A biologically male trans athlete will compete for the girls’ long jump and triple jump state championship in California next week. 

The trans athlete finished in first place in both events at Saturday’s California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Track Championship Masters Qualifiers. 

In triple jump, the athlete won with a distance of 40-04.75, while the runner up only reached 39-06.00. In long jump, the trans athlete’s margin of victory was shorter, reaching 19-03.50 while the runner-up managed 19-00.75. 

During the long jump medal ceremony, the athlete who finished in third place did not show up and accept the third place medal next to the trans athlete. No reason has been given. The second-place finisher received a noticeably vocal applause. 

Tracy Howton, a local parent of an athlete who competes in track and field, attended the event Saturday and had to witness what is becoming a regular site for her and others in the community. 

“As the parent of a female jumper, we have watched this happen at the last three track meets. Today we watched incredible female athletes lose their opportunities to go to states to a biological male. I can’t imagine how devastating it would feel to work so hard and then be unfairly stripped of your opportunity to compete at states. It’s heartbreaking,” Howton told Fox News Digital.

“Governor Newsom, our California elected officials and the CIF are failing our girls. It’s that simple. They owe the competitive female athletes of California representation. They owe them responsible decisions based on science and fundamental truth. For our family, this experience has reinforced just how important it is to use your voice to stand up for truth, remembering that bad decisions can be corrected.”

The CIF has been at the center of a national controversy in recent weeks as the trans athlete has dominated the girls’ track and field postseason. 

The situation has become so volatile that President Donald Trump’s administration sent a warning to the CIF and the athlete’s high school, Jurupa Valley High School, of consequences for allowing the situation to continue. 

CIF is already under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for defying Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. The federation came under additional scrutiny when its officials allegedly forced athletes to remove shirts that read “Protect Girls Sports” at the Southern Sectional prelims on May 10. 

“CIF’s and Jurupa Valley High School’s apparent flouting of federal civil rights law by allowing a male athlete to compete in a female California track and field [Southern Sectional Division 3 final] this Saturday, and the alleged retaliation against the girls who are protesting this, is indefensible,” Julie Hartman, a Department of Education spokesperson, previously told Fox News Digital.

“We will not allow institutions to trample upon women’s civil rights. OCR’s (Office of Civil Rights) investigation into CIF continues with vigor.”  

CALIFORNIA GIRLS’ TRACK ATHLETE OPENS UP ON LOSING 1ST-PLACE TITLE TO TRANS COMPETITOR

The Jurupa Unified School District (JUSD) has responded to the controversy in a previous statement to Fox News Digital. 

“JUSD continues to follow both California law and CIF policy regarding school athletics. Both state law and CIF policy currently require that students be permitted to participate in athletic teams and competitions consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records. JUSD remains committed to protecting the rights and safety of the students we serve, in accordance with applicable state and federal laws,” the statement reads.

The situation is set to come to a head next Saturday when the athlete will look to cap off a dominant postseason run with a pair of state titles. 

The event will take place at Veterans Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High School in Clovis, California, and will feature a rematch between the trans athlete and a female athlete who has spoken out against her trans opponent’s inclusion. 

In long jump, the athlete will face off against Katie McGuiness, who came in second place behind the athlete at last weekend’s sectional final. McGuiness earned an automatic state championship qualification this Saturday with a distance of 18-05.50. 

“I ran down the runway, and I landed, and I watched them measure my mark, and it was 18.9,” McGuiness said in an interview on Fox News’ “America Reports.” “And I just remember thinking that there was nothing else that I could do. That was it. And I was honestly very discouraged, and I’m a high school senior and winning CIF has always been a goal of mine, and I wasn’t able to compete with someone who was genetically different than me.”

McGuinness made her overall stance on the issue clear.

“There are just certain genetic advantages that biological males have that biological girls don’t,” she said. “Frankly, I just can’t stand for that.”

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Don’t expect many donkey drops at the Coliseum the next week and a half. But there will be plenty of sloggers, dibbly dobblies and, if you listen closely, the sweet – or sickening – sounds of a death rattle echoing through the A’s old home.

Major League Cricket is making its debut in the Bay Area this week. The six-team league, which includes the San Francisco Unicorns, was established three years ago in the hope of exposing the world’s second-most popular sport (after soccer) to a new audience.

Cricket is not new to the United States. The 1844 match between the U.S. and Canada in Toronto is considered the sport’s first international event. But for the most part, interest in cricket in the United States has drawn mostly, well, crickets. Many Americans had no idea there was even a U.S. national team until, led by Oracle developer Saurabh Netravalkar, the U.S. stunned Pakistan in a T20 World Cup match last summer.

The Bay Area is one of the stronger cricket communities in the U.S., so the games in Oakland could draw significant interest. It’ll also appeal to curious sports fans.

For those unfamiliar with cricket, here is a primer about the sport and what’s happening at the Coliseum starting Thursday.

What is the MLC?

The San Francisco Unicorns were a charter member of Major League Cricket in 2023, along with the Los Angeles Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians New York, the Seattle Orcas, the Texas Super Kings, and the Washington Freedom. All the games were played in Grand Prairie, Texas and Morrisville, North Carolina the first two seasons. This season Oakland and Lauderhill, Florida will host nine games each, with the 16 others in Grand Prairie.

The first nine games of the season will be played at the Coliseum, starting with the Unicorns’ opener Thursday at 6 p.m. against Netravalkar and the defending champion Freedom in a rematch of last year’s championship match. The Unicorns also play Saturday (6 p.m. vs. the Knight Riders) and Sunday (6 p.m. vs. MI New York).

The Oakland leg of the season concludes on June 18, when the league moves to Texas for two weeks before the regular season ends in Florida. The playoffs are July 8-13 in Texas.

What’s going on?

Cricket is often compared to baseball. Both are bat-and-ball games where the object is to hit the ball where your opponent isn’t and to score runs. Bowlers, like pitchers, use high velocity and deception to get the ball past their opponent (in this case, to knock over the wicket or stumps) or induce a catchable ball to the 11 defensive players in the field.

Cricket is played on an oval – balls can be batted or deflected in any direction and potentially produce runs. There is no foul territory, which baseball fans who attended games at the Coliseum will find amusing.

MLC plays Twenty20 cricket, a streamlined – and increasingly popular – version of the sport. It’s only been around since 2003 but will be part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, ending cricket’s 128-year absence at the Games. Test matches, the most traditional form of cricket, can last up to five days. One-Day Internationals (ODIs) last around eight hours.

T20 matches take about three hours, and batters tend to be more aggressive because of the condensed format. Following a coin toss to see who bats first, each team plays one inning, which lasts until the team has attempted to bat 120 balls, has scored more points than its opponent or made 10 outs.

There are 10 ways to record an out in cricket. The most common are: caught (a batted ball is caught in the air by a fielder), bowled (the batsman misses the pitch and it knocks down the wicket), given leg before wicket (the batsman used their body to block the ball from hitting the wicket) and run out (a runner is beat to the wicket by a throw or a fielder).

At the center of the playing area is the strip, a 66-foot-long (and 10-foot-wide) stretch with wooden wickets at either end. There is one batter positioned at either end of the strip, and the bowler faces one batter at a time.

If the ball is put in play, the batter and partner stationed on the bowler’s side of the strip can run toward the opposite end (with bats in hand) before one of the fielders knocks down a wicket with a throw, but they don’t have to. (Think of the kids’ game rundown or hotbox.) If the throw beats the runner, they are out.

If both runners are successful, it’s worth one run. If they can cross the length of the strip twice, it’s worth two, and so on. If a ball rolls or bounces outside of the edge of the oval (called the boundary and typically roped off), it’s worth four points. A ball that clears the boundary on the fly (between 250-300 feet) is the cricket equivalent of a home run and worth six points.

Using a straight-arm delivery – bending your elbow to throw is illegal – the hardest-throwing bowlers don’t quite reach 100 miles per hour. The balls are slightly harder and smaller than a baseball. The balls have a raised seam down the middle, which is very useful because most “pitches” are intended to be skipped on the ground near the feet of the batters. Some bowlers are skilled enough to skip the ball around the batter to strike down the wicket.

Bowlers throw six pitches and then are subbed out (called an over). Unlike in baseball, bowlers can sub back in, but only for four overs. T20 matches consist of 20 overs. Batsmen continue until they make an out.

Who’s winning?

A successful inning for an individual batter is around 40 runs, and 160 is considered a good team score.

But following the score as the match progresses can be confusing.

The first thing to remember is the teams do not alternate batting. Team A will face its 120 pitches or make 10 outs, then Team B bats.

Here is how last year’s title match between the Unicorns and the Freedom looked:

Freedom 207/5 (20 overs)/ Unicorns 111 (16 overs)

What it meant: The Freedom batted first and scored 207 points and made five outs in 20 overs. The Unicorns scored 111 points before they made their 10th – and final – out in the 16th over.

IN CASE YOU HEAR IT

Wicket – The Aloha of cricket jargon has multiple meanings. The most common is the three wooden posts (or stumps) positioned behind the batter and held together at the top by two bails. The pitch, the strip in the center of the playing surface where the bowler faces the batter, can also be called the wicket, and a batter who is put out can be referred to as taking a wicket.

Sticky wicket – Originates from references to when a wet pitch (or the wicket) is drying out after a rainstorm, creating inconsistent bounces. Also known as sticky dog.

Biffer – A big, aggressive hitter looking to slog the ball – hit it high and far. A batter swinging for the “boundary” and six points. The opposite is a rabbit, who bats low in the order and is not a good hitter. Even worse is a ferret.

Pie chucker – A bowler who is easy to get a hit against. Also called cafeteria and buffet bowling. A dibbly dobbly is an easy pitch to hit, but can induce non-scoring contact.

Crease – A series of straight white lines painted at the edge of the pitch near the wickets used, among other things, to judge if a run has been scored.

Death rattle – The sound of the ball missing the bat and breaking the wicket.

Duck – When a batter is dismissed without scoring a run. Golden duck is retired on the first ball thrown.

Peach – A high velocity ball that is practically unhittable. A corker is similar, but because of location or movement and not speed. A donkey drop can also be nearly unhittable – a lob, similar to the eephus pitch in baseball thrown as high as possible in an attempt to drop behind the batsman onto the wicket.

Perfume ball – A ball that bounces near a batter’s face, close enough to smell it.

Sledging – Trash-talking during the match. Some players are world class.

Gardening – When a batter scratches at the pitch with his bat between deliveries, usually to try and smooth out the surface. A pitch that is uneven or has cracks is considered spicy.

Boot Hill – The defensive area to be covered on the batsman’s dominant side. High upside to get an out but perilous because of the location. Much like the “hot corner” in baseball.

Chucker – A bowler who delivers with a bent elbow. Implies the bowler is cheating.

If you want to go

There will be at least one match at the Coliseum every day from Thursday through June 18. Two matches are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

The games will be streamed on WillowTV, Sling TV and CBS Sports Network.

More information: https://www.majorleaguecricket.com/

Originally Published: June 11, 2025 at 3:35 AM PDT

DENVER — Community organizer Brian Loma remembers wearing his homemade “PRESS” helmet during the summer of 2020, when crowds filled downtown Denver streets to protest police brutality after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Those protests turned violent and led to several lawsuits and claims of more police brutality. Loma was involved in one of those lawsuits.

“I’m filming,” he recalled, describing the situation during one of the protests. “I have a camera. I don’t have a rock. I’m not here to damage anything. I’m filming.”

Loma alleges that at one point during a protest, he was burning sage and praying when he was attacked by Denver police.

“I started getting shot with pepper balls,” he said. “There wasn’t mass crowds. There wasn’t violent lines of people throwing water bottles or rocks or anything. It wasn’t with a massive group. I was there and I was praying.”

That account is part of a lawsuit settled by the City of Denver this week. Loma received a $135,000 payout to settle his claims from that night.

“You know, I’m not out there filming these events, participating, because I want a payout,” he told Denver7 Tuesday. “That’s not the point. The point is to have accountability, be the eyes and ears [of the public].”

Denver7 has followed the settlements between the City of Denver and protesters. Read our previous coverage below:

In total, the City of Denver has paid out more than $18 million in settlements related to the 2020 protests. Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis said the city needs to be more accountable, especially as it faces a $250 million budget shortfall.

“When we’re looking at an ask to furlough, to lay folks off, but we’re also paying out settlements and large sums, we have to ask ourselves — because we talk about this all the time — if budgets are moral documents, what does that say about our morality?” Lewis said on Tuesday.

Lewis believes a less punitive culture within the Denver Police Department, or better alternatives to address community needs, would mean fewer of these claims and lawsuits.

“There are a number of things that you can do where you could have less reliance on the police and more reliance on community organizations and community and solutions that are embedded in [and] deeply rooted in community care,” she said. “But I don’t think we do that.”

Former Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen led the department during the 2020 protests. Denver7 Investigates asked him about the department’s actions leading to millions in payouts.

“A lot of these cases have gone on,” Pazen said. “They’ve been appealed. The city has won several of these cases, as well, which often doesn’t get talked about as much as it should.”

• Hear more from former Chief Pazen in the video player below

Denver7 Investigates talks with former Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen ahead of ICE Out! protest

Pazen said it’s often agitators in the crowd that spark violence.

“Working with the community is the way to address these types of situations, but this is not a one-way street,” he said. “If you have organizers of peaceful protests that step up and get rid of agitators, you will have a peaceful, successful protest. When people start to cause damage, destruction, get involved in violence, then a police department has to respond. That is their duty in order to stop the violence.”

Denver PD declined to comment on the settlement payouts, but did respond to Denver7’s question about how the department has changed its crowd control policies since 2020. The department provided the following examples, but did not include further details:

• The elimination the use of 40 mm less lethal equipment for purposes of crowd control
• Modified the way officers are permitted to use pepper balls for purposes of crowd management
• Less lethal equipment training enhanced to help ensure appropriate use in crowd control settings and understanding of commands
• All officers have received additional training on crowd control response and rapid deployment vehicle tactics

After five years, Loma calls the wait for change “painstaking.”

“Reform does happen slowly, but sometimes it feels like we take two steps forward and take one step back,” he said. “Maybe there is reform happening, right? Maybe it does happen, but it’s a long, slow, arduous process.”