News Every Day | 03 April 2025, 14:00

Columbia Activists Give New President Shipman Her First Test. Plus, Will Doug Emhoff Have to Hire an Ugly Secretary?

This shall not pass: A group of student activists with Columbia's Jewish Voice for Peace handed the school’s new president, Claire Shipman, a test on Wednesday when they chained themselves to a campus gate and chanted "globalize the intifada."

The students said they were protesting the Columbia trustees "who collaborated in the kidnapping of Mahmoud Khalil" and pledged to stay put until the school revealed which trustees "FACILITATED THE ABDUCTION OF OUR BELOVED FRIEND" by calling ICE to campus.

Columbia hasn’t done that—a school spokeswoman told us that "no member" of its leadership team "has ever requested the presence" of ICE on campus (duh). Instead, public safety officials removed the protesters' chains and escorted them off campus. The spokeswoman said participants were identified and will now undergo "the process established in the Rules of University Conduct for enforcing violations."

In the past, that process hasn't meant much. We’ll see whether anything has changed.

Dept of unintended consequences: Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Doug Emhoff's new law firm, cut a deal with Donald Trump this week to eliminate its "illegal DEI discrimination and preferences." We would normally applaud such a move, but in this case, it comes with a startling possibility: "That the firm's commitment to scrapping DEI in favor of 'merit-based' hiring practices could thwart Emhoff's efforts to hire an intellectually unqualified but physically stunning 'trophy secretary' who excels at flirting with older men."

"Merit-based hiring would mark a significant departure from Emhoff's demonstrated preferences in his capacity as a hotshot corporate attorney," writes the Free Beacon's Andrew Stiles. "As managing director of the Venable LLP office in Los Angeles, Emhoff hired Katya Calderone, a part-time model, to be his legal secretary. According to a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed against the firm in 2019, Emhoff chose Katya, who was 'widely considered unqualified' for the job, because she was 'young, attractive and friendly with the powerful men in the office.' The name 'Katya' eventually became an office code word for flirtatious trophy secretary."

That likely explains why Emhoff urged the firm to "fight" Trump rather than make a deal, according to the New York Times. "At this point," writes Stiles, "it is unclear if Emhoff will remain at the firm, which he joined in an obvious bid to hoard wealth before his wife (most likely) runs for governor of California in 2026."

The left protects its own: On Tuesday, federal judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ordered the Trump administration temporarily to restore taxpayer funding for groups that provide legal services for illegal immigrants. One of those groups is the California-based Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, or CLSEPA—and Martinez-Olguin is a former employee.

From 2017 to 2018, she worked as the group's managing attorney, according to records submitted to the Senate during her confirmation process. There, she "established the group's Immigrants' Rights Project, where she 'identified issues for local or state policy advocacy and impact litigation,'" our Chuck Ross reports. "That included lobbying San Mateo county officials to establish a taxpayer-funded initiative to provide legal representation to illegal aliens."

Martinez-Alguin will hear more arguments in the case in two weeks. Her work for one of the plaintiffs "could lead to calls for her recusal from the case. According to federal regulations, judges should recuse themselves from cases when 'the judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party' involved in litigation."

Away from the Beacon:

Bah gawd that's Linda McMahon's music: The education secretary made a surprise appearance at a press conference House Democrats held outside DOE headquarters, taking to the podium to tout an "open discussion" on "the education of our young people."
As Kamala Harris takes her time contemplating what needs to be done in terms of recognizing the steps she must take to seriously consider thinking about running for governor of California, another prominent Democrat, former HHS secretary, state AG, and congressman Xavier Becerra, entered the race.
Podcaster Charlamagne tha God recently guest hosted The Daily Show—and used the platform to say Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer "need to be primaried and thrown out of office."

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