By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, questioning whether Americans understand the difference between a king and a president, told a New York Law School crowd Tuesday that improved civic education across the country would help people make better decisions.

Sotomayor, speaking at a panel discussion during a “Constitution and Citizenship Day Summit,” did not make comments that were overtly political and did not directly address any controversies of the moment. President Donald Trump was not mentioned.

At one point, though, she raised doubts about how much Americans are being taught about civics in schools.

“Do we understand what the difference is between a king and a president? And I think if people understood these things from the beginning, they would be more informed as to what would be important in a democracy in terms of what people can or shouldn’t do,” she said.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks at the New York Law School’s Constitution and Citizen Day Summit, flanked by Judge Joseph Blanco, left center, and Judge Anthony Cannataro, right center, in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

She decried the lack of education about civics and how democracy works, even giving her version of Ben Franklin’s famous anecdote at the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia when he was asked whether the nation would have a republic or a monarchy.

“We have a republic, madam, if we can keep it,” she recalled that Franklin said.

Sotomayor called social media “one of the largest causes of misinformation on the internet.”

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“If you are only hearing one side of the story, you are not making an informed decision,” Sotomayor said. “The world is a complex place and issues are always difficult.”

The Bronx-born justice said she became interested in civics in grammar school, where she began debating issues, and improved those skills when she learned to debate both sides of a single issue.

At the end of her remarks, she urged students who watched in a large auditorium or saw her on video screens in overflow rooms to think about everything in the world that is wrong and “everything that’s happening in the United States” and realize ”we adults have really messed this up.”

She said she’s counting on today’s students to find solutions.

One Atlantic Coast Conference official quit over how a review was handled in the Syracuse-Connecticut game two weeks ago, and the Gophers can add a gripe on how another ACC review was handled on a key play during Minnesota’s 27-14 loss to California on Saturday.

In the third quarter, Cal running back Brandon High was fighting for extra yards on a first-down rush when U safety Koi Perich and teammates started to tackle him. Perich brought High’s knee down onto Perich’s chest, while Minnesota linebacker Devon Williams punched the ball out.

Multiple Gophers defensive players reacted as if it was a loose ball, and after a scramble on the ground, Williams recovered it. But referee Nate Black immediately said High was down and signaled for second down.

One angle of the play showed the ball was out before High was down by contact.

Video: In #Gophers-Cal game, U linebacker Devon Williams forces a fumble on Bears’ Brandon High while High’s knee lands on Koi Perich’s chest. Williams recovers ball as U led 14-10.

But referee Nate Black said High was down and the ACC does not stop the game for further review. pic.twitter.com/5qQrSSCRS9

— Andy Greder (@andygreder) September 16, 2025

At the time, the Gophers held a 14-10 lead, and the turnover would have given Minnesota the ball at Cal’s 25-yard line. Instead, Cal kept possession, and on the drive, scored a touchdown and would not trail again.

An ACC spokesperson told the Pioneer Press on Tuesday that every play is reviewed, but it’s a question on whether the head referee is buzzed from the conference’s command center to take deeper look at a specific play. The spokesperson said she would attempt to respond to the Pioneer Press with further information on the process.

Coincidentally, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips attended the Cal-Minnesota game at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif.

Last week, longtime ACC official Gary Patterson quit his position in frustration over how a review was handled in the Sept. 6 game in New York, according to ESPN. There was a delay in a review of a Syracuse offensive play that came after another play had been run.

An ESPN source said Patterson, who had been with the ACC since 2002, was upset at the conference’s interference to force a replay despite a subsequent play taking place. That instigated his resignation.

Last September, the Gophers’ 27-14 loss to Michigan was marred by a Minnesota special teams player being flagged for offside on an onside kick that Minnesota recovered. After a flag, the Wolverines gained possession and won in Ann Arbor.

The Big Ten later said the play was “too tight to flag” and the conference charged is officiating mechanics on onside kicks to put “multiple officials in the best position to consistently make the correct judgement.”

The Gophers are off this week before opening Big Ten play against Rutgers at 11 a.m. Sept. 27 at Huntington Bank Stadium.

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In perhaps the most dramatic moment of the Minnesota Wild’s 2024-25 campaign, they needed a single standings point in the regular-season finale to clinch a playoff spot — and literally got it in the final seconds of regulation when Joel Eriksson-Ek scored to force overtime.

Greg Cronin had an up-close view of all the drama, although he didn’t enjoy it much.

That night was one of Cronin’s final evenings in the employ as the Anaheim Ducks’ head coach. He was fired less than a week later, ending a two-year stint running the show in Southern California for the Boston-area native.

On the opening day of the Wild’s prospects camp last week, Cronin was working as head coach of Minnesota’s AHL affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa. The pronounced New England accent has stayed with him through coaching stops in Colorado, Toronto, Long Island, N.Y., and California — so “Minnesota” often becomes “Minnesoter” — but early in his next gig, Cronin seemed pleased with the adjustment to life in fly-over country.

The Wild’s system isn’t that different than the one Cronin employed in Anaheim.

“What I find is it’s the language you use to describe things (that’s different),” he said. “I learned some terms they use that I haven’t really heard before, and I would say the same thing but in a different language that’s simple. So, that’s the big thing is making sure we’re speaking the same language down there.”

Iowa will be Cronin’s third head coaching gig in the AHL, where he previously ran the Bridgeport (Conn.) Sound Tigers and the Colorado Eagles. At the college level, he is a former head coach at Maine and Northeastern.

New opportunity

Fans of the Minnesota Gophers are taught to hate all things Iowa at an early age. But one former Gophers hockey captain is quickly learning to like the Hawkeye State as a place to shoot pucks for a living.

Mike Koster, who was a part of the Gophers leadership group last season when they won his fourth Big Ten title in five seasons, is preparing for a return to Iowa after skating in the Wild’s prospect camp.

After the conclusion of the Gophers’ season last March, the defenseman signed with Minnesota’s organization and skated in 14 games, seven in the postseason, for the Iowa Heartlanders, the Wild’s ECHL affiliate that is in Coralville, near the University of Iowa campus.

“It was weird … learning a new system, but the guys were awesome, so it almost felt like a college locker room,” said Koster, who became a free agent this year after four seasons in the Toronto organization. “It was definitely a bit of an adjustment, but I wanted to go down there and get a feel for the pro game and try to help them win.”

Koster notched six points for the Heartlanders in seven playoff games while rooming with former Gophers teammate Jonny Sorenson.

“The coaches threw me in the fire right away and believed in me,” Koster said. “I just tried to keep it simple and attack when I could, and I ended up finding some holes.”

His next mission as a professional will be to try to find holes in the Wild’s lineup, either in Des Moines or St. Paul.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California judge has rejected a request for a new trial for Erik and Lyle Menendez, shutting down another possible path to freedom for the brothers who have served decades in prison for killing their parents in 1989 at their Beverly Hills mansion.

The ruling Monday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan comes just weeks after the brothers were denied parole. Ryan denied a May 2023 petition seeking a review of their convictions based on new evidence supporting their claims of sexual abuse by their father.

The judge wrote that the new evidence that “slightly corroborates” the allegations that the brothers were sexually abused does not negate the fact that the pair acted with “premeditation and deliberation” when they carried out the killings.

“The evidence alleged here is not so compelling that it would have produced a reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror or supportive of an imperfect self-defense instruction,” the judge wrote.

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An email was sent to Mark Geragos, a lawyer for the brothers, seeking comment on the judge’s ruling.

A panel of two commissioners on Aug. 22 denied Lyle Menendez parole for three years after a daylong hearing. Commissioners noted the older brother still displayed “anti-social personality traits like deception, minimization and rule-breaking that lie beneath that positive surface.”

Erik Menendez, who is being held at the same prison in San Diego, was similarly denied parole a day earlier after commissioners determined that his misbehavior in prison made him still a risk to public safety.

The brothers were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for fatally shooting their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion almost exactly 36 years ago on Aug. 20, 1989. While defense attorneys argued that the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers sought a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

A judge reduced their sentences in May, and they became immediately eligible for parole. The parole hearings marked the closest they have come to winning freedom since their convictions almost 30 years ago.