MON SIX

The Miami-Dade County panel had beendeliberating since Thursday, weighing whether Jones gunned down Pata outside the victim's apartment on Nov. 7, 2006.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have received your note indicating that you continue to be a deadlock," Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda said, "and so at this time, I will declare a mistrial and a hung jury."

Pata's mother was visibly upset and put her hands over her face after hearing the mistrial declared.

"It's disappointing," the victim's brother Edwin Pata told reporters outside court. "It's frustrating really, for all of us, of course, especially my mom, for every single sibling and every person that came out and supported us."

Prosecutors said the state intends to retry the case and Judge Miranda told attorneys to look at their calendars so she can set a new trial date on Tuesday.

The tally of the jury's vote, whether it leaned more toward guilt or acquittal, was not disclosed in open court.

Judge Miranda thanked jurors for their work, even if it didn't end in a verdict.

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"I know it's been a long couple of weeks," Miranda said. "I know you all put your heart and soul into it, and you were here for very long hours listening to all of the evidence. So we appreciate your work now."

At the time of his death, the 22-year-old Pata was an up-and-coming defensive lineman on the Miami Hurricanes who was considered an NFL prospect. Jones, a little-used wide receiver and occasional punt returner, was jealous of Pata's success and popularity, prosecutors said.

Jones wasarrested on Aug. 19, 2021, about three months short of the 15th anniversary of Pata's slaying.

This unsolved slayinghad hung over the powerhouse football programand was long the subject of speculation in South Florida.

Jones' defense claimed the state's case was weak and accused prosecutors of folding to community pressure to finally make an arrest in this high profile case. The prosecution lacked physical evidence directly linking Jones, now 40, to the shooting.

Prosecutors relied on testimony of a witness who said he saw Jones leaving the crime scene. Jones' cellphone was picked up by a tower about 2.2 miles from Pata's building just before the slaying, officials said.

The defendant had rejected an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a15-year prison sentence.

"We're gonna continue to push forward and push through this and remain steadfast," Edwin Pata said.

"But this is, for our family, this is one of the hardest things that we had to deal with outside of Bryan passing. It just brought everything back and then to go through the anxiety and the stress every day, waking up everyday, having to deal with this every day."

All the major conferences have one week left before their respective postseason tournaments. Arizona (Big 12),Duke(ACC), Michigan (Big Ten) and Florida (SEC) ― all ranked inside the top 7 of the Feb. 23 poll ―have claimed at least a share of their conference championship.

REQUIRED READING:March Madness bracket projection: Which teams could fight for No. 1 seed?

On Friday, Feb. 27, No. 3 Michigan earned a dominant 84-70 road victory over Illinois toclinch at least a share of the Big Ten, just two years after finishing dead last in the conference. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Feb. 28, Florida dismantled No. 17 Arkansas by a tune of 111-77 to clinch its first SEC regular season title since 2015.

No. 4 Iowa State, No. 8 Purdue, 9 Gonzaga, 11 Virginia and No. 14 Kansas all stumbled over the weekend, which could have an impact on this week's rankings. Just how much?

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Here's a look at the latest Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 for March. 2:

College basketball rankings

First-place votes in parentheses.

USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

1. Duke (28)

2. Arizona (3)

3. Michigan

4. Connecticut

5. Florida

6. Houston

7. Iowa State

8. Michigan State

9. Nebraska

10. Texas Tech

11. Illinois

12. Gonzaga

13. Virginia

14. Purdue

15. Kansas

16. Alabama

17. St. John's

18. North Carolina

19. Arkansas

20. Miami (Ohio)

21. Saint Mary's

22. Vanderbilt

23. Miami

24. Saint Louis

25. Tennessee

Other's receiving votes: BYU 35; Louisville 31; Wisconsin 23; Villanova 17; Missouri 10; Utah State 9; Clemson 8; Kentucky 5; UCF 3; Georgia 1.

AP Top 25

1. Duke (55)

2. Arizona (4)

3. Michigan

4. UConn

5. Florida

6. Iowa State

7. Houston

8. Michigan State

9. Nebraska

10. Texas Tech

11. Illinois

12. Gonzaga

13. Virginia

14. Kansas

15. Purdue

16. Alabama

17. UNC

18. St. John's

19. Miami (Ohio)

20. Arkansas

21. Saint Mary's

22. Miami

23. Tennessee

24. Vanderbilt

25. Saint Louis

Others receiving votes: BYU 74, Kentucky 47, Louisville 47, Missouri 40, Wisconsin 27, Clemson 16, Utah St. 10, UCF 7, High Point 7, Dayton 5, Villanova 4, Navy 3, NC State 2, TCU 2, Ohio St. 1, Santa Clara 1.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Men's college basketball rankings: Updated Coaches Poll, AP Top 25

Iran US Next Supreme Leader

It's only the second time sincethe 1979 Islamic Revolutionthat a new supreme leader is being chosen. Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement.

The supreme leader has the final say on all major decisions, including war, peace and the country'sdisputed nuclear program.

In the meantime, a provisional governing council composed of President Masoud Pezeshkian, hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and senior Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi is guiding the country through its biggest crisis in decades. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that a new supreme leader would be chosen early this week.

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The supreme leader is appointed by an 88-member panel called theAssembly of Experts, who by law are supposed to quickly name a successor. The panel consists of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected after their candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran's constitutional watchdog.

Khamenei had major influence over both clerical bodies, making it unlikely the next leader will mark a radical departure.

Here are the top contenders.

Mojtaba Khamenei

The son of Khamenei, a mid-level Shiite cleric, is widely considered a potential successor. He has strong ties to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard but has never held office. His selection could prove awkward, as the Islamic Republic has long criticized hereditary rule and cast itself as a more just alternative.

Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi

Arafi is a member of the provisional government council. The senior Shiite cleric was handpicked by Khamenei to be a member of the Guardian Council in 2019, and three years later he was elected to the Assembly of Experts. He leads a network of seminaries.

Hassan Rouhani

Rouhani, a relative moderate, was president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and reached the landmark nuclear agreement with the Obama administration that U.S. President Donald Trumpscrapped during his first term. Rouhani served on the Assembly of Experts until 2024, when he said he was disqualified from running for reelection. Rouhani criticized it as an infringement on Iranians' political participation.Hassan KhomeiniKhomeini is the most prominent grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He is also seen as a relative moderate, but has never held government office. He currently works at his grandfather's mausoleum in Tehran.Ayatollah Mohammed Mehdi MirbagheriMirbagheri is a senior cleric popular with hard-liners who serves on the Assembly of Experts.He was close to the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a fellow hard-liner who wrote that Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce "special weapons," a veiled reference to nuclear arms.During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirbagheri denounced the closure of schools as a "conspiracy."He is currently the head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom, the main center for Islamic teaching in Iran.

Rouhani, a relative moderate, was president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and reached the landmark nuclear agreement with the Obama administration that U.S. President Donald Trumpscrapped during his first term. Rouhani served on the Assembly of Experts until 2024, when he said he was disqualified from running for reelection. Rouhani criticized it as an infringement on Iranians' political participation.

Hassan Khomeini

Khomeini is the most prominent grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He is also seen as a relative moderate, but has never held government office. He currently works at his grandfather's mausoleum in Tehran.

Ayatollah Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri

Mirbagheri is a senior cleric popular with hard-liners who serves on the Assembly of Experts.

He was close to the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a fellow hard-liner who wrote that Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce "special weapons," a veiled reference to nuclear arms.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirbagheri denounced the closure of schools as a "conspiracy."

He is currently the head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom, the main center for Islamic teaching in Iran.

In an appealbackedby 19 Republican attorneys general from other states, Alabama hadasked the court to decidewhether the Constitution allows criminalizing panhandling.

A homeless man from Montgomery, Jonathan Singleton, successfully challenged the state's panhandling bans as a violation of his free speech rights.

'Today it is me. Tomorrow it could be you'

Singleton was cited six times for violating a state law against soliciting contributions, including for holding a sign that read "HOMELESS. Today it is me, tomorrow it could be you" while standing in the grass near a highway exit.

Violators could be punished with fines up to $500 or three months in jail under one anti-begging law.Another measure sets fines up to $100 or as many as 10 days in jail for soliciting contributions from people in cars.

After Singleton filed a class-action lawsuit in 2020, lower courts blocked enforcement of the laws.

A federal appeals court based in Atlanta cited its previous decision in a different case from Florida that begging is speech protected by the First Amendment.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said Alabama's laws are different from a ban on panhandling on Fort Lauderdale's beaches upheld in 1999,since those restrictions weren't citywide.

Alabama told theSupreme Courtthat officials need more leeway to address panhandling amid the homelessness crisis and a "dramatic growth" in policies aimed at dealing with the problem.

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'Be practical.'Obama says Democrats need to change approach on homelessness

At the birth of the nation, states banned 'idleness' and 'wandering'

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall argued that begging was a crime at the start of the nation. So it should not be protected speech under the First Amendment.

"At the founding, States commonly prohibited idleness, wandering about with no course of business or fixed residence, begging in the streets, and the like," Marshall wrote in his appeal. "The basic theory, inherited from the English, was to distinguish those who could work [but refused] from those who could not."

More:20 US states sue to block Trump from restricting homelessness funding

Is begging communication? Courts have said it is protected by First Amendment

Lawyers for Singleton, some of whom work for the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Homelessness Law Center, countered that the historic laws Alabama cites "criminalized the conduct of voluntary idleness, not the communicative aspect of begging."

And even if they did cover begging, Singleton's lawyers said, First Amendment protections aren't determined by what laws were on the books at a single moment in time.

That's why Alabama's argument cuts against the position taken by courts across the country and against the Supreme Court's "long and unbroken line of precedent recognizing that speech seeking charitable relief is protected by the First Amendment," his lawyers wrote.

When initiating the lawsuit in 2020, theSouthern Poverty Law Center saidAlabama "should dedicate more resources to housing, shelter and health care that would meet those needs rather than jailing or ticketing people that ask for help."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Supreme Court won't hear Alabama's bid to end protections for begging

Medvedev's Instagram account reposted on Monday a report from a Russian-language tennis outlet, Bolshe, which said he was safe and staying at a friend's apartment in Dubai, amid flight cancellations after winning the ATP event there last week.

"The health, safety and wellbeing of our players, staff and tournament personnel is our priority. We can confirm that a small number of players and team members remain in Dubai following the conclusion of the recent ATP 500 event," the ATP Tour said in a statement Monday.

"They and their teams are being accommodated in the tournament's official hotels, where their immediate needs are being fully supported."

Medvedev and others are due to play at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California, where main-draw matches start Wednesday.

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"We are in direct communication with those affected, as well as with tournament organizers and security advisors," the ATP said. "At this stage, travel assessments remain subject to ongoing assessment in line with airline operations and official guidance. We will continue to provide appropriate support to ensure players and their teams can depart safely when conditions allow."

As well as tennis players, cricketers from England and Pakistan's men's developmental cricket teams were in the United Arab Emirates at the weekend ahead of a game which was cancelled on Sunday.

Youth basketball players alsofaced travel issueswhen a EuroLeague tournament there was canceled at the weekend.

Numerous sports events in the region have shut down, withAsian Champions League soccer gamesand the Qatari league on hold. The governing body which oversees Formula 1 said Monday it will focus on "safety and wellbeing" as itconsidersupcoming races in the region.

AP tennis:https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Demonstrators gathered in U.S. cities, big and small, fromNew York City,Washington, DC, andLos AngelestoWaynesboro, Virginia, andWorcester, Massachusetts. In Detroit, student groups from various universities were already set for a Feb. 28 meeting centered on U.S. immigration policy, but added a protest to their plans upon learning of the Iran strikes.

More than 70 people showed up to Wayne State University's campus for the student-led demonstration that afternoon,The Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. Kathy Anderson, of Plymouth, Michigan, lamented what she described as a deteriorating American political system, saying she was "embarrassed because we don't have our act together."

Smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Smoke rises following an explosion after the U.S. and Israel reportedly launched an attack against Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026, in this screen grab taken from video.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> A plume of smoke rises following a reported explosion in Tehran on February 28, 2026. Two loud blasts were heard in Tehran on February 28 morning by AFP journalists, and two plumes of thick smoke were seen over the centre and east of the Iranian capital.

Israel's defence ministry announced it had launched a "preemptive strike" on Iran as sirens sounded in Jerusalem and people across the country received phone alerts about an "extremely serious" threat.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist after disembarking Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., February 27, 2026. Hours later, Trump made live comments about the military strikes he launched against Iran.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Buildings inin Tehran stand after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, February 28, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Latest photos capture US and Israeli strikes against Iran

Smoke rises following an explosion,after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026.

"There has been no clear objective expressed in terms of why we're there," she added. "Are we there to destroy the nuclear program? Are we there to overturn the regime? Are we there to protect protesters? Why are we there?"

PresidentDonald Trumpand others in his administration have maintained that Iran was taking steps to build a nuclear weapon, posing a grave threat to the United States. Experts previously told USA TODAY such claims are based on assumptions that areeither wrong or greatly exaggerated.

'You can't bomb people into liberation'

According toa Reuters/Ipsos pollreleased less than 48 hours after the United States and Israellaunched their joint military operation, only one in four Americans approve of the Iran strikes. Speakers ata protest at Worcester City Hallin Massachusetts were skeptical if the strikes would improve Iranian lives, condemning what they described as the financial and moral cost of more warfare in the Middle East.

The strikes sparked fear among some that civil unrest in the country of 92 million people would cause more suffering. By mid-day Feb. 28, the Iranian Red Crescent reported that at least 200 people had been killed and more than 700 wounded, including Khamenei, Iran's longtime leader known for repressive rule and anti-Western foreign policy.

ThreeAmerican troops were killed, and several others were seriously injured during the operation.

Megan Giulianelli, who left Iran four decades ago and now lives in New Jersey,cried as she recountedhearing about a strike on an all-girls primary school that an Iranian official saidkilled more than 100 people.Most Iranians, she said, wanted to end a regime that has been "terrorizing people for 47 years," but the joint strikes are "the worst-case scenario."

"You can't bomb people into liberation," she said through tears. "What are they thinking?"

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'Price that's really being paid.'Iranian Americans divided in reactions to US attacks

Student after strikes: 'We were waiting for this moment'

For others, the news of the strikes was welcomed with joy.

Somestudents at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukeecelebrated Khamenei's death with pastries in the school's student union. Narges Khodadadi, a PhD student and president of the school's Iranian Student Association, acknowledged concerns about the future but said she and many others in Iran, including her own family members, are happy and hopeful for brighter days ahead.

"We were waiting for this help and praying for it for a long time," Khodadadi told theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network. "We had two very hard and sad months, and we were waiting for this moment."

Nafiseh Najafi, the owner of a Persian restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, who was born in Tehran, described the action as anecessary step toward liberationfor the Iranian people.

"Iranians around the world are excited, they are happy," she said. "They are outside, they are celebrating."

A person holds a sign during a Stop the War on Iran protest at Times Square in New York City on February 28, 2026. The US and Israel launched an attack of unprecedented scale against Iran on Saturday.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> People attend the Stop the War on Iran protest at Times Square in New York City on February 28, 2026. The US and Israel launched an attack of unprecedented scale against Iran on Saturday.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> People attend the Stop the War on Iran protest at Times Square in New York City on February 28, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Americans protest 'massive' strikes in Iran amid US-Israeli attack

A person holds a sign during a Stop the War on Iran protest at Times Square in New York City on February 28, 2026.The US and Israel launched an attack of unprecedented scale against Iranon Saturday.

'We are out of tears'

R.A. Kashanipour, an Arizona-based Iranian American whose family mostly remains in Iran, had a different perspective. The conflict leaves Iranians "caught between authoritarians," hetold The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network.

He was worried the attack would lead to more violence among Iranians.

"Too much bloodshed has flowed already," Kashanipour told the outlet in a text message. "Unfortunately, it looks like there will be more to come. We are out of tears."

Bryan Costello, a Phoenix resident, called for the United States to "work towards peace" in an interview with the newspaper at the city's March for Life rally on Feb. 28.

"I understand that sometimes peace can only come by the sword, but we have to be more careful in how we do anything," he said.

Contributing:Michael Collins and Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY; Natalie Davies, The Detroit Free Press; Alec Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Meg Trogolo, Telegram & Gazette; Hannan Adely, The Record; Molly Davis, The Tennessean; Jose R. Gonzalez, The Arizona Republic

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Americans express shock and hope after deadly US-Israel strikes