Elections

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been keeping track of every report I see about major budget shortfalls at universities. The general trend seems to be that the schools facing these shortfalls have declining enrollments, and state and federal funding is not meeting the financial gaps left by fewer students. Every week it seems there’s fresh bad news. Here’s a sampling:“SUNY Warns of Future $1B Deficit Without Higher Tuition or More Aid” — The Times Union, Jan. 2.“As Covid-19 relief funding runs out, UConn is expecting a $70 million deficit in fiscal year 2025, which begins in July” — The Connecticut Mirror, Jan. 23.“Penn State Plans Nearly $100M in Cuts for FY26 Budget” — Higher Ed Dive, Jan. 24.“As U. of Arizona Confronts Budget Cuts, Workers and Students Brace for the Worst” — The New York Times, Feb. 21.And those are all public universities. There are several private colleges, less-selective schools in particular, that are in dire shape — including schools in the New York metro area that are selling off some of their real estate in order to make ends meet, according to reporting from The Times’s Sharon Otterman. Josh Moody at Inside Higher Ed clocked 14 four-year nonprofit institutions that closed their doors in 2023, and those schools “largely fit the same profile: mostly small, private, tuition-dependent institutions with meager endowments that have seen enrollment slipping for years and have been unable to recover from those sustained losses.”A few long-term trends have combined to create this growing crisis. One is the declining birthrate since the Great Recession, which is causing an “enrollment cliff” based on the numbers of potential students turning 18 over the next decade. The other is the decline in Americans’ confidence in higher education. According to Gallup, in terms of party identification, that decline is sharpest among Republicans. Still, all of the demographic groups that Gallup assessed registered a significant decline in confidence since 2015.This matters for the future of work in America, not just for the young people who may be missing out on the wage premium attached to a college education. In his 2018 book, “Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education,” Nathan Grawe, an economist at Carleton College, writes, “Analysts estimate we would need to increase degree production by approximately 40 percent to meet work force needs in coming years.” But it’s not just our national economic need that’s at stake. We need an educated population to meet the civic and intellectual challenges of the 21st century — challenges that seem to be moving ever faster as technology continues its rudderless and frequently inhumane progress.I called Grawe, who is also the author of the 2021 book “The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes,” to ask how colleges and universities can help address the issues of fewer students and declining confidence. (As a side note: The most selective institutions will be just fine — for all the concern lately about their reputations, they are in no danger of enrollment declines or budget shortfalls.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Brad Wiegmann figures he can trick us. And he does.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesWEDNESDAY PUZZLE — For better or for worse, the New York Times Crossword is tailored to an American readership. This can lead to frustrating moments for international solvers, and I sympathize: Even after 15 years in the United States, I am likely to stumble upon a tidbit of trivia that is as mundane to my U.S. colleagues as it is alien to me.Such was the case in today’s crossword, which was constructed by Brad Wiegmann. The last of his themed entries played on the name of an American organization I’d never heard of, resulting in several minutes of utter discombobulation. Did this entry stump you, too? Or was this just one of those days when I’d have done better by staying under the covers?Turn on your headlamps, and let’s shed some light on this grid.Today’s ThemeOne might say that Mr. Wiegmann is counting on your confusion with his themed clues, each of which seems to provide nothing more than a pair of names.“Nicholson and Nicklaus, e.g.?” (19A) refer to two celebrities with the first name JACK. We can refer to these men, wittily, as ONE-EYED JACKS, because each of their last names has only one I — phonetically spelled as EYE — in it.In the case of “Soren Kierkegaard and Chris Isaak, e.g.?” (26A), the double A’s are evident. Since these men don’t share first names, we can just call them DOUBLE-A GENTS. Yuk, yuk.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Josh Stein, the North Carolina attorney general, handily won the state’s Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, setting the stage for a matchup with a fiery Republican rival in a race that will be tightly contested and closely watched.The race will probably be the most expensive in the country this year outside of the presidential election, as Democrats try to retain a governor’s office that they have held for all but four of the last 31 years, a rare Southern stronghold for the party.Mr. Stein, 57, who was endorsed by Gov. Roy Cooper, a term-limited Democrat, easily defeated his four primary opponents, including Michael Morgan, a former North Carolina Supreme Court justice.Now Mr. Stein, who has presented himself as a stable and experienced leader, will turn his attention to his opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. The attorney general has cast Mr. Robinson as an extreme figure distracted by culture war issues.Mr. Stein has highlighted a number of statements that Mr. Robinson has come under heavy criticism for making in recent years, including that Christians are “called to be led by men,” not women, and that “there’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth.”“Some politicians spark division, ignite hate and fan the flames of bigotry,” Mr. Stein said in a campaign ad that showed clips of Mr. Robinson.Mr. Robinson has dismissed the criticism while doubling down on anti-L.G.B.T.Q. remarks and painting Mr. Stein as an extreme liberal.Political science professors in North Carolina say that Mr. Stein will have an easy time portraying Mr. Robinson as a Trump-aligned Republican who would further roll back abortion rights. A big question is which candidate will benefit more from the huge influx of voters the state has seen over the last few years; many have settled in the suburbs and exurbs of Charlotte and Raleigh. President Biden won the counties that contain those cities in 2020 but lost many of the surrounding areas to Donald J. Trump.A native of Chapel Hill who has degrees from Dartmouth and Harvard, Mr. Stein became the first Jewish person elected to statewide office in North Carolina in 2016 when he defeated Buck Newton, a Republican, to become attorney general. He previously served as a state senator.His re-election victory in 2020, however, showed how slim his margins could be: He won by fewer than 14,000 votes that year, with 50.1 percent of the vote. Mr. Trump won the state in 2020 by 1.3 percentage points, and Mr. Cooper by more than 4 percentage points. More

La decisión de realizar elecciones es un cumplimiento parcial de un compromiso con EE. UU., pero con la exclusión de la principal figura de la oposición muchos se preguntan si la votación será libre y justa.Las autoridades venezolanas anunciaron el martes que las elecciones nacionales que muchos esperaban que forjaran un camino hacia la democracia se celebrarán el 28 de julio.Pero la decisión sobre la fecha se produce un mes después de que el más alto tribunal del país excluyera de la votación a la principal candidata de la oposición, lo que hizo que muchos se preguntaran hasta qué punto serán unas elecciones libres y justas.Sin embargo, el anuncio del gobierno del presidente Nicolás Maduro implica al menos un cumplimiento parcial del compromiso adquirido con Estados Unidos de celebrar comicios este año a cambio del levantamiento de las sanciones económicas paralizantes.En octubre, Maduro firmó un acuerdo con la oposición del país y se comprometió a trabajar por unas elecciones presidenciales libres y justas. En el acuerdo, Maduro dijo que celebraría elecciones antes de finales de año, y Estados Unidos, a su vez, levantó algunas sanciones como muestra de buena voluntad.Pero pocos días después, Maduro vio cómo una candidata de la oposición, María Corina Machado, ganaba más del 90 por ciento de los votos en las elecciones primarias organizadas por la oposición, que no tuvieron la participación del gobierno. Los decisivos resultados acentuaron su popularidad y plantearon la posibilidad de que pudiera derrotarlo en unas elecciones generales.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Arrest warrants were issued by the International Criminal Court for two military officials, a general and an admiral, both accused of targeting civilians and destroying crucial energy infrastructure.The International Criminal Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two top Russian military officers, accusing them of war crimes in Ukraine for targeting civilians and destroying crucial energy infrastructure.The two officers — Lt. Gen. Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash and Adm. Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov — are accused in a court statement of being personally responsible for numerous missile strikes by their forces on electrical power plants and substations in multiple locations between October 2022 and March 2023.The wintertime strikes were defined as war crimes because they were largely directed against civilian targets, causing “excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects,” the court said.General Kobylash is a senior Russian Air Force officer who commanded the country’s long-range aviation forces during that time period, while Admiral Sokolov was then commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.Lt. Gen. Sergei Ivanovich Kobylas commanded Russia’s long-range aviation forces.Sergei Chirikov/EPA, via ShutterstockAdm. Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov as commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 2022.Alexey Pavlishak/ReutersThe two are also accused of crimes against humanity because of “intentionally causing great suffering” and serious physical or mental injuries in the general population.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Police had hidden evidence showing that Ronald Johnson did not participate in the crime he was convicted of, his lawyer said.Ronald Johnson, who had spent more than three decades behind bars, was freed on Monday after a Philadelphia judge vacated his sentence and reversed his conviction, officials said.Judge Scott DiClaudio granted Mr. Johnson’s bid for post-conviction relief by doing so. Prosecutors informed the court that they would not pursue a new trial and moved to dismiss all charges, which the judge granted.That, his lawyer, Jennifer Merrigan, said, meant Mr. Johnson was a free man.“There’s no way that they could retry him because there is absolutely no evidence against him,” Ms. Merrigan said in an interview on Tuesday.Mr. Johnson, 61, had served 34 years after he was convicted of the 1990 murder of Joseph Goldsby. The conviction had been based “solely on the false testimony of two witnesses,” the nonprofit public interest law firm Phillips Black, which advises incarcerated individuals, said in a statement.The police had hidden evidence showing that Mr. Johnson did not participate in the crime, Ms. Merrigan said. She pointed to two witnesses who had given statements to the police after being interviewed multiple times, in which they said Mr. Johnson wasn’t present, and “actually identified a different person.”“The police then hid that evidence, and so when he went to trial, the jury heard from two witnesses who said that he was there. But he and his lawyers did not know that these witnesses had given many other statements,” she said.Ms. Merrigan said that “this kind of police misconduct has happened a lot in Philadelphia, and a lot around the country.”“It is really unfair both to the people who get convicted and lose many years of their lives, but also to the victims, who don’t learn what really happened to their loved one,” she said.After a Philadelphia judge vacated his sentence and reversed his conviction on Monday, Ronald Johnson hugged his son, Ronald Johnson Jr., left. His sister, Marian Johnson, is at right.Marg MaguireMr. Johnson, who had maintained his innocence throughout his years behind bars, said he had spent the first 24 hours of his newfound freedom taking a bath, shopping for clothes and getting a driver’s license. He enjoyed a big meal with his family, with rib-eye steak, shrimp and steak fries.“I’m starting a new chapter, and I’m not rushing in,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview on Tuesday, noting that “these long years, they’ve been rough.”“You might just cry at night,” he said, but “the next day you just got to pick yourself back up.”Mr. Johnson, who will turn 62 this summer, said he thinks he’s “going to have two birthdays now.”“The day I got out, and my regular birthday,” he said. “I think I’m going to celebrate them two days the rest of my life.” More

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina defeated his two challengers in the Republican primary for the governor’s race on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. His win proved that his blustering, Trump-aligned style is favored by conservatives who are gearing up for what will probably be the most expensive and closely contested statewide race in the country.Mr. Robinson had consistently maintained a sizable lead against his opponents, Dale Folwell, the state treasurer, and Bill Graham, a personal injury and wrongful death lawyer. Now he will face Josh Stein, the Democratic state attorney general, whose policies mirror those of Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who is popular but term limited.Mr. Robinson’s nomination notched another success in what has been a remarkable rise for the lieutenant governor: In 2018, he was working in furniture manufacturing. A year later, after he drew national attention in conservative circles with a video showing him criticizing gun control at a public meeting in Greensboro, he entered the race for lieutenant governor.Now, four years after being elected to statewide office as a political firebrand and newcomer, Mr. Robinson is charging toward the executive mansion in Raleigh with a brand of conservatism that focuses on culture war issues, testing how far right North Carolinians are willing to go in their purple state.Mr. Robinson has characterized the civil rights movement as a communist and socialist plot to “subvert capitalism,” promised to arrest transgender women who use women’s restrooms and said that Christians are “called to be led by men.” He has disparaged the L.G.B.T.Q. community, made comments widely perceived as antisemitic and called for limiting discussions about racism in public schools.Mr. Robinson’s rhetoric will ratchet up the attention on North Carolina, which many see as crucial to winning the presidency. Democratic leaders in the state hope that Mr. Robinson’s controversial comments will drive Democrats to the polls and help them win swing voters. But some Republican strategists believe Mr. Robinson’s personality will animate the base and drive up their own turnout.Mr. Robinson supports a so-called heartbeat law, banning abortion at about five or six weeks of pregnancy; such a ban would go further than current state law, which restricts abortion after 12 weeks. His campaign spokesman said that Mr. Robinson supports exceptions for rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger, but he did not provide details. More

It’s not clear whether Mr. Musk will spend any of his billions on the former president’s behalf. If he does, he could erase Mr. Trump’s financial disadvantage in the 2024 race.Donald Trump, who is urgently seeking a cash infusion to aid his presidential campaign, met on Sunday in Palm Beach, Fla., with Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, and a few wealthy Republican donors, according to three people briefed on the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private discussion.Mr. Trump and his team are working to find additional major donors to shore up his finances as he heads into an expected general election against President Biden. Mr. Trump has praised Mr. Musk to allies and hopes to have a one-on-one meeting with the billionaire soon, according to a person who has discussed the matter with Mr. Trump.It’s not yet clear whether Mr. Musk plans to spend any of his fortune on Mr. Trump’s behalf. But his recent social media posts suggest he thinks it’s essential that Mr. Biden be defeated in November — and people who have spoken to Mr. Musk privately confirmed that is indeed his view.With a net worth of around $200 billion, according to Forbes, Mr. Musk could decide to throw his weight behind Mr. Trump and potentially, almost single-handedly, erase what is expected to be Mr. Biden and his allies’ huge financial advantage over the former president.Aides to Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.Mr. Musk has long portrayed himself as independent-minded, and like many business leaders he has donated to candidates from both parties over the years. Unlike other U.S. billionaires, he has not spent heavily on a presidential election, and his donations have been fairly evenly split over the years between Democrats and Republicans. Mr. Musk’s businesses, Tesla and SpaceX, have benefited from federal government contracts and subsidies.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More