In the wake of Columbia’s settlement for $220 million, Harvard has indicated a willingness to settle as well: Harvard University has signaled a willingness to meet the Trump administration’s demand to spend as much as $500 million to end its dispute with the White House as talks between the two sides intensify, four people familiar with the negotiations said. According to one of the people, Harvard is reluctant to directly pay the federal government, but negotiators are still discussing the exact financial terms. The sum sought by the government, which recently accused Harvard of civil rights violations, is more than twice as much as the $200 million fine that Columbia University said it would pay when it settled antisemitism claims with the White House last week. Neither Harvard nor the government has publicly detailed potential terms for a settlement and what allegations the money would be intended to resolve (New York Times).
It’s not enough, Not nearly. Harvard must be purged of the poison that has infected the institution, faculty in every department, every policy decision ……
One grant funded faculty training in ‘antiracist orientations’ via virtual reality
President Donald Trump’s administration recently pulled over $7.6 million in National Science Foundation grants from Arizona State University due to their ties to “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
The cuts targeted projects that included terms such as “equitable,” “underrepresented,” and “racial,” according to AZ Free News.
One of the five DEI grants that were pulled allocated nearly $2.5 million to a project called “Black Girls as Creators: an intersectional learning ecosystem toward gendered racial equity in Artificial Intelligence education.”
The program, which ran from October 2023 to April 2025, ended three years early. It offered after-school and summer camps for black girls aged 9-14 to work with AI creators, “focusing on intersectionality and racial equity,” the AZ Free News reported.
Another canceled grant allotted over $700,000 to an initiative called “Positioning Engineering Faculty to Support Black Engineering Graduate Students through Awareness, Knowledge, Capacity Building, and Community.”
The program, which was also terminated in April, was supposed to run through August 2029. It trained ASU faculty “in antiracist orientations using virtual reality simulations to address systemic barriers for black graduate students, prioritizing competency over technical skills,” according to AZ Free News.
Stanford University has suspended for one year a pair of student co-ops for Title VI violations, one antisemitic in nature and the other anti-white.
As noted by The Stanford Daily, Title VI is the federal law banning “harassment and discrimination based on race, color or national origin in educational institutions.”
The school’s co-ops, or cooperative houses, are “student-managed residences in which house members cooperate in the operation and governance of the house.”
According to the Daily, the Stanford Title VI Office received “several reports” about the Kairos co-op after some students “participating in an extracurricular activity in the house were asked to leave.”
The reason was that “Zionists” present were “making residents of the house uncomfortable” … despite none of the activity’s participants discussing politics.
UCLA agreed to pay more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Jewish students who said the university allowed anti-Semitic discrimination during the spring 2024 anti-Israel encampments, which included a “Jew Exclusion Zone.”
Just hours after the settlement was inked, the Justice Department announced that it found UCLA violated federal civil rights law by failing to “respond to complaints of severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment and abuse that Jewish and Israeli students faced on its campus from October 7, 2023, to the present.”
In June 2024, Yitzchok Frankel, then a second-year UCLA law student, filed a lawsuit alleging he was “harassed and blocked from approaching the encampment by antisemitic activists, all with the assistance of UCLA security.” He was later joined by two additional Jewish students and a medical school professor, and the Justice Department’s notice of violation on Tuesday also pointed to findings in the Frankel suit.
Under the settlement, UCLA will contribute over $2.3 million to eight Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel at UCLA, while another $320,000 will go toward UCLA’s Initiative to Combat Antisemitism. It will also dole out $50,000 to each of the plaintiffs and pay $3.6 million of their legal fees.
In addition to the payments, UCLA will also enter a consent judgment that prohibits it from “knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students, faculty, and/or staff”—including discrimination based on one’s “religious beliefs concerning the Jewish state of Israel”—from university programs or spaces. The agreement will be in effect for 15 years.
The bottom line is that the Providence Public School District (PPSD) is under investigation not only by the EEOC, but also by the U.S. Department of Justice for the “Educator of Color Loan Forgiveness Program” in which the Rhode Island Foundation (RIF) played an instrumental role in crafting and funding. But while PPSD is under formal investigation, RIF is not (to our knowledge).
Will RIF, run by former Congressman and House Floor Impeachment Manager against Trump, ever be held accountable? If not for RIF, the school district never could have or would have implemented this discriminator program.
So consider this another call from the Equal Protection Project for a civil rights investigation of the Rhode Island Foundation.
I had a chance to talk about that with popular radio host Matt Allen Show on WPRO in Providence. Matt has been a stand up guy, willing to have me on repeated to cover against a Rhode Island media cone of silence on the story. What amounts to the biggest racism scandal in Rhode Island in decades perpetrated by the largest charity through the largest public school district (which is run by the State Dept. of Education) gets a lot of national coverage, but almost no local coverage.
We have received substantial national media coverage, including a viral Fox News Digital story, but Rhode Island media is burying this story. Why is that?
Merriweather is already out of jail on $400 bail, and was indicted on July 10 for other serious charges.
Two of the five suspects sought and charged by police were arrested in connection to the brutal beating that took place in Cincinnati on Friday. The beating was caught on camera and left two people seriously injured. One of the two suspects arrested is already out after posting $400, which represents 10% of a $4,000 bond.
34-year-old Montianez Merriweather and 24-year-old Dekyra Vernon were arrested and identified as two of the five suspects in the case. Police said they were detained on felonious assault and aggravated riot charges, per The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Merriweather has also been indicted for other serious charges in separate cases where he was found to be possessing stolen firearms, carrying concealed weapons, and improperly handling the weapons under disability in a vehicle.
Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge also said that a third person was in the process of being arrested on Tuesday out of the five that have been charged in the incident.
Belmont University thought it could remain an incubator of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion antics without making too much noise. Too late—we posted the videos showing the university brass openly admitting they’re flouting the law. Sure, they got ahead of the curve regarding re-naming their DEI office, but it’s a distinction without a difference. They thought their secret sauce for avoiding detection was to keep it quiet. Jozef Lukey, Belmont University Assistant Director of Student Success and Flourishing, is quite candid in the videos:
‘Findings suggest structural racism operates differently for white vs minoritized groups,’ researchers say
A new study which found racial minorities living in poor areas actually have a lower risk of mental health problems relating to pregnancy compared to their similarly situated white counterparts shows racism is a “complex” topic, according to the authors.
This paper, published in Social Science and Medicine, hypothesized that residing in “structurally deprived neighborhoods” would be associated with a higher risk of hospital-reported “perinatal mental disorders” for minority populations, while no such association would exist for white mothers due to systemic racism.
“Perinatal” generally refers to the time soon before a birth and up to a year after giving birth.
However, the paper’s authors found that for black, Asian, and Pacific Islander mothers, living in poorer neighborhoods was associated with a lower risk of pregnancy-related mental health problems and that the opposite was true for white mothers.
“Our findings reveal a complex association between structural racism and hospital-reported PMD,” the authors wrote.
Skydance Tells Trump They’ll Conduct ‘Comprehensive’ Editorial Bias Review’ at CBS and End DEI Initiatives at Paramount and Bolster News Integrity at CBS– gellerreport.com Source Link Excerpt:
Skydance Media has made a series of new commitments to eliminate bias in news and entertainment programming at CBS and its parent company, Paramount, when its planned acquisition of the companies is complete. Skydance is also confirming the “elimination” of all “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” policies and initiatives at Paramount, which had been one of the most aggressive proponents of DEI in the entertainment business.
Should the Trump administration, as expected, approve the transaction, Skydance now says it will launch a “comprehensive review of CBS” focused on bias, as well as appoint an “ombudsman” to “evaluate complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS,” and eliminate Paramount’s controversial Office of Global Inclusion.
“When it comes to the legacy national news media, change is long overdue,” Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr told the Washington Free Beacon.
Skydance laid out the moves in two letters it sent to Carr on Tuesday. The first letter addresses “concerns about media bias” at CBS and pledges to “ensure that CBS’s reporting is fair, unbiased, and fact-based.” The second outlines Skydance’s “commitments going forward” to “promote non-discrimination and equal employment opportunity.”
Money talks, and Columbia University finally admitted that on Wednesday, after a stunning settlement with the Trump administration was announced.
As Redstate reported, the Ivy League school has been a hotbed of pro-Hamas activity, including antisemitic harassment and violence. In the Spring of 2024, just as the presidential campaign was ramping up, terror supporters took over Hamilton Hall, barricading themselves inside and claiming to have liberated it. For months on end, radicals waving “Palestinian” flags occupied the main grounds, refusing to let Jews pass.
All the while, Columbia administrators sought appeasement instead of order. It took Mayor Eric Adams giving the NYPD the green light to finally clear Hamilton Hall, but because of New York’s far-left prosecutors, few people were punished. It was during this time that Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian national whom the Trump administration is currently trying to deport for his pro-terrorism ties, became a known figure.
While Joe Biden took no action, and if anything helped egg on the antisemitic, pro-terror chaos, the next president had other ideas, with the Trump White House immediately starting an investigation. Before long, the consequences arrived in the form of stripping hundreds of millions of dollars in future grant money from Columbia.
University will provide admissions data in exchange for frozen funds
Columbia University will pay $200 million to President Donald Trump’s administration in a settlement to resolve federal investigations into alleged breaches of anti-discrimination laws.
“Under [the] agreement, a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025 will be reinstated, and Columbia’s access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored,” President Claire Shipman wrote in a message to the campus community Wednesday.
Columbia will pay the settlement over a three-year period, along with $21 million to resolve inquiries led by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Shipman stated.
The university also agreed to provide the government admissions data, including race, GPA, and test scores of accepted and rejected students, the Columbia Spectator reported.
Additionally, the school will give the Trump administration all records of “disciplinary actions” involving international students.
ANALYSIS: Diversity is a ‘core value’ but Minnesota State Mankato won’t share with the public what an ‘equity lens’ in coaching means
When Minnesota State University-Mankato defensive linemen hit tackling dummies and run sprints this summer, they will do so under the watchful eye of a coach with an “equity lens.”
But how exactly the coaching staff defines “equity” and “anti-racism” remains shrouded in mystery, since the school denied a College Fix request to view submitted diversity statements.
The Fixrequested copies of the diversity statements submitted by its defensive assistant coaching applicants as required by a May job posting.
The public university listed “[d]emonstrated ability to serve a diverse population and apply an equity lens, including social justice and/or anti-racism, to the role,” as a “minimum” qualification for the job.
EXCLUSIVE — As leader of New England Law in Boston, Scott Brown touted diversity, equity, and inclusion as a “core value” and “top priority” of the institution. Now a Republican Senate candidate in New Hampshire, Brown assails DEI as “woke.”
In an “unlisted” 2021 YouTube video unearthed by the Washington Examiner, which is not publicly searchable or viewable on the law school’s page, Brown, then the dean and president, celebrated New England Law’s DEI programs for Black History Month.
The more than three-minute video, which has not been previously reported, featured Brown boasting of DEI efforts under his new tenure, including “implicit bias training” for faculty, foreshadowing plans for “combating systemic racism,” praising a DEI task force as a “top priority,” and promoting college-backed DEI initiatives.
Under Brown’s leadership over the next two months, the school launched a diversity career-readiness program and celebrated Trans Day of Visibility. The latter, the institution said, was evidence of its commitment to expanding access to the legal profession for “historically underrepresented groups and those who have suffered discrimination.”
Brown’s remarks and the school’s positions under his short tenure stand in stark contrast to his anti-DEI rhetoric as a Senate candidate and the GOP’s anti-DEI platform.
The Equal Protection Project (EqualProtect.org), which has filed legal challenges to DEI discrimination covering over almost 500 discriminatory programs and scholarships, recently filed five Civil Rights Complaints with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education regarding scholarships that are open only to DACA-eligible or ‘undocumented’ students. Such scholarships by definition allow only student born abroad to apply, since DACA does not apply to American-born students, who also are not ‘undocumented.’ This constitutes discrimination on the basis of national origin, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1963.
It’s important to note that we have not challenged whether DACA/Undocumented students can apply for scholarships, that’s a separate issue. The issue in our complaints is whether schools that receive federal funding and therefore are subject to the Civil Rights Act can promote and administer scholarships that exclude American-born students.
We have posted about three of these DACA/Undocumented legal challenges previously, which were among several types of discrimination challenged at these schools:
We recently filed two more Civil Writes Complaints that we have not had a chance to write up as blog posts yet:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) urged the Supreme Court on July 24 to allow the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to move forward with the cancellation of research grants linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
In an emergency application filed with the court, the DOJ asked the justices to block a June ruling by Boston-based District Court Judge William Young, which found the cancellation was unlawful and ordered the government to restore the funding.
“The district court’s order directs the NIH to continue paying $783 million in federal grants that are undisputedly counter to the Administration’s priorities,” the DOJ wrote in the filing.
“Following the change in Administration, the NIH identified, explained, and pursued new funding priorities. That is democracy at work, not, as the district court thought, proof of inappropriate ‘partisan[ship]’—let alone a permissible basis for setting agency action aside.”
The NIH is the world’s largest government funder of biomedical research.
The emergency application stems from two lawsuits challenging the cuts to grants involving DEI, “transgender issues,” and “vaccine hesitancy,” and other issues.
‘Education, not indoctrination’: Texas governor signs higher ed reform bill
A new law signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday is another effort by Republican lawmakers to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion activism from public higher education.
State Sen. Brandon Creighton, the lead sponsor, described the legislation as a “bold step to ensure our public colleges and universities return to their core mission: education, not indoctrination.”
“Just as SB 17 eliminated DEI hiring last session, SB 37 now takes on politically charged academic programs and ensures students graduate with degrees of value, not degrees rooted in activism and political indoctrination,” Creighton stated in a news release.
Senate Bill 37 includes a number of structural changes in the governance of public higher education institutions.
Among other things, it creates new committees to review curriculum at least once every five years to ensure that classes “prepare students for civic and professional life.”
However, lawmakers did remove a section from the final version of the bill that prohibited curriculum that “promote[s] the idea that any race, sex, or ethnicity or any religious belief is inherently superior to any other.”
Creighton said the law, which will go into effect Sept. 1, “demands real accountability from our institutions by creating curriculum review committees in course offerings, aligning core curriculum with workforce needs, and empowering Texans to report ideological bias or political coercion in the classroom.”
USAID Official and Three Corporate Executives Plead Guilty $550 Million in Fraud, Bribery Using DEI– gellerreport.com Source Link Excerpt:
Four men, including a government contracting officer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and three owners and presidents of companies, have pleaded guilty for their roles in a decade-long bribery scheme involving at least 14 prime contracts worth over $550 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Roderick Watson, 57, of Woodstock, Maryland, who worked as a USAID contracting officer, pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official;
Walter Barnes, 46, of Potomac, Maryland, who was the owner and president of PM Consulting Group LLC doing business as Vistant (Vistant), a certified small business under the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and securities fraud;
Darryl Britt, 64, of Myakka City, Florida, who was the owner and president of Apprio, Inc. (Apprio), a certified small business under the SBA 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official; and
Paul Young, 62, of Columbia, Maryland, who was the president of a subcontractor to Vistant and Apprio, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.
In addition, Apprio and Vistant, both of which contracted with USAID, have agreed to admit criminal liability and enter into three-year deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) in connection with criminal informations filed today in the District of Maryland. As part of these resolutions, both Apprio and Vistant admitted to engaging in a conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and securities fraud. The DPAs entered into with Apprio and Vistant require each company to, among other obligations, provide ongoing cooperation with and disclosures to the Justice Department, implement a compliance and ethics program, and report to Justice Department regarding remediation and implementation of these compliance measures.
“The defendants sought to enrich themselves at the expense of American taxpayers through bribery and fraud,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Their scheme violated the public trust by corrupting the federal government’s procurement process. Anybody who cares about good and effective government should be concerned about the waste, fraud, and abuse in government agencies, including USAID. Those who engage in bribery schemes to exploit the U.S. Small Business Administration’s vital economic programs for small businesses — whether individuals or corporations acting through them — will be held to account.”
“Watson was entrusted to serve the interests of the American people — not his own — and his criminal actions for his own personal gain undermine the integrity of our public institutions,” said U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes for the District of Maryland. “Public trust is a hallmark of our nation’s values, so corruption within a federal government agency is intolerable. This office, along with our law enforcement partners, will continue to pursue and prosecute corruption at every level to ensure accountability and protect public trust.”
“The guilty pleas reflect the FBI’s unwavering commitment to holding accountable all those who abuse the authority and responsibility of public service,” said Assistant Director Joe Perez of the FBI’s Criminal Division. “The actions of the defendants in this scheme serve to erode public trust. The FBI is focused on rebuilding this trust and protecting American taxpayers from corruption through investigations such as these.”
“Corruption in government programs will not be tolerated. Watson abused his position of trust for personal gain while federal contractors engaged in a pay-to-play scheme,” said Acting Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Sean Bottary of the USAID Office of Inspector General (USAID-OIG). “USAID-OIG is firmly committed to rooting out fraud and corruption within U.S. foreign assistance programs. Today’s announcement underscores our unwavering focus on exposing criminal activity, including bribery schemes by those entrusted to faithfully award government contracts. We appreciate our longstanding partnership with the Department of Justice in holding accountable those who defraud American taxpayers.”
“Watson exploited his position at USAID to line his pockets with bribes in exchange for more than $550 million in contracts. While he helped three company owners and presidents bypass the fair bidding process, he was showered with cash and lavish gifts,” said Chief Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). “Through its financial crime investigations, IRS-CI works to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure government funds are awarded based on merit — not corruption. In close coordination with our law enforcement partners, IRS-CI helped put an end to their greed and criminal conduct. Now, Watson and his co-conspirators will face justice.”
Since just before Donald Trump won the 2024 election, colleges and universities began pulling back on their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and claiming to be ending them. But now, we are learning that they were only playing to publicity and lied. Most of them didn’t end the DEI programs, they just renamed them.
According to aa report by The College Fix, 90 universities have made a big deal about ending their DEI programs, but all they really did was rename their DEI programs and just renamed them, otherwise leaving them the same as before.
Faced with pressure to eliminate their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, colleges and universities across the nation opted to rebrand such efforts as opposed to eliminating them altogether, a College Fix survey found.
While many universities did close their DEI offices, a large chunk opted to rename or revamp them, but kept a lot of the same employees and goals. In some cases, there were some staff reassignments and other bureaucratic shuffling, such as integration into other departments.
The survey looked at news reports, press releases and institutional websites to determine that over the last two years, at least 87 schools effectively renamed their DEI offices.
From bad to worse: The Harvard Law Review is facing multiple federal probes over reports, published in the Free Beacon, of racial discrimination at the journal. Its conduct in the face of those probes has only added to the furor.
The Review, our Aaron Sibarium reports, “retaliated against a student editor for allegedly leaking documents … and demanded, as part of the journal’s disciplinary process, that he request their destruction.” Those actions came as the journal “was under a document retention order” from the feds. As a result, they “verged on witness intimidation and could get the law review in even deeper trouble with the government,” attorneys told Sibarium.
“What do they call it when a criminal tries to intimidate the witness?” said Jason Torchinsky, a former official in the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “If you know someone is a witness in a federal investigation, and you try to intimidate them into stopping cooperation with the government, that in itself is its own offense.”
Band-aid over a bullet hole: Racial discrimination isn’t the only problem plaguing Harvard. There’s also the issue of pervasive anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias on its campus—something the school pledged to combat in part by hiring a Professor in Residence in Modern Jewish Studies at its Divinity School. That professor, Harvard announced on Wednesday, is self-proclaimed “counter-Zionist” Shaul Magid.
For Magid, Zionism is “unjust” and can be “set aside” along with “Manifest Destiny, colonialism, and any number of other chauvinistic and ethnocentric ideologies of the past.”
Magid’s appointment did not land well with Rabbi David Wolpe, who spent a year as a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Divinity School. Magid’s views are “very fringe” and don’t “represent anything like the mainstream view of the American Jewish community,” Wolpe told us. “He is not an answer to the problem that Harvard has with their Jewish students or with the exclusion of mainstream views.”
While Elon Musk has mercifully finally left the building—though not before getting literal billions of dollars in no-bid government contracts and other treats—Musk has rich acquaintances who still need sweet no-bid government contracts. So that’s why the Federal Aviation Administration will be giving up to $2.1 million of your tax dollars to Musk’s personal attorney, Alex Spiro, to investigate whether former President Joe Biden left some DEI inside the planes and that’s why they keep crashing.
This deal was actually set up in March, long before Musk’s departure, but apparently in secrecy, because that’s totally how the most transparent administration in history rolls. But The Atlantic got Spiro’s scope of work document, labeled privileged and confidential, because that is also totally how the most transparent administration in history rolls.
Elon Musk’s personal attorney, Alex Spiro
For roughly $2 million of your tax dollars, Spiro will put together a team of former federal prosecutors to figure out what DEI policies exist—okay, wait. Let’s stop there. Most people figure out what government policies exist by … looking at the policies, given that the federal government issues drafted-and-edited-to-death policies on literally everything, but especially anything related to hiring.
Education Department: Columbia University No Longer Meets Standards for Accreditation– gellerreport.com Source Link Excerpt:
“After Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Columbia University’s leadership acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. “This is not only immoral, but also unlawful.”
The Department of Education on Wednesday notified the accreditor responsible for New York City’s Columbia University to let them know the school failed to meet accreditation standards by violating federal anti-discrimination laws.
The notification comes after the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) found it violated Title IV by acting with “deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students.”
The department said the finding means that the school has failed to meet accreditation standards that were set by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
“After Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Columbia University’s leadership acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “This is not only immoral, but also unlawful.”
The U.S. Department of Education has notified the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (the “Commission”) that Columbia University is not in compliance with the Commission’s accreditation requirements.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today notified Middle States Commission on Higher Education (the Commission) that its member institution, Columbia University, is in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws and therefore fails to meet the standards for accreditation set by the Commission. Pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order, Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education, the Department has an obligation to promptly provide accreditors with any noncompliance findings related to member institutions.
The Commission’s “Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation” state that “a candidate or accredited institution possesses or demonstrates … compliance with all applicable government laws and regulations.” In light of OCR’s determination, Columbia University no longer appears to meet the Commission’s accreditation standards.
“After Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Columbia University’s leadership acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus. This is not only immoral, but also unlawful. Accreditors have an enormous public responsibility as gatekeepers of federal student aid. They determine which institutions are eligible for federal student loans and Pell Grants. Just as the Department of Education has an obligation to uphold federal antidiscrimination law, university accreditors have an obligation to ensure member institutions abide by their standards,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “We look forward to the Commission keeping the Department fully informed of actions taken to ensure Columbia’s compliance with accreditation standards including compliance with federal civil rights laws.” ….
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has shuttered its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) office.
According to Fox News, MIT President Sally Kornbluth announced the closing of the Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO) last week.
“As I’ve said many times, MIT is in the talent business,” Kornbluth’s announcement read.
“Our success depends on attracting exceptionally talented people of every background, from across the country and around the world, and making sure everyone at MIT feels welcome and supported, so they can do their best work and thrive,” it added.
MIT has acknowledged the failure of its DEI programs, is sunsetting the Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO), and is winding down its Strategic Action Plan for Belonging, Achievement, and Composition. https://t.co/d4pY8p8N9Hpic.twitter.com/t7W51Y5s4U
Two Secret Service agents were suspended after getting into a physical altercation last week that was captured on video and circulated online.
A Secret Service spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the video, which depicted two female officers getting into a physical fight while on duty. NBC News reported that the incident occurred outside of former President Obama’s home in Washington, D.C.
The spokesperson said the incident — which occurred early last Wednesday — is under internal investigation.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of an on-duty altercation that occurred between two Uniformed Division officers at approximately 2:30 a.m. on May 21,” the statement read. “The individuals involved were suspended from duty and this matter is the subject of an internal investigation.”
Two female Secret Service officers were suspended after being caught on camera fighting outside former President Barack Obama’s Washington, D.C., home last week.
According to audio recording of the incident, one officer calls for a supervisor to come “immediately before I whoop this girl’s a**.”
Video shared by RealClearPolitics’ Susan Crabtree on X also shows the moment things got heated between the two officers.
🚨🚨#BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE: @RCPolitics has obtained video of the fight between two women Secret Service Uniformed Division Officers outside former President Obama’s residence last week after one officer called a supervisor to come before “I whoop this girl’s ass.”
🚨#BREAKING SCOOP: IS DEI STILL PLAGUING THE SECRET SERVICE?
FRACAS OUTSIDE OBAMA RESIDENCE RAISES NEW QUESTIONS: Get a supervisor “immediately before I whoop this girl’s ass.”
Two female Secret Service Uniformed Division officers got into a physical fight outside former… pic.twitter.com/RmEDx6BWXD
City’s Emergency Chief Blasted as DEI Hire After ‘They/Them’ Left Tornado Siren Off During Deadly St. Louis Storms– www.westernjournal.com Source Link Excerpt:
It’s like Los Angeles Fire Department Assistant Chief Kristine Larson all over again.
You may remember Larson as the face of how wokeness, among many other things, crippled Southern California’s ability to respond to the cataclysmic wildfires that swept through Los Angeles and its suburbs early this year. Larson, who worked in the “Equity and Human Resources Bureau” at the LAFD and took home a salary in the mid-six figures, infamously mocked people who said women who didn’t meet the same physical requirements as men might be a danger as firefighters….
“Let me be clear: CEMA exists to alert the community when severe weather is coming. This office failed to do that in the most horrific and deadly storm that our city has experienced in my lifetime,” Mayor Spencer said during a news conference Wednesday, according to KTVI.
And, indeed, that’s not hard to find via CEMA documents, which KSDK-TV’s Mark Maxwell posted on social media:
This CEMA document spells out who *should have been* responsible for sounding the tornado siren. The Commissioner of CEMA needs to answer questions.
The confusing protocol Mayor Spencer alluded to: “Sirens are activated at Fire Dept… OR CEMA.”
And, pray tell, why weren’t the alarms activated like they were supposed to be? Per KTVI:
The investigation looks into why the CEMA staff, including Russell, were not in the office during the anticipated storms. Instead, they were attending a workshop at another downtown location, which left them unable to activate the sirens from the office. [Emphasis ours.]
Russell contacted the fire department to activate the sirens, but unclear communication led to nobody sounding the sirens. Mayor Spencer’s office released audio of the call between Russell and a fire department dispatcher, highlighting the ambiguity in the directive to activate the sirens.
Yes, a workshop. How DEI could you possibly get? And not only that, Russell also has the Kristine Larson-worthy video clip of her trying to weasel out of the responsibility during a news briefing by hiding the fact that her team was in said workshop:
Great accountability questions from @shoshana_stahl last night. Notice how it takes three times before CEMA Commissioner Sarah Russell finally admits CEMA staffers were at a workshop when they should’ve been sounding an alarm. Russell also blames fire dept, old battered sirens. https://t.co/JvHSRqvX4Apic.twitter.com/9g7jCYBxJm
Another famous Missourian — and a Democrat, to boot! — used to have a sign on his desk, which said “The Buck Stops Here.”
One assumes Russell, contraHarry Truman, has a sign on hers which states, “The Buck, Assuming There Is a Buck, Due to Budget Shortages, and We Are More of a 9-to-5 Department, So Don’t Blame Us If Stuff Happens After Hours — And We Do Have Workshops to Deal With, Too, So Keep That In Mind — But That Buck, Should It So Exist, Does Not Stop With They/Them, Should It In Fact Need to Stop.”
There will be an investigation by the City of St. Louis into Russell and CEMA, of course, and one assumes that it might actually be thorough — given that five people died and the buck needs to stop somewhere. However, how can one look at her craven, gutless answers during the media briefing — combined with the need to make sure everyone knows on the city website she uses “they/them” pronouns — and not conclude that DEI somehow seeped into this hiring process?
I’m not an expert in hiring for the City Emergency Management Agency, but I’d like to think that it involves testing whether someone has what it takes to, say, manage emergencies. (Kind of in the agency name, after all.) I’d also say, based on available evidence, we can pass summary judgment on whether or not Russell lived up to her responsibilities this time around.
Maybe, during this investigation, it might be profitable to ask whether we might have had more responsible judgment at Russell’s level if a he/him or a she/her that was looked at for they/their position was hired instead. Just saying.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture
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