Florida
University revives ‘gator bait’ cheer 6 years after it was banned because of ‘racist imagery’
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The University of Florida revived its “gator bait” cheer Saturday night during its season opener, bringing it back more than six years after the school banned it because of “horrific historic racist imagery” associated with the phrase.
New school president Stuart Bell said in June that “traditions matter” and hinted that the cheer could return because “it’s meaningful to the Gator family.”
It returned to the Swamp early in the first quarter against Florida Atlantic — and was welcomed with a raucous reception. It was far from a surprise because clips of Florida’s band practicing the accompanying tune were shared on social media this week.
Former Florida president Kent Fuchs announced in June 2020 that Florida’s band would no longer play the musical cue prompting fans to chant “gator bait” because of concerns about possible racial undertones. Art depicting alligator hunters using Black babies to lure the animals into the open was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The decision came amid a broader national reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in May 2020.
Many Florida fans met Fuchs’ decree with disdain, arguing the cheer was a tradition and never performed with any racist intentions.
Bell seemed to agree. He was Florida’s sole finalist as president after the school began its third search in four years in December 2025. Florida’s Board of Governors rejected the selection of Dr. Santa Ono, the former president of the University of Michigan, in June 2025.
Bell took over a school that eliminated all diversity, equity and inclusion positions in 2024 after a new state rule that prohibited the addition of such programs.
Florida closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer and stopped DEI-focused contracts with external vendors. The $5 million in annual funds previously allocated for UF’s DEI initiatives, including salaries and expenditures, was placed into a faculty recruitment fund.
Pennsylvania
Jerry Sandusky appears remotely in court as lawyers prepare a federal court bid to seek new trial
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky appeared in court remotely Tuesday where he said he agreed with his lawyers not to go forward with testimony from an accuser who wants to recant allegations that Sandusky sexually abused him years ago.
The hearing was part of the latest bid by Sandusky’s lawyers to secure a new trial for him as his lawyers prepare to go to federal court to seek a new trial after failing repeatedly in state courts.
In court. Sandusky, 82, appeared on a video screen in a spare room in Laurel Highlands state prison, seated at a small table in a maroon-colored shirt looking up at the camera through glasses. Under questioning, he told Centre County Judge Maureen Skerda he had consulted with his lawyers about the decision not to present the accuser’s testimony recanting the allegations from Sandusky’s 2012 trial.
“I’m making this decision on advice of counsel,” Sandusky said, his arms on the table in front of him, a notepad between them. “Is there anything wrong with that?”
Sandusky, 82, has been serving a decades-long prison sentence since he was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012, after eight young men testified about what happened to them as boys.
Sandusky’s lawyer, Jerry Russo, told reporters later that courts frown on granting new trials based on a witness recantation, seeing it as “inherently unreliable.” Instead, Russo said he plans to take Sandusky’s broader claims for a new trial to federal court — Sandusky’s made at least three attempts in state courts — after one more procedural appeal in state court.
Judge Skerda told Russo and Sandusky that withdrawing the request to present the recantation from the accuser, identified in court documents as R.R., meant that it could not be litigated again in state or federal court.
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General had said the supposed recantation was “highly suspect.” Sandusky’s lawyers have said in court filings that R.R.’s allegations were “based on suggestive leading questioning, prosecutorial coercion and influence, confirmatory bias and memory manipulation.”
Sandusky was the defensive coordinator at one of the country’s top football programs under Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno. The scandal led to Paterno’s firing, and the university paid more than $100 million to people who said they were abused by Sandusky.
Authorities said he found and groomed boys at The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youth. Sandusky has repeatedly declared his innocence.
R.R., who was 25 years old at trial, testified that when he was 11, Sandusky sexually abused him in the coach’s basement in 1998, a transcript shows.
Washington
Death row inmate seeks stay of execution seeking DNA evidence in 1996 crime
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorneys asked the Supreme Court Monday to stay the execution of a Florida death row inmate scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday for the 1996 kidnapping and strangulation of a man who was found nude and emasculated.
Daniel Conahan Jr., 72, was sentenced to death for the April 1996 killing of Richard Montgomery. The victim was found in a wooded area in Charlotte County, Florida, which was described as what appeared to be a dumping area that contained a lot of trash.
Authorities said Conahan killed Montgomery after paying him to pose for nude photos. Authorities suspect him of similar homicides committed in the 1990s in southwest Florida.
Conahan has denied his involvement in Montgomery’s murder. The petition said he has been requesting DNA testing since March 2025 of evidence collected at the scene and from Montgomery’s body to “conclusively establish that he is not responsible for the death.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant Aug. 11 while his motion for DNA testing was pending, the petition for the stay says. Within 24 hours of that warrant being signed the state postconviction court denied the motion.
“Mr. Conahan does not ask to be declared innocent at this posture. Nor does he ask to be released from prison. All he asks is for this Court to stay his imminent execution so that this Court can review his meritorious claims,” the filing says.
Florida has executed 14 people this year.
University revives ‘gator bait’ cheer 6 years after it was banned because of ‘racist imagery’
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The University of Florida revived its “gator bait” cheer Saturday night during its season opener, bringing it back more than six years after the school banned it because of “horrific historic racist imagery” associated with the phrase.
New school president Stuart Bell said in June that “traditions matter” and hinted that the cheer could return because “it’s meaningful to the Gator family.”
It returned to the Swamp early in the first quarter against Florida Atlantic — and was welcomed with a raucous reception. It was far from a surprise because clips of Florida’s band practicing the accompanying tune were shared on social media this week.
Former Florida president Kent Fuchs announced in June 2020 that Florida’s band would no longer play the musical cue prompting fans to chant “gator bait” because of concerns about possible racial undertones. Art depicting alligator hunters using Black babies to lure the animals into the open was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The decision came amid a broader national reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in May 2020.
Many Florida fans met Fuchs’ decree with disdain, arguing the cheer was a tradition and never performed with any racist intentions.
Bell seemed to agree. He was Florida’s sole finalist as president after the school began its third search in four years in December 2025. Florida’s Board of Governors rejected the selection of Dr. Santa Ono, the former president of the University of Michigan, in June 2025.
Bell took over a school that eliminated all diversity, equity and inclusion positions in 2024 after a new state rule that prohibited the addition of such programs.
Florida closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer and stopped DEI-focused contracts with external vendors. The $5 million in annual funds previously allocated for UF’s DEI initiatives, including salaries and expenditures, was placed into a faculty recruitment fund.
Pennsylvania
Jerry Sandusky appears remotely in court as lawyers prepare a federal court bid to seek new trial
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky appeared in court remotely Tuesday where he said he agreed with his lawyers not to go forward with testimony from an accuser who wants to recant allegations that Sandusky sexually abused him years ago.
The hearing was part of the latest bid by Sandusky’s lawyers to secure a new trial for him as his lawyers prepare to go to federal court to seek a new trial after failing repeatedly in state courts.
In court. Sandusky, 82, appeared on a video screen in a spare room in Laurel Highlands state prison, seated at a small table in a maroon-colored shirt looking up at the camera through glasses. Under questioning, he told Centre County Judge Maureen Skerda he had consulted with his lawyers about the decision not to present the accuser’s testimony recanting the allegations from Sandusky’s 2012 trial.
“I’m making this decision on advice of counsel,” Sandusky said, his arms on the table in front of him, a notepad between them. “Is there anything wrong with that?”
Sandusky, 82, has been serving a decades-long prison sentence since he was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012, after eight young men testified about what happened to them as boys.
Sandusky’s lawyer, Jerry Russo, told reporters later that courts frown on granting new trials based on a witness recantation, seeing it as “inherently unreliable.” Instead, Russo said he plans to take Sandusky’s broader claims for a new trial to federal court — Sandusky’s made at least three attempts in state courts — after one more procedural appeal in state court.
Judge Skerda told Russo and Sandusky that withdrawing the request to present the recantation from the accuser, identified in court documents as R.R., meant that it could not be litigated again in state or federal court.
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General had said the supposed recantation was “highly suspect.” Sandusky’s lawyers have said in court filings that R.R.’s allegations were “based on suggestive leading questioning, prosecutorial coercion and influence, confirmatory bias and memory manipulation.”
Sandusky was the defensive coordinator at one of the country’s top football programs under Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno. The scandal led to Paterno’s firing, and the university paid more than $100 million to people who said they were abused by Sandusky.
Authorities said he found and groomed boys at The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youth. Sandusky has repeatedly declared his innocence.
R.R., who was 25 years old at trial, testified that when he was 11, Sandusky sexually abused him in the coach’s basement in 1998, a transcript shows.
Washington
Death row inmate seeks stay of execution seeking DNA evidence in 1996 crime
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorneys asked the Supreme Court Monday to stay the execution of a Florida death row inmate scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday for the 1996 kidnapping and strangulation of a man who was found nude and emasculated.
Daniel Conahan Jr., 72, was sentenced to death for the April 1996 killing of Richard Montgomery. The victim was found in a wooded area in Charlotte County, Florida, which was described as what appeared to be a dumping area that contained a lot of trash.
Authorities said Conahan killed Montgomery after paying him to pose for nude photos. Authorities suspect him of similar homicides committed in the 1990s in southwest Florida.
Conahan has denied his involvement in Montgomery’s murder. The petition said he has been requesting DNA testing since March 2025 of evidence collected at the scene and from Montgomery’s body to “conclusively establish that he is not responsible for the death.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant Aug. 11 while his motion for DNA testing was pending, the petition for the stay says. Within 24 hours of that warrant being signed the state postconviction court denied the motion.
“Mr. Conahan does not ask to be declared innocent at this posture. Nor does he ask to be released from prison. All he asks is for this Court to stay his imminent execution so that this Court can review his meritorious claims,” the filing says.
Florida has executed 14 people this year.
