student

Minnesota public universities can continue to offer in-state tuition and scholarships to some immigrants in the country without legal status, a federal judge ruled Friday, dismissing a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department last summer that attempted to halt the programs.

The decision follows a series of clashes between the federal government and Minnesota officials over immigration enforcement.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez said in her decision that the federal government failed to prove that programs offering in-state tuition for immigrants without legal status discriminated against U.S. citizens.

The federal lawsuit named Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic state Atty. Gen. Keith Ellison as defendants, along with the state’s Office of Higher Education. It said Minnesota law discriminates against U.S. citizens because it provides in-state tuition and scholarships to students living in the U.S. illegally if they attended a Minnesota high school for three years, and U.S. citizens who attended schools outside of the state cannot receive the same benefits. States generally set higher tuition rates for out-of-state students.

The federal government said those state statutes “flagrantly” violate a federal law that prevents states from providing preferential benefits to immigrants in the U.S. illegally regardless of whether or not they meet residency requirements.

“No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed last year.

Menendez said the Justice Department misinterpreted the law, enacted during the Clinton administration, because anyone who attended a Minnesota high school for at least three years are granted the same public benefits, regardless of their U.S. residency or immigration status.

She also said the federal government didn’t have standing to sue the state attorney general or governor since neither has the power to change the state laws that determine tuition eligibility.

Ellison celebrated the decision in a statement Friday.

“Today, we defeated another one of Donald Trump’s efforts to misconstrue federal law to force Minnesota to abandon duly passed state laws and become a colder, less caring state,” he wrote.

The funding for immigrants without legal status represents an “investment for our state to do everything we can to encourage a more educated workforce,” Ellison wrote.

The U.S. Justice Department didn’t respond to an email request for comment Friday.

The department has filed similar lawsuits this month against policies in Kentucky and Texas. Last week, a federal judge in Texas blocked that state’s law giving a tuition break to students living in the U.S. illegally after the state’s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, said he supported the legal challenge.

In discussing the Texas case last year, Bondi suggested more lawsuits might be coming.

Florida ended in-state tuition eligibility for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. At least 22 states and the District of Columbia have laws or policies granting the in-state benefit, according to the National Immigration Law Center. Those states include Democratic-led California and New York, but also Republican states including Kansas and Nebraska.

According to the center, at least 13 states in addition to Minnesota allow immigrant students without legal status to receive financial aid and scholarships on top of in-state tuition.

Riddle writes for the Associated Press.

Before becoming a global phenomenon in the 2000s thanks to artists like Aventura, Monchy y Alexandra and Prince Royce, and before being declared an “intangible cultural heritage of humanity” by UNESCO in 2019, bachata was — and continues to be — the soundtrack of the Dominican Republic.

The importance of the genre to the people of the Caribbean nation is at the heart of “Agridulce,” a music documentary that had its world premiere at this month’s South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Filmed over the course of five years, the feature follows four young students at Academia de Bachata, a music conservatory in the beachside resort town of Cabarete. It’s the only school of its kind in the world.

Academia de Bachata was founded in 2013 by music producer Benjamin De Menil. After traveling to the Dominican Republic to record for nearly three decades, De Menil says he wanted to create something that would ensure that the next generation continues the traditions of bachata.

“One of the things I loved about the bachata musicians I was working with early on is that they were such natural musicians. There was never any sheet music, so whenever we were going to record I would say, ‘Let’s do this song and it goes like this,’ and they would listen to it for a little bit before they figured it out and they were playing it,” he said. “I thought that we could somehow harness that energy in a more organized and educational format and make a school where we’re helping young children become professional musicians within this genre that has a lot of opportunity.”

De Menil partnered with DREAM Project, a nonprofit organization that did work in Cabarete, and launched Academia de Bachata in 2013. Since then, the school has provided hundreds of children with a free musical education.

“There were a lot of things we were trying to figure out along the way about what the best way to teach this music was because this wasn’t your typical conservatory. We were focusing on the traditions passed on rather than some style of music that there are already textbooks for.”

To make “Agridulce,” De Menil, who produced the film, reached out to Frank Pavich, director of the 2013 “Jodorowsky’s Dune,” the cult classic documentary about avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s quixotic and failed attempt to adapt Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel “Dune.” It didn’t take much to bring him on onboard.

“Ben contacted me and told me about the project. I responded with what’s Bachata?,” the Croatian American director said. “I had never even heard of the musical genre. And then he sent me some music. He sent me footage that he had shot of [Cabarete] and of the school. And it was unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was so colorful and so incredible that I just wanted to jump on right away. I was like, ‘Great, when can we go down there and start shooting? It was really that fast.”

Pavich says now he hears bachata everywhere.

“I live between Switzerland and Croatia and now that I know how to pick it up, I hear it in cars passing by a cafe in Geneva and in Croatia,” he said. “It’s everywhere, it’s infiltrated everything in the best way possible.”

“Agridulce” is an ethnomusicological documentary — it captures the music of a specific place and people and shows how the tradition is kept alive — that also doubles as a coming of age story. The film follows students of varying ages — Edickson, Frandy, Orianny and Yerian — out of the classroom, showing us moments of intimacy with their families and friends while also giving us a slice of quotidian life in Cabarete.

As such, “Agridulce” doesn’t shy away from the political tensions of the beachside resort. Much like in the U.S., immigration is a contentious topic in the Dominican Republic — the country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, which has seen an exodus of its people over the decade.

De Menil and Pavich said that nearly a third of Academia de Bachata’s student body is of Haitian descent, and that they would have had to go out of their way to not include one of them in the film.

This tension plays out in the storyline of Frendy, a magnetic student of Haitian descent who uses bachata to fit in.

“Many young people are in that position of being made to feel they don’t belong at that time in life when a person most wants to find their place,” De Menil said. “We see that music can help kids, particularly immigrant kids, find belonging.”

“The film ultimately speaks to the way that culture and shared history contribute to the development of authentic, lived creativity,” said South by Southwest consulting programmer Jim Kolmar. “It’s something innate and inevitable, and ‘Agridulce’ really explores that beautifully. Obviously it’s full of incredible music, but the deeper cultural context is essential, and seeing it through the perspective of the students at Academia de Bachata helps us connect the dots.”

NEW YORK — Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton acknowledged Sunday that he had experimented with marijuana while a 22-year-old student in England in the late 1960s, an admission that could raise doubts about his past candor in answering questions about his personal conduct.

For five years, the 45-year-old Clinton has answered questions about whether he had ever used drugs by saying he had never broken a U.S. law. During a televised debate here with Democratic presidential rival Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., a questioner for the first time asked Clinton explicitly whether he had ever broken either a state, federal or a foreign drug law.

“When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two,” he answered on the WCBS-TV broadcast, “and I didn’t like it. I didn’t inhale and never tried it again.”

Asked the same series of questions, Brown answered bluntly: “No.”

Clinton’s disclosure, which overshadowed one of the most substantive exchanges of the political season between the two rivals, is hardly unusual for a person of Clinton’s generation. Two of the Democratic presidential candidates in 1988 acknowledged similar behavior. And nothing Clinton said about his use of marijuana contradicted what he had said before.

But his decision until now to fend off drug-use queries with a narrow response, which could mislead voters into thinking he had never used drugs of any kind, was likely to add to concerns of those who regard him as less than straightforward.

Clinton said he did not believe the episode would hurt his candidacy, noting that other politicians had admitted to using marijuana and had suffered no apparent electoral consequences. He defended his previous denials by saying he had seen no need to volunteer a reply to something he had not been directly asked.

“Nobody’s ever asked me that question point blank,” he said, adding: “I said I’ve never broken the drug laws of my country, and that’s the absolute truth.”

It was the second time in a week that Clinton found it necessary to clarify previous statements on drugs.

On Thursday, a Clinton campaign aide, Betsey Wright, volunteered to the Los Angeles Times that the governor had never used cocaine or knowingly been around it.

The Times had contacted Wright to ask about a state police drug investigation in the mid-1980s of Clinton’s half-brother and a political contributor. After answering the questions, Wright said: “I assume from the questions that you were implying guilt by association in a state where everybody is associated. For that reason, when I verified with Gov. Clinton the answers to some of the questions, I asked him the following questions:

“ ‘Bill, have you ever used cocaine?’

“He replied, ‘No.’

“I said, ‘Bill, have you ever been in a room where you were aware there was cocaine?’

“He replied, ‘No.’ ”

When asked Friday why she had posed questions never asked by The Times, Wright said she had heard “rumors” that reporters were trying to place Clinton at parties where cocaine had been used. “I decided it was best to go ahead and put the issue on the table,” she said. (Interviews by The Times with some people said to have been in attendance at those parties have produced no evidence linking Clinton to the drug.)

Later Friday, Clinton called The Times to say that the campaign had not intended to provoke a story quoting him as denying cocaine use. Senior Clinton campaign officials said they feared such a story might be seen by the public as raising yet another question about his personal life.

Clinton’s Sunday acknowledgement of marijuana use while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford came only three days after Clinton was asked by a member of the editorial board of the New York Daily News whether he had been asked previously about his drug use.

Clinton said that he had been asked such questions, and that his answer had always been that he had never violated a U.S. law.

Clinton campaign officials later described the new admission as an “elaboration” of Clinton’s previous comments and suggested that it and the earlier, narrow denials were merely two ways of looking at the same issue.

“Bill Clinton told the truth at every step of the way,” his chief strategist, James Carville, said. “It’s like the old saying about the guy who’s being sworn into office and he’s asked, ‘Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?’ and he answers, ‘Which one do you want?’ ”

Carville and other senior Clinton aides nevertheless expressed concern that the issue would be given undue prominence and further tar their candidate at a time when polls show that a large number of Democratic voters still harbor questions about Clinton’s personal record.

For his part, however, Brown chose not to make an immediate issue either of Clinton’s marijuana use or his handling of questions about it.

After denying that he had violated any drug laws, Brown demanded of a questioner: “Why don’t you lay off this stuff? What you did 10 or 20 years ago is not really relevant.”

But Brown himself was forced during the debate to respond to a new suggestion of impropriety in a Washington Post story detailing his ties to a company that paid a $400,000 settlement to the federal government after being accused of making exaggerated claims about a product said to help treat AIDS.

Brown, who served on the board of directors of a subsidiary to the company, Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., until he began his presidential campaign, said he had had “nothing to do” with the episode. He said his position gave him “no responsibility and no contact” with the parent firm.

Clinton did not press the issue during the debate, saying his own experience made him wary of “piling on.” But he suggested later in the day that justice was being done as he told a Bronx audience that “the press is finally starting to look at” a rival he believes has been treated too gently.

Clinton framed his response to the drug question during an era when the issue rose to political prominence.

In 1987, Supreme Court nominee Douglas H. Ginsburg was forced to withdraw his name from nomination after it was learned that he had used marijuana when he was a law-school professor.

But other politicians, including Sen. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee and Gov. Bruce Babbitt of Arizona, both 1988 Democratic presidential candidates, acknowledged using marijuana while in college and suffered no apparent political consequences.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has also admitted to having used marijuana, but the issue was given only passing attention during his confirmation hearings.

Clinton, by contrast, has steadfastly refused to answer “have you ever” questions about drug use, adultery or other matters of personal conduct on grounds that they are not legitimate subjects of inquiry.

He has said it is legitimate, however, for an officeholder or a candidate to be questioned about violations of law, and has always responded to questions about his drug use by stating that he had adhered to U.S. drug laws.

Earlier in the morning, Clinton delivered what amounted to an impassioned political sermon to the enthusiastic congregation of an African Methodist church in a mostly black neighborhood in Queens.

But faced with continued criticism of his periodic use of an all-white country club to play golf–conduct that Clinton has said was a mistake–his message Sunday was in part a plea for redemption from a black community from which he has so far drawn deep support.

“I have seen myself turned into a cartoon character of an old Southern deal-maker by the tabloids and television in a total denial of my life’s work,” he said.

He told the congregation he had made “a foolish mistake.” And as he cited Scripture later, the congregation joined him in a sympathetic chorus to murmur “those who are without sin should cast the first stone.”

The hourlong debate here between Clinton and Brown, who participated via satellite from Wisconsin, was one of the better illuminations of the differences between the Arkansas moderate and the California populist-liberal.

Again and again, the two candidates clashed on issues ranging from economic policy to capital punishment to labor issues to Middle East strategy.

On economic issues, Brown advanced his proposal to overhaul the current tax systems and replace them with a 13% flat-tax as a “progressive tax” whose simplicity would “jump-start the economy.”

But Clinton, who favors a more conventional middle-class tax cut and an increase on taxes for the wealthy, again derided Brown’s idea as a plan that would benefit only the wealthy and would “triple taxes on the poor and raise taxes on the middle class.”

In answer to a question, Clinton said he favored capital punishment as well as a proposal to accelerate what is now the time-consuming process under which a death-row inmate may appeal his sentence.

But Brown described Clinton’s decision earlier this year to order the execution of a man whose lawyer claimed he was retarded as a “moral abomination.” He contended that the proposal to limit death-penalty appeals was part of a “systematic erosion of civil liberties” and said: “I would oppose it with every ounce that I have.”

Brown said he would favor a five-year moratorium on the manufacture of handguns. But Clinton, while describing himself as an advocate of gun control, said he was unsure whether he could embrace such an approach.

On Israel, Clinton defended what he described as a longstanding U.S. willingness to “wink” at Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank and criticized the Bush Administration’s recent get-tough policy. But Brown bluntly said he regarded the settlements as “a problem.”

Asked about an issue important to labor unions, the two candidates made clear that their allegiance pulled them in different directions.

Clinton said he would favor placing young people in jobs of all kinds as part of a civilian corps to give them training for the future.

But Brown warned that the low wages paid to such employees would undermine working people and suggested that any such corps be limited to outdoor conservation efforts.

March 19 (UPI) — A 20-year-old student from University of Alabama reported missing in Barcelona, Spain, after an evening at a nightclub was found dead Thursday, authorities announced.

Barcelona police said the body of James “Jimmy” Gracey of Elmhurst, Ill., was found on Somorrostro beach near the Shoko Barcelona nightclub where he was last seen, a representative from the Barcelona police said in a statement to CNN.

“Everything points to it being an accident, not a criminal act,” the statement said.

CBS News reported slightly different details about where Gracey’s body was found, saying authorities recovered his body after sending out boats, divers and drones to search the sea.

The El Periódico newspaper in Spain reported that sources told them Gracey’s wallet was found floating in the sea, but officials have not confirmed it.

Gracey traveled to Spain for spring break to visit friends studying abroad. His family said he visited Shoko Barcelona, a nightclub near the Villa Olimpica area, Monday and disappeared early Tuesday morning after being separated from his friends at the club.

The family said he was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, dark pants that were likely joggers and a gold chain with a rhinestone cross. He is 6 feet 1 inches tall and about 175 pounds.

Gracey’s family released a statement after news of his discovery was released.

“We are so grateful for the kindness and concern that has been shown for our family during this incredibly difficult time,” the statement read. “We have made the decision to pause media interviews at this time to focus on being together and caring for one another. Thank you for respecting our privacy and holding our family in your thoughts.

Before his body was found, Gracey’s aunt, Beth Marren O’Reilly, told NBC News that his “parents got a phone call that his phone was picked up, and that’s what drove them to be worried.”

Shoko Nightclub told CBS News Chicago that it has given the security video of that night to local police.

Cavin McLay, junior and president of the university’s Theta Chi fraternity, said he learned from a friend that Gracey was missing, NBC reported. He said he was told that a group at the club got separated, “and that was the last time they saw him.”

“My heart sank to my stomach. It’s definitely not a good text to wake up to,” he said.

The group that Gracey was out with said they didn’t have any encounters that made them worried for their safety before Gracey disappeared, McLay told NBC.

McLay said he was not staying with the same group of friends as Gracey and that there are about 10 friends visiting for spring break.

“Jimmy is a kind, responsible and devoted son and brother,” his parents, Taras and Therese Gracey, said in a statement. “It is completely out of character for him not to check in with family and friends.”

“He’s a great big brother, he’s a great son, he’s a great nephew, he’s just very beloved,” O’Reilly said. “He’s a very responsible kid, which is why we’re very worried. This is pretty out of character for him not to be in touch with friends and family.”

The U.S. Department of State is helping the family, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he has been in touch with the family.

“UA staff are in touch with the family and those associated with them to offer support and assistance in any way possible,” a spokesperson from the university said.

Huw Edwards touted himself as a bastion of righteousness and good but behind closed doors he led a depraved double life that destroyed the lives of those around him

Huw Edwards presented himself as the trusted voice of the nation, but off-screen he lived a secret life of depravity.

Married for 31 years, the Welsh BBC newsreader was welcomed into homes each night and anchored some of the country’s most seismic events – including the death of the late Queen Elizabeth. He reported on downfalls, scandals and abuses of power. But little did viewers know that he, too, was guilty of his own trangressions.

It started with a report in The Sun alleging he had paid a you for sexual pictures. The Met Police investigated but found no evidence of crime. Then came accusations that he inappropriately messaged a freelance journalist, a sixth-form student and other staff at the BBC. Finally, he was arrested after police learned indecent images of children had been sent to his phone by convicted sex offender, Alex Williams. He pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and was given just six months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a requirement to complete a sex offender programme.

Slowly, a picture began to emerge of a middle-aged man who became obsessed with social media and its ability to bring him both adoration and sexual connection with men and women. As his wife Vicky Flind struggled to care for her ailing mother, Edwards – who was described as a ‘volatile’ man with a ‘history of agitation’ – instead looked to his phone for cheap thrills.

In a report, Dr Appleyard, a Forensic Psychosexual therapist, told a September 2024 court hearing: “His social media engagement presented as an easy way to manage his low mood and provided him with a number of men and women who were motivated to be sexual with him which not only boosted his fragile self esteem but allowed him to re-engage with his sexual interest in men which had been managed since 1994.

“The feelings of being desirable and unseen alongside Mr. Edwards’ unresolved sexual orientation created a perfect storm where he engaged in sexual infidelities”

Now, the sordid saga is being retold in Channel 5 drama, Power: The Downfall Of Huw Edwards. Martin Clunes stars as Edwards, and executive producer Sam Anstiss has compared reading the raft of text messages sent by Edwards to “going into the heart of darkness.”

“Because here in these messages was, in the most visceral, disturbing way, a very imbalanced relationship of power. They were so disturbing. It was, ‘I love you, but you kill me’,” she told The Sun.

Here, the Mirror explores the damning texts Edwards allegedly sent…

‘Payments to young man’

Known in the drama as Ryan Davies, the young man says he was highly vulnerable when Edwards allegedly first asked him for explicit photos and messages.

The scandal erupted in the summer of 2023 when it emerged the man’s mum and stepdad had claimed that Edwards paid £35,000 in return for ‘sordid’ pictures. He later told the Mirror he feels the newsreader took advantage of him. “I want to tell the truth about what happened… I’ve stayed silent for so long to protect Huw, but I feel sick at what has happened,” he said.

The young man, now aged 23 and who wishes to remain anonymous, says he feels like Edwards, 64, ‘groomed’ him after they first connected in 2020. At first, Edwards was not named publicly, but within days his identity was revealed by his wife and he was admitted to hospital due to serious mental health concerns.

The man said he was in a very troubled state of mind when he first contacted the television newsreader. Having fallen out with his mother and step-father, he was sleeping on friends’ sofas and had spent a few nights at a homeless shelter, which he described as ‘scary’. He began sending messages to famous people asking for help. He was in a burger bar in Cardiff when he happened to see Edwards on the TV, so decided to message him on social media.

Edwards was the only person to reply to any of the messages. The man said he didn’t ask for money, but Edwards deposited £500 into his PayPal account, which went towards hotel costs for a few days. The man told the Mirror: “Although it was a friendship at the beginning, it did change. He would say things like, ‘Are you going to do something for me then?’ I needed help, so I did. I feel like he sort of fed on my vulnerability… as he knew I needed the money. I felt like I was being groomed.”

Messages seen by The Sun and shared in its documentary, Huw Edwards: Unmasked, are harrowing reading. In one, he allegedly says, “I want a pic of you totally naked head to toe.” After transferring the fan £2,000, he then rages after receiving only a picture of the young man’s naked top half.

“F*** that. F*** that. Really not impressed by you. I believed you were serious. But you’re not. You chase me for cash. But you then ‘forget’ to deliver. F*** that,” he wrote, according to the publication.

After paying for the young man’s train ticket to London, he allegedly teased: “Then you really would owe me.” But the texts take a dark turn. On New Year’s Eve 2022, the documentary states that he sent a string of abuse to the man. “Stop being a kn*b and talk to me tomorrow when you’re sober.”

“Now listen to me. If you want help in future stop this cr*p OK,” he is said to have raged. “You’ve disappointed me… I regret helping you so much… I should have known… You should know better.”

In the February, the film claims that Edwards unleashed another tirade on the young man after worrying that his payments for sexual images could be exposed. “You’re a disaster area,” he is said to have raged. “Why does this happen all the time??!??… Im with family stop being a pain… I’m sick of you getting into a mess all the time… Don’t be stupid… My Monzo is easily traceable. I can do PayPal nothing else.”

“You are really really really trying my patience,” he allegedly continued. “I don’t need this f***ing sh*t… Delete these messages if it’s not your phone OK???… Send me your Monzo details you idiot… You make me so angry… WTF you talking about you f***ing disaster… Go f**k yourself. Get f***ing real. Tell you what. I’ll stop helping you then you can see what no care is. F**k you. You’re an ungrateful t**t.”

Edwards then seemingly softens, apparently adding: “I f***ing love you…but you kill me x” and “I love you seriously x… I will never end you. You idiot. You know that. X… Next time in Cardiff you need to see me x… Good boy… Don’t forget. I love you x”

But there was yet another alleged outburst after the young man called him in the night. “I can’t trust you to respect my situation,” the News at 10 anchor reportedly fumed. “Now leave me alone. Actually calling me at 2am? F**k that. Calling me at 2am even when I told you to stop ?????? You’re so f***ing out of order. Grow up. Just grow up. And when someone helps you – show respect.”

The man told The Mirror how Edwards messaged on an unknown number In October just one month before he was arrested – but was left “staggered” by his reaction. The man said: “I think it was about two weeks before he got arrested. The message said ‘guess who’ or something like that.

“The message said ‘don’t say my name on here… just call me’. So I phoned him and he said download the messaging app Signal. And he said we can catch up on there.” The man said he was staggered by Edwards’ demeanour on the call, adding: “He said, ‘What’s been going on? I really care about you’. He had no remorse for anything at all.”

It was the final time they spoke. A month later Edwards was arrested over the indecent images on his phone in an unrelated case. He stood down from the BBC in April 2024.

‘Strange messages to journalist’

The Express’ assistant politics editor Sam Stevenson has shared his experience of a message exchange with Edwards.

When Sam started his journalism career five years ago, he was keen to make contacts and keep up-to-date with the rolling news cycle. His first port of call was to follow as many “leading industry figures” as he could on Twitter, now X. He said he wanted to follow those he “respected” and “hoped to one day emulate”.

Sam claimed that within minutes of following Edwards, he was followed back “much to his delight”. He stated that he “couldn’t have been more thrilled” to have “perhaps the most famous news anchor in Britain” acknowledge him. Edwards is said to have sent Sam a message just “seconds later”.

It reportedly read: “Latecomers are welcome, Sam” followed by a praying hands and a yellow smirking face emoji. Sam recalled being on holiday at the time and excitedly sharing the news that Edwards had sent him a direct message to his family. He admitted to wondering why “a high-profile celebrity 32 years my senior, with almost 200,000 followers versus my measly 1,000, want to speak to me”.

Sam replied: “Haha, thanks for the follow, Huw! Big fan of your work” alongside a thumbs up emoji. Edwards is said to have reacted to Sam’s message with a thumbs up emoji and added: “Thanks, Sam. Keep in touch. H.”

Writing in the Express, Sam said: “At that moment, I was not sure what to make of it. My immediate thought was what an excellent new contact I had just made. But, knowing what we do now, perhaps the reality was something more sinister. On reflection later that day, it was clear from his playful and casual manner, the coquettish nature of his initial message, the liberal emoji use, the over-familiarity coming seemingly at random, and the plea to ‘keep in touch’, that something was off.”

Sam admitted to feeling “somewhat uneasy” that the “playful tone” had “came from somebody who was so well-respected”. He said: “It did not feel right. Then, the penny dropped. Huw Edwards, the Huw Edwards, was privately flirting with me. Looking back, it makes my blood run cold.” The journalist ended by writing: “For my part, I am relieved I managed to avoid him. Others were not so lucky.”

Sixth-form student ‘exchange’

Welsh TV channel SC4 launched its own investigation into the scandal and interviewed a young man who said he met Edwards while he was performing in a concert. He was an 18-year-old sixth-form pupil and Edwards was the compere.

“I was in my school uniform. He came up to me at the end of the concert and said hello, that the performance was really good. He told me I was very talented. He was interested to have some sort of contact with me,” the student claimed. “He told me if I wanted to come to London to meet him, he could give me a tour of the BBC and maybe meet a couple of musical contacts.”

The pair connected on Instagram and the teen travelled to the London to visit the BBC but began to suspect that Edwards’ intentions were not admirable. In messages shown by the channel, Edwards signed off messages with a kiss or a heart. In one, Edwards wrote: “Yeah, OK big boy, we believe you.”

“I think it’s clear he was trying to groom me, trying to pull me in,” the young man said. After a few months, however, Huw stopped answering his messages and stopped following him. “He just lost interest in me, I wasn’t giving him what he was looking for,” the student added.

Junior BBC employee ‘sickened’

Victoria Derbyshire shared details about how an ex junior staffer – whose story featured on Newsnight – “felt sick” upon hearing Edwards had child sexual abuse images on WhatsApp. According to Derbyshire, the former employee was in their mid 20s when Edwards allegedly messaged then on Instagram.

Posting on her X account, Derbyshire wrote: “Here’s what they told me IN FULL today: Huw Edwards messaged me on social media several times, despite us having never met and not knowing each other. Many of these messages were clearly inappropriate, including telling me unprompted what he was doing in the early hours of the morning, asking that I take him for food, and including several kisses at the end of his messages. I was quite junior in the BBC at the time, so just tried to play them off and not pay too much attention to them.

“At the time I was confused as to why he was sending such messages to me, but I had heard stories of other younger employees in the BBC having similar experiences with him. That is why I first got in touch with Newsnight: when the original Sun story came out, I felt like the extent of this inappropriate behaviour was likely more widespread than I knew. I didn’t contribute to the subsequent internal BBC inquiry, mostly as I felt I had already come forward and told the important parts of my story to Newsnight and was very busy at the time. It was not because of a lack of trust in the BBC.

“I didn’t report the inappropriate messages at the time when I was working at the BBC, mostly because I had other important things going on in my life that year, not because of a lack of confidence over the efficacy of raising such concerns.”

Freelance reporter ‘bedroom invite’

He was in Windsor at the height of lockdown restrictions to report on the funeral of Prince Philip when Edwards allegedly tried to get a freelance BBC reporter to his hotel room.

The anonymous employee claims he had initially connected with Edwards on Instagram before switching to WhatsApp, where he says they sent hundreds of messages between April 2021 and August 2022.

The reporter claimed that when told he lived in a house-share, Edwards said: “So I could pop in to have some tea?” and a few days after the funeral, he tried again, suggesting, “‘Or I can come to yours.”

On the eve of the funeral – where the late Queen was forced to mourn her husband alone because of Covid restrictions – Edwards allegedly sent him a picture of his hotel room, featuring just one bed, with the caption: “Missed a good night. You could have stayed here.”

The BBC worker told the Daily Mail: “He sent me a picture of his hotel room. I felt it was very suggestive. There were lockdown restrictions at the time. The Covid rules about households not mixing were still in force, the Queen was all alone on the pews at Philip’s funeral, and then Boris [Johnson] got a hammering for the parties in No.10 – and that was the same night Huw Edwards suggested I stay in his hotel room.

“Afterwards he said I had missed a good night.”

March 19 (UPI) — The number of cases of meningitis in Kent has risen to 27, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency reported.

There are 15 confirmed cases, and 12 suspected cases, meaning health professionals suspect the illness based on symptoms.

Two people have died since the outbreak began: One high school student and a college student at the University of Kent.

“What is particularly remarkable about this case, and unexpected about this case, is the large number of cases all originating from what seems to be a single event,” Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, told The Guardian.

Officials believe some students picked up the disease at Club Chemistry, a nightclub in Canterbury.

“There are two possible reasons for that,” May said. “One is that there might be something about the kind of behaviors that individual people are doing. The other possibility is the bacteria itself may have evolved to be better at transmitting.”

Students at the university are being given preventive antibiotics and vaccines effective against the strain of meningitis B. Officials have given 600 vaccines and 6,500 doses of antibiotics.

Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent confirmed that a student had meningitis, and four schools have seen confirmed cases.

The UKHSA said there was one student with meningitis at a college in London whose case was linked to the Kent outbreak.

Meningitis is an infection of the protective lining of the brain and spinal cord. It can be caused by bacteria or viruses. Meningitis B is caused by the Neisseria meningitidis bacteria, which is also called meningococcus.

Doctors in England were told on Wednesday to prescribe antibiotics to anyone who was at Club Chemistry between March 5 and 7 and to University of Kent students who had left the campus.

“Two doses of the MenB vaccine helps protect individuals against meningococcal B disease,” but not other strains of meningitis, said Trish Mannes, UKHSA regional deputy director for the south east, in a statement. “It is therefore still hugely important that people are aware of the signs and symptoms of invasive meningococcal disease and that they seek immediate medical attention if they or anyone they know develops these signs and symptoms.”

The UKHSA said the National Health Service was well stocked with vaccines after pharmacies reported they were struggling to get them.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC there is no reason for people to buy it privately.

“We make it available through the NHS to those groups at risk based on independent scientific advice,” he said.

“In recent days, here in Canterbury we’ve made it more widely available than we normally would to targeted groups of students, club-goers, sixth-formers [older teens] where we think there is a higher risk. We’re doing this as a precaution.”

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court broke new ground this month when it ruled the Constitution forbids school policies in California that prevent parents from being told about their child’s gender transition at school.

But the reach of this new parental right remains unclear.

Does it mean all parents have a right to be informed if their child is using a new name and pronouns at school?

Or is the right limited to parents who inquire and object to being “shut out of participation in decisions involving their children’s mental health,” as the high court said in Mirabelli vs. Bonta.

Both sides in this legal battle accuse the other of creating confusion and uncertainty. And that dispute has not subsided.

UC Davis law professor Aaron Tang says understanding the Supreme Court’s order calls for a close reading of the statewide injunction handed down by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego.

That order prohibits school employees from “misleading” or “lying” to parents. It did not say school officials and teachers had a duty to contact parents whenever they saw that a student changed their appearance or used a new name, he said.

By clearing this order to take effect, the Supreme Court’s decision “means that schools must tell parents the truth about their child’s gender presentation at school if the parents request that information,” Tang said.

“But the initial burden is on the parents. This is not a rule that schools have an affirmative obligation to inform any and all parents if their child is presenting as a different gender,” he said.

The high court’s 6-3 order also indicated the reach of the judge’s injunction was limited.

It “does not provide relief for all the parents of California public school students, but only those parents who object to the challenged policies or seek religious injunctions.”

Religious conservatives who sued say they seek to end “secret transition” policies that encourage students to adopt a new gender identity without their parents knowing about the change.

The lawsuit challenging California’s “parental exclusion” policies was first filed by two teachers in Escondido.

Peter Breen, an attorney for the Thomas More Society, said many of the parents in Escondido “had no clue” their children were undergoing a gender transition at school.

“We need to activate parents,” he said.

Ruling for them, Benitez said the state’s “parental exclusion policies are designed to create a zone of secrecy around a school student who expresses gender incongruity.”

His injunction also said schools must notify their employees that “parents and guardians have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their public school child expresses gender incongruence.”

The Supreme Court’s order cited a dramatic example of nondisclosure.

Two parents who joined the suit had gone to parent-teacher meetings and learned only after their eighth-grade daughter attempted suicide that she had been presenting as a boy at school and suffered from gender dysphoria.

John Bursch, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, argues the Supreme Court’s opinion goes further to empower parents.

“Fairly read, the Mirabelli opinion creates an affirmative obligation on school officials to disclose,” he said. “It’s consistent with the way [the court] describes the parental right: ‘the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health.’ School officials’ silence (rather than lying) is not notice to and is shutting out parents.”

“All that said, the California attorney general is obviously not getting that message,” Bursch said.

He said the Supreme Court needs to go beyond an emergency order and fully decide a case that squarely presents the issue of parents rights.

“School officials should not be socially transitioning children without parental notice and consent. Period,” he said.

He filed an appeal petition with the Supreme Court in a case from Massachusetts that dissenting Justice Elena Kagan described as a “carbon copy” of the California dispute.

It takes only four votes to grant review of a case, but since November, the justices have repeatedly considered the case of Foote vs. Ludlow and taken no action.

The case is set to be considered again on Friday in the court’s private conference.

Meanwhile, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta went back to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking a clarification to limit the potential sweep of Benitez’s order.

He objected to the part of the judge’s order that said schools must post a notice that “parents and guardians have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their public school student child expresses gender incongruence.”

Bonta said that goes beyond what the Supreme Court approved.

This “could be understood to suggest that public school officials have an affirmative constitutional duty to inform parents whenever they observe a student’s expression of ‘gender incongruence,’ effectively imposing a mandatory ‘see something, say something’ obligation in all circumstances,” he said.

But the 9th Circuit said it would not act until he first presented this request to Benitez.

Meanwhile, transgender rights advocates say the voices and the views of students have been ignored.

“This case has been about states’ and parents’ rights but students have been left out of the conversation. Their voices have not been heard at all,” said Andrew Ortiz, an attorney for the Transgender Law Center. “School should be a place where young people can feel safe and confident they can confide in a teacher.”

“We’re hearing about fear and anxiety,” said Jorge Reyes Salinas, communications director for Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization.

“There are students who are unable to speak with their parents. Teachers can encourage them to have a conversation with their parents. But this will weaken the trust they have in their teachers,” he said.

In the past, the court had been wary of reaching into the public schools to decide on education policies and the curriculum, but it took a significant step in that direction last year.

In a Maryland case, the court said religious parents had a right to “opt out” their young children from classes that read “LGBTQ+-inclusive” storybooks.

The 1st Amendment protects the “free exercise of religion” and “government schools … may not place unconstitutional burdens on religious exercise,” wrote Justice Samuel A. Alito, the lone conservative who attended public schools.

The same 6-3 majority cited that precedent to block California school policies that protect the privacy of students and “conceal” information from inquiring parents if the student does not consent.

But the California case went beyond the religious-rights issue in the Maryland “opt out” case because it included a “subclass of parents” who objected without citing religion as the reason.

The justices ruled for them as a matter of parents’ rights.

“Parents — not the state — have primary authority with respect to the upbringing and education of children,” the court said.

That simple assertion touches on a sensitive issue for both the conservative and liberal wings of the court. It rests on the 14th Amendment’s clause that says no state may “deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”

In the past, a liberal majority held that the protection for “liberty” included rights to contraceptives, abortion and same-sex marriages.

Conservatives fiercely objected to what was dubbed “substantive due process.”

In the California case, Kagan, speaking for the liberals in dissent, tweaked the conservatives for recognizing a new constitutional right without saying where it came from.

“Anyone remotely familiar with recent debates in constitutional law will understand why: Substantive due process has not been of late in the good graces of this Court — and especially of the Members of today’s majority,” she wrote.

She noted that when the court struck down the right to abortion in the Dobbs case, Justice Clarence Thomas said he would go further and strike down all the rights that rest on “substantive due process.”

In response to Kagan, Justice Amy Coney Barrett filed a concurring opinion that staked out a moderate conservative position.

Since 1997, the court has said it would stand behind rights that were “deeply rooted in the nation’s history and tradition,” she wrote. That includes “a parent’s right to raise her child … and the right to participate in significant decisions about her child’s mental health.”

She said California’s “non-disclosure policy” is unconstitutional and violates the rights of parent because it applies “even if parents expressly ask for information about their child’s gender identification,” she wrote.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh signed on to her opinion.

While Kagan dissented on procedural grounds, she did not disagree with bottom-line outcome.

“California’s policy, in depriving all parents of information critical to their children’s health and well-being, could have crossed the constitutional line,” she said. “And that would entitle the parents, at the end of the day, to relief.”

Aden Holloway, the second-leading scorer for the Alabama men’s basketball team, was arrested Monday on a felony drug charge and may not be available for the Crimson Tide during March Madness, pending the university’s investigation into the matter.

Alabama coach Nate Oats said that after he told his players about the situation, the team went out and had “a really good practice” four days ahead of its first-round NCAA tournament game against Hofstra.

“Aden’s one of our guys, and everybody wants to wrap their arms around [him],” Oats said Monday during an appearance on the Crimson Tide Sports Network. “Everybody makes some mistakes in life, but [the players] also understand we’ve got to move on … and the team’s got to go play Friday.

“So I thought we did a good job of that this morning, kind of addressing the situation, what we currently knew at the time, and got our guys focused on practice.”

Holloway’s arrest came after the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force searched a residence near campus and “recovered more than a pound of marijuana, paraphernalia and cash,” the Tuscaloosa Police Department said.

The 21-year-old player is facing a first-degree charge of marijuana possession, not for personal use, which is a Class C felony and carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $15,000.

Police said Holloway also will be charged with failure to affix a tax stamp, another felony. Holloway was taken to jail shortly before 10 a.m. and was released less than an hour later on a $5,000 bond.

Alabama said in a statement Monday: “The University is aware of the allegations and is working to gather more information. The student has been removed from campus pending further investigation by the UA Office of Student Conduct.”

Oats said players need to be held accountable if they fail to meet the standards set by the program.

“So, you know, we had to suspend [Holloway] pending the investigation by the UA office of student conduct,” Oats said. “And we’re certainly disappointed in his behavior. But that being said, we still love him. He’s still our guy. We’re helping him get the help he needs, and we’re going to continue to help him whatever way we can.”

Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide, the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region, continues to prepare to face 13th-seeded Hofstra on Friday without a player who averages 16.8 points a game. Sophomore guard Labaron Philon Jr. leads the team with 21.7 points a game, and sixth-year senior Latrell Wrightsell Jr. is averaging 12.8 points.

“I did tell our team, this team more than any team I’ve ever coached is better equipped to handle a situation like this,” Oats said. “I don’t know how many games we went into where we had a game time decision. Guy goes, warms up, and we got to decide whether he’s going to play or not an hour before the game. … We’ve won plenty of games with guys not available, so our guys will be ready to go against Hofstra.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

March 8 (Asia Today) — South Korea plans to introduce a cap on student living expense loans after some university students began using the low-interest funds for stock and cryptocurrency investments.

The Korea Student Aid Foundation said the new loan cap system is expected to take effect next semester to reduce the risk of excessive borrowing among young people.

The agency currently offers living expense loans to undergraduate and graduate students at a fixed interest rate of 1.7%, significantly lower than typical commercial lending rates of about 3% to 4%.

Students who complete at least 12 credits in the previous semester and maintain an average grade of 70 or higher can apply. Borrowers may receive up to 2 million won ($1,490) per semester and are not required to provide documentation explaining how the funds are used.

Some students have used part of the loans as investment capital.

A 26-year-old student at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies said he invested part of his loan in semiconductor stocks.

“The interest rate is around 1% a year, so the burden is small,” he said. “If the investment return is higher than the interest, I felt there was no reason not to try.”

Another student at a four-year university in Jeju said he had previously invested loan funds in bitcoin during a price surge and made a profit. He said he continues to look for investment opportunities while stock markets remain strong.

Experts say the trend reflects both speculative investment behavior and financial pressures faced by young people.

Kim Dae-jong said the loans were originally intended to help students focus on their studies.

“Living expense loans are a public financial program designed to provide minimum support so students can concentrate on school,” Kim said. “Using them as investment funds is far removed from the program’s purpose.”

Loan delinquencies have also increased. According to the foundation, overdue balances rose from 19.2 billion won ($14.3 million) in 2021 to 38.7 billion won ($28.8 million) last year.

The number of delinquent borrowers nearly doubled during the same period, rising from 4,271 to 8,126.

Officials said most students still use the loans for living expenses and academic needs, but financial education programs are required before borrowers apply.

Students must complete an online financial education course that explains repayment obligations and the risks of excessive borrowing.

The foundation said the upcoming loan cap system aims to prevent excessive debt among students, since the loans must eventually be repaid after graduation.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260308010002045

In “Rooster,” a genial comedy premiering Sunday on HBO, Steve Carell, comfortable as an uncomfortable person, plays Greg Russo, the author of a best-selling series of books whose hero is named Rooster. He has come to leafy, fictional Ludlow College to give a reading, but also because it’s where his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive) teaches art history, and because it’s all over school that her husband, Archie (Phil Dunster), a history professor, has left her for Sunny (Lauren Tsai), a graduate student in neuroscience. He’s a concerned father.

“They are light; they are fun. The characters that you like have sex, the ones you don’t get shot in the face,” Greg tells poetry professor Dylan (Danielle Deadwyler) of the “beach read” books he writes, as she ushers him to an auditorium. Unlike his fictional alter ego, Greg is by his own account a self-conscious introvert, heightened by the fact that his ex-wife, Elizabeth (Connie Britton) — “a philanthropist, a pioneer in corporate gender equality and an accomplished CEO” whose name adorns the school’s new student center — left him five years earlier and he never moved on. Additionally, Greg likes nuts and cocoa, can toss a penny into a jar from across a room, and played minor league hockey, which will put him back on skates here.

College president Walter Mann (John C. McGinley) decides it would be “a feather in his cap” to hire a reluctant Greg, “a best-selling author that the parents have actually heard of,” as an artist-in-residence — a deal he makes impossible to refuse by agreeing to keep Katie on staff after she accidentally burns down Archie’s house. (She was only trying to burn his first edition of “War & Peace.”) It’s a role quite like the one McGinley played/plays on “Scrubs,” but more politic and better dressed, when dressed — he takes meetings in his backyard sauna.

And they’re off.

Poetry professor Dylan (Danielle Deadwyler) and author Greg (Steve Carell) become colleagues when Greg is named artist-in-residence.

(Katrina Marcinowski / HBO)

The series was created by Bill Lawrence (“Ted Lasso,” “Shrinking,” “Scrubs,” “Bad Monkey”) and frequent collaborator Matt Tarses, and as men of at least a certain age, the view is slanted from experience back toward innocence; students play a secondary, though not insignificant role in the story. There are some pro forma jokes about the sensitivities of the young, with Greg getting into not-very-hot water over misunderstood references to “white whale” and the Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian.” (“Liberal arts college used to be havens for free thought, Greg,” says Walt. “When did you and I become the bad guys?”) Not that the olds are reliably smart about life — the ways in which they’re not power the series — but they have a better notion of where they’re stupid.

“No one must be humiliated,” Greg says to Archie, quoting Chekhov, as Archie goes off to talk to Katie. (The quote is in the animated opening titles as well, so you can take it as important.) But no one here is out to humiliate anyone, which is nasty and unkind and not at all the sort of humor Lawrence trades in. Of course, characters will be put into embarrassing positions, or embarrass themselves, embarrassment being the root of all comedy, or near enough. (There’s a good bit of slapstick knitted in.) And though we’re told that “there are real villains lurking around this place,” niceness reigns — at least through the six episodes, of 10, available to review — with the possible exception of Alan Ruck as the dean of English. (“There’s no way she wrote all these poems,” he says of Emily Dickinson.)

Though there are couples, and ex-couples and new couples, one doesn’t necessarily feel invested in their getting together, or staying together, or getting back together. Indeed, as in other Lawrence projects — which typically feature divorced or separated characters — romance is a sort of side dish, less the issue than whether people are managing to treat one another well. We knew Ted Lasso wasn’t going to get his wife back, but it wasn’t the point (nor was winning games, really); kindness was what mattered. Greg’s possibly pre-romantic friendship with Dylan is no more significant than his cross-generational friendship with a group of goofball students (led by Maximo Solas as Tommy); they treat each other as peers, while knowing they aren’t. He teaches them that peanut butter can make celery better, and they teach him that he’s cooler than he thinks.

Katie, who says she still loves Archie — who says he still loves her — will also call him “a run-of-the-mill narcissistic a— who sometimes smells like wildflowers.” (As for Sunny, practical and deadpan — that no one gets her jokes is a running joke — not even Archie can see what she sees in him, a problem you might have as well, but, as is true of most everyone here, we’re not meant to merely write him off. Funny secondary characters, who get some of the best business, notably include Rory Scovel as a cop who can’t keep track of his gun, Robby Hoffman as Sunny’s intense, anti-Archie roommate and Annie Mumolo (co-writer of “Bridesmaids”) as Walt’s arch assistant.

Old-but-not-that-old-fashioned, “Rooster” has a tinge of Gen X nostalgia, underscored by the ’80s college radio classics that line the soundtrack. (R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe co-wrote and sings the series’ theme, and Greg, drunk and in a mood, will kill a party getting the DJ to play “Everybody Hurts.” Directed by Jonathan Krisel (“Portlandia,” “Baskets”), it’s low stakes, soft-edged, humane, basically gentle, a little fantastic, a little farcical, well cast and well played in every instance — qualities I happen to like, and maybe you do, too.

A pimp whose sex worker allegedly advertised on social media that she was willing to be anything from “arm candy” for a party to a “no strings attached girlfriend” has been charged with a slew of criminal charges in Kern County Superior Court.

The alleged pimp, Kevin Mays, was an assistant men’s basketball coach and former player at Cal State Bakersfield.

Mays faces 11 charges, including pimping, possession of automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines, and possession of methamphetamine and marijuana with intent to sell. An investigation by the Bakersfield Police Department also led to separate charges citing Mays for possession of more than 600 images of youth or child pornography and distribution of obscene matter involving someone younger than 18.

Mays, who was arrested in September 2025, is being held without bail. He has pleaded not guilty, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 13 .

The case, first reported by Shwetha Surendran of ESPN, has upended the athletic department at CSU Bakersfield. Longtime basketball coach Rod Barnes and athletic director Kyle Condor have left their jobs, and Condor filed a lawsuit against the school alleging wrongful termination, according to court documents obtained by The Times.

CSU Bakersfield officials said the allegations against Mays did not involve a student. Nevertheless, the school formed a commission to examine the athletic program and recommend changes.

“When CSU Bakersfield received an anonymous report in August of 2025 that a member of our coaching staff was engaged in human trafficking, we took immediate action in notifying university police and the Bakersfield Police Department,” the school wrote in a statement. “Both agencies launched investigations that resulted in an arrest within days. Shortly after, the university terminated the coach.

“But the nature of the allegations devastated our campus community. We seized the opportunity to strengthen education and prevention efforts around human trafficking. To that end, we consulted with a local human trafficking expert and offered training and education focused on awareness and prevention for our campus community.”

Police said the alleged victim is 23. In the advertisement she posted last summer, she stated that she charged $300 for a half hour and $500 for 60 minutes. Authorities conducted a sting operation in September, arranging to meet her in a hotel room that Mays rented.

In an interview with police after the operation, she referred to Mays as her boyfriend and said he paid for her travel accommodations in Oregon, Washington and Nevada in addition to California.

Those locations were listed in an anonymous email to Barnes last fall titled “IMPORTANT MESSAGE 911 911.”

“HE IS TRAFFICKING A GIRL BY THE NAME OF [redacted],” the email read, according to police records. “HE HAS BEEN TRAFFICKING THIS GIRL SINCE MAY.”

Barnes turned over the email to university police, who attempted to contact the sender and received a subsequent email, according to ESPN. The tipster claimed to have known the alleged victim and Mays through previous travel for sex work. The person said Mays presented himself as a professional gambler and allegedly threatened to take away the tipster’s child if the person exposed his activities.

Mays, who was born in Queens, N.Y., attended high school at St. John’s Military Academy in Delafield, Wis., and played at Odessa Community College in Odessa, Texas, before transferring to CSU Bakersfield ahead of the 2014-2015 season.

“We are excited about signing Kevin as he fits our culture,” Barnes said of Mays at the time.

A year later, as a senior forward, Mays helped CSU Bakersfield to a 24-10 record and scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the Roadrunners’ first-round NCAA tournament loss to Oklahoma. He later returned to the school as a player-development coordinator.

In his application for the player-development position in 2019, Mays wrote that he was motivated by helping players improve on and off the court, according to school records obtained by ESPN.

“I gained lots of experience dealing with learning to lead young men and help them navigate the Division I experience in a successful manner,” Mays wrote. “CSUB helped me tremendously, and I look forward to giving back.”

Barnes was Mays’ coach, and he hired his former player last fall, paying him $3,000 a month. Now, Mays is in jail awaiting trial and Barnes is unemployed.

“The safety and well-being of our students and all CSU Bakersfield community members remain our highest priority,” the school said in its statement. “This work is sustained every day by the dedication of our faculty, staff and students. Their commitment to one another and to our shared values strengthens the culture of care and accountability we strive to build at CSUB.”

WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court revived a San Diego judge’s order Monday and said parents have a right to know about their child’s gender identity at school.

The decision came in a 6-3 order granting an emergency appeal from lawyers for Chicago-based Thomas More Society.

They said the student privacy policy enforced in California infringes parents’ rights and the free exercise of religion.

“The parents object that these policies prevent schools from telling them about their children’s efforts to engage in gender transitioning at school unless the children consent to parental notification,” the court said. “The parents also take issue with California’s requirement that schools use children’s preferred names and pronouns regardless of their parents’ wishes.”

The judge’s injunction “does not provide relief for all the parents of California public school students, but only for those parents who object to the challenged policies or seek religious exemptions,” the justices added.

The six conservatives were in the majority, while the three liberals dissented.

Religious liberty advocates hailed the decision.

“Parents’ fundamental right to raise their children according to their faith doesn’t stop at the schoolhouse door,” said Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “California tried cutting parents out of their children’s lives while forcing teachers to hide the school’s behavior from parents. We’re glad the Court stepped in to block this anti-family, anti-American policy.”

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had put on hold a late December ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, who held that the student privacy rules enforced by California school officials were unconstitutional.

“Parents and guardians have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their public school student child expresses gender incongruence,” Benitez wrote. “Teachers and school staff have a federal constitutional right to accurately inform the parent or guardian of their student when the student expresses gender incongruence.”

Escondido public schoolteachers Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, who described themselves as “devout Catholics,” sued in 2023, and they were later joined by parents in Pasadena and Clovis.

The Supreme Court’s ruling refers only to the parents.

The parents who brought the case “have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs,” the court said.

The court added: “Gender dysphoria is a condition that has an important bearing on a child’s mental health, but when a child exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria at school, California’s policies conceal that information from parents and facilitate a degree of gender transitioning during school hours.”

“This is a watershed moment for parental rights in America,” said Paul M. Jonna, special counsel at Thomas More Society. “The Supreme Court has told California and every state in the nation in no uncertain terms: you cannot secretly transition a child behind a parent’s back.”

The 9th Circuit had agreed with the state’s attorneys who said the judge had misstated California law.

“The state does not categorically forbid disclosure of information about students’ gender identities to parents without student consent,” they said in a 3-0 decision.

“For example, guidance from the California Attorney General expressly states that schools can ‘allow disclosure where a student does not consent where there is a compelling need to do so to protect the student’s wellbeing,’ and California Education Code allows disclosure to avert a clear danger to the well-being of a child.”

In their parents’ rights appeal to the Supreme Court, attorneys said school employees are secretly encouraging gender transitions.

“California is requiring public schools to hide children’s expressed transgender status at school from their own parents — including religious parents — and to actively facilitate those children’s social transitions over their parents’ express objection,” they told the court.

“Right now, California’s parental deception scheme is keeping families in the dark and causing irreparable harm. That’s why we’re asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene immediately,” Jonna wrote in his appeal. “Every day these gender secrecy policies stay in effect, children suffer and parents are left in the dark.”

California state attorneys had urged the court to put the case on hold while it is under appeal.

They said the judge’s order “appears to categorically bar schools across the State from ever respecting a student’s desire for privacy about their gender identity or expression — or respecting a student’s request to be addressed by a particular name or pronouns—over a parent’s objection.”

They said the order “would allow no exceptions, even for extreme cases where students or teachers reasonably fear that the student will suffer physical or mental abuse.”

Forfeits by high school boys’ soccer teams in the City Section and Southern Section playoffs continued Friday as both sections try to deal with violations of CIF Bylaw 600, which prohibits players from participating in outside leagues during their sports season.

Calabasas pulled out of the Southern Section Division 3 championship because of an ineligible player. Chavez became the sixth City Section school eliminated from the playoffs for using an ineligible player and was replaced by Chatsworth for the City Division I final.

There’s also an allegation about another Southern Section team that could result in another forfeit in the final.

Some high schools thought they had found a solution by not allowing players to play until after their club seasons ended in early December. Cathedral had several players miss its first three games because of several big club tournaments in November and early December.

“You communicate to students and parents,” Cathedral coach Arturo Lopez said. “Unfortunately, there’s more and more academies now.”

Ron Nocetti, the executive director of the CIF, said, “I think we have to have conversations with our sections.”

CIF membership repeatedly has rejected the proposal of getting rid of Bylaw 600. Schools don’t want to have their coaches battling it out weekly with club coaches, which also would place additional pressure on athletes dealing with school work and then having to do double workouts.

The balancing act for students already is tough enough, with the amount of club teams growing in a lot of sports because it’s a lucrative business. The CIF briefly suspended the rule during the pandemic in 2020 but quickly reinstated it.

The problem is club soccer programs are holding competitions in the middle of the high school season, and players, knowing the rule that you can’t play high school and club at the same time, apparently have decided to try to do both with the hope of not getting caught.

This year, they are getting caught. Emails alleging violations started arriving to City Section commissioner Vicky Lagos before the semifinals. If a player is found to have played club, the high school team has to forfeit, and if it happens during the playoffs, the team is eliminated.

Usually the pressure is on schools to make sure rules are not violated, but for Bylaw 600, schools can do everything right and still be punished for a player violating the rule on their own.

Several leagues are expected to present proposals to get rid of Bylaw 600. Nocetti said membership might be open to adopting changes.

“Maybe this is a tipping point for schools saying maybe it’s time to make a big change with the rule,” he said.