--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, January 27th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, the California shooting victims and the importance of where they died, the real problem with the college admissions process, and the thing that's ruining your pizza delivery. But first, five former Memphis police officers now face second-degree murder charges in the death of Tyree Nichols.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Black resident died after a traffic stop earlier this month that was recorded from multiple viewpoints, including body cams. Prosecutors and attorneys for his family, who have seen the footage, say that it shows a shockingly violent attack by the police, who are also Black.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch calls the video absolutely appalling, a clear example of bad policing. I've devoted my life to this profession, and I'm grieved. Frankly, I'm shocked. I'm sickened by what I saw.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The five officers were already fired by the Memphis Police Department last week. A policy there put in place after the murder of George Floyd requires Memphis officers to intervene if they see another officer engaging in dangerous or criminal behavior.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Lawyers representing two of the former officers say their clients will plead not guilty. Charges also include aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The initial police statement about the encounter with Nichols says he was pulled over. There was a confrontation. He ran and police chased him. The district attorney says the most serious injuries happened after they caught him.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He says Nichols was taken away in an ambulance after a delay. He died three days later. Video of the traffic stop is going to be publicly released today. Police departments in Memphis and around the country are on standby for protests when the videos come out.
--:-- Shamita Basu: in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York, and other cities. President Biden calls the killing a painful reminder of failings in the criminal justice system.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Nichols is being remembered by his family as a father of a four-year-old. He loved taking photos of sunsets and skateboarding His mother Ravon Wells says he had a tattoo of her name on his arm Nobody perfect okay Nobody But he was damn near. My son was a beautiful soul.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now that several days have passed since the deadly shootings in California, we're learning more about the victims and what the places where the shootings happened meant to their lives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Monterey Park killings happened at the Star Ballroom dance studio. It was popular with older people in the community, which was largely Asian-American.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The LA Times reports on how this place specifically, and ballroom dance more generally, brought locals together. That dance studio was considered a safe haven, a place to socialize, to find belonging and connection.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Although the star ballroom will never be the same, many regulars say that they plan to return. that dancing is the best way to keep their loved ones' memories alive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The LA Times is telling the stories of those who were killed. I would encourage you to read all of them, including Yu Cao's story. He spent Saturdays at the Star Ballroom, and he was quite a dancer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His longtime dance partner nicknamed him Mr. Nice because he would go out of his way to make sure less skilled newcomers had a good time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Monterey Park victims were killed at a place of leisure. The Half Moon Bay victims were shot in the agricultural community where they worked. And their deaths are drawing attention to labor conditions at California farms.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Governor Gavin Newsom is now calling for reform. Some of you should see where these folks are living, the conditions they're in, living in shipping containers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Folks getting $9 an hour, you want to verify the California minimum wage? Not $9 an hour. No health care, no support, no services. But taking care of our health, providing a service to each and every one of us every single day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Advocates for farm workers tell the San Francisco Chronicle that conditions can be tough. Tiny, overcrowded living spaces with no health care or access to social services.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Because many farm workers are undocumented, they may be afraid of speaking out and less aware of their rights. One of the farms where some of the victims worked California Terra Garden says its employees are paid above minimum wage with comfortable living conditions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The state is currently investigating these farms The San Francisco Chronicle is gathering the stories of the Half Moon Bay victims including Jose Perez He sent money back to his family in Oaxaca on a regular basis.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Patrons at the Mexican grocery store that he often visited are now collecting donations for his family. You can read more stories on the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Soon, the Supreme Court will hand down a ruling that could change college admissions by ending affirmative action. It's renewed, long-running conversations about what a fair admissions process looks like.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But what if we're focusing on the wrong thing? I think reasonable minds can differ on affirmative action, but I know that doing affirmative action for rich whites is unjust, so let's stop doing that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Evan Mandry has been writing for years about admissions practices at elite schools. He's a Harvard graduate himself and a professor at CUNY, the City University of New York.
--:-- Evan Mandry: I think the real problem with the admissions process isn't how it treats disadvantaged students, but how much preference is given to kids with lots of advantages.
--:-- Evan Mandry: There are pathways, and I don't think people realize how common these pathways are, that are basically available only to the wealthy, a disproportionate share of whom are white.
--:-- Evan Mandry: Mandary says there is one group in particular that gets a big bump. They're known as ALDCs. That's athletes, legacies, donor families, and children of faculty.
--:-- Evan Mandry: These preferences are massive. So your baseline rate, if you're a random smart applicant, right, to Harvard and Yale right now, their admissions rates are sub 4% now, okay?
--:-- Evan Mandry: I think the recruited athlete has a greater than two-thirds chance of getting in. The children of faculty members and donors get in at about 50% rate, and I think legacy rate is in the high 30%.
--:-- Evan Mandry: So it's an order of magnitude multiplier. Mandary suggests there are lots of steps that elite colleges can take to even the playing field, including ending preferential treatment for legacy students or even expanding class sizes.
--:-- Evan Mandry: But he says these schools will only make changes if students, faculty and alumni demand them. I'm asking white people to surrender a little bit of their status.
--:-- Evan Mandry: That doesn't mean that they have to stop advocating for their children But they have to stop advocating for institutional mechanisms that disadvantage poor students of color
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you want to hear my full conversation with Evan Mandary check out this weekend's episode of Apple News In Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're currently listening in the Apple News app, stick around, we'll queue it up to play for you next, right after this show.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Okay, here is my low stakes hill I'm gonna die on. I never, ever, ever get pizza delivered.
--:-- Shamita Basu: My picky Italian husband and I both agree on this. If you can't eat pizza right out of the oven, it's just not worth it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But I do get that some people think that's weird. Pizza is the delivery food.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is why a recent story in The Atlantic caught my eye. The headline is, you don't know how bad the pizza box is.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The story explains the science behind why boxes make pizza taste so much worse, and also the economics of why they stick around.
--:-- Shamita Basu: To understand the physics, first, I want you to imagine your dream pizza. I mean, really think of it. It's got a crispy crust. The cheese is melted just right.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But the cardboard box is the sworn enemy of both of those things. It traps the steam from the hot pie, which turns your crispy crust soggy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And it doesn't hold enough heat to keep your cheese from getting rubbery. So by the time it gets to your doorstep, your dream pizza is pretty disappointing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, the economics. Pizza boxes are made of corrugated cardboard. The design has stayed pretty much the same for more than half a century now.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Cardboard's cheap. Boxes ship flat, so they don't require paying for more storage space. And when they're folded and filled with pizza, they're easy to stack.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's pretty hard to argue with the numbers. It's cost efficient. There are some really fun descriptions in this article of what a truly ideal pizza box would look like.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can read the whole thing in the Apple News app, along with all the stories that we talked about today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And as I mentioned, the In Conversation episode about college admissions is queued up for you to play next in the News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can also find that episode in the Podcasts app by searching for Apple News In Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Enjoy listening to that. Have a great weekend. And I'll be back with the news on Monday.
