National Briefing

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/26/us/national-briefing.html

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Chicago State University, which may have been battered more than any other Illinois university by the state’s budget crisis, will soon receive $20 million in funding after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill on Monday granting $600 million to state universities and community colleges. Chicago State, which serves mostly poor and African-American students, lacks an endowment and an affluent alumni base. It depends on 30 percent of its $105 million budget from the state. Lawmakers in Springfield and Mr. Rauner, a Republican, have been unable to agree on a budget for the past 10 months, leaving higher education unfunded. Officials from Chicago State said in a statement that while they appreciate the emergency funding, they will still have “difficult cost-cutting decisions” soon, including possible staff reductions. The school has been operating without state funding since last summer and has feared extensive layoffs or shutdown. It moved its commencement to April 28 and canceled spring break because of the funding shortage. JULIE BOSMAN

Another Minnesota man pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group. The man, Hamza Naj Ahmed, 21, changed his plea in Federal District Court in Minneapolis. He had been scheduled to go on trial next month. His plea came 11 days after another defendant, Adnan Abdihamid Farah, accepted a plea deal. Mr. Ahmed pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and to financial aid fraud. Mr. Ahmed, a college student, was accused of using a $2,700 school loan to try to join the Islamic State. Prosecutors will move to dismiss the remaining charges, including conspiracy to murder outside the United States, at Mr. Ahmed’s sentencing. He avoided a possible life sentence with his plea. Six defendants have now pleaded guilty and three are to go on trial May 9. A 10th man is at large, believed to be in Syria.(AP)

The Justice Department on Monday asked a federal court to appoint a third party to operate the New Orleans jail, saying new leadership is essential because the city’s sheriff, Marlin Gusman, has failed after years of effort to improve conditions that endanger inmates. The government also sought to place Sheriff Gusman in contempt over what it called his noncompliance with overhauls mandated in a settlement agreement involving the jail and the Justice Department and inmates. The sheriff has said he is making progress in jail reforms and faulted the city for providing too little money. (AP)

A sheriff’s deputy was fired Monday and charged with a felony after an investigation found she used pepper spray to punish a jail inmate who spit in her face while his hands and feet were in restraints, the sheriff said. Sgt. Charlesetta Hawkins was arrested on a charge of cruelty to an inmate. Her arrest came less than a month after Chatham County Sheriff John Wilcher, who promised during his campaign to rid the county jail of excessive force by deputies following the high-profile death of a detainee last year, won election. The sheriff said the authorities plan to charge the inmate, Jonathan Mahone, with assault for spitting on the deputy. (AP)

The State Supreme Court refused Monday to take up the case of a suburban Denver baker who would not make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, letting stand a lower court’s ruling that he cannot cite his Christian beliefs in refusing service. A lawyer for the baker, Jack Phillips, said they had not decided whether to pursue further legal steps. (AP)