Columbia to pay $221 million in federal settlement over discrimination probes

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ☀️ Sunny, highs in the upper 80s.

It's Thursday in New York City, where Columbia University has agreed to pay a $221 million settlement over accusations by the Trump administration that the school failed to adequately address antisemitism on campus.

This comes days after Columbia said it's disciplining more than 70 students for participating in a pro-Palestinian protest back in May.

University officials said that in exchange for the payments — $200 million for the federal government, $21 million for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — they'll be able to access hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen research funding.

Here's what else is happening:

• Starting this fall, New York City public school students won’t be allowed to use their phones or smartwatches during the school day.
  • The new citywide policy, which includes exceptions for students who need phones for medical or language translation reasons, is in compliance with a statewide school phone ban approved earlier this year.
• New MTA documents reveal that the modern signal system on the L line will reach the end of its useful life in 2028, only 25 years after it was installed. 
• Sunset Park residents and elected officials are once again calling for safety improvements on Third Avenue under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where a hit-and-run driver killed two men earlier this month.
• The collapse of a wall and outdoor scaffolding at a furniture store in Bellerose, Queens, yesterday injured a man and two girls.  
• The Adams administration says 41 of New York City's 54 domestic violence shelters are set to provide mental health and medication therapy on site — up from nine shelters as of May 2023.
• Federal prosecutors have charged a Manhattan man with making and storing improvised explosive devices on rooftops in SoHo and throwing one onto the subway tracks at the Williamsburg Bridge.
• A Bronx judge has fined the landlord of a Belmont apartment building — which currently has 539 open violations — $10.14 million in what appears to be one of the largest housing court judgements ever.
• Can this Bushwick line cook not have his little gem salad before work?

• The news organization The City found that Mayor Adams' reelection campaign recently received 17 donations for $2,100 each — all paid by credit card — that came from individuals of modest means who likely don't know the donations were made in their name.  
• The colorful sculpture of a blissed-out woman outside a Brooklyn Heights legal weed shop doesn't fit the neighborhood's historic aesthetic now, but give it 100 years.
• Behold a balsa-wood model New York City that's been 21 years in the making.
• A New Jersey Little Leaguer was suspended from the league for flipping his bat after hitting a home run.
• Meanwhile, a WFAN radio host who's an assistant coach of a New Jersey Little League team was recently thrown out of a game for arguing with an umpire about a runner called out.
• Joe Biden got a $10 million book deal.
• Some Colbert fans are planning a protest Sunday over CBS' cancellation of "The Late Show."
• The Irish aren't actually like that.