National Roundup

Connecticut
42 charged after protest delays Harvard-Yale football game
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Officials say 42 people were charged with disorderly conduct after a protest interrupted a Saturday football game between archrivals Harvard and Yale.

Students and alumni from both schools occupied the midfield of the Yale Bowl during Saturday’s halftime protest. Some held banners urging their colleges to act on climate change. Other signs referred to Puerto Rican debt relief and China’s treatment of Uighurs.

Most protesters walked off after about an hour; those who remained were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. They were issued a court summons and released, according to a statement from Yale University.

Actor Sam Waterston was among those arrested, according to the Connecticut Post. The actor known for his roles in TV’s “Law & Order,” “The Newsroom” and “Grace and Frankie” is a graduate of Yale and was also arrested last month, at a climate protest in Washington.

Organizers of the protest had initially estimated that 20 to 30 protesters were arrested.

Rachel Sadoff, a junior at Harvard, said about 150 students from the two universities had planned to participate and about 100 more who were sitting in the stands joined in. She said organizers considered the protest a success.

“Our goal was to spread the word,” Sadoff said. “If more people speak up, our colleges will have to listen.”

Yale officials said in a statement handed to reporters in the press box during the fourth quarter that the school “stands firmly for the right to free expression.”

“It is regrettable,” a statement attributed to the Ivy League said, “that the orchestrated protest came during a time when fellow students were participating in a collegiate career-defining contest and an annual tradition when thousands gather from around the world to enjoy and celebrate the storied traditions of both football programs and universities.”

After the game resumed, Yale went on to beat Harvard 50-43, clinching the Ivy League championship.

Saturday’s matchup was the 136th edition of the football rivalry between the two schools.

Wisconsin
Court won’t revive lawsuit against gun site over spa shooting
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t revive a lawsuit against a firearms website over a suburban Milwaukee spa shooting.

The justices rejected an appeal Monday from the daughter of one of three people shot to death by a man who illegally bought a semi-automatic pistol and ammunition from someone he met through Armslist.com.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed the suit, ruling that federal law protects website operators from liability for posting content from a third party. The state court rejected arguments that websites that enable gun deals must take reasonable care to prevent sales to people prohibited from purchasing firearms. The Wisconsin shooter was under a court order that prohibited him from possessing guns.

A similar lawsuit filed by a Boston police officer is pending in state court in Massachusetts.

Maryland
Man accused of arming suicidal son with shotgun
ODENTON, Md. (AP) — A Maryland man is in jail, accused of arming his suicidal 14-year-old son with a shotgun and saying, “Just do it.”

WMAR-TV reports that the father has been arrested and charged with offenses including first-degree assault and child abuse. Charging documents by Anne Arundel county police say the child told authorities he was choked by his father and beaten with a belt or extension cord at least three times this year.

It says the child recently confided in his parents that he was having thoughts about killing himself. Charging documents say that’s when he shoved a shotgun into the teen’s hands, forced him to grip the trigger and urged him to pull it. The man was denied bail.

Kansas
Prosecutor: Deputy acted in self-defense in fatal shooting
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors have found that a Kansas deputy acted in self-defense when he fatally shot a man who brandished an airsoft gun that resembles an actual firearm but shoots only nonlethal plastic pellets.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennet said Friday in a 22-page report that the shooting happened in January after 55-year-old David Michael Bosiljevac threatened to hurt his ex-girlfriend’s roommate if she didn’t meet him at a storage unit. The woman instead tipped off a bondsman that Bosiljevac would be there because he had failed to appear in court on a probation violation hearing for a drug-related case and she had cosigned his bond. The bondsman contacted deputies.

One of the deputies said that during the arrest attempt, Bosiljevac pointed the airsoft pistol. The deputy then fired 16 shots, hitting Bosiljevac at least nine times. A toxicology report found that he tested positive for meth.

Washington
Justices question Alaska $500-a-year campaign contribution limit
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is raising doubts about Alaska’s $500-a-year limit on contributions to political candidates. The justices are ordering a lower court to take a new look at the issue.

The court says in an unsigned opinion Monday that federal judges who had rejected a challenge to the contribution cap did not take account of a 2006 high court ruling invalidating low-dollar limits on political contributions in Vermont.

The Alaska challengers argue that the state is alone in imposing such low limits even on gubernatorial candidates “who must campaign across Alaska’s vast expanse and widely dispersed media markets.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in a short separate opinion that Alaska’s reliance on the energy industry may make the state unusually vulnerable to political corruption and justify low limits.