media. GoFundMe plans to put a stop anti-vaccination fundraisers that help spread the anti-vaccination gospel. 

Larry Cook, for example, a prominent anti-vaxxer, raised nearly $80,000 through several GoFundMe campaigns. A variety of anti-vaccine groups also use GoFundMe to raise money for their funds. They believe GoFundMe’s ban on their fundraising constitutes a violation of their First Amendment rights. 

GoFundMe’s decision follows a rash of disease outbreaks. Unvaccinated children are causing outbreaks all over the world, especially of measles. The anti-vaccination movement is spurred by the (mistaken) belief that vaccines are tied to autism. Not that it will matter, but another study has just demonstrated with a respectable degree of certainty that there is no connection between autism and vaccines.

Over 650,000 children were observed in Denmark, 95% of whom were vaccinated between 1999 and 2010. The data revealed no increase of instances of autism among both children who were not at risk of it (based on genetics) and those who were at risk for it. There have been 17 studies that confirm the same thing, but the belief that the two are linked––which began in 1998––remains.

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Facebook stored millions of user passwords in plaintext––meaning that they were unsecured––for years. This means that employees had access to user account info for years. Facebook claims there has been no abuse, and that people need not reset their passwords. Wired thinks otherwise because of a series of security breaches by Facebook. This is merely the latest in a series of problems Facebook has suffered. 

Internally, the company is struggling with factionalism. Morale within the company is so low, in fact, that employees are paranoid that exec’s are spying on them. They’ve allegedly started using burner phones to “talk shit about the company with each other.” So not only do Facebook employees not trust each other, but they also do not trust their leadership.

The New York Times released an investigative piece revealing that, for “years, Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records and interviews.”

To summarize: Facebook did not secure passwords internally, they regularly shared user data with loads of companies, and its own employees are miserable. Things are not looking up for Facebook. 

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