By MIKE SCHNEIDER

One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi highway was shot and killed early Sunday by a woman who says she feared for the safety of her children.

Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son who said he thought he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and her cellphone and stepped outside where she saw the monkey about 60 feet (18 meters) away.

Bond Ferguson said she and other residents had been warned that the escaped monkeys carried diseases so she fired her gun.

“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, who has five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, told The Associated Press. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner had found one of the monkeys on their property Sunday morning but said the office didn’t have any details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, the sheriff’s office said.

Before Bond Ferguson had gone out the door, she had called the police and was told to keep an eye on the monkey. But she said she worried that if the monkey got away it would threaten children at another house.

“If it attacked somebody’s kid, and I could have stopped it, that would be a lot on me,” said Bond Ferguson, a 35-year-old professional chef. “It’s kind of scary and dangerous that they are running around, and people have kids playing in their yards.”

The Rhesus monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement last week, Tulane said the monkeys do not belong to the university, and they were not being transported by the university.

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A truck carrying the monkeys overturned Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Of the 21 monkeys in the truck, 13 were found at the scene of the accident and arrived at their original destination last week, according to Tulane. Another five were killed in the hunt for them and three remained on the loose before Sunday.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol has said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred about 100 miles from the state capital, Jackson.

Rhesus monkeys typically weigh about 16 pounds and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. Video recorded after the crash showed monkeys crawling through tall grass beside the interstate, where wooden crates labeled “live animals” were crumpled and strewn about.

Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson had said Tulane officials reported the monkeys were not infectious, despite initial reports by the truck’s occupants warning that the monkeys were dangerous and harboring various diseases. Nonetheless, Johnson said the monkeys still needed to be “neutralized” because of their aggressive nature.

The monkeys had recently received checkups confirming they were pathogen-free, Tulane said in a statement Wednesday.

Rhesus macaques “are known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It said the agency’s conservation workers were working with sheriff’s officials in the search for the animals.

The search comes about one year after 43 Rhesus macaques escaped from a South Carolina compound that breeds them for medical research because an employee didn’t fully lock an enclosure. Employees from the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, had set up traps to capture them.

“At a time when the federal government is targeting the communities of color and immigrant communities that CUNY serves, New Yorkers need a mayor who will be a champion for CUNY.”

(NYC Council Media Unit)

In January 2017, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo stood with Bernie Sanders at CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College to announce his plan for free tuition at New York’s public colleges, under banners that read “Excelsior Scholarship.” His budget director wrote that 900,000 families would qualify for the new program. As a CUNY student and campus organizer at the time, I was excited to think that my classmates would no longer struggle to afford college.  

Then, in the fall of 2017, CUNY tuition increased by $200. It was the seventh consecutive tuition hike at CUNY since Cuomo was elected.

Students learned the hard way that Cuomo misled New Yorkers about the Excelsior Scholarship. Despite the subway ads claiming “Free College for All,” only 5 percent of CUNY students actually received Excelsior, including a lackluster 0.4 percent of community college students, barely helping the students who needed it the most. Its “Super full-time” credit requirement made Excelsior nearly impossible for most students to qualify, with half of all CUNY students working to support themselves and their families while pursuing their studies.

CUNY students need free tuition. Half of undergraduates come from households with less than $30,000 in annual income, while 60 percent are first generation college students, and more than a third were born overseas. But instead of supporting a stronger future for these New Yorkers, Cuomo systemically underfunded CUNY, starving its 240,000 students at 26 colleges of resources and opportunities. 

In 2011, Cuomo convinced Albany to enact NYSUNY2020, legislation that established annual tuition hikes and capped Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) payments to colleges. Between 2011 and 2020, students at CUNY and SUNY students paid at least $2.5 billion in additional tuition.

University leaders hoped the hikes would come with increases in state operating funding. Instead, Cuomo kept CUNY’s operating funding essentially flat as costs rose and ignored the growing “TAP Gap” of missing state revenue. He refused to fund collectively bargained wage increases for the faculty and staff (or any state workers), forcing CUNY to cut student services at senior colleges across the city. Three times he vetoed Maintenance of Effort legislation that would have stabilized funding for CUNY.

In 2016, Cuomo proposed a $485 million cut to CUNY’s state funding as part of a scheme to shift costs onto New York City. CUNY’s chancellor at the time testified in Albany that “numerous colleges…would have to be closed.” Thankfully, New Yorkers and elected officials rallied against the plan, and the governor backed off.

Later, Cuomo’s decision to withhold and then cut millions from CUNY’s budget at the outset of the pandemic led to the layoff of more than 2,000 adjunct faculty.   

Cuomo’s disinvestment had real consequences: students like me had to work more hours to afford tuition, with some of my classmates dropping out in response to rising costs. A third of CUNY students under Cuomo had difficulty registering for courses, impeding our progress toward degrees.

CUNY’s full-time faculty shortage worsened as administrators hired part-time, poverty-wage adjunct faculty with no job security, who now teach most courses. And staffing shortages led to long lines and overwhelmed student services. While tuition hikes made it more expensive to attend college, I became a more frequent visitor of food pantries. Not long before COVID, a study showed I was not alone: 48 percent of CUNY students had experienced food insecurity in the past month, while 55 percent had been housing insecure in the past year.

At a time when the federal government is targeting the communities of color and immigrant communities that CUNY serves, New Yorkers need a mayor who will be a champion for CUNY. We have here a diamond in the rough. CUNYs regularly top the lists of “Best Value” colleges. In the Wall Street Journal’s latest ranking, they filled the top seven positions. One study found that every dollar invested in City College of New York generates a return of $9.30 in benefits. 

My experience as a student, and Cuomo’s record of austerity funding for CUNY, show that electing Cuomo mayor would be a bad deal for CUNY students and their families.

In contrast, Zohran Mamdani is a cosponsor in the Assembly of the New Deal for CUNY, legislation to make CUNY tuition-free and fully funded. Mamdani also sponsors the REPAIR Acts, bills that would end property tax exemptions for NYU and Columbia and redirect $300 million of that funding to CUNY. He is a fighter for public education, and would bring the bold, ambitious leadership that CUNY needs to thrive. 

Enrique Peña-Oropeza is a community advocate for public education, and a two-time CUNY grad pursuing another degree at CUNY School of Law.

The post Opinion: Why Cuomo Would Be a Bad Deal for CUNY appeared first on City Limits.

After splitting a two-game set at No. 1 Wisconsin over the weekend, Minnesota’s women’s hockey team moved up to No. 2 in this week’s USCHO.com national poll.

The Gophers (10-2-0) beat the Badgers (11-1-0) before losing, 7-2, in the second game. They also are the only team to beat No. 3 Ohio State (9-1-0). Minnesota next plays Nov. 14-15, a home series against Bemidji State.

Minnesota Duluth (8-4-0) remained at No. 5, and St. Cloud State (4-8-0) stayed at No. 10. St. Thomas (7-5-0) dropped a spot to No. 14 in the 15-team poll.

Women’s Hockey

The USCHO.com poll for the week of Nov. 3-9:

Team                  Record   Pts.
1. Wisconsin       11-1-0      300
2. Minnesota       10-2-0     270
3. Ohio St,           9-1-0      269
4. Cornell            7-0-0       234
5. Minn. Duluth   8-4-0       216
6. Penn State    12-0-0      206
7. Quinnipiac     11-1-0      185
8. UConn           7-2-1        149
9. Northeastern  6-2-0       130
10. St. Cloud    . 4-8-0        96
11. Clarkson       6-4-0        93
12. Yale              4-2-0        68
13. Colgate        4-5-1         66
14. St. Thomas  7-5-0         50
15. Brown          3-2-1         32

Others receiving votes: Mercyhurst 13, Princeton 13, Boston University 5, Minnesota State Mankato 4, St. Lawrence 1.

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By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Throwing a sandwich at a federal agent turned Sean Charles Dunn into a symbol of resistance against President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital. This week, federal prosecutors are trying to persuade a jury of fellow Washington, D.C., residents that Dunn simply broke the law.

That could be a tough sell for the government in a city that has chafed against Trump’s federal takeover, which is entering its third month. A grand jury refused to indict Dunn on a felony assault count before U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office opted to charge him instead with a misdemeanor.

Securing a trial conviction could prove to be equally challenging for Justice Department prosecutors in Washington, where murals glorifying Dunn’s sandwich toss popped up virtually overnight.

Before jury selection started Monday, the judge presiding over Dunn’s trial seemed to acknowledge how unusual it is for a case like this to be heard in federal court. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, said he expects the trial to last no more than two days “because it’s the simplest case in the world.”

A video that went viral on social media captured Dunn hurling his subway-style sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent outside a nightclub on the night of Aug. 10. That same weekend, Trump announced his deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops and federal agents to assist with police patrols in Washington.

When Dunn approached a group of CBP agents who were in front of a club hosting a “Latin Night,” he called them “fascists” and “racists” and chanted “shame” toward them. An observer’s video captured Dunn throwing a sandwich at an agent’s chest.

“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.

Dunn ran away but was apprehended. He was released from custody but rearrested when a team of armed federal agents in riot gear raided his home. The White House posted a highly produced “propaganda” video of the raid on its official X account, Dunn’s lawyers said. They noted that Dunn had offered to surrender to police before the raid.

Dunn worked as an international affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s criminal division. After Dunn’s arrest, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his firing in a social media post that referred to him as “an example of the Deep State.”

Before trial, Dunn’s lawyers urged the judge to dismiss the case for what they allege is a vindictive and selective prosecution. They argued that the posts by Bondi and the White House prove Dunn was impermissibly targeted for his political speech.

Julia Gatto, one of Dunn’s lawyers, questioned why Trump’s Justice Department is prosecuting Dunn after the Republican president issued pardons and ordered the dismissal of assault cases stemming from a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

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“It’s an obvious answer,” Gatto said during a hearing last Thursday. “The answer is they have different politics. And that’s selective prosecution.”

Prosecutors countered that Dunn’s political expressions don’t make him immune from prosecution for assaulting the agent.

“The defendant is being prosecuted for the obvious reason that he was recorded throwing a sandwich at a federal officer at point-blank range,” they wrote.

Dunn is charged with assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer. Dozens of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol were convicted of felonies for assaulting or interfering with police during the Jan. 6 attack. Trump pardoned or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of them.