It’s Tuesday, June 9. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Arthur Brooks asks, would you vote for a candidate who cheated on their spouse? Peter Savodnik on Spencer Pratt’s defeat—and California’s broken ballot count. Masih Alinejad on “Persepolis” author Marjane Satrapi. Aaron MacLean on Trump’s Iran mistake. And much more.
But first: A school disciplinary email leads to suicide.
Last summer, Vaibhav Duggal, a promising medical student at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, learned he would have to face the school’s disciplinary body after a patient accused him of asking inappropriate questions about her relationship status during his ob-gyn clinical rotation, and then following her on Instagram. Hours later, he died by suicide. He left a note behind for his parents saying he “simply cannot bear the shame.”
The Duggal family blames the school for their son’s death. In January, Vaibhav’s parents filed a lawsuit accusing the school of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and violating their son’s due process rights.
Vaibhav’s story is one of the many examples of institutional overreach during disciplinary proceedings at universities across America that Frannie Block has reported on. In all of these stories, the students’ families told Frannie two things. First, that the universities failed to grant them due process. Second, that they failed to take the students’ mental health into consideration.
The Duggal family is no exception. But they face an uphill battle. Texas’s laws on sovereign immunity shield state institutions from liability except for in specific cases of negligence approved by each state legislature.
Whether or not they succeed in their legal fight, the Duggals have joined other grieving parents in a burgeoning campaign to persuade lawmakers to protect the rights of students like Vaibhav who face disciplinary action on campus.
“Whatever we are doing right now, he’s not coming back,” Vivek Duggal, Vaibhav’s father, said of his son, “but at least we can save someone else’s life.”
Read Frannie’s investigation into this tragic tale—and what schools owe their students, even when they are accused of misconduct.
—Dana Schuster
This month, Graham Platner has become the latest politician to face allegations of private infidelity. Once a cheater, always a cheater, as the adage goes. But should that matter at the ballot box? Arthur Brooks investigates whether private impropriety predicts public improbity.
If you wanted to design an election to encourage conspiratorial thinking and mistrust, you’d struggle to do better than what just happened in Los Angeles. On election night, Spencer Pratt had a big lead—and looked set to make it to the final two in the mayoral contest. But then the mail-in ballots trickled in, and days later, he was out. Trump has cried election fraud, and while there’s no evidence of that, writes Peter Savodnik, the whole saga is a cautionary tale on how not to do democracy.
On Sunday and Monday, Iran and Israel exchanged fire in the latest flare-up in the on again, off again war with Iran. Trump demanded an end to the shooting—and once again promised an imminent deal. But is he about to make a big strategic mistake? Aaron MacLean fears the answer is yes in his latest take on the war.
From the latest Iran news to a woman who helped tell the real origin story of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In her graphic novel “Persepolis,” Marjane Satrapi shattered Western misconceptions about Iranian women and exposed the human cost of life under the regime. She died last week at 56, in what her family believes was a death brought on by sadness after losing her husband last year. Today in our pages, Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad pays tribute to the great author.
America’s 250th birthday bash is less than a month away, and we’re honoring some of the Great Americans of history. Up next: Martin Scorsese.
Comedian Colin Quinn honors the legendary Hollywood director by cautioning him never to leave New York City to make another film. When you make mundane urban infrastructure, like a stoop or fire hydrant, look like a “love poem,” Quinn asks, why cross the Hudson River?
MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS
THE NEWS
Israel and Iran ceased military engagement on Monday after a brief exchange of missile fire over the weekend. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed it would hold fire “for now,” but said the war was not yet over. Netanyahu also said IDF operations against Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon will continue.
On Monday a federal judge blocked a Trump administration policy that attached a $100,000 fee to H-1B visa applications, saying the policy was effectively a tax, a power reserved for the legislative branch. “[T]he Administration is confident this order will be reversed on appeal,” a White House spokesperson said after the ruling.
Young Americans are souring on their view of America, according to a new AP-NORC poll. Nearly half of adults under 30 say there are other countries better than the United States. The poll also found a decrease in the belief in democracy’s centrality to the nation. Only about half of under-30 respondents consider democracy very important to the identity of the nation, compared to 81 percent of U.S. adults over 60 years old.
The flesh-eating New World screwworm parasite has spread beyond its initial Texas outbreak, with federal officials confirming four U.S. cases—including infections in calves and a goat in Texas, and a dog in neighboring New Mexico.
Pope Leo denounced the “scourge” of sexual violence committed by Catholic clergy, saying it is “still an open wound” for the church in remarks on Monday to Spanish bishops. “Every wounded person must be able to find sincere listening, welcome, protection, and real paths to healing,” the U.S.-born pontiff said. Pope Leo also addressed the Spanish Parliament, calling for a global response to the “tragic drama” of mass migration and to defend human life “from conception to its natural end.”
Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author Gordon Wood died on Sunday after being struck by a motor vehicle in Providence, Rhode Island. Wood wrote more than a dozen books on the American Revolution and founding era. Wood was awarded the National Humanities Medal by Barack Obama in 2010. He was 92.
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake off the shore of the Philippines killed at least 35 people and injured more than 200 on Monday. The tremor collapsed several low-rise buildings in the port city of General Santos and triggered a mudslide that killed 13 in the coastal Glan municipality. It is the first earthquake to hit the Philippines this year.
Trump attended game three of the NBA finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden Monday night, watching the Knicks lose by four points in the final quarter. He’s the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals.
I am.curjous how diverse the fans were at MSG last night. No not race but two other categories. How many working class NYers at the Garden? Any sitting near Spike or Stiller? And then there's patriotic diversity? How many will be booing America in a few weeks ( wanna hate Trump? That's ok because we have freedom( for now but maybe not in the future as noted in TFP today that swaths of youth don't seem to like america OR EVEN DEMOCRACY( thank R Weingaretn and so many of her educational comrades)). How many in attendance have attended no kings rallies and likely will again on July 4.
Hearing the singing of God Bless America is to many of those entitled Knicks fans what garlic is to Dracula.
And in Canadian news - On Thursday evening, senators voted 45–13 to approve Bill C-9, or “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (hate propaganda, hate crime, and access to religious or cultural places).” There were two abstentions, and 35 senators were not even on site to vote on the bill.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-canadas-senate-passes-anti-christian-bible-ban-bill-c-9/