Major League Baseball's All-Star week kicks off tonight at Globe Life Field in Arlington with the Swingman Classic featuring 50 student athletes from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The game is sponsored by the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation, which works to make baseball and softball more accessible for all kids. Its executive director, Jean Lee Batrus, said that after the game, some special athletes will be recognized.

"We have an MVP, which is focused on the skill and the talent," she said, "but we also have a character award, where it goes to another young student athlete, and we really want to recognize that young man's impact in their community, how they give back, their academic track record, and it's not solely based on how they're doing as a baseball player."

The students were picked by Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., Major League Baseball representatives and scouts. Some of the schools represented include Prairie View A&M University, Texas Southern University and Florida A&M University.

The foundation is teaming up with the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center for its "Suit Up Experience" that provides young men with suits, ties, shoes, socks and haircuts. Texas Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien said the classic is an event that could open many doors for some of the players.

"It's an opportunity for primarily Black baseball teams to come out here and play on TV, and play in front of a lot of people in a big-league stadium," he said. "Those opportunities have not always been there, maybe kids with more opportunities take for granted."

Today's festivities will also include a pregame ceremony with the Grandmother of Juneteenth, Dr. Opal Lee, an HBCU college fair and a Battle of the Bands between Texas Southern's "Ocean of Soul" and Prairie View A&M's "Marching Storm."


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Five years after George Floyd's murder by a white police officer sparked nationwide protests and demands for police reform, progress remains slow.

Across the country, police were involved in more killings in 2024 than any year in more than a decade, including 17 in Oregon, and Black people continue to be killed disproportionately.

Sandy Chung, executive director of the ACLU of Oregon, said some police reform measures in the state, like banning tear gas and decriminalizing drug use, were passed after the protests and revoked soon after.

"There have been a lot of fights we've had to make sure that the powers of the police aren't expanded in ways that are really harmful to our democracy and civil liberties, civil rights," Chung explained.

A 2021 Oregon law established the Commission on Statewide Law Enforcement Standards of Conduct and Discipline, which Chung supports. However, she noted it lacks a protocol for addressing officers involved in white supremacist groups.

Chung criticized an Oregon bill just passed by the Senate to expand police drone surveillance with less court oversight. She argued more funding and power for law enforcement will not improve community safety. It is especially dangerous now, as she warned the Trump administration is weaponizing policing to target opponents and suppress free speech.

Chung argued Oregonians know addressing the root causes of crime is what makes communities safer.

"To make sure that people have access to good jobs, to health care, to schooling, to housing," Chung outlined.

Chung added many of the most successful police reforms are happening on a local, rather than a state level, and pointed to the Community Board for Police Accountability created by Portland voters in 2020. She noted the model, which has not yet been implemented, incorporates the best practices recommended for an oversight committee.


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New research finds Black working women still face rampant discrimination in the Golden State.

The California Black Women's Collective Empowerment Institute commissioned a survey of 452 Black women. Almost 60% reported experiencing workplace racism or gender discrimination in the past year.

Shakari Byerly, managing partner of EVITARUS Research, conducted the survey.

"Nearly half feel marginalized, excluded from or passed over for work opportunities," Byerly reported. "Only 16% strongly agree that opportunities for leadership and or advancement in their workplace are available to them."

Among respondents, 59% reported being somewhat satisfied in their job but 38% said they are unsatisfied, with company leadership and work culture to blame. They also cited microaggressions, wage disparities and lack of mentoring or access to leadership roles.

Byerly noted one-third of those surveyed said they do not feel supported by their supervisor at work.

"They were subjected to stereotypes, were talked down to, or subjected to disrespectful communication at work," Byerly explained. "And 38% say they were accused or thought of as an angry Black woman."

The report called on the state to enforce pay equity, expand antidiscrimination protections and ensure workplace accountability. They called on companies to invest in Black women's leadership development and eliminate bias in workplace culture.


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The American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association are suing the Trump administration over threats to defund schools it believes are promoting the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion.

In a letter, the Department of Education laid out its plans to cut funding for schools that don't comply. Critics say the administration is distorting anti-discrimination laws to block efforts that support disadvantaged students of color.

Arthur Steinberg, president of the Pennsylvania AFT chapter, warned that the cuts could affect nearly 800,000 lower-income students and more than 360,000 special-education students.

"The Trump administration is now attempting to use the threat of federal funds to infringe on people's rights of free speech," he said. "There is already a mandate that college presidents can't tell schools and colleges what to teach."

Steinberg said Gov. Josh Shapiro is all for teaching what he's called "honest history," as is the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He noted that some Republicans in the state Senate would go along with the Trump administration. The lawsuit was filed last week in federal court in Maryland.

Steinberg criticized the letter as vague for failing to define "DEI" and threatening to withhold federal money from school districts with programs of which the new administration disapproves. He said he sees it as an attack on students and educators, and emphasized the importance of Black history as well as all facets of American history.

"It bans meaningful instruction on everything from slavery to the Emancipation Proclamation, the forced relocation of Native American Tribes and the laws of Jim Crow," he said, "not to mention the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and attempts to upend the Civil Rights Act."

The letter suggested that current DEI policies discriminate against white and Asian students. It states that schools should comply with civil rights laws, stop using "indirect methods to avoid race-related prohibitions" and avoid "third-party services that circumvent race rules."