Great Falls News

Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war are digging in at Columbia University for a 10th day, part of a number of demonstrations roiling campuses from California to Connecticut. Hundreds have been arrested across the nation, sometimes amid scuffles with police. In New York, Columbia is negotiating with student protesters who have rebuffed police and doubled down. Other schools have been quick to call law enforcement to douse demonstrations before they can take hold. Columbia officials have said they will seek other options if the negotiations with protesters fail.

Almost five years after Elijah McClain died after being put in a neck hold and injected with the powerful sedative ketamine, three of five Denver-area first responders prosecuted in the Black man’s death have been convicted. A former paramedic faces up to three years in prison in a sentencing hearing Friday. McClain’s name became a rallying cry in protests over racial injustice in policing that swept the U.S. in 2020. Elijah McClain's mother says justice has not yet been served. She says the two officers who were acquitted were complicit in her 23-year-old son’s murder and that they have escaped justice.

As some universities negotiate with pro-Palestinian protesters, others quickly cal…