Columbia Makes a Deal. Better Way to Fund Science Research? Conspiracy Updates. Unbearable New Details on Idaho Murders. And More
Columbia University and the Trump administration have reached a deal. The New York Post cover hails the “historic deal” as a “U. Haul,” because the university agreed to pay a $200 million fine because of its failure to protect Jewish students.
Here are the details:
Columbia University reached a deal with the Trump administration, ending a confrontation that disrupted U.S. higher education and sparked a contentious renegotiation of academia’s relationship to the federal government.
As part of the deal, Columbia will pay $200 million to the federal government over three years to settle allegations the school violated antidiscrimination laws. The school also agreed to settle investigations brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $21 million.
In return, the Trump administration will restore nearly all of the hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants it had pulled from Columbia back in March. The New York City school will also be able to access federal funding in the future.
So, the U. Haul goes both ways: Columbia regains an enormous amount of money from the American taxpayer. The New York Times breaks down the provisions of the deal. From the Times report:
The Trump administration froze and canceled more than $400 million in federal research funding in March, saying that Columbia was not doing enough to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment. But it became clear over time that the real risk exposure was much greater. Columbia estimates that about $1.3 billion annually in federal scientific research funding would have been at risk if no deal had been made, enough to shut down much of the university’s research enterprise.
What would happen if funding for scientific research were not provided almost exclusively by the federal government? Glad you asked. George Gilder and Thomas D. Lehrman team up to write a Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined “The Future Is Local for Research Funding.” Gilder and Lehrman acknowledge great innovations funded by federal grants. But they conclude:
While we tighten our fiscal belt at the federal level, the tale of Crispr and Mr. Mojica is timely. By supporting America’s laboratories of democracy—from Alabama to Wyoming—state leaders can accelerate the scientific research essential to competing with global rivals and inventing lifesaving technologies.
Convicted murderer Bryan Kohberger came face to face with the families and friends of the four college students whose lives he cut short. Honestly, Kohberger didn’t seem phased by the victim impact statements. However, if you saw it, you will not easily forget the anguish of Maddie Mogen’s father. The police released 300 pages of gruesome new documents on the horrific night of the murder. One of the young women suffered 50 stabs to her heart and liver. Kohberger will spend the rest of his life in a maximum security prison, where he will be “vulnerable” to physical attack from other prisoners because of his notoriety. Stop me before I say something I will regret.
This is the Cooler Heads portion of this morning’s Musts, though whether they will prevail, or should prevail, remains to be seen.
Regarding the new documents declassified by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, while they don’t present former President Obama in a flattering light, both Andrew McCarthy (“If there were a criminal offense that fit, Gabbard and Trump would cite it rather than chanting ‘treason.’”) and Hans von Spakovsky throw cold water on the idea that we will see former President Obama in the dock (must less in prison garb which would turn “the light bringer” into an orange man).
Von Spakovsky writes:
Despite Gabbard’s understandable language about a “treasonous conspiracy,” the federal treason statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2381, seems like a pretty far stretch. As bad as the allegations are—the misuse of federal power to target a political opponent and eventual president—the statute only applies to someone who “levies war against” the country or “adheres to [its] enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere.”
What about the sedition statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2384? That criminal statute applies to “two or more persons” who “conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States … or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States.” Again, even if we assume the truth of these allegations, there was no force involved in what happened.
On the other hand, what are the statutes that former special counsel Jack Smith attempted to use against Trump ….
Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn posts on X that the promulgators of the Russia hoax knew it was false but pushed it anyway.
Karl Rove’s Wall Street Journal column today is headlined “Trump Learns the Price of Conspiracy Theories.” MAGA, Rove says, is getting tired of waiting for the promised goods on Epstein. Rove takes the President to task:
Conspiracy theories undermine trust and cause chaos. When they are believed by large numbers of people, truth and reality become subjective. None of that bothers Mr. Trump. What should trouble him is that recent events may well reduce the number of his supporters who vote in the midterms and beyond.
Meanwhile, WSJ’s Kimberley Strassel writes soberly of “A Russia ‘Collusion’ (and Clinton) Reckoning.” It’s getting hard to keep the Russia hoax and the Epstein scandal straight in my mind. Thanks to J. Peder Zane for helping me sort this out.
The New York Post reports in an exclusive that the imprisoned Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s closest associate, who procured underage girls for him, is getting ready for her close-up:
Ghislaine Maxwell is assembling “new evidence” to present to the feds when she meets with them this week, her brother told The Post.
She will be putting before that court material new evidence that was not available to the defense at her 2021 trial, which would have had a significant impact on its outcome,” Ian Maxwell told The Post in an email Wednesday.
News that AG Pam Bondi had informed President Trump that he was mentioned in the Epstein trove was pounced upon by Democrats and other conspiracy theorists. It should come as no surprise that a judge has declined to unseal Grand Jury documents from the Epstein probe. Grand jury files are almost never unsealed (nor should they be).
There is other news. President Trump delivered an “action plan” for securing America’s future in AI yesterday. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal had good words for the administration’s AI agenda, which stresses deregulation and competition. … Much of the money collected for LA wildfire victims went instead to lefty nonprofits. … “Is Decapitation a Job Americans Won’t Do?” asks Ann Coulter, who begins this way:
Oh look, another American’s been beheaded by a Mexican.
This week’s beheader is Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, an illegal alien who, according to the Department of Homeland Security, decapitated 37-year-old Megan Bos, then stashed her body in a bleach storage container. Arrested for the crime in April, Mendoza-Gonzalez was promptly released from custody by Illinois judge Randie Bruno, who is the same physical type — chubby, short-haired, white woman — as the Milwaukee judge charged with helping an illegal sneak out of her courtroom to avoid ICE agents.
Ms. Must opined yesterday that Hunter Biden’s profanity-laced rants reflect the views of the elder Bidens. I felt affirmed (you know, we must all be affirmed) when the Examiner’s Chief Political Correspondent, Byron York, said pretty much the same. Hunter is speaking for his father:
Profanities interspersed with boasts about unmatched achievements are exactly the modus operandi of Biden senior. Like father, like son. Hunter’s performance was equal measures of bragging and bile that Byron York describes as expressing the undiluted and unadulterated id of the embittered former president.
More to Come: Former President Biden reportedly has sold his memoir for $10 million.
Can civilization be saved? Do we even want to save it? See “One Embryo. Three Parents. The Future Is Already Here” and “Why People Are Buying $8,000 Lifelike Babydolls.”
