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The University of San Francisco plans to ditch its longtime mascot, Don Francisco, after complaints that the character represents Spanish colonialism in California.
The private Jesuit school said it plans to continue to call its sports teams the Dons but will adopt a new mascot — the wolf — next spring.
School officials called the new mascot a nod to its Jesuit roots. The wolf figures prominently in stories about the founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and is depicted in a large bronze sculpture at the center of campus.
“We believe the time is right to revitalize our image and embrace a new mascot, one that is known for its intelligence, endurance, and ability to work cooperatively in its pack,” the university’s president, Salvador Aceves, wrote in a letter to the community.
The student senate voted in 2022 to retire Don Francisco, a stylized Spanish nobleman wearing a mask and cape. The resolution says the Don symbolizes the “history of colonization on the indigenous Ohlone land occupied by the university.”
The university said the mascot’s name is a nod to Don Francisco de Haro, the first mayor of the settlement that became San Francisco.
The White House refused to release documents showing how it oversees threats from new artificial intelligence models, arguing in response to a lawsuit that they must remain secret to protect national security.
Developed over the summer, the Trump administration system examines new AI tools before they are publicly released. Officials briefed AI companies but have not provided any public accounting — a widely criticized decision.
Protect Democracy Project, an antiauthoritarian watchdog group, filed a lawsuit demanding they release documents describing the arrangement after requesting them under the Freedom of Information Act. In September, the group agreed to pare its request in exchange for getting hold of records by last Friday.
When Friday arrived, the White House’s cybersecurity office said it had found 60 pages of documents — including seven pages describing the review system — but that it would release none of them.
Ian Bassin, the executive director of Protect Democracy, said it would continue fighting in court.
“This is not how regulatory regimes are supposed to be enacted under the American constitutional system of government,” Bassin said. “It’s done entirely in the dark.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
As President Donald Trump was preparing to tout his D.C. “beautification” efforts at the Reflecting Pool, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) offered her own assessment at an unrelated news conference Monday.
She gave positive marks to the restoration of D.C.’s many stately fountains and national park space. But she said she spoke to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently over concerns she had about the president’s golf course project at East Potomac Park, where bicyclists, runners and other residents have been protesting potential loss of access to beloved recreation space. She called the concept drawings “troublesome” because they don’t include a roadway that could be used for recreation access.
“Do we want a world-class golf course? Yes. But we think that it can and should accommodate other uses,” the mayor said. She referred a request for comment on the city’s Saturday lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s triumphal arch to the D.C. attorney general.
SWANTON, Ohio — In their final campaign push, some Republican candidates are warning that the United States could become “like France” if Democrats prevail in the midterms. America’s oldest ally spent much of October convulsing with violent protests.
“Turn on the TV, look at Paris — France is burning,” Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said at a rally Monday morning outside Toledo. In France, educational reform, as well as the exploding cost of living, drove young people of all races into the streets. Ramaswamy and other conservatives have blamed the violence specifically on Muslim and African immigrants to that country.
“Years of immigration, open border policies, teaching your kids to hate your country and your civilization … turns out that’s what you get,” Ramaswamy said. He told the crowd they shouldn’t take comfort in the fact that it’s happening “across the Atlantic,” and he pointed them toward New York (where Zohran Mamdani serves as the city’s first Muslim mayor), and Dearborn, Michigan (a Muslim-majority city not far from Toledo).
“For God’s sake, are we going to let that come to Ohio?” Ramaswamy asked. The crowd shouted back “No!”
Gas prices are set to be the highest for any Election Day in U.S. history Tuesday, as the issue weighs heavily on voters’ minds.
The average gas price as of Monday is $4.17, according to data from AAA. That is roughly 37 cents higher than prices heading into the 2022 midterm election, which held the previous record for an Election Day.
The average price for regular gas in the week before the election of Nov. 8, 2022, was $3.80, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Affordability has been a top concern among voters during this election cycle, and polls show that gas prices in particular have been a pain point. Recent surveys show that many voters blame Republicans and their policies for the elevated costs.
An October poll from the New York Times and Siena University found that 75 percent of likely voters disapprove of the way President Donald Trump has handled gas prices. While 53 percent of respondents said they trust the Democratic Party to do a better job of handling gas prices, only 38 percent said they trust the Republican Party.
Additional Coverage
Hours after her surprising endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open Senate seat, Rep. Haley Stevens (D) sat down for an interview about the decision — but seemed unable to explain it.
During a nearly 15-minute-long segment with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Sunday, she struggled to answer repeated questions about her change of heart. She said multiple times that Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated her in the primary, had gotten “angrier,” without citing specifics.
On Sunday, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan) said publicly that she talked with Stevens the night before the news broke and received assurances that Stevens would not endorse Rogers.
“What changed between then and this morning?” Cooper asked in the interview.
Stevens did not directly answer. She said she had woken up Sunday “clear-eyed, fresh and focused on what was in my heart, and that’s that.”
Cooper asked her again: “Did you talk to anybody? Did you have a long night of the soul? Were you up all night? Did you have a dream? What happened?”
She again did not pinpoint a reason. That pattern continued for the remainder of the segment — Cooper re-asking her the question and Stevens struggling to explain.
Near the interview’s end, Cooper said, “It’s just an interesting change, and I think a lot of people are curious to try to understand it.”
Stevens stayed silent for a few seconds.
“Was that a question, Anderson?” she asked.
“No, I wanted to see if you wanted to fill in the silence, but you don’t,” he said.
Additional Coverage
Here is a quick primer on voting rights ahead of Tuesday’s midterms.
Federal law protects voting rights. Generally, this means:
- If the polls close while you’re in line, stay in line — you have the right to vote no matter how long the wait is.
- If you make a mistake on your ballot, ask a poll worker for a new one.
- If voting machines are down, request an emergency paper ballot.
- If you witness or experience intimidation or coercion at polls, report it to local or state election officials, the U.S. Department of Justice voting rights hotline (800-253-3931), or the nonpartisan Election Protection Hotline (866-OUR-VOTE). Intimidation, which can include aggressively questioning voters about their citizenship, is a federal crime.
Additionally, 36 states require some form of voter ID. Check your state’s requirements here. If you forget your ID, you may able be to vote by requesting a provisional ballot.
You may also be able to request a provisional ballot if you are not on the voter list at your polling location or an election official otherwise challenges your eligibility.
If you still have questions or experience issues on Election Day, contact 886-OUR-VOTE.
Find polling locations and opening times here.
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