15-year-old arrested for fatally stabbing grandmother, injuring mother: Police
Newsday via Getty Images, FILE
(SELDEN, N.Y.) — A 15-year-old boy has been arrested for allegedly fatally stabbing his grandmother and injuring his mother in Selden, New York, according to police.
Vanessa Chendemi was allegedly stabbed by her son at about 9:45 p.m. Monday after which she ran out of her house and a passing motorist stopped to offer assistance, the Suffolk County Police Department said. Upon arriving at the scene, officers said they found 56-year-old Concetta Chendemi with stab wounds in the residence.
She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
Vanessa Chendemi, 36, was transported to an area hospital and is in stable condition, Suffolk County police said.
The suspect fled the scene after the stabbing, police said. He was later arrested at around 11:20 p.m.
The accused stabber — who has not been identified by police because he is a minor — has been charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder.
(CORNELIUS, Ore.) — An Oregon community is “shaken to its core” after a mother and her three young children were found dead in an apparent isolated incident, authorities said.
Deputies responded to a home in Cornelius, about 25 miles outside of Portland, around 3 p.m. Tuesday after a 911 caller reported finding four people dead, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office-Cornelius Police.
In a building attached to the home, officers discovered the bodies of a 37-year-old woman and her three children, ages 2, 5 and 7, authorities said.
No arrests have been made, sheriff’s office spokesperson Deputy David Huey told reporters.
Authorities said the deaths appear to be an isolated incident and they don’t believe there is a danger to the public.
Huey was visibly emotional at a media briefing, telling reporters, “This is pretty hard to talk about.”
“Our community has been shaken to its core,” Cornelius Police Chief Mitch Coley said in a statement, calling the deaths “an unthinkable tragedy.”
“While the investigation is still ongoing and details are limited, I want to acknowledge the heartbreak this brings to the families involved and our entire city,” Coley said. “This is a deeply emotional time for everyone: neighbors, friends, and the first responders who were called to the scene. I ask that we all come together with compassion and care.”
(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Harvard University is refusing to comply with a series of demands from the Trump administration, potentially risking billion in federal funding.
In a letter on Monday, Harvard University President Alan Garber said the school “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights” by agreeing to a series of terms proposed by the Trump administration.
The Trump administration demanded Harvard end its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, adopt merit-based admissions and cooperate with immigration authorities — or risk losing $9 billion in federal funding. Garber at the time said the loss of funding would “halt life-saving research.”
Harvard’s rejection of Trump’s demands marks the first time a majority university has pushed back against funding threats made by the Trump administration.
In a letter Friday, the Trump administration argued that the school “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment” and proposed terms including changing the school’s governance, adopting merit-based hiring, shuttering any DEI programs and allowing “audits” to ensure “viewpoint diversity.”
In response, Harvard’s president said the school is committed to making changes to create a “welcoming and supportive learning environment” and reaffirmed the school’s vow to fight antisemitism. However, he argued the Trump administration’s requests would go too far.
“The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI,” Garber wrote. “And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge. No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”
The confrontation follows similar actions against other prestigious universities. Last month, Columbia University agreed to comply with the administration’s demands regarding campus policies and governance after its federal funding was suspended following campus protests. The agreement came after the administration cited concerns about antisemitism and public safety.
The Department of Education has also initiated investigations into Cornell University and Northwestern University, according to White House officials. The Trump administration has halted more than $1 billion in federal funding to Cornell and $790 million to Northwestern due to investigations into alleged civil rights violations.
Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune via TNS via Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in federal funding to Cornell and $790 million to Northwestern, as the government investigates alleged civil rights violations at the schools, according to two White House officials.
“On Monday, several Trump administration agencies froze roughly $790M of federal funding and roughly $1.05B of federal funding from Northwestern and Cornell, respectively,” a senior administration official told ABC News. “The money was frozen in connection with several ongoing, credible, and concerning Title VI investigations.”
The funding pause mostly involves grants from and contracts with the Department of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, according to White House officials.
Northwestern said in a statement to ABC that it was informed by “members of the media” that the federal government plans to “freeze a significant portion of our federal funding. The University said it “has not received any official notification.”
“Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and life-saving research,” the University said. “This type of research is now at jeopardy. The University has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress.”
Cornell wrote in a statement they have received “more than 75 stop work orders from the Department of Defense related to research that is profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and health.”
“We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn more about the basis for these decisions,” Cornell said.
“The affected grants include research into new materials for jet engines, propulsion systems, large-scale information networks, robotics, superconductors, and space and satellite communications, as well as cancer research,” the school continued.
The New York Times first reported on the funding freeze.
Legal experts are questioning the authority of the Trump administration to pause the federal funding.
“This is completely lawless, as far as I can tell, to the extent that we don’t even know what legal provision the government is relying upon,” Genevieve Lakier, professor of law at the University of Chicago, said.
If the funding halt is justified under the Civil Rights Act, as White House officials have told ABC News, Lakier said the law requires there to be a set of procedures followed and notice given.
“There has to be a hearing. You have to give members of Congress 30 days before you do it. You have to give the school 30 days. You have to allow the right to appeal. None of this is being followed,” Lakier said.
Michael Dorf, professor at Cornell Law School, echoed Lakier’s assessment.
“There’s a federal statute that explains if agencies and the government believe a funding recipient is not complying with its civil rights obligations, there’s a whole set of procedures they have to follow before you cut those off,” Dorf said. “The government has followed none of those procedures.”
The move comes as the administration doubles down on allegations of antisemitic conduct and harassment from elite universities.
The Department of Education and other agencies are reviewing Harvard University for allegedly fostering antisemitism on its campus. The administration stripped Columbia University of $400 million in grants earlier this month after a task force investigation says it found inaction by the school to protect Jewish students.
In response to the review, Harvard President Alan Garber released a statement saying, “We fully embrace the important goal of combatting antisemitism, one of the most insidious forms of bigotry.”
