SCHOOL’S OUT: New York police at the request of the university were moving in this morning to clear out a protest encampment at NYU. The cops yesterday cleared an occupied library at Oregon State University and across the country, about 2,000 people have been arrested as the pro-Palestinian campus protest movement appears to be dwindling.

  Yesterday at UCLA workers threw tents and trash in dumpsters after riot police had cleared the UCLA campus of protesters. As many as 200 people were arrested there.

  President Biden condemned the protests that have swept colleges and universities across the county. “We’ve all seen images, and they put to the test two fundamental American principles,” the President said from the Roosevelt Room. “The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld.”

  When asked whether the protests had altered his thinking about support for Israel’s war in Gaza, Biden simply said “No.” As many as 34,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health Ministry.

  New York officials blamed “outside agitators” for some of the disturbances. Mayor Eric Adams and city staff released a statement saying that of the 112 people arrested at Columbia, 29 percent were not affiliated with the school, and of the 170 arrested at City College about 60 percent were not affiliated with the school.

 Video taken by the police inside Columbia’s Hamilton Hall after the occupation showed a blackboard with an assignment grid for protester watch duty and several slogans, including the Maoist, ““Political power comes from the barrel of a gun.”  

TRUMP ON TRIAL: The prosecution in Donald Trump’s criminal trial yesterday played a tape recording of the former president discussing the payoff deal for former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal with his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen.

  Cohen mentions “the financing,” repaying the $150,000 paid by David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer. “What financing?” Trump asked, then tells Cohen to “pay with cash.” Pecker was never repaid for keeping McDougal silent about an affair with Trump.

  The recording of another conversation in which Trump was not a participant indicated that Trump, a candidate for president at the time, was involved in discussions about the payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence about an affair.

  Both deals were negotiated by lawyer Keith Davidson, who appears to have a boutique business in celebrity dirt deals. Davidson testified that he’s been involved with deals involving complaints by women against the actor Charlie Sheen, rumors that Lindsay Lohan was in rehab, and a sex tape fesaturing former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan.

  On cross examination Trump’s lawyer tried to portray Davidson as a shakedown artist, an extortionist with a law practice. NY Times reporter Jonah Bromwich wrote that the trial is “really a referendum, not only on the politics of 2016 but on the celebrity-obsessed digital media environment in which Trump rose to political prominence.”

  Davidson told prosecutors that he realized on election night in 2016 that the deals to silence the women’s stories had likely helped elect Trump to the presidency. When Trump won he texted to the editor of the Enquirer, “What have we done?”

  Earlier in the day, Judge Juan Merchan held a hearing on four more instances in which Trump may have violated his gag order. All four occurred before Trump was found in contempt of court and threatened with jail if he doesn’t keep his mouth shut. Merchan did not deliver a decision.

  Trump has claimed multiple times that he will testify in his defense, but claimed yesterday that he can’t.  “Well I’m not allowed to testify,” he said, “I’m under a gag order, I guess.” 

  The gag order on what he says outside court does not prevent him from testifying. 

THE WAR ROOM: Turkey has suspended trade with Israel until there is an “uninterrupted and adequate humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza” and a permanent cease fire. Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said, “This is how a dictator behaves, disregarding the interests of the Turkish people and businessmen, and ignoring international trade agreements.”

  Turkey had $5.4 billion in exports to Israel in 2023 and $1.64 billion in imports, according to the UN.

THE BUZZ: Two giant broods of cicadas are emerging simultaneously, bringing a noisy spring to the Midwest and Southeast. The biggest concentrations are in Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas, but there’s also going to be a lot of buzzing Southeast to the Atlantic.

  Cicadas emerge from the ground every 13 or 17 years and the males make a loud buzz looking for a mate. 

THE SPIN RACK: Route I-95, the Connecticut Thruway, is closed in Norwalk after a fiery crash involving a gasoline tanker damaged an overpass that will need to be torn down and replaced. About 160,000 vehicles pass through there every day. — The IRS says it will increase the audit rate for taxpayers earning more than $10 million by 50 percent, rising to 16.5 percent in 2026. The IRS also says it will triple the audit rates of large corporations with assets over $250 million. — The body of a fifth construction worker killed in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has been found. The body of a 6^th man has yet to be recovered. — Jerry Boylan, 70, the captain of a scuba dive tour boat that burned in the middle of the night off Santa Cruz Island back in 2019, killing 34 people, was sentenced yesterday to 4 years in prison for neglecting safety. The fire trapped passengers in their bunk room while Boylan jumped overboard. 

BELOW THE FOLD:   The Indiana Fever with #1 draft pick Caitlin Clark takes to the court tonight in a preseason game against the Dallas Wings. For Clark, it’s likely to be a whole new ball game against a field of giant opponents.

-30-