Gophers add Maryland transfer guard Chance Stevens

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The Gophers men’s basketball team has added Maryland transfer guard Chance Stephens on Friday.

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound shooting guard played in only seven games for the Terrapins last season, averaging 1.3 points in 5.3 minutes per contest. Stephens missed the 2023-24 season with an injury.

The Riverside, Calif., native started his college career at Loyola Marymount (Calif.). He averaged 6.0 points and 1.0 rebound across 17 minutes in 28 games in 2022-23. He averaged 37% from three-point range as a freshman in the West Coast Conference.

The Gophers are down to two remaining scholarship spots after adding eight players since last season.

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2 men convicted in chainsaw massacre of UK’s beloved Sycamore Gap tree

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By BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — In late September 2023, as the first big storm of the fall was kicking up in the U.K., a malicious plan was hatched to take down one of England’s favorite trees.

Daniel Graham sent a message to his buddy, Adam Carruthers, telling him to “get the saws warmed up,” suggesting they might get some work clearing fallen trees.

But it wasn’t high winds that brought down the famous Sycamore Gap tree that night, jurors determined Friday. It was Graham and Carruthers — not cleaning up damage from the storm, but creating a mess of their own.

FILE – The felled Sycamore Gap tree is removed at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, England, Oct. 11, 2023. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP, File)

The pair were convicted of two counts each of criminal damage by a jury in Newcastle Crown Court after little more than five hours of deliberations over two days.

Even without the smoking chainsaw, prosecutors were able to prove the case through a trove of digital evidence that either put the men near the tree at the time it was felled or showed them excitedly discussing it the next day as the story of the tree’s demise went viral.

Crime caught in the act

The prime piece of evidence was a grainy video on Graham’s phone of the crime being committed on the dark and stormy night.

Footage of the tree’s last stand showed a solitary figure silhouetted beneath the towering canopy in a struggle with the trunk as the unmistakable sound of the chainsaw whined above the wind. With a single crack, the buzz of the saw died down, the person stepped back and the tree that had stood about 150 years crashed to earth.

Metadata pinpointed the location of the video at the tree’s location in Northumberland National Park. Other data showed Graham’s Range Rover had traveled there.

The Sycamore Gap tree was not Britain’s biggest or oldest sycamore, but it was prized for its picturesque setting, symmetrically planted between two hills along the ancient wall built by Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 122 to protect the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire, and had attracted generations of followers.

The tree had long been known to locals but received international attention in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.” It drew tourists, lovers, landscape photographers and even those who spread the ashes of loved ones.

“For over a century, Sycamore Gap has been an iconic natural landmark in the northeast of England, bringing immeasurable joy to those visiting the area,” Gale Gilchrist, chief prosecutor for the region, said in a statement after the verdict. “In just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.”

Convicts could face ‘lengthy’ sentences

Neither Graham, who had a small construction business, nor Carruthers, a mechanic who sometimes worked with him, showed any visible reaction as the verdicts were read.

Justice Christina Lambert ordered both men held in custody until sentencing on July 15 and said they could face “a lengthy period in custody.” The maximum sentence for criminal damage is 10 years in prison.

The defendants, once close friends, both testified that they were at their respective homes that night and had nothing to do with the crime.

Graham pointed the finger at Carruthers, saying he was obsessed with the tree. Graham said his friend and another man had taken his Range Rover and phone to the site to frame him.

Carruthers said he didn’t understand why people were so upset about “just a tree,” saying it was “almost as if someone had been murdered.” His lawyer suggested Graham told a desperate lie after being caught.

Prosecutor Richard Wright said the two men were in on it together from the start, with evidence showing Carruthers had gone far out of his way earlier in the day to go near the tree on a reconnaissance mission.

Wright said he couldn’t say who cut the tree and who held the phone, but the two men were the only people in the world with the video on their devices.

As Graham’s vehicle was tracked on its way back toward his home in Carlisle — about 40 minutes away — Carruthers received a video from his partner of their infant and replied, “I’ve got a better video than that,” Wright said.

“At the time of that text conversation, the only people in the world who knew the tree had been felled were the men who had had cut it down,” Wright said. “And the only people in the world who had access to the video were the men who had filmed themselves in the act of cutting down the tree: the defendants Graham and Carruthers.”

Missing: one chainsaw and a ‘trophy’ wedge of wood

The next day, the two feverishly exchanged messages after the tree was discovered.

“It’s gone viral. It is worldwide,” Graham said.

Carruthers forwarded a Facebook comment by a man who criticized the “disgusting behavior” of the “weak” vandals.

Carruthers said he’d like to see the man “launch an operation like we did last night.”

Wright said police never located the chainsaw used to fell the tree, but each man had access to plenty of saws — a fact they both tried to downplay. Investigators also couldn’t find a wedge of wood cut from the trunk to drop the tree in the right direction.

But images on Graham’s phone showed a slice of wood and a chainsaw in the back of his vehicle at his home. A forensic botanist said there was “very strong evidence” it was the missing wedge that Wright suggested had been taken as a trophy.

Prosecutors offered no evidence of a motive for the crime other than calling it senseless vandalism. But Wright suggested to jurors in his closing argument that the men cut the tree down for “a bit of a laugh” but had failed to realize the anger they would spark in the “arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery.”

The tree was originally valued at more than 620,000 pounds (around $830,000) and damage to the wall was estimated at 1,100 pounds (nearly $1,500).

But on Friday prosecutor Rebecca Brown said those figures are in dispute and are likely lower, but would still easily fit in the top category of harm for sentencing purposes.

Vote for your favorite Twin Cities-area restaurant patio

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We recently asked readers to nominate a favorite restaurant patio for spring and summer days in the Twin Cities.

The nominated restaurants are now in the running for “Best Patio” in our readers’ voter contest.

Voting takes place May 9-18.

Submit your vote in the form below:

 

If you want to head to a patio right now:

Here’s a look at last year’s reader picks.
Here’s the Twin Cities patio guide assembled by our Eat team last year.

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Most Americans disapprove of Trump’s treatment of colleges, a new poll finds

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By JOCELYN GECKER and LINLEY SANDERS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of U.S. adults disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of issues related to colleges and universities, according to a new poll, as his administration ramps up threats to cut federal funding unless schools comply with his political agenda.

More than half of Americans, 56%, disapprove of the Republican president’s approach on higher education, the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds, while about 4 in 10 approve, in line with his overall job approval.

Since taking office in January, Trump has tried to force change at universities he says have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism. The spotlight most recently has been on Harvard University, where Trump’s administration has frozen more than $2.2 billion in federal grants, threatened to strip the school’s tax-exempt status, and demanded broad policy changes.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in front of the West Wing of the White House, Thursday, May 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The Trump administration also has cut off money to other elite colleges, including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, over issues including the handling of pro-Palestinian activism and transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports. Harvard has framed the government’s demands as a threat to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has long granted American universities.

The poll shows a disconnect between the Trump administration’s targeting of universities and an American public that sees them as key to scientific research, new ideas and innovative technology. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say colleges and universities make more of a positive contribution to medical and scientific research than a negative one, and a similar share favors maintaining federal funding for scientific research.

“Let’s talk about Harvard for a minute,” said Freddy Ortega, 66, a Democrat and a retired military veteran in Columbus, Georgia. “The way he took away all that money in funding, impacting things that Harvard has been working on for the betterment of the world.”

“One man should not have that much power,” Ortega continued. “This is something for Congress to deal with.”

Ortega, who’s Hispanic, also said he’s concerned about Trump’s attempts to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs across U.S. society. “I came up in the military. I know the good that those programs do,” he said. “It changes the direction that people’s lives are going to take.”

Republicans are divided on cuts to colleges’ federal funding

Trump’s stance on higher education resonates more strongly with Republicans, most of whom see college campuses as places where conservatives are silenced and liberal ideas run unchecked. About 8 in 10 Republicans approve of how Trump is handling issues related to colleges and universities — which, notably, is higher than the share of Republicans, 70%, who approve of his handling of the economy — and about 6 in 10 say they’re “extremely” or “very” concerned about liberal bias on campus.

Republicans are more divided, however, on withholding federal funding from schools unless they bow to Trump’s demands. About half are in favor, while about one-quarter are opposed and a similar share are neutral.

“I’m all for it,” said Republican voter Hengameh Abraham, 38, a mother of two in Roseville, California. She supports cutting federal funds and opposes DEI programs, saying she emigrated to America from Iran as a teenager and worked hard to get ahead in school without the help of affirmative action programs.

“Your racial identity, nationality and background should not be a factor in getting accepted to college or getting a job,” said Abraham. She supports Trump’s focus on campus antisemitism. When pro-Palestinian protests swept U.S. colleges last year, some of the demonstrators’ messaging was anti-U.S., she said.

“I do not think if you have any kind of anti-American agenda or slogan that you should be allowed on a university campus in the United States,” she said.

Students, faculty and members of the Harvard University community rally, Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo)

In Harvard’s case, Trump has threatened to remove its tax-exempt status, and his administration has implemented funding cuts. Those measures are divisive among the general public: Nearly half oppose withholding federal funding as a punitive action, while about one-quarter favor it. About one-quarter are neutral.

Charles Jolivette, 43, a college career counselor who lives in New Orleans, sees Trump’s education policies as an attack on free speech and people of color.

“Not only is the president going after anyone he feels is an opponent and anyone who is not compliant, but he’s attacking some of the most important elements of our society,” said Jolivette, a Democrat. “It’s rampant bullying from the president of the United States, who is supposed to be crossing the aisle.”

The cost of tuition far outweighs other concerns

A top concern of most Americans is the cost of a college degree. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the cost of tuition. That concern is shared by majorities of Democrats and Republicans and far outweighs concerns about antisemitism and liberal bias on campuses among the general public.

“College costs a lot more than it needs to. To get an education, you should not have to break your pocketbook,” said Eunice Cortez, 68, a Republican near Houston.

Cortez, who’s originally from Mexico, did not go to college, but she made sure her U.S.-born children did and is proud that her grandchildren are getting college degrees. She supports Trump but is concerned that some of his policies, including funding cuts, will make it harder for people who need tuition aid to get an education. She sees it as the government “getting in the way” of an educated society.

The poll shows a divide between college-educated Americans and those without college degrees, highlighting a possible cultural rift that Trump has seized on in the past.

Most Americans with a college degree, 62%, are opposed to withholding funding from universities that don’t comply with the president’s requirements, while those without a college degree are split, with about 3 in 10 in favor, a similar share opposed, and about 4 in 10 saying they don’t have an opinion.

Kara Hansen, 40, a registered independent in Seminole, Oklahoma, is a few credits shy of a college degree. She supports the idea of dismantling the Education Department to shake things up. But she said she’s concerned by what she calls Trump’s “authoritarian tendencies” and a growing fear on college campuses to speak up and voice opinions.

“It feels like everybody has a muzzle on,” Hansen said. “They can’t fully express themselves because they’re afraid of getting in trouble, and afraid of Trump.”

About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say students or professors can freely speak their minds “a lot” on college and university campuses. About 4 in 10 say they can do this to “some” extent. Republicans feel their views are stifled: About 8 in 10 say liberals can speak their minds “a lot” or “some” on campus, but fewer than half say the same about conservatives.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,175 adults was conducted May 1-5, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Gecker reported from San Francisco.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.