West
Coach of trans SJSU volleyball player blames teams that forfeited for 'appalling, hateful messages' to players
San Jose State volleyball head coach Todd Kress provided a statement to Fox News Digital Saturday after his team’s loss in the Mountain West Conference tournament final to Colorado State.
Kress addressed the national controversy surrounding a transgender player on his team and seven forfeited conference matches, including a tournament semifinal with Boise State.
“I will not sugarcoat our reality for the last two months. Our team prepared and was ready to play each match according to established Mountain West and NCAA rules of play. We did not take away anyone’s participation opportunities,” Kress wrote.
Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada forfeited a total of seven matches against SJSU this season.
Kress said each of those forfeits resulted in the team’s players, coaches and staffers receiving “appalling, hateful messages.”
“Sadly, others who for years have played this same team without incident chose not to play us this season. To be clear, we did not celebrate a single win by forfeiture. Instead, we braced for the fallout. Each forfeiture announcement unleashed appalling, hateful messages individuals chose to send directly to our student-athletes, our coaching staff and many associated with our program,” Kress wrote.
The coach, in just his second season with the team, admitted it was one of the toughest seasons of his life.
“This has been one of the most difficult seasons I’ve ever experienced, and I know this is true as well for many of our players and the staff who have been supporting us all along. Maintaining our focus on the court and ensuring the overall safety and well-being of my players amid the external noise have been my priorities,” Kress said.
SJSU TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL: TIMELINE OF ALLEGATIONS, POLITICAL IMPACT AND A RAGING CULTURE MOVEMENT
Kress was named in a lawsuit filed by team co-captain Brooke Slusser and several other Mountain West players against the conference and San Jose State. The lawsuit alleges Kress has communicated with a private lawyer as part of his effort to get Slusser removed from the team and has told others he has filed Title IX complaints against Slusser based not on comments Slusser has made in practice, but on communications Slusser has made to the media and in public forums concerning her beliefs.
Slusser has also alleged the university has threatened to take away her scholarship for speaking on the issues of sharing a team, locker room and bedroom with transgender teammate Blaire Fleming.
Still, Kress thanked Slusser in his statement Saturday, along with Fleming and the other seniors on the team.
“Our team played their hearts out today, the way they have done all season. I want to recognize and thank our seniors — Alessia [Buffagni], Chandler [Manusky], Brooke [Bryant], Brooke and Blaire — for their tremendous efforts on the court all season long. They have all helped us to get where we are,” Kress wrote.
Kress also thanked San Jose State University Police Chief Michael Carroll for his work protecting the team from potential threats this season.
A San Jose State spokesperson previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that the program did not formally notify any of the opponents on its schedule of the situation involving Fleming and Slusser ahead of matches this season after Slusser joined her first lawsuit against the NCAA in September over her trans teammate’s presence.
However, that spokesperson also confirmed the university did coordinate police protection for the players with the schools that hosted the team’s away matches after security measures had to be elevated due to the attention the team was getting.
When Southern Utah became the first program to announce it would be forfeiting a match against the Spartans in early September, that was the first indicator of heightened security. That’s when the college brought in armed security.
INSIDE SAN JOSE STATE’S POLICE BATTLE TO PROTECT WOMEN’S ATHLETES THREATENED BY A TRANSGENDER CULTURE WAR
A San Jose State University spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital the volleyball team was told it would be getting added security of some kind after the first forfeit by an opposing program as news of Slusser’s lawsuit spread.
Shortly after the first forfeit, the university’s in-house police department was alerted to the situation and got involved. Police protection was assigned for every game thereafter, and police departments at other campuses were assigned to protect the team when it traveled.
Police presence was noticeably strong for the Spartans’ first meeting against eventual conference champion Colorado State Oct. 3. Multiple officers were photographed on the court that night, looking alert in the stands, entrances and at the players.
Colorado State University Police behind the San Jose State University Spartans’ bench monitor Moby Arena during a volleyball match between the Spartans and the Colorado State Rams in Fort Collins, Colo., Oct. 3, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Slusser previously told Fox News Digital she had received a warning from a teammate Oct. 2, the night before a match, to “stay away” during the match because something “bad” was going to happen to her.
San Jose State University responded to questions about whether federal investigators had been involved.
“The university has asked students and staff to share all concerning communications with UPD to be evaluated and addressed appropriately, including in conjunction with proper authorities where appropriate,” San Jose State said in a previous statement.
And Kress was tasked with coaching his team through all of it. Kress is not the coach who recruited Fleming to SJSU. That was former head coach Trent Kersten, who left the program after Fleming’s first season in San Jose State in 2022.
A lawsuit that includes former Spartans assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose alleges Kersten recruited Fleming knowing the player was transgender but didn’t tell other players.
Kress took over the program in 2023 and expressed frustration with Kersten’s decision in an interview with OutKick.
San Jose State University Spartans head coach Todd Kress speaks with reporters after a loss against the Colorado State University Rams in Fort Collins, Colo., Oct. 3, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“My frustration with Trent is an unfortunate situation,” Kress said. “[Kersten] obviously knows Blaire is in the crosshairs of this debate, and yet he has not reached out to [Fleming] one time to check in on [Fleming’s] mental health. I find it sad, to be honest.”
Before that, Kress suggested tension in the locker room because of Fleming’s presence on the team and Slusser’s lawsuits “might not be a bad thing.”
“Sometimes tension is not necessarily a bad thing, and I’m not saying that there is. But, you know, when you do have tension or you do have confrontations, I mean, I’m a person that believes that, from confrontation, good things usually happen. We settle our differences, and we work through it,” Kress told reporters Oct. 3 after the first Colorado State match.
“The last thing that I would want is there’s the white elephant in the room, and there is no tension, we don’t address it, and we never move past it, right? So I think there may be tension, but it dies. If we’re in a meeting room and there’s tension, it dies there. If there’s tension on the court, it dies there. We really don’t let the boundaries cross over, and that’s how I think we’ve been so successful thus far.”
Now the Spartans’ tournament run is over. The players made it through unharmed. But the lawsuits continue.
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A parcel tax plan to rescue Muni would charge most homeowners at least $129 annually if voters approve the policy in November.
The finalized tax scheme, which updates a version presented Dec. 8, comes after weeks of negotiations between city officials and transit advocates.
The plan lowers the levels previously proposed for owners of apartment and condo buildings. They would still pay a $249 base tax up to 5,000 square feet of property, but additional square footage would be taxed at 19.5 cents, versus the previous 30 cents. The tax would be capped at $50,000.
The plan also adds provisions limiting how much of the tax can be passed through to tenants in rent-controlled buildings. Owners of rent-controlled properties would be able to pass through up to 50% of the parcel tax on a unit, with a cap of $65 a year.
These changes bring the total estimated annual tax revenue from $187 million to $183 million and earmark 10% for expanding transit service.
What you pay depends on what kind of property you or your landlord owns. There are three tiers: single-family homes, apartment and condo buildings, and commercial properties.
Owners of single-family homes smaller than 3,000 square feet would pay the base tax of $129 per year. Homes between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet would pay the base tax plus an additional 42 cents per square foot, and any home above 5,000 square feet would be taxed at an added $1.99 per square foot.
Commercial landlords would face a $799 base tax for buildings up to 5,000 square feet, with per-square-foot rates that scale with the property size, up to a maximum of $400,000.
The finalized plan was presented by Julie Kirschbaum, director of transportation at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, at a board meeting Tuesday.
The plan proposed in December was criticized for failing to set aside funds to increase transit service and not including pass-through restrictions for tenants.
The tax is meant to close SFMTA’s $307 million budget gap, which stems from lagging ridership post-pandemic and the expiration of emergency federal funding. Without additional funding, the agency would be forced to drastically cut service. The parcel tax, a regional sales tax measure, and cost-cutting, would all be needed to close the fiscal gap.
The next steps for the parcel tax are creating draft legislation and launching a signature-gathering campaign to place the measure on the ballot.
Any measure would need review by the city attorney’s office. But all stakeholders have agreed on the tax structure presented Tuesday, according to Emma Hare, an aide to Supervisor Myrna Melgar, whose office led negotiations over the tax between advocates and City Hall.
“It’s final,” Hare said. “We just need to write it down.”
Denver police are searching for suspects in a Saturday night parking lot shooting that killed a 16-year-old and wounded three men, at least one of whom is not expected to survive, according to the agency.
Officers responded to the shooting in the 10100 block of East Hampden Avenue about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, near where East Hampden intersects South Galena Street, according to an alert from the Denver Police Department.
Police said a group of people had gathered in a parking lot on the edge of the city’s Kennedy neighborhood to celebrate the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro when the shooting happened.
Paramedics took one victim to a hospital, and two others were taken to the hospital in private vehicles, police said. A fourth victim, identified by police as 16-year-old William Rodriguez Salas, was dropped off near Iliff Avenue and South Havana Street, where he died from his wounds.
At least one of the three victims taken to hospitals — a 26-year-old man, a 29-year-old man and a 33-year-old man — is not expected to survive, police said Tuesday. One man was in critical condition Sunday night, one was in serious condition and one was treated for a graze wound and released.
No suspects had been identified publicly or arrested as of Tuesday afternoon.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth will lead the Seattle City Council as its President for the next two years, following a unanimous vote at the first council meeting of 2026. Taking over the gavel from Sara Nelson, who left office at the end of last year after losing to progressive challenger Dionne Foster, Hollingsworth will inherit the power to assign legislation to committees, set full council agendas, and oversee the council’s independent central staff.
The role of Council President is usually an administrative one, without much fanfare involved. But Nelson wielded the role in a more heavy-handed way: making major staff changes that were seen as ideologically motivated, assigning legislation that she sponsored to the committee she chaired, and drawing a hard line against disruptions in council chambers that often ground council meetings to a halt.
With the Nelson era officially over, Hollingsworth starts her term as President on a council that is much more ideologically fractured than the one she was elected to serve on just over two years ago. The addition of Foster, and new District 2 Councilmember Eddie Lin, has significantly bolstered the council’s progressive wing, and the election of Katie Wilson as the city’s first progressive major in 16 years will also likely change council dynamics as well.
“This is my promise to you all and the residents of the city of Seattle: everyone who walks through these doors will be treated with respect and kindness, no matter how they show up, in their spirit, their attitude or their words,” Hollingsworth said following Tuesday’s vote. “We will always run a transparent and open process as a body. Our shared responsibility is simple: both basics, the fundamentals, measurable outcomes, accessibility to government and a hyper focus on local issues and transparency.”
Seattle politicos are predicting a closely split city council, arguably with a 3-3-3 composition, with two distinct factions of progressives and centrists, and three members — Dan Strauss, Debora Juarez, and Hollingsworth herself — who tend to swing between the two. Managing those coalitions will be a big part of Hollingsworth’s job, with a special election in District 5 this fall likely to further change the dynamic.
Though it took Tuesday’s vote to make the leadership switch official, Hollingsworth spent much of December acting as leader already, coordinating the complicated game of musical chairs that is the council’s committee assignments. In a move that prioritized comity among the councilmembers ahead of policy agendas, Hollingsworth kept many key committee assignments the same as they had been under Nelson.
Rob Saka will remain in place as chair of the powerful transportation committee, Bob Kettle will keep controlling the public safety committee, and Maritza Rivera will continue heading the education committee, which will be tasked with implementing the 2024 Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise Levy.
There are plenty of places for progressives to find a silver lining in the new assignment roster, however. Foster will chair the housing committee, overseeing issues like renter protections and appointments to the Seattle Social Housing PDA’s governing council. Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who secured a full four-year term in November, will helm the human services committee, a post she’d been eyeing for much of her tenure and which matches her background working at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. Labor issues have been added to her committee as well, and she will vice-chair the transportation committee.
Lin, a former attorney in the City Attorney’s office who focused on housing issues, will stay on as chair of the wonky land use committee, after inheriting the post from interim D2 appointee Mark Solomon last month. Thaddaeus Gregory, who served as Solomon’s policy director and has extensive experience in land use issues, has been retained in Lin’s office.
The land use committee overall will likely be a major bright spot of urbanist policymaking this year, with positions for all three progressives along with Strauss and Hollingsworth. The housing committee will feature exactly the same members, but with Juarez swapped out for Strauss.
In contrast, Kettle’s public safety committee will feature Eddie Lin as the sole progressive voice, and Dan Strauss’s finance committee, which oversees supplemental budget updates that occur mid-year, won’t have any of the council’s three progressives on it at all. Strauss will also retain his influential role as budget chair.
But the biggest issues facing the council in 2026 will be handled with all nine councilmembers in standalone committees: the continued implementation of the Comprehensive Plan, the renewal of the 2019 Library Levy and the 2020 Seattle Transit Measure, and the city’s budget, which faces significant pressures after outgoing Mayor Bruce Harrell added significant spending that wasn’t supported by future year revenues.
Hollingsworth will likely represent a big change in leadership compared to Sara Nelson, but with such a fractured council, smooth sailing is far from assured.
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
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