Today in History: May 17, Supreme Court strikes down school segregation

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Today is Saturday, May 17, the 137th day of 2025. There are 228 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 17, 1954, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, which held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional.

Also on this date:

In 1792, the Buttonwood Agreement, a document codifying rules for securities trading, was signed by 24 New York stockbrokers, marking the formation of the New York Stock Exchange.

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In 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was held; the race was won by Aristides, ridden by jockey Oliver Lewis.

In 1946, President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation’s railroads, delaying — but not preventing — a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.

In 1973, a special committee convened by the U.S. Senate began its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal.

In 1980, rioting that claimed 18 lives erupted in Miami after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating Black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie.

In 1987, 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq apologized for the attack, calling it a mistake, and paid more than $27 million in compensation.)

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to allow same-sex marriages.

In 2015, a shootout erupted between members of motorcycle clubs and police outside a restaurant in Waco, Texas, leaving nine of the bikers dead and 20 people injured.

Today’s Birthdays:

Musician Taj Mahal is 83.
Boxing Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard is 69.
Sports announcer Jim Nantz is 66.
Singer-composer Enya is 64.
TV host-comedian Craig Ferguson is 63.
Musician Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) is 60.
Actor Sasha Alexander is 52.
Basketball Hall of Famer Tony Parker is 43.
Screenwriter-actor-producer Lena Waithe is 41.
Dancer-choreographer Derek Hough is 40.
Former NFL quarterback Matt Ryan is 40.
Actor Nikki Reed is 37.

A dozen, the hard way, as Twins blank Brewers

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With injuries increasingly becoming a factor in the Minnesota Twins’ season, their manager talked of the need for versatility before they took the field to face the Brewers on Friday. Then a versatile lineup provided early offense and got solid pitching to win a 12th consecutive game.

Playing without standouts Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton, the Twins scored three runs in the first two innings and right-hander Joe Ryan held down the Brewers in a 3-0 win in the opener of a three-game series. Ryan improved to 4-2 with a six-inning shutout effort, surrendering just a pair of hits to the offensively-challenged Brewers.

It’s the second straight year Minnesota has had a 12-game winning streak, which is the longest streak in the majors this season. The franchise record is 15 straight, accomplished in 1991.

With dark skies and lightning flashing outside American Family Field’s closed roof, the Twins created some thunder in the opening half-inning. Minnesota took an early lead after leadoff man Trevor Larnach was hit by the second pitch of the game. He went to third on a single by Ryan Jeffers and scored on a RBI single to right by Ty France.

Adding to the injury woes, the next batter, Willi Castro, fouled a ball hard off his right knee and crumpled to the ground in pain. He finished the at-bat with a strikeout. Kody Clemens doubled the visitors’ lead with a RBI single to center that scored Jeffers from second.

Ryan needed 30 pitches to escape the first inning without giving up a run, allowing a leadoff single to Brice Turang, but getting back to the dugout after Sal Frelick sent a two-out fastball to the warning track in right, where Larnach tracked it down.

When Brewers starter Chad Patrick gave up three consecutive singles to start the second, it drew a mound visit to try and calm the rookie righty. He got Jeffers to ground into a 5-3 double play, but a run scored to give Minnesota 3-0 lead.

Castro played left field in the first inning, then left the game due, officially, to a knee contusion, with Clemens moving to the outfield and Ryan Fitzgerald entering the game at second base. It was the major league debut for the 30-year-old utility man. He flew out to center in his first two big league at-bats.

Ryan settled into a nice groove on the mound, striking out the side in the second and third, before hitting Brewers leadoff man Christian Yelich with a pitch that ran inside to start the fourth. Ryan cruised through the first two turns of the Milwaukee batting order, allowing just one hit and retiring 13 of 14 batters. Brewers catcher William Contreras dropped a double at the base of the wall with one out in the sixth, but Ryan got a groundout and a strikeout to elude damage.

Minnesota touched Patrick for eight hits over six innings before the Brewers’ bullpen took over. Patrick fell to 2-4 with the loss. The Twins got an inning each from Brock Stewart, Griffin Jax and Cole Sands to preserve the shutout. Sands got the save, striking out the last two Brewers.

Correa was placed on the seven-day injured list earlier in the day on Friday, while Buxton is still being evaluated by the team for a potential concussion after he collided with Correa in Thursday’s win at Baltimore.

Game 2 of the Rivalry Series weekend is Saturday at 6:15 p.m. CDT, with Twins right-hander Pablo Lopez facing Milwaukee’s Tobias Myers.

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Lynx win season opener against Paige Bueckers, Dallas

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ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Napheesa Collier scored 34 points, spoiling the WNBA debut of fellow UConn alum Paige Bueckers and leading the Minnesota Lynx to a 99-84 victory over the Dallas Wings in the season opener for both teams Friday night.

Bueckers scored the first points of the season for the Wings, and the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft finished with 10 in front of announced sellout at the 7,000-seat arena on the campus of Texas-Arlington.

Collier started a 13-1 run midway through the third quarter with a bucket in close and finished it with a free throw for a 71-58 lead for the Lynx, who lost to the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals last year.

Courtney Williams had 25 points and nine assists and Jessica Shepard had 15 points and eight rebounds for Minnesota.

All-Star guard Arike Ogunbowale led Dallas with 16 points. DiJonai Carrington, acquired from the Connecticut Sun in an offseason trade as part of a roster overhaul after the Wings missed the playoffs in 2024, added 15 points.

Bueckers opened the scoring when she drove the lane after a nifty crossover move, missed the runner, grabbed the rebound and hit the putback. Her first assist came on a 3-pointer by Carrington that put Dallas up 51-50 in the second half.

A foul-filled first half included one on Bueckers when she got stuck playing post defense against Collier. Before Collier made both free throws after a timeout, she and Bueckers had a friendly chat at the line.

The teams combined for 30 free throws before halftime, when the game was tied at 46 after Ogunbowale made two free throws with four seconds left and Carrington stole the inbound pass before feeding Maddy Siegrist for a layup with 1.2 seconds remaining.

Bueckers missed both of her 3-point attempts and was 3 of 10 shooting with seven rebounds and two assists.

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MN House takes up education budget again after unemployment debate delays

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The Minnesota House was poised to pass its education budget bill on Friday night after a debate over preserving unemployment benefits for hourly school workers derailed progress on the biggest chunk of state general fund spending earlier this month.

Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican House lawmakers late last month reached a compromise on spending that would have eliminated unemployment benefits for employees like bus drivers, cafeteria workers and paraprofessionals in 2028.

But the House DFL pulled back amid pressure from labor groups and the DFL’s progressive wing. Now it appears that the push to kill that benefit will die off when the education bill goes to conference committee with the Minnesota Senate version, which preserves the benefit.

DFLers expanded the unemployment benefit when they controlled state government in 2023, arguing it was unfair to exclude some school staff from unemployment insurance. Though some school districts said the mandate to continue offering it will strain their budgets when state funding dried up.

Education spending to remain level

Now that there’s a broader budget agreement between DFL Gov. Tim Walz, Senate DFL majority and the 67-67 tied House, it appears House Republicans have agreed to drop the rollback proposal. Under the deal, the state will have a two-year budget around $66 billion to $67 billion. It aims to control spending growth in social services and education.

The education budget makes up around one-third of the current $71 billion two-year state budget. Under the deal education spending will remain level for the next two years other than the required inflation-tied increases.

The House’s proposal still includes the rollback of unemployment insurance, but when they hammer out differences with the DFL majority Senate’s education bill, they’ll remove that piece, House DFL leader Melissa Hortman said Thursday.

House and Senate pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade education spending proposals have differences. For instance, the House calls for a $40 million increase in spending in 2026-2027, whereas the Senate currently keeps it level.

Under the budget deal, state leaders plan to cut spending by $420 million in 2028-2029 to help address a looming multi-billion state deficit in those years. But spending will remain level in the budget for 2026-2027.

In addition to the education budget, members of the House also were expected to take up a separate bill to provide the hourly school worker unemployment benefit with $100 million to operate over the next two years. About $77 million in funding would come from money originally meant for the Minneapolis-Duluth Northern Lights Express passenger rail project. The rest would come from state special education aid.

Flashpoints in negotiations

Unemployment insurance for hourly workers is not a significant portion of the state’s multibillion-dollar education budget. The 2023 bill provided around $135 million to cover the program for four years, though the state has already burned through most of that money at this point.

Despite it not being a huge portion of the budget, it emerged as flashpoint in negotiations on one of the biggest pieces of state spending. Controversy is now shifting to a proposal to cut state funded health insurance benefits for adults in the country illegally and to shut down the state prison in Stillwater.

The insurance issue sparked protests from DFLers Thursday outside the governor’s reception room at the Capitol and may pose a threat to efforts to finalize the budget. The regular session ends on May 19, and lawmakers have to pass a two-year budget by the end of June 30 or the state government shuts down.

In the last decade, there has been a special session every time control of government is split between the parties. Legislative leaders agree it’s likely they’ll have to return to the Capitol this year to finish the budget.

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