Northeast
Fake Yale student scandal raises alarms over academic fraud, foreign influence risks
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An Ivy League student accused of making up an entire life story to gain admission was expelled earlier this semester, prompting fresh concerns over academic fraud and gaps in university vetting that experts say could also expose elite institutions to foreign influence and espionage risks.
At Yale University in Connecticut, administrators recently kicked out an undergrad student identified as “Katherina Lynn” after she allegedly lied about her background, according to the Yale Daily News, a student-run paper.
She reportedly comes from California’s Bay Area but adopted a “Western name” to distance herself from her Chinese-American roots, the online magazine Air Mail reported, and allegedly concocted a fake origin story, reinventing herself as a daughter of rural North Dakota.
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Cleanup crews work on an oil spill just north of Tioga, North Dakota, Oct 24, 2013. The town is where an alleged Yale fraudster claimed to be from. She was really from California’s wealthy Bay Area. (Ken Cedeno/Corbis via Getty Images)
“She knew that… when it comes to diversity, it’s not just about race,” said Adam Nguyen, founder of Ivy Link and a former Columbia admissions advisor. “Diversity for colleges has a much broader definition. It also includes socioeconomic diversity… and geographic diversity. So she made herself into basically a White applicant with a very Caucasian-sounding name from a little town in North Dakota.”
Next, she spent years plotting to fool Ivy League admissions teams and forging paperwork until she wound up as a Yale freshman. It was a suspicious roommate who uncovered the scheme, according to the report — by looking at her luggage tags and finding another name and address.
“As with any institution, whether it’s elite universities like Columbia, Harvard, Yale or workplaces, any employer, you’ll see that if someone has the intent and the talent to do it, they can get through the screening process, whether it’s faking your transcript, faking employment record, faking even testimonials from former employers or teachers, etc.,” Nguyen said. “So you’re seeing that here, this particular individual went through great lengths, right, and knew how to do all the right things. That said, the college admissions process is essentially trust but verify. Right now, they use different things like software, they do spot checking, but at the end of the day, it’s not 100% foolproof.”
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Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, which recently expelled a freshman student after reportedly learning that she’d misrepresented her academic credentials to get accepted. (Plexi Images/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
While there’s no evidence she has ties to a foreign government, the scandal raises questions about keeping schools safe from bad actors.
The State Department has been warning of Chinese influence on American and Canadian university campuses going back to at least 2020, when officials said Chinese government-linked groups were using academic partnerships and exchange programs to collect sensitive research and influence U.S. students and faculty.
And the Heritage Foundation lists the infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party into American education as a threat at “all levels” of academia, from kindergarten classrooms up to elite universities.
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The Old Campus Courtyard at Yale University on Sept. 28, 2022, in New Haven, Connecticut. (Stan Godlewski for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Nguyen said graduate programs could pose the highest risk, because students often gain access to sensitive research and laboratory systems.
The recent exposure of an Iowa superintendent as an illegal immigrant with a criminal record and allegedly falsified academic background is yet another example of lax vetting in education.
Ian Roberts, who had been superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, was making $270,000 a year. And the district announced a lawsuit this month against the consulting firm that helped hire him.
Former Des Moines superintendent Ian Andre Roberts, who was detained by ICE and federally charged. (Polk County Sheriff)
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Last year, after a web sleuth exposed a student from India as an academic fraud, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania launched an internal investigation into its admissions process, according to The Brown and White, a campus newspaper.
The student, identified as then-19-year-old Aryan Anand, allegedly outlined his scheme in a Reddit post that described using a sock puppet email to pose as his high school principal, faking his father’s death to get more financial aid money, editing his transcripts and tax fraud, the student outlet reported.
And then the internal probe led to criminal charges against four more students from Ghana who were accused of financial aid fraud.
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Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut, on April 7, 2024. (Joe Buglewicz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Lehigh scandals prompted the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that advocates for lower immigration levels, to urge Homeland Security Investigations to launch a wider review last year.
“If a random slacker can pull off this scam, terrorists and the Chinese government can, too,” the think tank warned, while also noting one of the 9/11 hijackers had been in the U.S. on a student visa, and immigration authorities denied entry to five other would-be conspirators, finding they were not students or tourists as they claimed.
The Yale University campus on April 4, 2015. It is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, founded in 1701. (iStock)
“There’s always going to be some successful fraudster that will make it through,” Nguyen said. “That will make for a good story, but the vast majority of students are legitimate.”
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And if “Katherina Lynn” had put as much effort into her studies as her fake background story, she could probably have gotten into an elite school on her own merit, he said.
Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
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Northeast
Pilot, passenger swim to safety after plane crashes into New York’s Hudson River
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A pilot and passenger swam through the frigid waters of the Hudson River and reached shore safely after their Cessna 172 made an emergency landing Monday night, officials said.
The aircraft had taken off from Long Island when the pilot was forced to land in the river just after 8 p.m., the Middle Hope Fire Department said in a Facebook post.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
Middle Hope Fire Department responders, along with personnel from other agencies, were dispatched to the scene. After a brief search, first responders located the plane within the City of Newburgh, authorities said.
A plane wades in the Hudson River. (Facebook/Middle Hope Fire Department)
Fire officials said the two occupants were able to free themselves from the aircraft and swim to shore. Newburgh Emergency Medical Services evaluated the pair before they were transported to a nearby hospital for further treatment.
Multiple agencies were on the scene after a plane crashed into the Hudson River. (Facebook/Middle Hope Fire Department)
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hailed the incident as “Another miracle on Hudson.”
“Thank God both the pilot and passenger of a single engine plane that performed an ice landing near Newburgh have been located with only minor injuries,” the governor wrote in a post on X. “Grateful to our first responders for their quick actions.”
A plane made an emergency landing on the Hudson River Monday evening. (Facebook/Middle Hope Fire Department)
New York Rep. Pat Ryan said he was “closely monitoring reports of a small plane making an emergency landing near the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge.”
“I’m in touch with officials on the ground, who have shared that both passengers are safely out of the water & have been evacuated by EMS,” he said. “Incredibly grateful for our Hudson Valley first responders who are responding swiftly and put their lives on the line to keep others safe.”
First responders found the plane within the city limits of Newburgh. (Facebook/Middle Hope Fire Department)
The cause of the emergency landing remains under investigation.
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Boston, MA
Boston honors first casualty of American Revolution – The Boston Globe
“In moments of challenge and in moments of conflict, it does feel easier to put your head down,” Wu said at an event at the Old State House commemorating Attucks.
“Remembering the full history pushes us to be the beacon of freedom that the rest of the country and the rest of the world so very much needs.”
Inside the Old State House’s council chambers, city leaders, historians, and students gathered to celebrate Attucks’ legacy. They talked about the importance of memorializing him during a time when many present said the contributions of people of color to American history were being erased by the Trump administration, and the country’s founding principles were under attack.
Senator Lydia Edwards said the death of Attucks and the four others killed during the Boston Massacre helped establish important legal principles that still guide the country today.
Following the killings, British soldiers involved in the incident were put on trial. John Adams, who later became president, agreed to defend them in court, arguing that the rule of law must be upheld even during times of intense conflict.
“Even in these moments of strife, oppression of rogue federal government, that we remember that we stood up and still held to our court system, to the rule of law and to due process,” Edwards said. “We also remember who had to die in order to remind ourselves to do that.”
City Councilor Brian Worrell said Attucks was a symbol of the long struggle for equality in the country.
“It’s a story that is a reminder that Black and Indigenous Americans have always been at the forefront [of] the fight for justice,” Worrell said.
He said when he recounts Boston’s Black history, he almost always starts with Attucks’ story.
“He fought not simply against the tea tax or the Stamp Act, he fought for the most basic of rights. He fought for equal human lives. It’s a fight we as a city are still having,” he said.
Wu spoke about how on March 5, 2025, she was called to testify before Congress about Boston’s immigration policies during a six-hour hearing. She touted Boston’s safety record amid aggressive questioning, arguing that the city’s immigration policies improved public safety.
“On the 255th anniversary of the Boston Massacre, on Crispus Attucks Day, there was no way that this city wasn’t going to be represented in standing up for what’s right,” Wu said.
A chandelier lit the council chamber and red curtains covered its historic windows. On both sides of the room, students sat with their teachers. Winners of the Crispus Attucks Essay Contest, which invites local students to explore Attucks’ legacy, sat next to the podium.
“Sometimes history repeats itself,” said Toni Martin, an attendee at the event, who came to support her niece, who was being awarded. “Sometimes it gets better, but it takes revolutionary people to make change perfect.”
Outside of the State House after the commemoration, Sharahn Pullum, 18, who came in second for the essay contest, said, “My inspiration was just getting the opportunity to speak on something that matters.”
Michael Kelly, 65, joined the wreath-laying ceremony that took place at the Boston Massacre Commemorative Plaza. Kelly held a sign that said, “Ice Out Be Goode,” referring to Renee Good, a US citizen who was shot and killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Kelly said he had been standing at the plaza for three hours and is planning to stand there the entire day.
“People can stretch their imaginations to understand that this place, what happened here, is not at all different than what happened in Minneapolis,” Kelly said with tears in his eyes. “People standing up for something they believe in is vastly important, and we can’t be daunted.”

Aayushi Datta can be reached at aayushi.datta@globe.com.
Pittsburg, PA
Pirates Winning Streak Ends With Loss to Cardinals
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates have had a strong showing so far in the Grapefruit League, but suffered a surprising defeat.
The Pirates lost 3-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla., taking just their third defeat in Spring Training so far, dropping to 9-3 in the Grapefruit League.
Pittsburgh saw their five-game winning streak come to an end, but they are still level with the New York Yankees at the top of the Grapefruit League standings.
This game also came after the first off day for the Pirates on March 4 and a 7-1 win over Team Colombia in an exhibition at LECOM Park on March 3.
How the Pirates Fell to the Cardinals
Pirates right-handed pitcher Mitch Keller made his third start in the Grapefruit League and threw three scoreless innings, before giving up a solo home run to Cardinals third baseman Nolan Gorman on a slider down in the zone, putting the road team up 1-0 in the top of the fourth inning.
That represented the first run that Keller gave up all Spring Training and Pirates left-handed relief pitcher Derek Diamond came in for him after he gave up a single to Cardinals right fielder Jordan Walker.
Keller has just a 1.23 ERA over 7.1 innings for the Pirates in the Grapefruit League, a good start for the veteran on the starting rotation.
St. Louis loaded the bases against Pirates left-handed relief pitcher Evan Sisk in the top of the fifth inning with three walks, but Sisk struckout top prospect in shortstop JJ Wetherholt and forced Gorman into a double play to keep it a one-run game.
Pirates right-handed relief pitcher Chris Devenski gave up a run in the top of the sixth inning, as he walked second baseman Ramón Urías, who stole second base, then gave up a single to catcher Pedro Pagés, doubling the Cardinals’ lead at 2-0.
The Pirates tied the game up at 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning, as shortstop Alika Williams hit a two-run home run off of Cardinals left-handed pitcher Quinn Mathews.
Pirates right-handed relief pitcher Cam Sanders gave up the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth inning, hitting leadoff batter Joshua Baez with a pitch and then giving up a single to pinch-hitter Jimmy Crooks to make it 3-2.
Right fielder Ryan O’Hearn had a strong showing for the Pirates in the loss to the Cardinals with two hits in two at-bats. He is now slashing .462/.563/.769 for an OPS of 1.332 in six Grapefruit League games.
Outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia had a hit off the bench for the Pirates, as he is now slashing .533/.611/.733 for an OPS of 1.344 in seven games.
Make sure to visit Pirates OnSI for the latest news, updates, interviews and insight on the Pittsburgh Pirates!
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