Month: May 2024

College protests continued across the country, resulting in escalating violence between pro-Palestinian encampments and counter-protesters. The movement calling for universities to divest financial support for Israel, which has affected dozens of campuses across America, has gone on for over two weeks now. Hundreds of arrests have been made and skirmishes have broken out between police and demonstrators, causing graduation ceremonies to be canceled, and universities forced to switch to remote learning, with access to campuses being restricted.

The Los Angeles Police Department said it has bene responding to UCLA at the ‘university’s request’ due to multiple acts of violence, with the university cancelling all classes until further notice.  Protest encampments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Yale University and the University of Connecticut were also cleared out as of Tuesday, but encampments remain at more than 40 colleges nationwide.

At The City College of New York and Columbia University, the NYPD made at least 282 arrests, stemming from the breach of special police units at the now-occupied Hamilton Hall. Columbia has asked police to maintain a presence on campus until May 17, two days after commencement. The school said on Wednesday afternoon that all academic activities, including finals, for schools on the Morningside Heights campus will be fully remote for the remainder of the semester.  New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a briefing that while some students were involved in the occupation of Hamilton Hall at Columbia, they were “led by individuals not affiliated with the university.”

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On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve voted to keep interest rates steady and postponed anticipated rate cuts stemming from elevated inflation across the U.S., which remains above the central bank’s 2% threshold.

The Federal reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement that the central bank left interest rates for overnight bank borrowing within a range of 5.25%-5.5%: “The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks.”  In addition, with CPI inflation at 3.5%, the FOMC said, “In recent months, there has been a lack of further progress toward the Committee’s 2% inflation objective.”

Inflation has dropped dramatically from a high point of 9.1% annually to 2.7% as measured by the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE index. However, it remains more than a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington D.C. on Wednesday: “So far the data has not given us that greater confidence. It is likely that gaining such greater confidence will take longer than previously expected.” While the possibility of an interest rate hike in the coming months was raised (before the central bank moves forward with cuts), Powell said: “It is unlikely that the next policy rate move will be a hike.”

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Additional details have been revealed by authorities in North Carolina after 4 law enforcement officers were killed, and four others were wounded, in shooting in Charlotte while trying to serve a warrant Monday afternoon. , Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said at a press conference that the suspect left the house while armed, and officers opened fire and shot him in the front yard, where he was pronounced dead. He was identified by police as Terry Clark Hughes Jr., 39.

Jennings said that the U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force, comprised of officers from multiple agencies, was attempting to serve an arrest warrant on a man for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in east Charlotte when the shooting began. Jennings said that when officers approached a house to arrest the suspect, they were immediately met with gunfire and they returned fire.

CNN reported that an internal law enforcement memo shows officers are looking for the person who bought the firearm used in the shooting to potentially bring federal charges. Evidence from the residence is still being processed, and the amount of evidence that will be collected is expected to be “well over 100 rounds of gunfire of projectiles and casings.”

During a Tuesday news conference, Jennings called the shooting “an absolute tragic day for the city of Charlotte and for the profession of law enforcement,” and added that the investigation is active and ongoing. Jennings said: “We saw officers going into the line of fire to save their brothers in blue who have gone down in an act of trying to keep our community safe. To me, that’s truly heroic. When you hear the gunshots and the rapid fire and they are running directly into it because they know there are people who need help – they risked their own lives to do that.”

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Donald Trump was held in contempt of court Tuesday and fined $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order that barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush money case. Trump must pay the fine by the close of business on Friday, and the former president has since deleted, as ordered, the offending posts from his Truth Social account and campaign website on Tuesday.

New York Judge Juan M. Merchan found nine violations by Trump, and warned if he continues to violate the gag order he could be jailed. Merchan wrote that Trump “is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”

In detailing the violations, Judge Merchan ruled that a Trump post quoting Fox News host Jesse Watters’s claim that liberal activists were lying to infiltrate the jury “constitutes a clear violation” of the gag order. Merchan noted that the words contained within the quotation marks in Trump’s April 17 post misstated what Watters actually said.

The ruling from Merchan came at the start of the second week of testimony, with Manhattan prosecutors alleging that Trump and his associates took part in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories.  The former president has pleaded not guilty.

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