Tag: sports

Ex-MLB Player and Wife Charged in $60K Youth Baseball Fraud

Ex-Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays player Richard Butler and his wife have been charged in connection with an alleged youth baseball training fraud scheme in Canada.

Between April 1 and Oct. 31 of last year, approximately $60,000 in registration fees for the 2025-2026 Ontario Devil Rays training program was allegedly deposited into a bank account associated with the program, police said in a news release Tuesday.

But funds were later transferred to other accounts associated with the accused couple — Michelle Butler, 52, and former big leaguer Richard Butler, 53, both of Frankford, Ontario.

The registration fees were allegedly not used for the program and the services as agreed on were not provided, police said.

CBC News notes families who paid the registration received an email on Oct. 19, 2025, saying the business had been dissolved due to financial hardship and claiming bankruptcy, police said.

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NCAA sues Ohio governor over his executive order allowing schools to ignore new eligibility rule

The NCAA filed a federal lawsuit against Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday, three days after he signed an executive order giving the state’s universities the option of allowing athletes who graduated from high school in 2022 to play a fifth year in defiance of the organizations’s new eligibility rules.

NCAA President Charlie Baker said the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Ohio, was an “extraordinary step” designed to prevent DeWine from taking a step that would make it “impossible for all schools to compete on a level playing field.”

Under the order, public and private universities in Ohio can allow the Class of ’22 athletes to play, even though the NCAA’s new guidance excludes those who have already played four seasons. The rule, passed in June, is the subject of multiple court fights.

“This Complaint seeks to halt a misguided attempt to give Ohio colleges and universities an unfair, unprecedented and unwarranted competitive advantage in stadiums and arenas throughout the country,” the introduction to the lawsuit reads. “College sports, like all sports, depend on participants following the rules. (DeWine) is attempting to give Ohio institutions a hall pass to break the rules.”

DeWine’s move was the latest in what has become a daily digest of legal maneuverings that are creating new rules on a state-by-state basis.

In reaction to the governor’s move, the Ohio Supreme Court said it would step in and determine the legality of the executive order. As part of that, it paused an appeals court ruling in a case there that had declared the ’22 athletes ineligible. The court asked both sides to file briefs in the case, in which basketball player Filip Borovićanin is the lead plaintiff, by next Monday.

Baker said the NCAA did not believe the Supreme Court’s order did, in fact, declare those players immediately eligible to compete and said it would submit arguments in that case by Monday.

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Wash.: High school cross-country girls walk off track meet, protesting biological male runner

Nearly half of the girls on the Camas High School cross-country team in Camas, Washington, walked off the starting line during a recent meet to protest the inclusion of a biological male runner on their team.

Footage of roughly 13 athletes linking arms and leaving the course quickly went viral, reigniting debate over transgender participation in girls’ sports.

The protest centered on teammate Logan Mihailoff, who notably began the season in the boys’ junior varsity division — placing 76th place at the Ultimook Invitational on September 5th — before transitioning to compete in the girls’ division midseason.

Mihailoff switched from competing in the boys’ division to the girls’ division midseason between September 5th and September 26th.

Competing under Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rules, which permit participation based on gender identity, Mihailoff then placed second out of 195 female runners at the Nike Portland XC Invitational on September 26th, won a dual meet against Union High School on September 29th, and placed second in the subsequent October 8th meet.

Critics have highlighted that allowing biological male athletes to compete displaces female runners who have trained rigorously for team roster spots and standings, while school officials simply argue they are just complying with established state interscholastic policies.

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“Too Combustible”: New York Times Calls For Canceling Sophie Cunningham

The New York Times demonstrated again this week that it remains solidly part of the cancel campaign culture. The Athletic, owned by the Times, joined the mob in calling for the Indiana Fever to dump Sophie Cunningham for publicly opposing biological males playing in women’s sports – a position shared by the vast majority of citizens.

The column by Candace Buckner blames Cunningham for creating a “circus” and says that she is a distraction from the game due to her public stance. So, she is now “too combustible, her takes too “turbulent” to play basketball.

Of course, if she supported transplayers, she would presumably not be combustible but admirable.

Notably, the Times does not view those who have attacked Cunningham and her fans as too “combustible,” including coaches wearing opposing slogans and statements in favor of biological males in women’s sports. The New York Times itself reported that almost 80% of citizens hold the same position as Cunningham.

The Oct. 6 column called on Indiana not to renew Cunningham’s contract after two seasons when she becomes a free agent because she is “too combustible.”

However, the Times does not believe that those coaches and players speaking out in favor of such inclusion are “too combustible.”

There was no call for sacking figures like Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton, who reportedly yelled profanities at girls who were simply supporting women in sports and Cunningham.

Nor was there a call to sack Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve for wearing a T-shirt supporting trans players in a game against the Indiana Fever and Cunningham.

Liberal sentiments are never combustible for the Times. The newspaper ran a long line of columns supporting Colin Kaepernick in his kneeling protests during games. Conversely, columns attacked former player Enes Kanter Freedom for wearing a T-Shirt reading “WOMAN noun. adult human female.”

For most of us, the hatred for Cunningham is baffling. These athletes have a unique perspective on this controversy that can help inform the debate on both sides. We should welcome the insights of athletes for and against transgender players in this national discussion.

Instead, Cunningham has been subject to the same hateful, unhinged attacks that we have seen on other influential figures such as J.K. Rowling. There is no room for civil debate or any difference of opinion.

The purpose of these campaigns is obvious. Even with the vast majority of citizens supporting Cunningham’s position, press and pundits want to deter others from publicly taking such positions. It is designed to chill speech and deter dissent.

On Friday’s episode of “No Hesitation with Sophie Cunningham & Drew Hanlen,” Hanlen correctly called the piece an “absolute hate piece.” Cunningham responded even more succinctly to the Times with “suck it.”

I am not concerned for Cunningham, who has shown great courage and steadfastness in the face of these critics. Rather, it was the latest evidence that the Times has changed little in fueling the mob and canceling opposing voices.

The Times has thrilled the extreme left with its signature relativism in defending any abuse on the left, from looting to murder. It has continued to feature violent extremists as political attacks rise around the country.

The same newspaper that fired editors and denounced Sen. Tom Cotton for his NYT column quelling violent protests would go on to print individuals who have said that they are ok with killing conservatives or capitalists.

Just before the anniversary of the Cotton controversy, the New York Times published a column by University of Rhode Island professor Erik Loomis, who defended the murder of a conservative protester and said that he saw “nothing wrong” with such acts of violence.

After canceling Sen. Cotton, the Times had no problem with publishing the views of a Chinese figure called the enforcer of Beijing in the crushing of protests.

The New York Times is undeterred because its readers seem to value the very hypocrisy revealed in these controversies. They can rely on the Times to offer spins and deflections to relieve them of any self-examination after tragedies like the Kirk assassination.

While denouncing disinformation, the Times has embraced false narratives and continues to publish distorted historical claims.

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Highest Paid Female Athlete in World Making Excess of $33 Million Last Year Says “It’s Hard” for Her Being a Black Woman in the US

Tennis star and mega-millionaire, Coco Gauff, says it’s been difficult for her as a black woman in the United States.

She made the comments back in January at the Australian Open.

Gauff has it so rough that she is the highest-paid female athlete in the country world, despite low name-recognition and no obvious speaking skills.

According to reports, Coco made over $33 million last year. She made $8 million in on-court money and $25 million in endorsements.

It’s been rough.

Interviewer: Congrats. This is a bit of a heavier question to start, but you’re usually pretty outspoken about political issues, and I’m curious how you feel about the state of the US one year into the second Trump administration.

Coco Gauff: I mean, I think I’ve already stated my opinions in the past on how I feel about it. And yeah, I mean, I hope forward that we can have a lot more peace in our country. More kindness when the way we speak to each other about different topics and things like that.

But yeah, obviously I’ve been pretty vocal about how I felt. And yeah, I don’t feel at this point— I feel a bit fatigued talking about it just because of the fact that it is hard.

Also, I think being a Black woman in this country and having to experience things even online and seeing your marginalized communities being affected And knowing that I can only really donate and speak out, and I try my best to do that.

But yeah, I just hope that as time continues that we can reach a state where we’re not currently in and we keep moving forward. I posted that video of Martin Luther King yesterday, and that was kind of saying that we must keep moving forward even though things may not be as calm as it— as I would like it to be right now.

If Coco wanted more peace in the country maybe she would call out BLM, antifa or the DSA communists who are leading all the radical, violent protests in the US today.

That is evidently not something she has figured out.

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High School Wrestler Asks Supreme Court To Allow Her To Avoid Competing With Boys

A Washington state high school wrestler, Kallie Keeler, asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 5 for an emergency order letting her wrestle on the girls’ team without facing male athletes, after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by one during a match. She argues the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association violated Title IX by allowing male athletes in girls’ sports, and wants her mother notified of any male opponent.

The Ninth Circuit denied her requests last month, saying the situation wasn’t emergent because the wrestling season doesn’t start until November, and that her request for notice of all transgender athletes was too broad. A Title IX investigator who reviewed two videos of the match wrote that the opponent likely touched her with force, and the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation in February 2026, but the district attorney declined to bring charges.

As the Epoch Times notes further, Keeler’s appeal came amid multiple Supreme Court decisions surrounding girls’ sports and parents’ rights.

Most notably, the Supreme Court allowed states in June to bar male participation in girls’ sports and rejected that doing so would violate Title IX.

It also rejected Keeler’s arguments that her mother should receive notice and an opportunity to opt her daughter out of the competition.

This argument was based in part on the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which said that a Maryland school district should provide notice to parents of storybooks with controversial content about gender and sexuality.

The Ninth Circuit said that case and another regarding parents’ rights didn’t apply to Keeler’s situation.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s 2025-2026 handbook states that “Athletes will participate in programs consistent with their gender identity or the gender most consistently expressed.”

WIAA Director Sean Bessette stood by the policy in an email to The Epoch Times.

“The WIAA remains committed to following Washington State law, which permits student-athletes to participate in sports consistent with the gender with which they identify,” Bessette said.

“If state law changes in the future, the WIAA holds the authority to revise policies as necessary to remain in compliance with state law.”

Washington is currently considering Initiative 638, which would prohibit boys from participating in girls’ sports.

Sponsored by Let’s Go Washington, a political action committee, the measure will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The group stated that Initiative 638 restores fairness to eligibility rules by prohibiting “biological men” from competing in female athletics.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington opposes the initiative.

ACLU-Washington said the measure would require annual sex verification procedures for all athletes participating in school girls’ sports.

The ACLU said existing state anti-discrimination laws and school athletic policies protect participation based on gender identity.

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Federal judge rules NCAA can allow men on women’s teams, Riley Gaines plans appeal

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the NCAA that had challenged its policy of allowing men who identify as women to play on women’s sports teams.

U.S. District Judge Tiffany Johnson, a 2024 Biden appointee, ruled that the collegiate sports organization is not beholden to Title IX because it is not a recipient of direct federal financial assistance, Fox News reported.

The two-year-old lawsuit, Gaines v. NCAA, had challenged the organization and the University of Georgia for allegedly violating Title IX’s provisions for equal opportunity in sports by allowing males to compete in the women’s category. The judge found that the NCAA maintained separate funding streams from participating universities.

“What this ruling means is basically the NCAA can put as many men on a women’s sporting team as they want,” said Riley Gaines, the lead plaintiff, on a video post on X on Tuesday. “We are going to appeal.”

Gaines said she feels that while the dismissal will ultimately help lead the case to the Supreme Court and ultimate victory, “this doesn’t come without a toll; it’s mentally draining, emotionally draining.”

According to the lawsuit, the NCAA authorized “naked men possessing full male genitalia to disrobe in front of non- consenting college women and creating situations in which unwilling female college athletes unwittingly or reluctantly expose their naked or partially clad bodies to males.”

The Independent Council on Women’s Sports, or ICONS, is funding this lawsuit. Gaines is a former All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky and current advocate for women’s sports. More than a dozen additional female plaintiffs are all current or former collegiate athletes.

“We believe the district judge erred and that the Court of Appeals will find that the NCAA, which is the controlling body of college sports for more than 1,100 member schools, almost all of which are federally funded, is subject to Title IX,” said ICONS Co-Founder Kim Jones, a former NCAA All-American tennis player, in a news release.

“We will not give up our fight for women and girls’ rights in sports,” Jones said.

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Senate passes Protect College Sports Act with decisive vote

The Senate has passed the Protect College Sports Act, establishing national rules for college athletics, which includes standards for Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals, athlete compensation, recruiting, eligibility, transferring and more.

The bill, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was passed by a vote of 77-22 on Monday night.

President Donald Trump has urged lawmakers to pass the bill, saying “we have to get that done” prior to Congress’ summer recess.

“I’m urging the House and the Senate to come together, bipartisan if possible and it looks like they have done, to send the bill to my desk and I will sign it,” he said the night he hosted members of Team USA from the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, who performed well earlier this year. “I think we have no choice. We have to get that done. If we don’t, we’re very foolish. Nobody knows what will happen. We’re in Never-Never Land. We’re not going to let that be happening. We’re not going to let that happen to these great people and others.”

The bill finally got pushed to the next phase earlier this month, giving the Senate the opportunity to advance the bipartisan bill. Now, the bill will go to the House of Representatives, and Trump may see it on his desk to sign into law if it goes through there.

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Trump Junks Biden’s Title IX Rules, Now Defines Sex by Biology

The Department of Education said Monday it will formally remove the Biden administration’s Title IX regulations and restore rules issued during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The change takes effect Tuesday. Under the final rule issued Monday, the Education Department’s anti-discrimination policy will recognize sex as male or female at birth. It formally removes Biden-era regulations that extended protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity to students and employees at federally funded schools.

The 2024 rules also forced schools to use transgender students’ pronouns and changed how schools handle harassment complaints. A federal court struck down the rules in January 2025.

The Education Department then told schools it would enforce the 2020 rules. Monday’s action puts that change into the published federal regulations; schools have already been operating under the earlier rules.

The department said the last lawsuits over the Biden rules were dismissed in August, clearing the way for it to formally remove them. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the move would make the written regulations match the court rulings and the rules her department has been enforcing since Trump returned to office:

Today’s rulemaking clears the Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX from the Code of Federal Regulations and restores the commonsense language promulgated in the first Trump Administration, which we have been enforcing since the first days of the Administration. Thanks to today’s action, the published Title IX regulations faithfully reflects court orders and Congressional intent—reducing confusion for parents, students, and educational institutions. We will continue to relentlessly champion equal opportunity for all Americans and hold accountable any school or college that violates the rights, privacy, or athletic opportunities of our women and girls.

The rule follows a 2025 executive order from Trump directing federal agencies to recognize only male and female as sexes and apply that definition when enforcing laws against sex discrimination.

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Humanoid Robot Floors Influencer in History-Making MMA Fight

A humanoid robot sent an influencer sprawling in a history-making MMA bout, offering a striking demonstration of how rapidly machines are acquiring the strength, balance, and agility once thought to provide a measure of job security for human workers.

Content creator Frankie LaPenna, 29, faced the 6-foot-tall “Rekbot” in a Sept. 18 bout staged by robotics startup REK and billed as the first human-versus-robot MMA fight.

The widely seen video showed the two trading blows before the Terminator-like machine landed a powerful kick that knocked LaPenna across the ring.

The robot was remotely controlled by a human rather than acting autonomously.

Perhaps more remarkable than the punches and kicks was Rekbot’s ability to recover.

When knocked down or struck off balance, the humanoid could rapidly spring back to its feet, displaying the kind of dynamic balance, coordination, and physical resilience that until recently remained one of robotics’ biggest obstacles.

“We just made history with the first Human VS Terminator robot fight,” REK wrote after the event, saying LaPenna “gave it his all.” The company later teased that Rekbot “wasn’t even the final boss.”

According to a post on X by Rek, Lapenna “kept going and defeated” Rekbot.

The spectacle comes as the debate over automation is expanding beyond artificial intelligence’s potential impact on programmers, writers, accountants, and other white-collar professions.

Generative artificial intelligence itself still has major limitations when physical execution is required, but increasingly sophisticated robotics could give AI something it previously lacked: a capable body.

That transition is already moving from the laboratory to the factory floor. Boston Dynamics says its production-ready Atlas humanoid is designed specifically for industrial work and is being deployed in 2026.

This week, the company opened a facility at Hyundai’s Georgia auto plant where Atlas robots are being trained on real manufacturing tasks, including handling and sequencing automotive parts for assembly.

The implications could eventually extend to jobs once considered comparatively resistant to automation because they demand strength, mobility, endurance, and dexterity.

The World Economic Forum said in its 2025 jobs report that robots and autonomous systems were expected to be the largest net technological job displacer through 2030, with an estimated net reduction of 5 million jobs.

Employers surveyed also expected the importance of “manual dexterity, endurance and precision” to decline as robotics and other technologies automate more physical tasks.

That does not mean humanoids are presently capable of replacing tradespeople broadly, as current systems remain expensive and limited compared with humans operating in unpredictable environments.

But the Rekbot demonstration illustrates how quickly one long-standing technical barrier is eroding.

Machines are no longer merely lifting objects in repetitive motions from fixed positions on assembly lines.

They are increasingly capable of balancing, recovering from falls, and executing complicated whole-body movements as well as making instant decisions in new environments.

The fight was staged as entertainment to promote REK’s virtual-reality robot game.

But the impressive visuals of a machine taking a hit, hitting the floor, and immediately springing back up may prove more consequential than who won the bout, as it shows AI is advancing into cognitive work at the same time that increasingly agile robots are advancing into the physical world.

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