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Oct. 29A University of Minnesota gymnast is suing the school for sex discrimination over its decision last year to eliminate the mens gymnastics team.

An incoming freshman last year, Evan Ng still was home in Chicago because of the coronavirus pandemic when he learned on a Sept. 10, 2020 conference call that his first year as a Division I athlete would be his last.

Besides mens gymnastics, the U's Board of Regents in October eliminated mens tennis and indoor track cutting 34 roster spots for male athletes and reduced by 40 the rosters of the womens rowing, track and field and cross country teams.

Eliminating the three mens programs was projected to save an estimated $1.6 million a year at a time when athletics revenue was expected to plummet because of the pandemic. It also was going to help the U balance its number of male and female athletes in order to comply with Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs.

"The men's gymnastics team was cut because the University sought to reduce the number of male athletes in its varsity athletics program. As a result, Evan Ng is no longer a varsity NCAA gymnast at the University of Minnesota solely because of his sex," according to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

Asked whether the sex-discrimination argument has ever succeeded in similar lawsuits, Ng's attorney, Caleb Trotter, said it hadn't. But he's hopeful a win in court could set a precedent that brings back gymnastics and the other mens sports.

"There's a hope, of course, that if we prevail, the University will see the writing on the wall and do the right thing," said Trotter, who works for the Pacific Legal Foundation, a California-based libertarian public interest law firm.

Days before the vote last October, Coach Mike Burns and others presented the Board of Regents with a self-funding proposal, but Athletics Director Mark Coyle said it was "unrealistic" to expect fundraising to sustain the program. The lawsuit says the team was told it was cut for Title IX reasons, not financial.

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The lawsuit asserts Title IX does not require the U to have the same male-female ratios in athletics as it has in the student body at large.

The lawsuit asks a judge to order the U to reinstate the gymnastics program.

A university spokesman said for this article that the decision to eliminate the three sports was difficult.

"Importantly, this lawsuit isn't just about the University. It is a broad challenge to how Title IX has been implemented by the U.S. government across colleges and universities nationwide to achieve equal opportunity. The University has and will always honor its legal obligations," Jake Ricker said by email.

Ng, still enrolled at the U as a sophomore, told reporters Friday that he is suing for not only himself, but also teammates and future Gopher gymnasts.

"I worked my whole life to get where I am today," he said.

The complaint says it would be difficult for Ng to transfer because only 13 Division I schools still offer mens gymnastics, and because he's dealing with a shoulder injury.

Burns and gymnasts have formed a club program to stay in shape in case the team is restored, Trotter said.

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Male gymnast sues UMN, claiming sex discrimination in decision to eliminate team - Yahoo News

Prosecutors are under growing pressure to drop cases against environmental protesters after activists were found guilty of calling the UKs most prominent climate-change sceptics liars.

Three campaigners were found guilty of criminal damage after spraying graffiti on the Westminster office of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. The organisation, which was once chaired by the former chancellor Nigel Lawson, has been criticised by the Charity Commission for breaking rules on impartiality, with critics accusing it of being the UKs most prominent source of climate-change scepticism.

Campaigners, who sprayed the words lies, lies, lies on to the building, received the minimal permissible sentence for criminal damage, a six-month conditional discharge, and were told to pay a reduced court cost of 100. Raj Chada, a solicitor at Hodge Jones & Allen, said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) ought to reevaluate pursuing such cases.

Around 50 Extinction Rebellion activists have had their convictions quashed after peaceful protests, raising questions for the CPS over cases brought against them. Surely, yet again, the CPS needs to consider whether it is in the public interest to prosecute when these are the sentences imposed, Chada said.

Clare Farrell, Jessica Townsend and Rupert Read sprayed the graffiti and poured fake blood down the steps of the building in September 2020. The address is home to a small but influential network of libertarian, pro-Brexit thinktanks and lobby groups. Among those who attend frequent meetings at the Georgian townhouse are pro-Brexit website Brexit Central, the TaxPayers Alliance (TPA) and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), which has been accused of offering donors access to government ministers and civil servants.

Delivering the verdict last Thursday, three magistrates at City of London Magistrates court praised the activists for their openness and honesty.

Townsend said: We feel it is an obscenity that there are those propagating lies that will damage and put at risk the future of our society and our children.

Townsend, an author who co-founded Writers Rebel, a group of writers within Extinction Rebellion including Mark Rylance, Zadie Smith and Juliet Stevenson, added: Writers, journalists and all who deal with words need to counter these lies, false narratives and deliberate confusions with the clarity of the truth.

Actress and author Harriet Walter, who was at the court in support, said: The wrong crime was on trial. Which is the greater crime? Reversible damage to a bit of property or landing our children and grandchildren with irreversible damage to the planet?Jonathan Porritt, former chair of Tony Blairs Sustainable Development Commission, added: This is a disappointing outcome It doesnt make the Global Policy Warming Foundation any less of a bunch of chronic liars.

A spokesperson for the Global Warming Policy Foundation, rebranded online as the Net Zero Watch, said they were campaigning against exaggerated claims that were not based in science. They added that they should be called climate change sceptics, not deniers.

The spokesperson added: No scientist in their right mind claims were facing extinction or we only have 10 years to prevent global catastrophe... These are exaggerated claims that Extinction Rebellion use to scare people. But, you know, we might face significant warming and significant problems. But its not the end of the world, is it?

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Dont put climate activists on trial, CPS urged - The Guardian

As Election Day approaches in Lincoln County, the number of voters utilizing early and absentee voting opportunities was slow but steady.

The Office of the New Mexico Secretary of State reported that 441 Lincoln County voters had cast an early or early in-person absentee ballot.

Of those voters, 266 were Republicans while 126 were Democrats. Forty-six voters declined to state a party affiliation; the remaining voters identified as Libertarian or self-identified as "other."

On Oct. 27, that number was 364, with Lincoln County Republican voters still outpacing Democrats in casting ballots.

More: Your guide to early voting in Lincoln County: 2021 regular local election

More: These candidates are running in the 2021 local election in Lincoln County

Only 16 Lincoln County residents hadutilized same day registration by Oct. 27 and only 92 requests for absentee ballots had been received, according to the data.

By Oct. 28 only two additional voters had opted for same day registration.

Local elections are nonpartisan.

More: 300 early votes cast in Lincoln County

On ballots Nov. 2 is the mayoral seat in the Village of Capitan where Tiffany Menix, Lilly Bradley and Ron Lowrance each sought the position.

Councilor positions are open in Carrizozo and the Village of Corona, while school board positions are open in Capitan, Hondo, Corona, Carrizozo and Ruidoso.

The Village of Ruidoso opted-out of the Local Election Act which aligned local elections with other state and national races.

Formore information on voting contact the Lincoln County Clerk's office at 575-648-2394, extension 6 or visit the website atwww.lincolncoountynm.gov.

Election Day votingoccurs at any of these voting centers in the county from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 2. Any registered voter may vote at any of the voting locations.

Check your voting registration and view a sample ballot online atNMVote.org.

Jessica Onsurez can be reached at jonsurez@gannett.com, @JussGREAT on Twitter at by phone at 575-628-5531.

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Election Day approaches as early voting numbers reach just above 400 - Ruidoso News

Listen clearly to these authentic American voices.

"The main problem is politicians. They divide and conquer," says a Black woman, 75, from Georgia.

"I think we all share this desire that were not going to give up on the Great Experiment," says a white woman, 49, from Maryland.

"Being uneducated, I think that's the number one reason we get divided," says an Asian American man, 40, from California.

These reflections suggest that for all the fierce factionalism, and the signs of fraying and alienation, and the exhibitionist protests, the voices of ordinary people across the United States remain very recognizable.

The statements along with others more negative, spiteful and fatalistic come from voters interviewed for a Siena Research Institute survey of 6,077 Americans from April 23 to May 3.

Sentiments like these might well have been heard from past generations of Americans. They tell us that we the electorate have not all lost our heads quite yet even if the paranoid and extreme style of engagement today hints otherwise.

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Core political values survive in the collective consciousness across age, income and racial lines. People still affirm the ideals of liberty, equality and progress, the poll found. That makes sense, since activists of all kinds these days like to call themselves libertarian or progressive and often evoke equal rights under the law.

Siena pollster Don Levy says that as politically divided as we are, "America still holds a common language consistent with our founding philosophy."

Reconciling those goals with specific policies and behaviors is, of course, the hard part, as is forever the case in America.

Billed as the American Values Survey, and published first in Newsday, Sienas work finds 35% of the electorate to be left of center, 34% right of center, and 31% centrist, having a mixed set of views.

The left-right categories are shaped by responses to hot issues: voting, abortion, banning assault weapons, and proposed citizenship for immigrants.

For those given to fretting about our degree of disagreement, some questions yielded strong majority opinions that suggest that a meaningful consensus can be reached if Congress and state and local legislatures take most people's views to heart.

Sixty-three percent support a path to citizenship for immigrants living in the country illegally. Eighty-four percent favor federal legislation that would both protect voting rights and make it easier to vote. Sixty-one percent favor a federal ban on assault weapons.

The question beyond the survey becomes why these popular actions cannot be taken. That's a matter of party expedience and government control, not illuminated in any poll, but apparent when you follow events in Washington.

Political definition and process dont fit checklists. We know from what we've seen beyond this survey that contrary to what their opponents may say, Republicans dont wish to be seen as creating unneeded hurdles to voting. And contrary to what GOP leaders claim, Democrats do not support "open borders."

There is plenty of space for productive political coalitions that sidestep some people's dramatic dreams of a new Civil War.

In interviews with 90 Long Island candidates of both major parties leading up to Election Day 2021 on Tuesday, the Newsday editorial board heard few assertions that could be called patently exotic or crazy. One could see in the candidates' exchanges where cohesive progress looked possible on taxes, police reform, criminal enforcement, and housing development.

The Siena survey's results illustrate at a glance how people can be discouraged from running for office these days by the unfair reputational abuse they may have to endure.

A 22-year-old Colorado woman, described as an independent, said: "I would say just in general this past election, people were so polarized and now you politically can't really speak what you believe without at least one person in the room deciding that they hate you just because you agree with this political candidate versus this one."

One problem that our enduring political values have not prevented is evident in a question from Siena that its pollsters should never have had to ask:

"Do you think that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump or not?"

A resounding majority of 67% in the tristate area said no, as did 56% nationally. That majority can only grow as the one-year anniversary of Trump's convincing defeat at the polls approaches. In the region, 10% were listed as "unsure," and nationally, 13% said that.

"Are we divided?" asks pollster Levy. "Yes. Do we share core values? Absolutely. Are we proud to be Americans? For the most part. Do we think our great experiment will weather this storm? Were somewhat hopeful, but concerned."

Maybe the mood of the country is moving a notch toward the politically pragmatic despite continuing performance art from those who live for their social media, video and vanity.

If the cultural and political weather changes, the web-driven miasma of political paranoia and random suspicion may not last forever.

The sooner it lifts, the better.

MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD are experienced journalists who offer reasoned opinions, based on facts, to encourage informed debate about the issues facing our community.

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Glimmers of a sane republic - Newsday

BELLEVILLE / NUTLEY, NJ This election season is shaping up to be fairly quiet in Essex County, with few contested elections and foregone conclusions for some of the contested races. The biggest question on the ballot this upcoming Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 2, is the choice for governor.

Democratic incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy, with running mate Lt. Gov. Sheila Y. Oliver, will be facing off against Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli, with running mate Diane Allen. Also running for governor and lieutenant governor are the teams of Joanne Kuniansky and Vivian M. Sahner on the Socialist Workers Party ticket; Madelyn R. Hoffman and Heather Warburton on the Green Party ticket; and Gregg Mele and Eveline Brownstein on the Libertarian Party ticket.

There are also two state public questions for voters to consider; both concern gambling statutes. In the first question, voters are being asked to decide whether the state should pass a constitutional amendment to allow wagering on postseason college sport competitions held in New Jersey and competitions in which a New Jerseybased college team participates. The second question regards whether to allow organizations that are permitted to hold raffles to keep the raffle proceeds to support themselves.

Countywide, voters must elect the sheriff, a three-year term. Running for office are Democratic incumbent Armando B. Fontoura, who has been serving as Essex County sheriff since 1990, and Republican challenger Nicholas G. Pansini.

Residents in the 28th Legislative District must choose between Democratic incumbents and Republican challengers for state Senate and Assembly. The Democratic incumbents are Ronald L. Rice for state Senate and Cleopatra G. Tucker and Ralph Caputo for Assembly. Republican challengers are Frank Contella for state Senate and Monique Headen and Anthony DAngelo for Assembly. Rice has served as a state senator since 1986, and Tucker and Caputo have served as Assembly members since 2008.

In the 29th Legislative District, state Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz, the Democratic incumbent, is running unopposed; Ruiz has served in the state Senate since 2008. Running for the two state Assembly seats are Democratic incumbents Shanique Speight and Eliana Pintor Marin, and independent challenger Debra Salters, who is running under the slogan Salters for All. Speight has been an assemblywoman since 2018 and Pintor Marin since 2013.

The Belleville Board of Education race gives voters a lot of options, with six candidates running for two open seats. Incumbents Christine Lamparello and Nelson Barrera are seeking to reclaim their seats; Barrerra is running under the slogan Keep Progress Going. They will face challengers Nicole Coviello-Daddis under the slogan Bellevilles Children First, Tracy Williams under the slogan Together We Achieve, Lissa Missaggia under the slogan Excellence in Education and Ruben A. Rodriguez.

The Nutley Board of Education race also has a large number of candidates, with seven individuals running for just three open seats. Incumbents Kenneth J. Reilly, under the slogan Keep Your Promises, and Theresa Quirk are seeking reelection. Challengers are Nicholas Scotti under the slogan Nutley Families First, Jeffrey Polewka, Daniel Fraginals under the slogan A New Voice, Joe Battaglia and David Kay under the slogan Putting Kids First.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 2, and there are multiple ways for county residents to vote, such as by mail, early in-person voting, via drop box and in person on the day.

Belleville Board of Education, Belleville election, Election Day, Essex County Election, FEATURED, NJ Election, Nutley Board of Education, Nutley election

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Contested BOE races in Belleville and Nutley this November - Essex News Daily