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Northwestern settles with Trump administration in $75M deal to regain federal funding

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Northwestern settles with Trump administration in M deal to regain federal funding

Signs are displayed outside a tent encampment at Northwestern University on April 26, 2024, in Evanston, Ill.

Teresa Crawford/AP


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Teresa Crawford/AP

Northwestern University has agreed to a $75 million payout to the Trump administration to settle a discrimination investigation into the school and to restore federal funding that had been frozen throughout the inquest, the Justice Department announced on Friday.

“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

“Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to follow civil rights law — we are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic deal.”

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Northwestern is one of several schools ensnared in President Trump’s campaign against university policies he has decried as “woke.”

Specifically, the Illinois private school was one of 60 colleges the Education Department accused of shirking their obligations to “protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities” amid heated university protests against the war in Gaza.

In April, the White House announced it was withholding some $790 million in federal funds from Northwestern while the government investigated the claims. University interim President Henry Bienen said in a statement to university personnel that “the payment is not an admission of guilt,” according to the school newspaper The Daily Northwestern.

Earlier this month, Cornell reached a deal requiring the university to pay $60 million to unfreeze $250 million withheld by the Trump administration over alleged civil rights violations. The private Ivy League university said the settlement did not come “at the cost of compromising our values or independence.”

Per the agreement, Northwestern will pay out the $75 million over time through 2028 and “shall maintain clear policies and procedures relating to demonstrations, protests, displays, and other expressive activities, as well as implement mandatory antisemitism training for all students, faculty, and staff,” according to the DOJ.

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Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the settlement “a huge win” for higher education.

“The deal cements policy changes that ‘will protect students and other members of the campus from harassment and discrimination,’ and it recommits the school to merit-based hiring and admissions,” she said in a statement.

“The reforms reflect bold leadership at Northwestern, and they are a roadmap for institutional leaders around the country that will help rebuild public trust in our colleges and universities,” she added.

An explainer posted to the university’s website said that the school decided to negotiate an agreement rather than take a chance in court, calling the cost of a legal fight “too high and the risks too grave.”

Northwestern’s Bienen said in a video statement that the school would retain its academic freedom and autonomy from the federal government.

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“There were several red lines that I, the board of Trustees and university leadership refused to cross. I would not have signed anything that would have given the federal government any say in who we hire, what they teach, who we admit or what they study,” Bienen said.

“Put simply, Northwestern runs Northwestern.”

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Map: 4.6-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Northern California

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Map: 4.6-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Northern California

Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 4 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “light,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown.  All times on the map are Pacific time. The New York Times

A light, 4.6-magnitude earthquake struck in Northern California on Thursday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 1:41 a.m. Pacific time about 1 mile southeast of Boulder Creek, Calif., data from the agency shows.

U.S.G.S. data earlier reported that the magnitude was 5.1.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

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Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Pacific time. Shake data is as of Thursday, April 2 at 5:41 a.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Thursday, April 2 at 6:11 a.m. Eastern.

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Appeals court rejects HUD homelessness overhaul saying it would be “disastrous”

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Appeals court rejects HUD homelessness overhaul saying it would be “disastrous”

Tents are lined up on Skid Row Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Los Angeles.

Jae C. Hong/AP


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Jae C. Hong/AP

A federal appeals court late Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s push to impose new conditions on homelessness funding, saying implementing them “would be immediately destabilizing and disastrous.” The ruling upheld a lower court’s preliminary injunction, the latest rebuke to a major shift that advocates warn would push 170,000 people in federally subsidized housing back into homelessness. That would include many who are disabled, elderly and veterans.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to slash money for permanent housing and shift it to transitional programs that require sobriety, mental health treatment and other conditions. HUD Secretary Scott Turner has said this would nudge people toward self-sufficiency. The agency did not say whether it would appeal the ruling, but said in a statement that it “remains committed to reforming the misguided ‘Housing First’ approach that for years funded the self-serving homeless industrial complex, rewarded activists, and ignored solutions.”

The change in how to spend nearly $4 billion dollars a year would upend two decades of bipartisan federal policy, an approach the appeals court ruling said “has proven effective.”

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The mere threat of losing funding as this case plays out has already had “serious real-world harm,” the ruling noted. Citing evidence from plaintiffs, it said multiple local homeless services providers had stopped accepting new clients, and “stopped referring new clients to certain permanent housing programs … because of the planned [funding] cuts.”

A coalition of non-profit homelessness advocacy groups, local governments and mostly Democratic-led states brought the legal challenge, arguing the last-minute overhaul announced last fall was unlawful.

“We are relieved,” the coalition said in a statement, and “remain dedicated to protecting proven solutions to homelessness.”

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Judge delays Luigi Mangione’s federal trial by about a month but won’t push it to next year | CNN

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Judge delays Luigi Mangione’s federal trial by about a month but won’t push it to next year | CNN

A federal judge on Wednesday declined to delay the federal trial of Luigi Mangione until next year, denying a request by his attorneys who had expressed concern they couldn’t prepare for trial while simultaneously defending the 27-year-old in state court.

US District Judge Margaret Garnett instead slightly modified the dates of the federal trial in the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, pushing the start of jury selection to October 5 – four weeks after it had been previously scheduled. Opening statements in the case are now scheduled for October 26 or November 2, Garnett said.

“I am skeptical of moving the trial wholesale into 2027 when the state trial has not been adjourned, and I think it’s a little bit of the tail wagging the dog,” she said. “I don’t have any control over the state’s schedule.”

The judge’s decision means Mangione is expected to stand trial in federal court about four months after the scheduled start of his trial on separate charges in New York state court – although she indicated the new dates of the federal trial could be revised.

The December 2024 fatal shooting happened on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk outside a hotel where Thompson, 50, was set to attend an annual investors conference. Mangione’s arrest five days later at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, ended a multi-state manhunt.

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Mangione pleaded not guilty to two counts of stalking in the federal case, and second-degree murder and eight other counts in the state case. If convicted of the most serious charges, he could face up to life in prison.

Mangione’s attorneys had asked Garnett to delay the federal case to January 2027, expressing concern it would overlap with the prosecution in state court, complicating their ability to adequately defend their client.

“Realistically, defense counsel cannot be defending Mr. Mangione in state court on second-degree murder charges that carry a maximum sentence of twenty-five years to life while, at the same time, also reviewing 800 questionnaires for a federal case that carries a maximum life sentence,” defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote in a March letter to Garnett.

Prosecutor Dominic Gentile, who argued against a delay, said Wednesday the public has a right to a speedy trial.

“Your Honor need only look out the window to see the people that follow this defendant and believe that what he did was right,” he said at the hearing, referencing those who support Mangione based on their own anger and resentment toward the American health care system.

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“This case is ready to move forward,” he added.

Gentile suggested the defense was seeking a delay in part because the law firm represents another high-profile client – Harvey Weinstein, who faces a retrial for an alleged sex crime in New York state court later this month.

The defense, however, said that played no role in their decision to ask for the delay.

“That is not a factor whatsoever,” Friedman Agnifilo told the judge.

Garnett brushed the matter aside, saying other cases are not her concern. Rather, the judge is most worried about Mangione’s state case impacting the federal jury selection process, she said. Potential jurors would be filling out questionnaires while “there’s a massive press pool and a lot of attention on the state trial which is ongoing just two blocks from here,” Garnett said.

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It is unclear if the scheduling change in the federal case will impact Mangione’s state trial, which is set to begin with jury selection on June 8. New York Judge Gregory Carro previously indicated he would move the state trial to September if federal prosecutors appealed Garnett’s ruling removing the death penalty from Mangione’s federal case. In February, prosecutors indicated they do not plan to appeal the ruling.

Mangione’s defense attorneys – who have repeatedly said they will not be ready for the state trial to begin in June – referenced Carro’s possible delay in court Wednesday in an attempt to sway the federal judge.

Friedman Agnifilo said they are asking the state judge for additional time to conduct investigations in support of their defense.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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