The payment of settlement funds agreed in November between Hmong College Prep Academy and the New Jersey hedge fund that lost more than $4 million of the St. Paul charter school’s money continues to be delayed.

Last year a settlement in the matter was reached between investment manager Clark Reiner, the hedge fund Woodstock Capital Partners and Hmong College Prep Academy. Under that agreement, Reiner and Woodstock are to pay Hmong College Prep Academy $400,000.

While they were obligated to pay the sum by December, the funds were still not available as of Wednesday, according to a status conference held by Judge Douglas L. Micko in U.S. District Court.

“My clients have provided the following information for this update: ‘We continue to have difficulty and delay on this transaction clearing and available to be used for settlement purposes,’” said attorney Mathew Meyer, who represents Reiner and Woodstock, in a May 9 letter to Micko.

Hmong College Prep Academy sued Woodstock in federal court in 2021 after the school’s founder and former superintendent Christianna Hang’s 2019 investment of $5 million lost $4.3 million. Officials with Hmong College Prep Academy said at the time that Reiner and Woodstock Capital contacted the school multiple times in 2019 as it explored investment opportunities to help pay for a school construction project.

According to the school’s 2021 year-end audit, the value of the investment had fallen from $5 million to $684,762 without school officials knowing what had happened to the rest of the money. Minnesota law prohibits schools from investing in hedge funds, which often use risky investment strategies.

Hmong College Prep Academy did not provide immediately comment on the settlement agreement Wednesday.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in December sued Hang, alleging she invested the $5 million without the approval of the school’s board of directors, in violation of state law and against the advice of the school’s lawyer and accountant.

Hang chose Woodstock on the advice of Kay Yang, an unregistered investor from Wisconsin, according to Ellison’s complaint.

A federal court in Wisconsin later ordered Yang to pay millions in restitution and penalties related to her unregistered investment activity. Hang and her husband lost $125,000 of their own money investing with Yang, Ellison said.

The FBI searched Yang’s suburban-Milwaukee home in 2022 as part of a money laundering and wire fraud investigation. Yang hasn’t been charged in connection with that investigation, but she was convicted at trial last month on charges of felony criminal slander of title; prosecutors alleged she tried to cloud the title of her former home, which went through foreclosure after the FBI raid.

Josh Verges contributed to this report.

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There’s a term that gets tossed around in NBA circles — “16-game player.”

The idea is simple: While many players can produce during the 82-game regular season, the list of guys who can help you win 16 playoff games and hold a trophy at postseason’s end is far, far shorter.

Are you physical enough? Tough enough? Clutch enough? Does your game translate to a higher-intensity brand of basketball that features an increased attention to detail, more desperation and a looser whistle?

If the answer to those questions is “Yes,” then you’re inherently worth more to an organization, particularly those in a position to contend for a championship. That is the ultimate goal of this whole thing.

But that evaluation is a difficult one to make, because the sample size you’re working from is often so small that each new performance feels like a referendum one way or the other.

Julius Randle struggled mightily in the NBA playoffs prior to this season. In 15 career playoff games prior to his arrival in Minnesota, Randle was shooting just 34% from the field and 28% from 3-point range, while tallying more turnovers (58) than assists (56).

Yet he was arguably Minnesota’s best player in the Wolves’ series victories over the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors. Golden State forward Draymond Green heaped praise upon Randle after the Minnesota forward got the best of the multi-time Defensive Player of the Year.

But one series later, Randle has struggled mightily against the Oklahoma City Thunder’s tenacious defense through the first four games of the Western Conference Finals.

It’s been the opposite for Nickeil Alexander-Walker. He burst onto the scene as a defensive demon in the first round of the playoffs in 2023, then lit up Phoenix in Round 1 a year ago.

Since then, the postseason results have been sporadic. Last year’s West Finals served as a low point for the 3-and-D wing during his Timberwolves tenure.

Alexander-Walker really struggled against the Lakers this spring, and was up and down against Golden State. But he has been a star in these West Finals, serving as Minnesota’s best player in a narrow Game 4 defeat. He’s averaging 15 points a game in this series, shooting 53% from distance.

Donte DiVincenzo was a playoff revelation for the New York Knicks a year ago, scoring 25-plus points four times in New York’s second-round series against the Pacers in 2024. That playoff run made him the most intriguing returning piece for Minnesota in the Karl-Anthony Towns trade.

But the sharpshooter struggled mightily for much of these playoffs until finally breaking through on Monday for a 21-point performance.

Perceptions change with each series, each game, each shot attempt.

Whether that’s fair, or a good process, isn’t entirely clear. The reality is Oklahoma City plays a physical brand of defense that is good at the point of attack with off-ball helpers who can poke the ball away if you overdribble and rim protectors patrolling the paint. That’s the exact formula that can make life difficult for someone like Randle.

But the Thunder also make life difficult for basically every top scorer. The good news for Randle as he marches toward an offseason, when he’ll face a difficult decision about whether to except a player option to remain in Minnesota for next year or enter free agency, is he did deliver in the two series prior to this one, so a more positive track record has developed.

But had the Warriors beaten the L.A. Clippers on the final day of the regular season, Minnesota likely would have played Oklahoma City a round earlier, and maybe these individual performances would have been even more harshly judged as “same old playoff Randle” when it clearly looks to be more of a matchup-based result, with production that ebbs and flows, as is frequently the case in basketball.

So, perhaps it’s on a team when it’s making a decision about players — as Minnesota will likely have to do this summer with Alexander-Walker, Randle and Naz Reid — to figure out not how somehow will perform in the playoffs at-large, but what they can bring in certain matchups that the organization suspects will come about on its road to a championship.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker #9 of the Minnesota Timberwolves reacts after being called for a foul against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second quarter in Game Four of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Target Center on May 26, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Donte DiVincenzo #0 of the Minnesota Timberwolves comes pulls down a rebound during the second quarter of a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game Two of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center on May 22, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

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By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The singer Cassie was content celebrating her 29th birthday with drinks, drugs and karaoke with friends, but her boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs, had a different idea.

The hip-hop mogul insisted on taking Cassie, his R&B protégé, to a Los Angeles hotel for another of his “freak-off” sex marathons, her friend and former stylist testified Wednesday at Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial.

Deonte Nash told jurors that he saw the temperamental Combs berating Cassie as she pleaded for him to let her enjoy her birthday on her own terms. Later that night, Nash said, Cassie told the stylist, “I don’t want to freak-off,” but that she had to because Combs was making her.

Nash testified that the 2015 conversation was one of several times Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, confided to him that she didn’t want to engage in Combs’ drug-fueled hotel encounters. Earlier in the trial, Cassie testified that these often involved Combs watching, directing and sometimes filming her as she had sex with a male sex worker. She said she engaged in hundreds of such encounters during her nearly 11-year relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018.

Nash said he remains close with Cassie, even advising her on her trial wardrobe. He said he contacted her Tuesday to congratulate her on the birth of her third child.

Sean “Diddy” Combs, right, blows kisses to people in the audience during his sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Along with shedding light on Cassie’s feelings about freak-offs, Nash also corroborated her testimony that Combs frequently beat and tormented her. Combs would threaten to hinder Cassie’s fledgling music career and said he’d ruin her reputation by releasing recordings of their sexual encounters, Nash said.

The stylist said he was at Cassie’s apartment, helping her pack for a music festival, when Combs stormed in, grabbed her by the hair, pulled her off a couch and hit her repeatedly. Nash said he jumped on Combs’ back in an attempt to get him to stop, but Combs bucked and threw him to the ground.

Combs resumed whaling on Cassie, who’d fled to a bedroom with Nash and another friend, knocking her head into the edge of the bed frame and causing a large, bloody gash above her eye, the witness said.

“Look what y’all made me do,” Combs said, according to Nash.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he led a racketeering conspiracy for 20 years that relied on fear and violence to get what he wanted. If convicted, he could face 15 years to life in prison.

Earlier Wednesday, Combs’ lawyers asked for a mistrial — which Judge Arun Subramanian denied — after they said prosecutors had tried to imply that Combs interfered with a police investigation into the January 2012 firebombing of rapper Kid Cudi’s Porsche 911. Subramanian told jurors to disregard testimony about fingerprint records that ended up being destroyed months after the fire.

Combs’ ex-assistant testified Tuesday that Combs said he wanted to kill Cudi after he learned that Cassie and Cudi were dating in December 2011.

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A few weeks later, Cudi’s Porsche was firebombed. A Molotov cocktail was found in the front seat, made out of a 40-ounce Old English 800 malt liquor bottle and a designer handkerchief, according to Lance Jimenez, an arson investigator for the Los Angeles Fire Department, and photographs shown in court.

Combs’ lawyers moved for a mistrial after Jimenez, prompted by prosecution questioning, testified that fingerprints taken from Cudi’s vehicle were destroyed in August 2012, about eight months after the fire. Jimenez said someone at the Los Angeles Police Department who wasn’t involved in the investigation ordered the fingerprint cards destroyed. He said this wasn’t normal protocol.

Combs’ lawyer Alexandra Shapiro accused the government of prosecutorial misconduct for even broaching the idea that something untoward happened with the fingerprint cards. She said prosecutors should’ve known better because some prospective jurors were eliminated from consideration for the trial after they said they believed Combs could buy his way out of trouble.

“These questions were designed to play right into that,” Shapiro said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik countered that “a mistrial is absolutely unwarranted here,” telling the judge that she only asked Jimenez about the fate of the fingerprint cards to counter defense suggestions that the firebombing was poorly investigated and that the area was not canvassed for fingerprints.

No arrests were made as a result of Jimenez’s investigation, but federal prosecutors contend Combs was responsible for the fire and have included the episode as one of several acts of alleged wrongdoing supporting the racketeering charge against him.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of roughly 80 fired federal employees on Wednesday appealed their terminations to an administrative body in charge of protecting the rights of federal employees from partisan political practices. Notably, that board’s chairwoman was also recently fired by President Donald Trump.

The 18F employees, who worked on technology projects such as the IRS’ Direct File, filed an appeal at the Merit Systems Protection Board against the General Services Administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

They claim they were identified in February for a reduction-in-force because of their “perceived political affiliations or beliefs,” as well as “protected speech and actions supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and actions to resist and blow the whistle on management’s improper handling and transition of control concerning sensitive data and systems.”

In February, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk posted on his social media site that he had “deleted” 18F. Musk was responding to a post by an X user who called 18F “far left” and mused that Direct File “puts the government in charge” of preparing people’s taxes. “That group has been deleted,” Musk wrote.

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The appeal documents state that the employees were removed from federal service “through a purported RIF because they were perceived to be left-wing, radical, or affiliated with DEI activities,” which “abuses the laws and regulations governing RIFs to punish perceived political opponents and to coerce conformity with their values and political positions, and violates federal civil rights statutes.”

One of the MSPB’s primary functions is to protect federal workers against partisan politics and other prohibited personnel practices by adjudicating employee appeals, according to the board’s website.

The workers’ complaint comes after the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to fire the head of the board, Cathy Harris, while a lawsuit plays out.

According to the MSPB website, as of April 9, Acting Chairman Henry Kerner is the sole serving board member, and the board is currently without a quorum to vote on petitions for review.

A White House official did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.