6 of our top opinion pieces this week: ICYMI

In today's fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week's top Paste BN Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.

— Paste BN Opinion editors

1. Mastio and Lawrence: Our grades for the candidates in the first Democratic debates

By David Mastio and Jill Lawrence

"The starting gun has sounded on primary debates for the 2020 election. Here's how we graded the Democrats vying to take on Donald Trump.

► Cory Booker

David's grade: A. The New Jersey senator spoke more than anyone else Wednesday night and managed to seem plausibly presidential with every answer.

Jill's grade: B. Why him for president? He hasn't stood out from the pack. Yet. 

► Elizabeth Warren

David's grade: B. If she was trying to deliver the message that she is a fighter, she definitely got that across (“I will fight for you as hard as I fight for my own family”), but she also overdid it.

Jill's grade: C-plus. Warren made a big mistake by waiting until the closing moments of the two-hour endurance test to say anything personal about herself."

2. The Supreme Court rewrote FOIA into the Freedom FROM Information Act

By James Bovard

"This week the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government can keep secret the food stamp sales totals of grocery stores. By a 6-3 vote, the court decided that such business records are exempt from disclosure under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). ... Controversies over the food stamp program have multiplied as evidence accumulated revealing that the program is a public health disaster. A 2017 studypublished in BMC Public Health found that food stamp recipients were twice as likely to be obese as eligible non-recipients. ... Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent yesterday warned that the decision 'will deprive the public of information for reasons no better than convenience, skittishness, or bureaucratic inertia.' The Supreme Court gave a kick to a disclosure law that had already lost most of its teeth."

3. Oberlin bakery owner: Gibson's Bakery paid a high cost for an unfairly damaged reputation

By David Gibson

"A business is only as strong as its reputation. For more than 130 years, this principle served my family well. We own and operate Gibson’s Bakery in the city of Oberlin, Ohio — home to Oberlin College. ... On Nov. 9, 2016, a student attempted to shoplift two bottles of wine from our store. ... Police arrested the student. But the next day, hundreds of people gathered in protest. ... Despite the lack of any evidence, our family was accused of a long history of racism and discrimination. ... We were officially on trial — not in a courtroom, but in the court of public opinion. And we were losing. ... It’s my hope that the jury’s verdict against Oberlin College is a wake-up call. In an age where social media can spread lies at an alarming rate, what happened to Gibson’s Bakery could happen to anyone."

4. Are we bored with rape? I hope not. Jean Carroll's Trump allegation deserves attention.

By Melinda Henneberger

"My first thought, reading longtime Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s description of being raped by Donald Trump in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room decades ago, was that there might still be presidential DNA on the Donna Karan coat dress she was wearing that day and never laundered. My second thought, though, was that no one would care if there were. ... To Trump’s faithful, his denials and claims that 'I’ve never met this person in my life' are in no way undercut by a photo of them chatting at a party. But for those who know better but can’t be bothered, I’m sorry to see the extent to which this man and this topic have worn us down and worn us out. And to those who purport to support women but wish this particular woman had said something sooner, later or not at all, I say: What else is new?"

5. Stonewall and gay rights at 50: Cultural transformation but a tough political road

By Tom Krattenmaker

"My friend Chad gets irritated when people ask him why he did not come out back in the 1960s when he realized he was gay. 'They don’t understand what it was like then,' he says. This was when homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder, gay sex was illegal in 49 states, and bars might refuse you service if they even suspected you of being gay. This was before June 28, 1969, when LGBTQ people in Greenwich Village spontaneously decided they had absorbed enough abuse from the police and announced, loud and proud, that they were not going to take any more. ... It’s encouraging to realize that what has happened with LGBTQ rights and acceptance can happen on other fronts, too. So whatever might have progressives down right now — whether it’s gaping inequality, the stubborn persistence of racism, inaction on climate change, or the moral catastrophe at the border — they can take note and take heart."

6. San Francisco, banning e-cigarettes is the worst solution to your least pressing problem

By Sally Satel and Erica Sandberg

"The San Francisco Board of Supervisors decreed that vaping products ... can no longer be sold in brick and mortar stores or purchased online and delivered to local addresses. The ban is intended to 'protect youth from e-cigarettes.' ... Doubtless, nonsmoking teens shouldn’t vape. But what about smoking adults? ... E-cigarettes are estimated to be at least 95% less hazardous than conventional cigarettes. This is because they do not burn tobacco. ... Even more absurd is the fact that regular, combustible cigarettes remain untouched on the shelves of convenience stores. ... The alarmism directed at nicotine’s alleged effect on teen brains would be better aimed at marijuana. Regular marijuana exposure can (reversibly) impair cognition and even cause temporary psychosis. No evidence to date shows harm from nicotine on the mental state of teens or young adults. ... In San Francisco, policy is shaped more often by prejudice than principle or practicality."