Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved used sarcasm to deflect the difficulty in Wednesday’s matchup against No. 10 Michigan State and hall of fame coach Tom Izzo.

“Maybe we can take advantage of Michigan State’s youth and inexperience, particularly in their coaching. Take advantage of Coach Izzo,” Medved said Tuesday, joking about head coach Tom Izzo’s 31 years leading the with Spartans. “They won’t be very well prepared. They haven’t been in these situations before, so maybe that’s exactly a good thing for us.”

The satire masked the challenge Medved knew the ultra-consistent Spartans represented, but Minnesota rose to the occassion with an nothing-to-scoff-at 76-73 upset win on Wednesday at Williams Arena.

Gophers (10-12, 3-8 Big Ten) has lost seven in a row, but produced their first win against a top 10 team was 2021 when they topped No. 7 Michigan. The Gophers beat ranked Indiana and Iowa teams earlier this season.

The Spartans were 8.5-point betting favorites, but Minnesota pulled off a stunner.

Minnesota led 69-56 with two minutes left, but the Spartans stormed back to cut lead to 73-71 with 19 seconds remaining.

Isaac Asuma made two free throws and Langston Reynolds added one to put it out of reach.

Jaylen Crocker-Johnson led all scorers with 22 points. All five Minnesota starters scored in double figures.

Spartans star guard Jeremy Fears has developed a reputation for dirty play; that surfaced in the Michigan loss last week and Wolverines coach Dusty May calling it out.

On Wednesday, Fears kicked his leg out toward Langston Reynolds, and on review, the foul call on Reynolds was reversed to a flagrant on Fears. Cade Tyson made two free throws after the review.

That was one of a few incidents against Fears on Wednesday, but Reynolds kept his cool. When he made a bucket and drew a four with four minutes left, he gave a cathartic shout toward the crowd.

The Gophers led 32-21 at the half on the back of strong 3-point shooting and stout defense. Minnesota was 7 for 14 from deep, while the Spartans were 2 for 8. The U held Michigan State to 33% shooting in the opening 20 minutes and forced five turnovers.

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By DAVID KLEPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Close the cover on the CIA World Factbook: The spy agency announced Wednesday that after more than 60 years, it is shuttering the popular reference manual.

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The announcement posted to the CIA’s website offered no reason for the decision to end the Factbook, but it follows a vow from Director John Ratcliffe to end programs that don’t advance the agency’s core missions.

First launched in 1962 as a printed, classified reference manual for intelligence officers, the Factbook offered a detailed, by-the-numbers picture of foreign nations, their economies, militaries, resources and societies. The Factbook proved so useful that other federal agencies began using it, and within a decade, an unclassified version was released to the public.

After going online in 1997, the Factbook quickly became a popular reference site for journalists, trivia aficionados and the writers of college essays, racking up millions of visits per year.

The White House has moved to cut staffing at the CIA and the National Security Agency early in Trump’s second term, forcing the agency to do more with less.

The CIA did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday about the decision to cease publication of the Factbook.

Camp Bar will host an evening of local stand-up comics to raise money to cover losses the staff suffered after owner Bill Collins canceled six sold-out performances from a Canadian comic last weekend.

Collins pulled the plug on the shows after the comedian went viral with a social media post ridiculing Renee Good, who was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis.

Dubbed “Bounce Back: A Comedy Revue,” the Feb. 10 show features Pearl Rose, James Stanley, Rick Logan, Khadijah Cooper, Pierre Douglas, Tommy Ryman, Ben Katzner, Maggie Faris and “a few surprises.” The $25 tickets are available at camp-bar.net.

Collins said the proceeds will go toward covering staff hours and tips that were lost due to the canceled shows. He also said he hopes to donate some of the money to nearby restaurants Sawatdee and Keys Cafe, which also lost business.

“In talking with people around the club and regulars, people wanted to do something, to have an opportunity in some way to say that they agree with what we did,” Collins said.

Sold-out shows

Comedian Ben Bankas. (Courtesy of Ben Bankas)

The shows were already completely sold out when Ben Bankas, who calls himself “anti-woke,” posted a clip from a show in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., just days after Good’s death.

“Now for a moment of silence for Renee Good. Really hope that dog’s OK … and her pet,” Bankas said in apparent reference to Good’s wife. “Her last name was Good. That’s what I said after they shot her in the face.”

Bankas went on to call Good a “dumb, retarded lesbian” who “should have been shot 10 minutes before.”

After hearing calls to protest Bankas’ performances, Collins said he decided to cancel the shows due to safety reasons for both the audience and the performer.

“I don’t understand how (Bankas’ agents) think it’s a good idea to send this guy into this city right now,” Collins told the Pioneer Press last week. “I don’t know how getting in and out of the venue would work for him and if the people coming to see him are going to have to go through crowds of protesters. The risk of something happening is just way, way too great. And it’s just mind boggling to me that they don’t see that.”

Bankas’ response

The story was picked up by several national outlets — including the New York Post, People and NBC News — and Collins said he’s been inundated with emails, calls and social media posts, about 20 percent of which have been in support of the club’s decision. He said most of the negative responses appear to be from people out of state.

Bankas posted another clip to social media after the shows were canceled. “F— them, obviously,” he said and added he expected to be paid regardless.

Collins said Bankas’ management company, CAA, told him that if he doesn’t pay Bankas, CAA won’t book any comics at the venue in the future. The club stands to lose about $18,000 if forced to pay Banks.

Collins said Wednesday he has yet to hear anything further from Bankas’ management.

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By ALEXANDRA OLSON and CLAIRE SAVAGE

NEW YORK (AP) — The federal agency for protecting workers’ civil rights revealed Wednesday that it is investigating sportswear giant Nike for allegedly discriminating against white employees through its diversity policies.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission disclosed the investigation in a motion filed in Missouri federal court demanding that Nike fully comply with a subpoena for information.

The EEOC sought the company’s criteria for selecting employees for layoffs, how it tracks and uses worker race and ethnicity data, and information about programs which allegedly provided race-restricted mentoring, leadership, or career development opportunities, according to court documents.

In a statement, Nike said the company has worked to cooperate with the EEOC and the subpoena “feels like a surprising and unusual escalation.”

“We have shared thousands of pages of information and detailed written responses to the EEOC’s inquiry and are in the process of providing additional information,” Nike said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.”

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas has moved swiftly to target diversity and inclusion policies that she has long criticized as potentially discriminatory, tightly aligning the agency with one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities.

Nike appears to be the highest profile company the EEOC has targeted with a publicly confirmed, formal anti-DEI investigation. In November, the EEOC issued a similar subpoena against financial services provider Northwestern Mutual.

“When there are compelling indications, including corporate admissions in extensive public materials, that an employer’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion-related programs may violate federal prohibitions against race discrimination or other forms of unlawful discrimination, the EEOC will take all necessary steps — including subpoena actions — to ensure the opportunity to fully and comprehensively investigate,” Lucas said in a statement.

FILE – Andrea Lucas, nominee to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing, June 18, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

The disclosure comes two months after Lucas posted a social media call-out urging white men to come forward if they have experienced race or sex discrimination at work. The post urged eligible workers to reach out to the agency “as soon as possible” and referred users to the agency’s fact sheet on DEI-related discrimination.

The investigation against Nike, however, does not stem from any worker complaint against the company. Rather, Lucas filed her own complaint in May 2024 through a more rarely used tool known as a commissioner’s charge, according to the court documents. Her charge came just months after America First Legal, a conservative legal group founded by top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, sent the EEOC a letter outlining complaints against Nike and urging the agency to file a commissioner’s charge.

America First Legal has flooded the EEOC with similar letters in recent years urging investigations into the DEI practices of major U.S. companies. It is unclear how many other companies the EEOC may be targeting through such commissioner’s charges. The EEOC is prohibited from revealing any charge — by workers or commissioners — unless it results in fines, settlements, legal action or other such public actions.

Lucas’ charge, according to court filings, was based on Nike’s publicly shared information about its commitment to diversity, including statements from executives and proxy statements. The charge, for example, cited Nike’s publicly stated goal in 2021 of achieving 35% representation of racial and ethnic minorities in its corporate workforce by 2025.

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Many U.S. companies made similar commitments in the wake of the widespread 2020 racial justice protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. Companies have said such commitments are not quotas but rather goals they hoped to achieve through methods such as widening recruitment efforts and rooting out any bias during hiring process.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers are prohibited from using race as a criteria for hiring or other employment decisions. Lucas has long warned that many companies risk crossing that line through DEI efforts that would pressure managers to make race-based decisions.

In its statement, Nike said it follows “all applicable laws, including those that prohibit discrimination. We believe our programs and practices are consistent with those obligations and take these matters seriously.”

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.