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UCLA head coach Mick Cronin issued a long apology Friday, days after hethrew his own player out of a lossfor a hard foul and got into it with a reporter.

Cronin said he directly apologized to center Steven Jamerson II, and that he thought he had committed a dirty play late in East Lansing in the final moments of UCLA's 82-59 loss against Michigan State. Now, after seeing the tape and all of the pushback, Cronin realized that wasn't what had happened.

"It's the only reason I sent him to the locker room," Cronin said, via the SoCal News Group's Aaron Heisen. "I thought he literally made a dirty play and tried to wipe the guy out. … To me, that's a bad play. You can't be down 25 or getting your butt kicked, don't try to take somebody out, hurt somebody on the other team, which is what I thought."

Cronin threw Jamerson out of the game himselfafter Jamerson drilled Michigan State center Carson Cooper on a breakaway dunk late in the blowout loss Tuesday night. Jamerson was called for a foul in the moment, though Cronin wasn't having it.

He called Jamerson over to the bench, grabbed him by his jersey and started walking him off the floor. Jamerson left without much protest.

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"I guess he upgraded that to a Flagrant 2, huh? That's the first time I've [seen] a coach do that," Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said. "That sounded like Mick, he'll get that straightened out."

Jamerson, a senior, finished with two points and two rebounds in eight minutes. He was hit with a technical foul on the play, as was Cooper for his reaction. Cooper split his free throws for the original foul, which put Michigan State up by 28 points at the time.

After the game, Cronin was still in a terrible mood. He got into it with a reporter who asked him about Michigan State's student section, and then Cronin asked if that reporter was raising his voice at him.

Cronin apologized for his behavior in general Friday, too, and said he needs to "dial back some of my humor" after the wave of criticism he received this week.

"In this climate, you have to be careful with what you say," he said. "Because, I'm a good fit here because I know I'm not bigger than the brand. The brand matters here, the school matters. The last thing I want to do is bring negative publicity to our school.

"Sometimes, because it's not about me, I don't care what people think about me, I need to do a better job knowing, 'Well I am the coach here.' I need to make sure I don't do anything to embarrass our school. For that, I apologize."

Cronin is in his sixth season at UCLA, which started the season No. 12 in the national rankings before falling out completely. Cronin holds a 155-73 record with the Bruins, whom he led to a Final Four in his second campaign with the school.

UCLA now sits at 17-9 this season after back-to-back blowout losses last week. The Bruins will host No. 10 Illinois on Saturday.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) —Bob Jenkinsrisked his entire race team — a Daytona 500-winning team — when he refused to signNASCAR'srevenue-sharing agreement and Front Row Motorsports joined 23XI in suing over antitrust violations.

NASCAR Daytona 500 Auto Racing

Michael Jordanwas the face of the suit settled in December, while Jenkins was the quiet team owner in the background presumed to be riding the global icon's coattails.

"People thought Michael Jordan was bankrolling this — no, no, no. I had to pay my half," Jenkins told The Associated Press.

Jenkins, the sole owner of Front Row, said he split the fees of the case equally with 23XI, which has three owners to divide the costs. Had NASCAR notsettled the suit, both teams would have ceased operations.

"And I was OK with that," Jenkins told The Associated Press. "It would have hurt, I risked losing three charters myself, but I would have been OK. I just felt that strongly that we had a winning case that I could risk it."

The settlement that was reached on the ninth day of the trial made the charters — the equivalent of a franchise in other sports — evergreen and that alone doubled their value overnight to nearly $100 million each.

Who is Front Row Motorsports?

For Jenkins, an entrepreneur from Tennessee who owns Long John Silver's, 400 Taco Bell franchises and about 30 KFC franchises, the settlement meant a racing organization that had been bleeding money was now secure to be passed down to his four sons. He testified during the trial that Front Row had lost approximately $100 million since it launched in the early 2000s and didn't turn a profit a single season — even in 2021 when Michael McDowell won the Daytona 500.

The settlement now allows Jenkins to look to the future with Front Row, which has one of the youngest lineups in NASCAR and opened the 2026 season with a victory when Chandler Smith won the Truck Series race at Daytona.

The Ford team fields Cup Series cars for Noah Gragson — who at 27 is the oldest driver in the lineup — Zane Smith (26) and Todd Gilliland (25). Jenkins believes he has a budding star in Smith, who signed a contract extension last October when the fate of the team was uncertain amidst the lawsuit. Smith won a stage in last week's Daytona 500 and finished sixth, and heads into this Sunday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway ranked fourth in the Cup standings.

Gilliland and Gragson are in contract years and Jenkins said he's explicitly told both what he expects from them this season.

The two Front Row trucks are driven by Smith and Layne Riggs, who are both 23.

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So the team has young drivers to develop, as well as an alliance with Team Penske. Jenkins said that partnership with Penske went soft during the lawsuit — Roger Penske signed the charter agreement presented to owners in 2024 that Front Row and 23XI refused to accept — but has amped up since the settlement.

What's next?

Front Row in the offseason hired engineer Grant Hutchens from Penske to crew chief Gragson, a move that allowed the team to move Drew Blickensderfer to competition director.

"Drew wanted more of an organizational, leadership role, and we always had that in the back of our mind, so Grant gave us an opportunity to fast-track that," explained Front Row general manager Jerry Freeze. "Bringing Grant in makes us a little more aligned with the Penske group and we hope that's hopefully going to pay off in the long run."

The settlement gave Front Row stability — Freeze said "it seems like a light switch went on with our relationship with Penske" — and relief to team employees who had worried their jobs might cease to exist. It also allows the team to search for new headquarters as Front Row is currently bursting at the seams across two different leased race shops, one owned by the late Greg Biffle and the other owned by Brad Keselowski.

Jenkins wants to consolidate his teams into one building and can now confidently make that investment.

A sense of satisfaction

Jenkins and Front Row don't get the same attention as mega teams Penske, Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing. And he's a busy team owner with commitments to his fast-food empire that he takes a very hands-on role with. It was Jenkins who made the call for Long John Silver's to switch to waffle fries — a recipe he says the chain is still trying to perfect to prevent fries from getting soggy during third-party delivery — and he's often in the test kitchen sampling new recipes and vetoing a spicy shrimp idea because he didn't like the way the fish looked in a red sauce.

It made sense that Jordan, winning team owner of last week's Daytona 500, was willing to take on NASCAR in the revenue sharing dispute because racing is just his retirement hobby. But it took bravery and belief for Jenkins to sue — something the likes of Joe Gibbs, Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske did not do.

Jenkins doesn't need to be celebrated, but he's certainly pleased with the outcome for himself, his race teams and the future of NASCAR. It was a fight he thinks he's "probably stupid enough to have done myself" without 23XI, but knows having Jordan was necessary.

"Personally it's very gratifying because it could have went the other way, and this sounds cliche, but when something needs to be said, you've got to find a way to say it," Jenkins said. "We did that and it just makes me feel good that we took a stand."

AP auto racing:https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The NFL generated more than $10 billion a year through much of the 2010s, and franchise values soared across the league. At the same time, it faced major lawsuits involving player safety, hiring discrimination, team relocations, and labor disputes. Several of these cases led to costly settlements and forced rule changes. Over the past decade, legal battles have shaped league policy almost as much as what happens on the field.

NFL Concussion Settlement

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Brain injuries forced the NFL into one of the largest settlements in sports history. The league finalized a concussion settlement in 2016, creating lifetime compensation for retired players. More than 3,000 players or families filed claims linked to dementia or Parkinson's disease. Approved payouts passed $827 million by early 2022. The agreement remains uncapped under federal court supervision today.

Race Norming Concussion Lawsuit

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Testing formulas once reduced compensation access for Black players seeking concussion settlement payouts. The NFL began using race-normed scoring adjustments during cognitive evaluations in 2013. Former players sued, claiming racial bias in medical calculations. The league removed race norming in October 2021. Hundreds of retired players had the chance to retest their cognitive results and qualify for larger settlement awards again.

Brian Flores Hiring Discrimination Lawsuit

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A text message mistake helped spark one of the most explosive employment lawsuits in league history. Brian Flores sued the NFL in February 2022, alleging racial discrimination in hiring practices. Data showed NFL rosters were over 70% Black while head coaches remained mostly White. The lawsuit challenges how teams conduct interviews under diversity-hiring rules across the league today.

St. Louis Rams Relocation Lawsuit

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Losing the team cost St. Louis nearly a billion dollars and triggered years of courtroom fights. The NFL paid $790 million in 2021 to settle relocation claims stemming from the Rams' 2016 move. The settlement prevented a public trial that could have exposed internal league emails and financial projections documents, as city officials argued that league relocation policies required honest negotiations.

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Rams Fan Relocation Lawsuit

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Fans rarely sue teams successfully, but St. Louis ticket holders forced a multi-million dollar payout. The Rams agreed to a $25 million settlement in January 2020 tied to relocation claims. Plaintiffs said team leadership suggested the franchise would stay locally. Lawsuit filings showed fans spent money on tickets and merchandise based on those public statements from ownership interviews years earlier.

NFL Painkiller Distribution Lawsuit

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Painkiller distribution inside locker rooms became a legal flashpoint when retired players sued the NFL. The 2014 class action claimed teams ignored medical histories when providing medications. Players alleged addiction risk and organ damage tied to drug use. A federal judge dismissed the case in December 2021, citing statute of limitations rules tied to retirement timelines for former professional athletes.

Colin Kaepernick Collusion Grievance

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A starting quarterback losing his career created one of the most controversial grievances in modern sports. Colin Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance in 2017, claiming teams worked together to avoid signing him. The NFL reached a confidential settlement in 2019. The whole fiasco followed his 2016 protests during the national anthem, tied to police brutality debates across the United States, publicly.

Deflategate Legal Battle

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This case started as a dispute over underinflated footballs during the 2014 AFC Championship Game, and turned into a major legal fight over league authority. The NFL suspended Tom Brady for four games, citing violations of equipment rules. Brady appealed the decision in federal court, arguing the league overstepped its power. After nearly two seasons of legal back-and-forth, a federal appeals court reinstated the suspension in 2016, reinforcing the commissioner's disciplinary authority under the collective bargaining agreement.

Saints No Call Fan Lawsuits

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A missed penalty changed a playoff game and triggered lawsuits from furious fans. Saints supporters sued after a missed pass interference call during the 2019 NFC Championship Game. Courts dismissed most lawsuits because officiating decisions fall under league authority. The controversy pushed the NFL to temporarily expand replay review rules to include pass interference challenges for coaches and game officials.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal judge has denied the Trump administration's request to delay a Friday deadline torestore an exhibiton the history of slavery at Independence Mall in Philadelphia.

Slavery Exhibit Removed

The ruling Friday morning came as restoration work begun Thursdayresumedat the site of the former President's House. Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe had set a 5 p.m. Friday deadline for its completion, and she held to that timeline, even as the administration appeals her decision.

The Interior Department has said in court papers that it planned to replace the exhibit with its own narrative on slavery, as the administration works to remove information that it deems"disparaging" to Americansfrom federal properties. Rufe said it must work with the city on new material under a longstanding cooperative agreement.

"As this court established, "(t)he government can convey a different message without restraint elsewhere if it so pleases, but it cannot do so to the President's House until it follows the law and consults with the city," Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, said in Friday's opinion.

In its own filing Friday to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department called her ruling "extraordinary" and "an improper intrusion on the workings of a co-equal branch of government."

The appeals court asked the city to respond to the request for an emergency stay of Rufe's order.

One of the panels being rehung Friday morning — titled "History Lost & Found" — details the surprising discovery of artifacts from the building during an archaeological dig in the early 2000s, as work was being done on a new pavilion for the Liberty Bell.

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National Park Service employees worked with care on the exhibits, including those on the nine people enslaved by George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia served as the nation's capital. The Park Service describes theoutdoor exhibitas one "that examines the paradox between slavery and freedom in the founding of the nation."

The Trump administration abruptly removed the panels in January, leading the city and other advocates to file suit. They had been on display since 2010, the result of years of research and collaboration between the city, the Park Service, historians and other private parties.

Rufe, in denying the federal government's request for a delay, said that side was unlikely to succeed at trial. And she said the public –- and the city's reputation -- was being harmed with each passing day.

The city, she said, "is responsible for the public trust in the city's telling of its own history, its own integrity in telling that history, and preventing erasure of that history, particularly in advance of the semiquincentennial."

Millions of people are expected to visit Philadelphia, the nation's birthplace, this year for the 250th anniversary of the country's founding in 1776.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, which is representing the administration in court, declined to comment on the restoration work Friday.

Kimberly Gegner, a teacher from Philadelphia, visited the site Friday with some of her 6th- to 9th-grade students. As a Black American, she said, it had pained her to see the history removed. But she was grateful to see it going back up.

"This whole case and what happened here — the taking it down and how Mayor Parker and other Pennsylvanians had to go to court to have it restored — is an excellent case of how the Constitution was applied to win this case for Philadelphia," she said.

Reuters senior photographer Phil Noble explains how he got the image of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor leaving the police station

Most days, the country's top newspapers have a wide range of photos gracing their front pages. But on Friday, every image topping the British front pages was identical:

A snap ofAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor, slouched in the back of a car, looking shell-shocked on his 66th birthday as he left the police station.

On Thursday, Mountbatten-Windsor became the first member of the UK royal family to bearrestedin modern history, spending more than 10 hours in police custody at a station in the small town of Aylsham, England, about an hour away from his new home on the royal Sandringham Estate.

"The photo gods were on my side yesterday," said Phil Noble, a senior photographer at Reuters news agency who captured the incredible image.

Noble, based in northern England, drove roughly five hours south to Norfolk on Thursday morning – racing to get there after the news of the arrest broke.

Through guesswork and some well-placed sources, his two-person team zeroed in what they thoughtmightbe the correct police station,maybe.There are roughly 20 Thames Valley Police stations where the former prince could have been taken, so they had to wait to see.

"This was probably the fourth or fifth police station that Reuters had visited that night," Noble said. "When I arrived, it didn't look anything out of the ordinary. There was no cars. There was no increased activity."

"To be honest, just before he arrived, I'd left to go back to the hotel… and my colleague Marissa messaged me and said, 'Look, two cars have just arrived I think you should come back,'" Nobel said candidly in a video explaining how he got the shot.

Then the race really began. The Reuters photographer said he "spun the car around, got back, and within a minute of arriving back, the shutters on the garage at the police station came up and two cars left. And one of them, he (Mountbatten-Windsor) was in."

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Stakeout photography has a lot of variables, Noble explained. Part of the job is preparation, skill and experience. It also requires a willingness to stand on the side of a British country road in the dark for hours at a time, without knowing if it will lead to anything noteworthy.

"Probably half an hour before I took the photo, I'd done some test shots of other cars leaving the police station, so I had a rough idea of… the camera settings maybe," explained Noble, who has been working at Reuters for more than 20 years. Before that, he worked in photography at the UK's Press Association and the Manchester Evening News.

"But it's still, you know, more than luck than judgment when the car comes out. You've got to try and guess where he's sitting, which side of the car is he? Is he in the front? Is he in the back? Will the flash recycle in time?"

He took six frames in all, according to Reuters. Two were blank, one was out of focus and two showed police officers. But one captured the extraordinary moment.

"For every car shot that you do, the hit rate is really, really low," he added. "So last night was, it was one of those, kind of, pinch-me moments where you look at the back of the camera, you're tired, it's been a long day… you can't believe that you've got him."

Mountbatten-Windsor wasreleased "under investigation"late Thursday evening. Police have not said what led them to arrest the former prince on suspicion of misconduct in public office, but he previously spent a decade as UK trade envoy starting in 2001. He stepped down in 2011 after coming under fire over his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The former prince has not publicly responded to the latest allegations to emerge after the US Department of Justice released millions of documents related to Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing and said he never witnessed or suspected any of the behavior that Epstein was accused of.

Asked about the photo, Noble said it's no work of art, but it's definitely among the most newsworthy he has ever snapped.

"Best photo-photo? It's probably not. You know, it's a man shot at night through the back of a windscreen," Noble said, laughing a bit. "Is that the best photo I've ever taken? No. Is it up there with one of the most important? A hundred percent."

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The U.S. is close to reaching at least 1,000 measles cases for the third time in eight years.

At least 72 new measles cases have been confirmed in the last week, according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far this year, there have been total of 982 cases in 26 states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

New map shows how to spot the measles risk level in your ZIP code

Just six measles cases were reported among international travelers so far this year, according to CDC data.

About 94% of cases are among people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, the CDC said.

Meanwhile, 3% of cases are among those who have received just one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and 4% of cases are among those who received the recommended two doses, according to the CDC.

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The current measles situation in the U.S. is partly being driven by a large outbreak in South Carolina that began last year, with 962 cases recorded as of Friday, according tostate health officials.

Last year, the U.S. recorded 2,281 measles cases, which is the highest number of national cases in 33 years, according to the CDC.

It also marked the first U.S. deaths recorded from measles in a decade,two among school-aged unvaccinated childrenin Texas anda third among an unvaccinated adultin New Mexico.

The CDC currentlyrecommendspeople receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC said.

However, federal data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years. During the 2024-2025 school year,92.5% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data. This is lower than the 92.7% seen in the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019-2020 school year, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month marked one year since a measles outbreak began in West Texas, with infections soon spreading to neighboring counties and other states.

Public health expertspreviously told ABC Newsthat if cases in other states are found to be linked to the cases in Texas, it would mean the virus has been spreading for a year, which could lead to a loss of elimination status.

U.S. freestyle skierHunter Hess'Winter Olympicscome to an end on Friday with the freestyle skiing men's freeski halfpipe at the Livingo Snow Park

But before Hess competes in the medal round of the event, he flashed an "L" over his forehead at the end of his qualification run that was directed to PresidentDonald Trump,who called Hess a "real loser" on social mediafollowing his comments on how it is difficult to represent the United States at theWinter Olympicsdue to the country's current political division.

"Apparently I'm a loser," Hess said into the camera after his qualifying run,according to the Associated Press.

REQUIRED READING:Winter Olympics live updates: Schedule, medal count for Friday, Feb. 20

Hess was one of four U.S. freestyle skiers to qualify for the 12-man final at the Livingo Snow Park on Friday evening.

"I worked so hard to be here. I sacrificed my entire life to make this happen,"Hess continued."I'm not going to let controversy like that get in my way. I love the United States of America. I cannot say that enough. My original statement, I felt like I said that, but apparently people didn't take it that way. I'm so happy to be here, so happy to represent Team USA."

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The first-time Olympian caughtTrump's attentionfollowing his comments during a news conference ahead of the opening ceremony, where he said "it's a little hard" to represent the United States on the Olympic stage.Hess' teammates,like the four-member women's halfpipe team led by three-time Olympic medalists Chloe Kim, discussed the current climate of the United States, but he was the only one got Trump to comment on Truth Social.

"There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of," Hess said at a news conference in Milan ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics. "Wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.

"I'm representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. I just think if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it."

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Hunter Hess, USA skier, responds to Donald Trump calling him a loser