A week after one quarterback left, the Gophers football program added another experienced QB through the NCAA transfer portal.

Emmett Morehead, a transfer from Boston College and Old Dominion, committed to the U on Friday afternoon. He steps in after Zach Pryon left for South Alabama.

Morehead did not play for Old Dominion last year but will bring experience to Minnesota from his time at B.C. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound signal caller from Woodside, Calif., appears to have one year of eligibility remaining for Minnesota.

The bulk of Morehead’s experience came in 2022, when he completed 60% of his passes (115 for 192) for 1,254 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions. He started the final four games of that season, with three strong games and one tough one.

In games against Duke, N.C. State and Syracuse, he completed at least 27 passes and accumulated for more than 250 yards, with 2-4 touchdowns in each game. Against No. 18 Notre Dame in the snow, however, he went 9 for 22 for 117 yards, zero TDs and three INTs.

In 2021, he played in two games (6 for 16 and 87 yards) and then four games in 2023 (15 for 30, 124 yards).

Redshirt freshman Drake Lindsey is the Gophers’ presumptive starter for 2025, with Max Shikenjanski and Dylan Wittke serving as primary backups in spring practices. The U also has true freshman Jackson Kollock on the roster.

Minnesota has added three other players via the portal: cornerback John Nestor (Iowa), defensive tackle Mo Onamode (Purdue) and running back Johann Cardenas (Vanderbilt).

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By HOLLY RAMER

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Nineteen states that refused to comply with a Trump administration directive aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools went a step further Friday, filing a federal lawsuit challenging what they consider an illegal threat to cut federal funding.

The lawsuit filed in Massachusetts by Democratic attorneys general seeks to block the Department of Education from withholding money based on its April 3 directive ordering states to certify their compliance with civil rights laws, including the rejection of what the federal government calls “illegal DEI practices.” States also were told to gather signatures from local school systems certifying their compliance by April 24.

Instead, the plaintiffs informed the government that they stand by their prior certifications of compliance with the law but refuse to abandon policies that promote equal access to education.

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are legal efforts that help students feel safe, supported and respected. The Trump administration’s threats to withhold critical education funding due to the use of these initiatives are not only unlawful, but harmful to our children, families, and schools,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.

The new lawsuit comes a day after judges in three states ruled against the Trump administration in separate but related cases.

A Maryland judge postponed the effective date of a Feb. 14 memo in which the education department told schools and colleges they needed to end any practice that differentiates people based on their race. A judge in Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary injunction against the April certification letter. And in New Hampshire, a judge ruled that the department can not enforce either document against the plaintiffs in that case, which includes one of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions.

All three lawsuits argue that the guidance limits academic freedom and is so vague that it leaves schools and educators in limbo about what they may do, such as whether voluntary student groups for minority students are still allowed.

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The new lawsuit accuses the administration of imperiling more than $13.8 billion, including money used to serve students with disabilities.

“Plaintiffs are left with an impossible choice: either certify compliance with an ambiguous and unconstitutional federal directive — threatening to chill polices, programs and speech – or risk losing indispensable funds that serve their most vulnerable student populations,” the lawsuit states.

In addition to Campbell, the plaintiffs are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The education department did not respond to a request for comment Friday. President Donald Trump’s education secretary, Linda McMahon, has warned of potential funding cuts if states do not return the certification forms.

In a Tuesday interview on the Fox Business Network, McMahon said that states that refuse to sign could “risk some defunding in their districts.” The purpose of the form is “to make sure there’s no discrimination that’s happening in any of the schools,” she said.

From a baseball standout, it’s no stretch to say that 6-foot-8 Saints outfielder Carson McCusker is the talk of the town(s).

The 26-year-old former independent league player, signed by the Twins as a minor league free agent in June of 2023, has hit nothing but rockets and tape-measure home runs this young season. As a result, the subject of “exit velocity” also pertains to his likely ascension from Triple-A baseball to the major leagues.

McCusker entered the weekend with six home runs, one off the lead in minor league baseball, and had 17 RBIs in 18 games. His exit velocity of 95.7 mph was second among Triple-A hitters.

Carson McCusker, 26, was drafted by Milwaukee out of junior college but transferred to Oklahoma State instead. Undrafted there, he played independent baseball in upstate New York before signing a minor league deal with the Twins. (Rob Thompson / St. Paul Saints)

While he has drawn comparisons to New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge due to their similar size and ability to mash a baseball, McCusker’s mantle of home run hitter is a relatively new one.

“In indy ball I started to make a little leg kick and started seeing some power production from that,” McCusker said. “I was able to hit some balls harder, so I stuck with that. Ten months later, I got signed, and that’s when it kind of took off for me.

“I didn’t really understand how to be a power hitter before that. It took a while to figure it out.”

So much so that McCusker came close to giving up the game prior to his third season of playing for Tri-City (upstate New York) of the Frontier League.

“I was taking with family,” he said, “and it was like, ‘Do I really want to do this one more time? I’m 25; it’s probably time to get a real job.’ But I said I’d give it one more go.”

He signed with the Twins a few months later.

McCusker lettered in three sports in high school in Sparks, Nevada — baseball, basketball and tennis. He also wrestled. He played a year of junior college baseball in California, after which he was drafted by Milwaukee in the 26th round of the 2017 draft. He opted to sign with Oklahoma State instead.

McCusker played three seasons for the Cowboys but was not drafted a second time, leaving him looking for a place to continue his playing career.

Oklahoma State’s Carson McCusker (12) leads off of second during an NCAA baseball game against TCU on April 16, 2021, in Fort Worth, Texas. The outfielder was hitting .302 with six home runs and 17 RBIs in 18 games for the Class AAA St. Paul Saints through Thursday’s games. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

“Out of college — not getting drafted — I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” he said. “But I always felt that I could play this game at a higher level than what I’d been given the chance to do. So, I just gave myself a shot.”

McCusker had a tie to Tri-City in manager Pete Incaviglia, a former major league outfielder who played collegiately at Oklahoma State and kept close ties to the program. His time with Tri-City included some anxious — and frustrating — moments.

“My first full season I tried to make some swing adjustments and I was terrible,” McCusker said. “So, I had to navigate my way through that and make some more swing adjustments and figure it out.”

McCusker considers himself a student of the game, something he feels has played a big role in his current success.

“I’ve put in a lot of work the past couple of years trying to get stuff figured out,’” he said. “I feel like I’m starting to figure out how to go about my approach game by game, at-bat to at-bat. It’s been working out. I’m just trying to learn every single day. That’s the beauty of it, too — you never know everything with this game.”

McCusker appeared in 24 games with the Saints last season after beginning the year with Double-A Wichita. He batted .286 for the Saints, with four homers and 11 RBIs. He said the experience proved invaluable. His offseason was about learning “what to train on and how pitchers are going to attack you.”

As for his height, McCusker said he basically grew a couple inches every year in high school before adding another inch in college.

“They tell me I might sill be growing,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know, we’ll see.”

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By their own admission, Grand Avenue toy store owners Millie Adelsheim and Dan Marshall have never filed a lawsuit before, let alone one aimed at pausing international tariffs. Suing the White House struck them as an ambitious but appropriate place to start.

“We estimate about 85% of our toys are impacted by Trump’s 145% tariffs,” said Adelsheim and Marshall, the husband-and-wife co-owners of the Mischief Toy Store, in an open letter Friday explaining how they’ve been thrust into the front lines of an international trade war. “Every day, we’re getting notices of price increases from our suppliers. Several have left the US market altogether and many others have paused production. As a country we will be seeing huge price increases and shortages on every kind of consumer product — not just toys — in the near future.”

With the financial future of their shop and their industry on the line, Mischief Toy Store has joined with Stonemaier Games and four other board game manufacturers, a children’s clothing company called Princess Awesome, a metal treating company and an importer of fine art to file legal action against the U.S. government in an effort to roll back international tariffs recently imposed by the Trump administration.

The lawsuit — “Princess Awesome & Stonemaier Games, et al. v. Customs” — was filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan, with the 10 plaintiffs represented, free of charge, by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a non-profit Libertarian law firm.

‘A somewhat strange partnership’

Around St. Paul, Adelsheim and Marshall are known for backing progressive causes, making the group effort “a somewhat strange partnership for us. While we may disagree on other issues, we are all in full agreement on the need to check Trump’s abuses of power. He is not a king and we cannot allow him to act like one.”

The plaintiffs argue that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress, and not the president, the power to impose financial tariffs on foreign countries, and that the tariffs will be financially devastating to their businesses and industries. On Feb. 1, the president imposed tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, citing the need to address illegal immigration and fentanyl importation. On April 2, he expanded the tariffs to almost every country, calling trade imbalances a national emergency that empowered him to take unilateral action.

He later paused most of those tariffs for 90 days, allowing time to renegotiate trade deals. While certain Trump policies have gained a following with segments of the American public, about 6-in-10 Americans polled have said they disapprove of the tariffs, according to the Pew Research Center, and a majority of the population has taken a skeptical view of the president’s overall handling of the economy.

Marshall, in an interview Friday, said kids aren’t playing with analog toys as much as they used to, given growing interest in video and digital pastimes. For some vendors and suppliers, the tariffs will be a final nail in the coffin.

“We source American-made toys as much as we can, and one of our American suppliers is going out of business — Two Bros Bows,” he said. “Kids don’t play with analog toys like they used to, and they’re not buying American. We’re the last toy store in St. Paul. If all those things go up by 200%, it’s going to be really hard to stay in business.”

Board game company

Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Stonemaier works with Chinese firms to manufacture the popular card-driven board game “Wingspan,” which would be heavily impacted by a 145% tariff on imported products from China.

For the board game company, that amounts to a $14.50 tax for every $10 spent manufacturing the game, which adds up to a looming payment of nearly $1.5 million, according to a written statement from Stonemaier.

“We will not stand idle while our livelihood — and the livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and contractors in the U.S. — are treated like pawns in a political game,” said Jamey Stegmaier, co-founder of Stonemaier Games, in the statement.

Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include XYZ Game Labs, Rookie Mage, Spielcraft and TinkerHouse Games, as well as Quent Cordair Fine Art, the KingSeal kitchen supply company and 300 Below, a cryogenic processing company.

Similar cases

Similar cases have been filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance in the Northern District of Florida, Tranel Law in District of Montana and the Liberty Justice Center in the Court of International Trade, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation.

“This might put us at risk,” wrote Adelsheim and Marshall, the Mischief Toy Store owners, in their open letter Friday. “Who knows how Trump and his minions will respond … We’ll be doing everything we can to keep things as normal as possible.”

The Grand Avenue shop owners were previously associated with Peapods Natural Toys, which closed in 2015 after 16 years in operation in St. Paul.

“We’d also like to make it clear that we’ve always supported American-made toys and we stock them when we can,” they wrote. “Those of you who remember Peapods will know that we specialized in Made in the USA toys, held a Minnesota Toy Fair to promote local toymakers, and even founded the Handmade Toy Alliance to support small batch US toymakers. The steady loss of US and EU toymakers was one of the main reasons we closed Peapods back in 2015. Tariffs cannot and will not reverse this trend.”

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