SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Two students at Syracuse University in New York face hate crimes charges after authorities say one of them tossed a bag of pork into Jewish fraternity house during a Rosh Hashanah celebration.

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Allen Groves, the chief student experience officer at Syracuse University, said the incident occurred around 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house, where members had gathered to mark the Jewish New Year.

One of the two men charged is accused of entering the home and tossing in a clear plastic bag of pork against an interior wall, splattering the contents there and on the floor, university police said.

The man then fled the home and got into a vehicle driven by another man. The two, both 18, were soon captured and have been charged with burglary as a hate crime and criminal nuisance.

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said the hate crime charge came about because it happened on a Jewish holiday at a historically Jewish fraternity.

“This incident is not a foolish college prank and will not be treated as such,” Fitzpatrick said. ”It will be treated for what it is, a crime directed against a group of Jewish students enjoying a celebratory dinner and seemingly secure in their residence.”

Groves said the two men have been referred to the university’s Office of Community Standards for potential disciplinary action under the school’s Student Conduct Code.

“Tonight’s incident, as reported to us, is abhorrent, shocking to the conscience and violates our core value of being a place that is truly welcoming to all,” Groves said in a statement posted on the university’s website. “It will not be tolerated at Syracuse University.”

A special session on gun control in the wake of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting and the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their family members is running into harsh political realities at the Capitol.

At an unrelated press conference earlier this week Gov. Tim Walz said conversations with leadership are ongoing, but that he was told by GOP leadership that there would “never” be a vote on a “gun ban.”

Gov. Tim Walz.

“I guess there’s a line in the sand, and I was told by Republican leadership that there would never be a vote on … a gun ban, and that’s not acceptable in reaching a compromise,” he said. “It’s clear to me that Republican legislators want to talk about everything else except guns.”

House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said Tuesday that she thinks Walz could be mischaracterizing what was said by Republicans in leadership conversations.

“It appears to me that the governor is either misunderstanding or mischaracterizing the fact that even DFL leaders have acknowledged there are not enough votes to pass a gun ban,” Demuth said.

“I did not say there would never be a vote — but you need a bill in order to vote, and the governor has given no language or detail of what he wants voted on aside from vague bans,” she said. “If he is serious about wanting a vote, he should be honest about what he’s actually looking for a vote on instead of playing politics to further his campaign.”

House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring.

While Walz has not put out an official gun legislation package, he clarified Tuesday what he requested.

“I asked for a floor vote on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons, and just let the members vote on it,” he said. “And if they believe that’s a bad idea, which obviously they do … then you can simply vote no.”

Walz could call a special session whenever he wants. But the current makeup of the Legislature would make it difficult for an assault weapons ban to make it to a floor vote in either chamber.

Margins in both chambers

The House is currently tied 67-67 — part of the power-sharing agreement under the tie is that committees are co-chaired with equal GOP-to-DFL representation — meaning any assault weapons ban would need at least one Republican vote in several committees to make it to a floor vote.

The Senate currently has two vacant seats to be filled on Nov. 4 and a 33-22 DFL majority. Senate Democrats don’t have a quorum and can’t pass anything off the floor without 34 members.

“Look, we’re at 67-67 and neither side has 34 votes in the Senate. So it’s going to take a compromise, which shouldn’t be that difficult,” Walz said Tuesday. “The vast majority of the people in Minnesota want to see us do something on this. We should be able to get together and do that.”

Special session

A Senate working group last week gave a clearer picture of how some gun control proposals could go in a special session as Republicans spoke out about their opposition to doing so.

Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, DFL-Minneapolis, who represents a district that includes Annunciation, said at the working group on Sept. 17 that Annunciation parents — some of whom have testified in support of an assault weapons ban — are asking her for a vote.

“The parents I have spoken with understand what the Legislature is, but they also want a vote,” she said. “They want members to take their vote. They want to speak to those members who are opposing on both sides of the aisle.”

Republican votes aren’t the only factor — Democrats weren’t able to pass an assault weapons ban during the DFL trifecta.

It’s unclear where this standstill puts a special session. Nevertheless, Walz and DFL leadership have said in the past few weeks that a special session wouldn’t hinge on whether or not the votes are there.

“Leadership has the responsibility to come to an agreement. And I get the feeling right now that there is no appetite on the Republican side over the floor vote on guns,” he said.

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By FATIMA HUSSEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Government Efficiency’s remaking of the federal workforce has battered the Washington job market and put more households in the metropolitan area in financial distress, according to a report released Wednesday.

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The number of homes for sale in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia region, also known as the DMV, is up by 64% since June 2024, and the region’s unemployment rate is the highest in the nation, according to the DMV Monitor, a real-time data interactive created by the Brookings Institution with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

Washington has had the nation’s highest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for four straight months. The unemployment rate was 5.3% in January and ticked up to 6% in August, compared with the 4.3% national average, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

From the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in January, DOGE, led by his then-adviser Elon Musk, instigated purges of federal agencies with the expressed mission of rooting out fraud, waste and abuse. DOGE led to tens of thousands of job cuts, including layoffs and people who accepted financial incentives to quit. Some people were rehired, a reflection of the haphazard process. Although losses were felt around the country, the Washington area was particularly hard hit.

Scott Kupor, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, said last month that there will be 300,000 fewer federal workers on the payroll nationwide by the end of the year. The government has about 2.5 million workers, including military members.

Contractors have been affected, too. DOGE’s website states that 13,231 federal government contracts have been terminated, totaling $59 billion in savings. In fiscal year 2024, more than 100,000 companies received contracts, totaling roughly $774 billion.

FILE – Elon Musk speaks during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Besides the mass layoffs, the Republican president’s other actions to remake the image of the nation’s capital — including deploying National Guard troops and federalizing the city’s local Metropolitan Police Department — “could shape consumer spending and investment in the local economy,” the report says.

The report also says private-sector job growth is stagnating, “with many new jobs not aligned with the skills and experiences of most laid-off federal workers.”

“As a result,” it says, “job postings were not as robust as they were in peer regions, which is concerning when unemployment has soared, especially in the suburbs.”

A representative from the White House did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the report.

The DMV region is home to the most college graduates of any major U.S. metropolitan area, and one-fifth of federal workers are concentrated in the area.

In July, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump’s Republican administration to downsize the federal workforce further, despite warnings that critical government services will be lost. The ruling does not apply to every agency, and other legal challenges to federal worker firings continue.

Additionally, hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.

“The DMV region’s economy has grown even weaker than the nation in many categories due to the Trump administration’s seismic actions to shrink the federal government,” the report reads.

And given proposed additional cuts in the future, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute predicts it’s likely more Washington residents and others from around the region who work in Washington will lose their federal jobs over the coming months and years.

The latest Washington Office of Revenue Analysis figures show that initial unemployment insurance claims have jumped by 33.7% compared with this time last year.

Marcus Schmit has been named executive director of NAMI Minnesota — the National Alliance on Mental Illness — effective Oct. 27, 2025.

Marcus Schmit.
(Courtesy of NAMI Minnesota)

Schmit succeeds Sue Abderholden, who led the organization for more than 20 years.

Schmit is currently executive director of Hearth Connection, a nonprofit that focuses on ending long-term homelessness through supportive housing and systems partnerships.

He also served as assistant commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Corrections, director of Advocacy at Second Harvest Heartland, and held senior posts with MNsure and with Tim Walz, when he was a member of Congress.

“Marcus brings deep policy expertise, proven nonprofit leadership, and a personal commitment to advancing Minnesota’s mental health system,” shared Jessica Gourneau, president of NAMI Minnesota’s board of directors, in a statement. “We are excited for the vision, energy, and relationships he will bring to build on Sue’s extraordinary legacy and lead NAMI Minnesota into its next chapter.”

The organization is holding its annual NAMIWalks Minnesota on Saturday at Minnehaha Regional Park in Minneapolis. The event this year is themed “Mental Health for All,” and is to feature a program at 12:30 p.m. followed by a 5K walk at 1 p.m. There also will be a resource fair, family-friendly activities, free parking and shuttle service, and no registration fee.

Both Abderholden and Schmit are expected to attend the event.

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