Rashee Rice will not face NFL suspension amid assault allegations

Kansas City Chiefswide receiverRashee Ricewill not face discipline under the NFL's personal conduct policy amidan ongoing civil lawsuit accusing him of domestic assault.

The NFL announced April 3 it had concluded its investigation into the accusations made against Rice by his former girlfriend, asESPN's Adam Schefter reports.

"There was insufficient evidence to support a finding that he violated the personal conduct policy,"NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement.

Sean Lindsey, an attorney representing Rice, addressed the news with a statement of his own.

"Mr. Rice wants to thank the NFL for their thorough investigation, and looks forward to the start of the 2026-27 NFL season," Lindsey said.

LERNER:The NFL is investigating Rashee Rice − here's what happens next

Rice was named in a civil lawsuit filed by his ex-girlfriend in the Dallas County (Texas) court system on Feb. 16, 2026. The lawsuitalleged Rice assaulted the womanmultiple times over a 19-month period. Police have not filed criminal charges related to the allegations against Rice.

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The complaint alleged that the Chiefs wide receiver had "grabbed, choked, strangled, pushed, thrown, scratched, hit, and headbutted" his ex-girlfriend. She also alleges Rice threw things at her, "destroy[ed] property, punch[ed] walls, [broke] furniture" and locked her out of their shared home "in the middle of the night."

Rice's former girlfriend, who is also the mother of their two children,shared an Instagram post on Jan. 7alleging she had been the victim of domestic violence for several years. She did not mention Rice by name in that post, which featured a picture of her with a bloody lip. The post has since been deleted.

"It's been nothing but hell," she wrote, adding, "I've protected his image too long and I'm done doing that. It's time to protect my peace, protect my children and stand up for myself."

According to the lawsuit, Rice's ex-girlfriend was pregnant during much of the alleged abuse. She is seeking more than $1 million in damages in the civil suit.

The lawsuit remains open, according to Dallas County court records.

USA TODAY Sports' Jack McKessy also contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:NFL concludes Rashee Rice investigation, will not discipline Chiefs WR

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April 03, 2026

Rashee Rice will not face NFL suspension amid assault allegations

Kansas City Chiefswide receiverRashee Ricewill not face discipline under the NFL's personal conduct policy amidan ong...

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President Trump executive order: NCAA athletes get 5 years, 1 transfer

In an executive order the White House billed as an effort to "save college sports," President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday aimed at the NCAA, student-athletes' use of the transfer portal and other eligibility issues.

The order calls on "the interstate intercollegiate athletic governing body for higher education institutions" to establish age-based eligibility limits, including a sports participation window of "no more than a five-year period."

Under the order, athletes would be allowed one free transfer to another school, and one additional transfer upon obtaining a four-year degree. The order also puts the onus on the NCAA to create a national registry of player agents and to institute policies protecting opportunities, including scholarships, within women's and Olympic sports from being negatively impacted by revenue-sharing.

The order is effective Aug. 1.

The executive order comes after the creation last month of five presidential committees that will attempt to reform college sports. It's been a topic of attention at the White House in recent weeks, as Trump also hosted a "Saving College Sports" roundtable that featured the likes of Nick Saban, Tiger Woods and all power-conference commissioners.

"Absent a comprehensive national solution, therefore, the escalating financial demands to succeed in football and basketball combined with the significantly loosened rules governing eligibility, transfers, and pay-for-play schemes may force curtailment of women's and Olympics sports, and may even jeopardize the overall financial well-being of universities with which the Federal Government has important financial relationships," one passage of the executive order reads.

The issue will be enforcement. In the past, Trump has used the threat of pulling federal funds to get universities to comply with his policy desires.

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The NCAA has largely been unable to enforce its rules since a 2021 Supreme Court case, NCAA v. Alston, found the governing body was not exempt from federal antitrust laws. NCAA decisions, particularly those pertaining to athlete eligibility, have been taken to court and overturned.

One line in the executive order said the NCAA's bylaws should ensure that "professional athletes cannot return to college athletics."

Some players from the NBA's developmental league, the G League, have successfully returned to the college ranks, while former Alabama center Charles Bediako, who had at one point signed an NBA contract, received a temporary restraining order to return to the Crimson Tide earlier this season. He played in five games before a Tuscaloosa Circuit Court judge overturned the ruling; Bediako later dropped his legal challenge.

NCAA president Charlie Baker, who has sought Trump's help in the past, acknowledged the order in a statement.

"The NCAA has modernized college sports to deliver more benefits for student-athletes, and the Executive Order reinforces many of our mandatory protections -- including guaranteed health care coverage, mental health services, and scholarship protections.

"This action is a significant step forward, and we appreciate the Administration's interest and attention to these issues. Stabilizing college athletics for student-athletes still requires a permanent, bipartisan federal legislative solution, so we look forward to continuing to work alongside the Administration and Congress to enact targeted legislation with the support of student-athlete leaders from all three divisions."

--Field Level Media

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April 03, 2026

President Trump executive order: NCAA athletes get 5 years, 1 transfer

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Guardians' Chase DeLauter continues hot start with 3 hits and 2-run homer in home opener

CLEVELAND (AP) — Chase DeLauter has developed a knack for memorable openers.

APTOPIX Cubs Guardians Baseball

DeLauter became the first Cleveland player to make his major league debut in last year's AL Wild Card series against Detroit.

On March 26 at Seattle, DeLauter became the seventh player since 1889 to hit two home runs in his first major league regular-season game.

So, it wasn't a surprise that DeLauter achieved another milestone on Friday. His two-run homer in the seventh inning of theGuardians' 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubsmade him the first Cleveland player since Joe Charboneau in 1980 to homer in both their first regular-season home and away game.

"Coming in here, packed house, first game, beautiful day. It was a good feeling to get that one. That's as good as you can dream it up" said DeLauter, who went 3 for 4 and drove in three runs.

DeLauter tied it at 1-1 in the fifth inning with a base hit to left to drive in Daniel Schneemann. After Gabriel Arias' homer put Cleveland on top 2-1 in the seventh, DeLauter drove a 96.6 mph fastball by Hunter Harvey 402 feet into the right-field stands to extend the Guardians' lead.

DeLauter said he immediately knew it was gone.

"When they come off like that, sometimes you just kind of know," he said. "I think he went five straight heaters. So, just kind of looking for something up in the zone and got a good pitch a hit."

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The only thing that went wrong for DeLauter is that he didn't time his home run celebration with Steven Kwan. DeLauter nearly took out Kwan's shoulder when they met at home plate.

"That one was my fault. He went in for high five. I went in for a hug and a bad combination there. We'll get it figured out for sure," DeLauter said.

DeLauter's five home runs are tied with the Athletics' Shea Langeliers for the AL lead. According to MLB, He is the fourth player with at least five home runs through his first seven regular-season games. Colorado's Trevor Story had seven in 2016 while Kansas City's Mark Quinn in 1999 and Cincinnati's Rece Hinds in 2024 both had five.

He is the first Cleveland player to homer in four of his first seven games. He went deep in the Guardians' first three games at Seattle, but was 1 for 12 in his last four games coming into the home opener. He missed Wednesday's series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers after fouling a ball off his left foot on Tuesday.

"Like we talked about back in the postseason, this kid's comfortable. He's not big eyed and he's doing a phenomenal job for us. It's a really fun start for him this year," manager Stephen Vogt said.

Friday also marked DeLauter's second three-hit game after he went 3 for 5 in Cleveland's 6-4 victory over Seattle on opening day.

"I wouldn't necessarily say it's a surprise. I'm a hitter, so it's something I look forward to every day," said DeLauter, who has a .346 batting average with eight RBIs and a 1.293 OPS.

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

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April 03, 2026

Guardians' Chase DeLauter continues hot start with 3 hits and 2-run homer in home opener

CLEVELAND (AP) — Chase DeLauter has developed a knack for memorable openers. APTOPIX Cubs Guardians Baseball ...

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Trump administration can't make colleges provide race-related data, judge rules

By Nate Raymond

FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Department of Education building in Washington

BOSTON, April 3 (Reuters) - The Trump administration cannot force public universities in 17 U.S. states to turn over sweeping amounts of data so it can examine ‌whether they have ceased considering race as an admissions factor, a federal judge ruled ‌on Friday.

U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in Boston issued a preliminary injunction at the request of those states' ​Democratic attorneys general, who are suing over a new data reporting requirement the Department of Education adopted in a survey used to gather information from colleges.

The department sought seven years of admissions data on the race and sex of students to track compliance with the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling ending affirmative ‌action in higher education.

New York Attorney ⁠General Letitia James hailed the ruling, saying in a statement that "schools should not have to scramble to produce years of sensitive information to satisfy an arbitrary ⁠and unlawful demand."

The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.

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The states, which also include California and Massachusetts, sued last month, arguing the survey's rushed implementation left universities vulnerable to inadvertent errors that ​could ​lead them to face penalties and investigations into their ​practices.

The department requested the data through an ‌Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System survey that it created at the direction of President Donald Trump, a Republican. In an August memorandum, he cited a lack of data to assess whether race remained an admissions factor given the "rampant use" by universities of what he called "hidden racial proxies."

Saylor ruled the Education Department had the statutory authority to seek such data but he said the "rushed and chaotic ‌manner" by which it adopted the new requirements led it ​to not properly engage with universities about problems they ​foresaw.

Such problems were compounded by the administration's ​efforts to dismantle the Education Department, leaving few employees in its National Center ‌for Education Statistics to manage the surveys ​following job cuts, the judge ​said.

After the states sued, Saylor, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, issued temporary restraining orders that extended until Monday the deadline for their schools to complete ​the survey while he considered the ‌case.

On Tuesday he issued an order similarly extending the deadline for dozens of other ​public and private universities while he considers whether they too deserve an injunction.

(Reporting by ​Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by William Mallard)

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April 03, 2026

Trump administration can't make colleges provide race-related data, judge rules

By Nate Raymond FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Department of Education building in Washington BOSTON, April 3 (Reuters...

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The white shark forecast is in. Expect more in SoCal this summer

Southern California already has plenty ofwhite sharksinhabiting its waters, but a brewingEl Niñomay only increase the population of these large predators — and bring with it other aquatic visitors.

Chris Lowe, a professor of marine biology who heads the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, shared an unusual observation this winter: the presence of baby white sharks as early as February. He said they're generally not seen until April.

"The reason for that, we think, is the water off Southern California is unusually warm right now," Lowe said. "So, we're experiencing a marine heat wave, even though it's not even summer yet."

Female white sharks are believed to be using temperature as a cue to let them know it's time to give birth, he said.

"It could be that if a female's eating really well and she's been in warm water, she may be able to produce a litter of pups faster," Lowe said. "But what's unusual is seeing pups that early in the year. So that would suggest that females are coming back earlier than they normally would."

Also, their litter is hanging out at Southern California beaches in part because of the warmer water which "kind of reminds them of mom," the Shark Lab director said.

Now take into consideration that forecasters expect an El Niño — a phase of a natural climate phenomenon that warms up the ocean surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean — to develop late this year. It's one thatcould be strong.

Scientists have discovered more than 900 species of sharks and rays and related species

That could impact white sharks, too.

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As El Niño conditions emerge around the summertime, per the Climate Prediction Center'sforecast in March, so might Southern Californians start to see more white sharks come our way.

The Shark Lab director pointed to an observation from about a decade ago when an El Niño coincided witha major marine heatwave, resulting in Southern California experiencing a big influx of white sharks that'd been driven north by ocean water believed to have gotten too warm for them further south.

This is what Lowe anticipates happening again this year. His prediction is that around July is when we'll see a bigger influx of sharks.

However, Southern California could get some other visitors, too, Lowe said, pointing to other instances that occurred during "strong" El Niños.

"During El Niños, we've had tiger sharks come into Southern California. We've had bull sharks come into Southern California," Lowe said. "So, depending on how warm and how early, we could have species that we don't normally see here."

On March 26, Newport Beach Fire Department lifeguards confirmed the sighting of a white shark. Also making headlines early April arereportsof a juvenile white shark that got caught on a fishing line at Hermosa Beach.

"You should always assume there are white sharks in the water when you go to the beaches in California because that's the new norm," Lowe said. "And it's been the new norm for about the last 10 years. The population is increasing, mainly because they were protected (in) 1994. So, as a result, we're seeing more sharks, but also climate plays into this."

Paris Barraza is a reporter covering Los Angeles and Southern California for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her atpbarraza@usatodayco.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:SoCal beachgoers, you may see more sharks in 2026

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April 03, 2026

The white shark forecast is in. Expect more in SoCal this summer

Southern California already has plenty ofwhite sharksinhabiting its waters, but a brewingEl Niñomay only increase the pop...

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