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    Why Bragg Dropped Charges Against Most Columbia Student Protesters

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    The Manhattan district attorney’s office cited a lack of evidence in deciding not to prosecute 31 of the 46 people charged in the takeover of Hamilton Hall.Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, last week dropped most of the 46 cases against pro-Palestinian demonstrators charged in the April 30 siege of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University because prosecutors had little proof that the cases would stand up at trial.There was limited video footage of what took place inside the campus building, Doug Cohen, a spokesman for the district attorney, said in a statement. The protesters wore masks and covered security cameras, preventing prosecutors from identifying those who had barricaded the doors and smashed chairs, desks and windows during the 17-hour occupation.The district attorney announced the decision to drop 31 of the 46 cases during a court hearing on Thursday. Apart from trespassing, a misdemeanor, proving any other criminal charges would be “extremely difficult,” Mr. Cohen said. For similar reasons, prosecutors also dismissed charges against nine of the 22 students and staff members at City College who were arrested inside a campus building and charged with burglary during a protest that took place on the same night as the arrests at Hamilton Hall. Six other people who were arrested outside the building still face criminal charges: Five were charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and another was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor. The protests on April 30 grew out of a weekslong encampment on Columbia’s South Lawn that ignited similar demonstrations at college campuses across the country and resulted in hundreds of arrests. As the academic year drew to a close, protesters called on Columbia to divest from Israel, among other demands, sometimes clashing with counterprotesters or with the police.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

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      Travis Scott Arrested After Disturbance on Florida Yacht

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      The rapper, who was charged with trespassing and disorderly intoxication, later admitted he had been drinking alcohol and stated, “It’s Miami.”The star rapper Travis Scott was arrested early Thursday in Miami Beach, Fla., after causing a disturbance on a yacht docked at a marina, according to a police report. He was later released on bond after paying a total of $650 on both charges, local news reported.Mr. Scott, 33, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, was arrested at 1:44 a.m. on charges of trespassing and disorderly intoxication after the police were called to the marina and told that “people were fighting on the vessel,” according to the report.Once there, officers found Mr. Scott yelling at passengers on the ship. The officers “could sense a strong smell of alcohol coming from the defendant’s breath,” the report said; they led him down a dock and toward a boardwalk, with Mr. Scott walking backward and yelling obscenities along the way.Mr. Scott got into a vehicle that was waiting for him but soon began walking back to the yacht, the report said, in defiance of the officers’ warning to leave the premises. He was then taken into custody.According to the report, Mr. Scott later admitted he had been drinking alcohol “and stated, ‘It’s Miami.’”On Thursday, Mr. Scott posted on social media what appeared to be a doctored image of his mug shot, with sunglasses and earphones added. A spokeswoman for the rapper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mr. Scott is one of the most popular rappers in music today, with three No. 1 albums and a recent arena tour. His shows have a reputation for an extremely high-energy response from crowds, and in late 2021, 10 fans died as a result of a crowd crush at Mr. Scott’s Astroworld festival in Houston, his hometown.Last year, a grand jury declined to criminally indict Mr. Scott and others involved in putting on the festival. But he and others, including Live Nation, the festival’s promoter, and Apple, which livestreamed the show, have faced civil suits over those deaths. Of those 10 civil suits, all but one have been settled.Kitty Bennett More

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      Judge Orders Rail Operator to Pay $400 Million to Tribe for Trespassing

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      BNSF Railway broke its agreement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community when it ran hundreds of train cars a week containing crude oil through the tribe’s land in Washington State, according to a federal judge.A judge has ordered a railway company to pay nearly $400 million for trespassing on Native American land by far exceeding the number of train cars carrying crude oil that it was allowed to run through a tribe’s land, according to documents filed Monday in federal court in Washington State.According to the documents, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the company, BNSF Railway — which operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America — committed “willful, conscious and knowing trespass” when it ran several 100-car trains carrying crude oil every week through the Swinomish Reservation, which spans about 15 square miles on Fidalgo Island in the western part of the state.Under an agreement between the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the rail company, one eastern-bound train, and one western-bound train, of 25 cars or less, were allowed to pass through the tribe’s land each day. But from September 2012 to May 2021, BNSF exceeded that allowance, with at least six 100-car trains traveling in each direction per week, according to a 2015 lawsuit filed by the tribe.Each week, the trains passed through the far north end of the tribe’s land, near a casino, gas station, convenience store and R.V. park, lawyers for the tribe said in the suit. They noted that crude oil, notoriously dangerous cargo, had resulted in derailments, deadly explosions and spills, as well as environmental contamination. BNSF ignored repeated demands by the tribe to cease its “unauthorized use,” according to the suit, and said it would continue running the same number of trains through Swinomish land. In a trial earlier this month, it was determined that the rail company had “breached the contractual obligations” of its agreement with the tribe, and that it should be stripped of the net profits gained through its unauthorized use of Swinomish land, Judge Robert S. Lasnik said in court documents that were filed Monday.In an email on Monday, BNSF refused to comment on the case, and lawyers representing the company did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Steve Edwards, the chairman of the tribe, said in a statement on Monday that the group was thankful that Judge Lasnik had ruled in its favor. He noted that the large sum the judge had ordered the rail company to pay reflected the “enormous wrongful profits that BNSF gained by using the tribe’s land day after day, week after week, year after year over our objections.”“This land is what we have,” Mr. Edwards said. “We have always protected it, and we always will.” More