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SALINAS, Calif. (AP) — Several Northern California high school students have been disciplined after officials learned they posted online photos and videos of a Black baby doll being stomped on and driven over at a football game.

Salinas High School students created an Instagram account called “shaniqua.shs” for a Black doll named “Shaniqua” and uploaded images, some of them with racist captions, and videos of the doll being brutalized. The account has since been deleted but screenshots and recordings of the page continue to circulate on social media.

School officials became aware of the images — some of them taken at a football game last week — and immediately launched an investigation, Salinas Union High School District Superintendent Dan Burns said.

“The investigation into the anti-black racism incident at Salinas High School has resulted in disciplinary action for those who were directly responsible for both the doll and the social media account that is at the root of this situation,” Burns said in a statement Thursday.

The statement didn’t say how many students were involved or what discipline they received, citing state law. But during a packed school board meeting Tuesday, he said those students would face consequences including possible suspension from school.

Jennifer Allen, who has two daughters attending Salinas High School, asked the school board to hold the students accountable.

“What is most appalling is that clearly racist behavior such as this is part of a disturbing pattern at Salinas High School, behavior that has gone unpunished and unaddressed,” said Allen, who is Black, calling it “targeted and predetermined behavior that took place on school grounds.”

Students of various ethnicities were involved, the superintendent said, without offering any other details. The student body at the high school in the Salinas Valley is more than 70% Latino; 21.5% is white; and only 1% of the students at the school are African American, according to state data.

“We understand that the public is seeking more answers about all of the involved parties and the punishments doled out,” he said in the statement. Marco Cabrera, a spokesman for the school district, said Friday the superintendent had no comment beyond the statements the district has released.

Siena Zuniga, a student at Alisal High School, told the board she was excited to be at the football game last week but that the night was overshadowed by the racist actions of the students and the fact that Salinas High School staff and security did nothing to stop them.

“The truly sickening action from that night is the lack of action by Salinas High School employees, administrators and campus security,” Zuniga told the board.

Burns said a third party will review how school officials handled the incident and that the district would look deeper into the root causes of the students’ behavior.

“Let’s also not forget that those who have been identified as being involved are children, many between the ages of 15-17. That does not excuse their conduct, but is a reminder that beyond school punishments, they too need support and opportunities to learn and grow,” he said in a statement earlier this week.

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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — John Fey was rummaging through a box of old scrapbooks this summer when he came upon a couple lost treasures.

At the bottom of the box, detached from the page they were once glued to, were ticket stubs from Nebraska’s 1971 “Game of the Century” win against Oklahoma and the Cornhuskers’ 1984 Orange Bowl loss to Miami.

Those games are still regarded among the greatest in college football history and those stubs were proof Fey was at both.

“I had flashbacks. Big-time flashbacks,” the 68-year-old from Plattsmouth, Nebraska, said.

For people who keep them, ticket stubs can spark memories of being at a big game in person, cheering on a favorite team or, for a guy like Fey, nearly total recall of time spent with friends and family at a stadium. They are treasured mementos — and they are not going away even as schools transition to cashless transactions for everything from game tickets to food and drink.

Nearly every Football Bowl Subdivision school has gone to mobile ticketing this season, but in a spot check of 30 schools, only Notre Dame said it would refuse to print tickets for fans requesting them.

The other 29? They are willing to print, though most do not publicly offer that option. Illinois was among schools that did give fans a choice, and 74% picked paper. That figure was 64% at Nebraska and 50% at Texas A&M.

Customer service is critical during the transition, said Maureen Andersen of Palm Springs, California, president and CEO of the International Ticketing Association industry group.

“I have to presume a college-aged kid doesn’t want anything printed ever, so a push on digital is going to be a completely different conversation than it is with an alumnus who graduated college in 1942,” Andersen said. “It takes constant communication and working through a process and talking to the fans. You get pushback when you do an all-or-nothing proposition.”

Traditional tickets on cardstock began fading away in the last decade with the advent of print-at-home tickets and digital, or mobile, ticketing systems where fans have a barcode on their smartphones scanned at the gate.

Digital tickets are eco-friendly, a safeguard against stolen or counterfeit tickets, and they can be transferred online from one person to another. They also allow schools to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in mailing costs. In the pandemic, cashless transactions are more popular than ever for safety reasons.

Nebraska fan Tom Reischlein of Omaha said he has used mobile ticketing at venues with no problem but chose paper football tickets at the suggestion of his wife, who said they might want them as a souvenir if they see a memorable game.

“I think it’s a good idea that they’re kind of easing into it and giving people the choice,” said Reischlein, 58. “I’ve seen a lot of the older folks, either they don’t have a cell phone or they have trouble navigating through it when there’s a bunch of people lined up behind them.”

Another Nebraska fan, Katherine Crawford of Lincoln, said her family has owned season tickets for three generations and will go digital this year.

“We had a huge discussion,” said Crawford, 27. “My grandma was very much against it, but she’s not a huge technology person so it would have been quite difficult for her. My mom and I agreed it would be a nice option to have, a convenience.”

Mark Townsend of Columbia, Maryland, a collector who runs the website TicketsFromThePast.com, said paper tickets bring about a sense of nostalgia.

Stubs from historic NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball games have the most monetary value, Townsend said, noting that a less-than-mint condition stub from Jackie Robinson’s first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers recently was sold for $40,000.

College football ticket stubs tend to hold greater sentimental value, Townsend said, because of the strong emotional connection of alumni and fans.

Without paper tickets, he said, “You lose that piece of history and memory of where you’ve been, where grandpa’s been, or ‘Me and my dad went to the ballgame and we’ve got our ticket stub still,’” he said. “It’s more your moment in time and the pleasure that the game gave you. It ignites things in your head that makes you remember things.”

In Fey’s case, his ‘71 Game of the Century stub leads him to reminisce about his surprise when his dad told him he was able to get hold of the tickets, the flight to Norman, Oklahoma, in a small private plane that needed its tires pumped before takeoff, and Johnny Rodgers’ 72-yard punt return for a touchdown that was the signature play of the Cornhuskers’ 35-31 win.

“He was 10 yards in front of me when he crossed the 5-yard line,” Fey said. “I swear to God if I would have had a cell phone I would have taken a picture.”

Fey said he had stuffed the ticket stub in his pocket after he went through the turnstile, put it in his scrapbook when he got home and forgot he had it until he was going through some boxes last month.

Same with the stub from the ‘84 Orange Bowl. The husband of a woman Fey worked with had an extra ticket and asked if Fey wanted to join him and three others on a guys’ trip to Miami.

Fey remembered the long van ride from Omaha to Miami, with a stop in Jacksonville to watch Iowa play Florida in the Gator Bowl, and unexpectedly bumping into his parents in a concession line at the Orange Bowl stadium.

“What are you doing here?” Fey remembered his dad asking.

Most memorable, of course, was one of the defining plays of Nebraska coach Tom Osborne’s career — the late failed two-point conversion pass that left the Huskers with a 31-30 loss when an extra-point kick probably would have secured his first national championship. Fey watched the play unfold from the opposite end of the field.

In the moment, Fey said, he was inclined to throw away that ticket stub.

“But I must have thought, ‘Well, someday I might want to look back on this,’” he said. ”Now if they get blown out 48-0, that’s one thing. They were behind and it was a hell of a comeback and had that pass not been tipped, maybe he would have got it.

“I’m glad I didn’t throw it away.”

___

More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s government said Thursday it will recognize — and regulate — cryptocurrencies for payments on the island.

A resolution published in the Official Gazette said the Central Bank will set rules for such currencies and determine how to license providers of related services within Cuba.

The popularity of such currencies has grown among a technologically savvy group in Cuba as it has become harder to use dollars, in part because of toughened embargo rules imposed under former President Donald Trump.

The Central American nation of El Salvador recently announced it would recognize use of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as a way to encourage remittances from its citizens living abroad.

The currencies, which can wobbly wildly up and down in value, are usually independent of any central bank and use widely distributed blockchain computer codes to keep track of transfers.

Because they can be used for long-distance transactions that are supposedly anonymous, they are often popular with people attempting to evade government regulations — presumably including U.S. restrictions on sending money to places such as Cuba.

The resolution says the Central Bank can authorize use of cryptocurrencies “for reasons of socioeconomic interest” but with the state assuring that their operations are controlled. It also explicitly noted that operations could not involve illegal activities.

A local cryptocurrency expert, programmer Erich García, said some Cubans are already using such devices, often via gift cards, for online purchases.

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BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Apple has agreed to let developers of iPhone apps email their users about cheaper ways to pay for digital subscriptions and media by circumventing a commission system that generates billions of dollars annually for the iPhone maker.

The concession announced late Thursday, which covers emailed notifications but does not allow in-app notifications, is part of a preliminary settlement of a nearly 2-year-old lawsuit filed on behalf of iPhone app developers in the U.S. It also addresses an issue raised by a federal court judge who is expected to soon rule on a separate case brought by Epic Games, maker of the popular video game Fortnite.

Apple also will set up a $100 million fund that will pay thousands of app developers covered in the lawsuit sums ranging from $250 to $30,000. App developers will get more flexibility to set different prices within their apps, expanding the options from about 100 to 500 choices.

Under long-standing Apple rules, makers of iPhone apps were forbidden to email users with information on how to pay for services outside the app, which would circumvent Apple commissions of 15% to 30%.

The concession now opens one way for app developers to be more aggressive about encouraging its users to pay in other ways, so long as they get consumer consent.

The compromise also addresses a concern that U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers repeatedly raised while presiding over the high-profile Epic-Apple trial. She openly wondered why Apple couldn’t allow developers to display a range of payment options within their apps, much like brick-and-mortar retailers can show a range of different credit cards they accept in addition to cash.

Apple still isn’t allowing developers to use in-app notifications to prod consumers to explore different payment options.

But just being able to email users to explain why they should pay outside the app is a breakthrough for developers who have complained about Apple’s commissions as a form of price gouging for years.

Richard Czeslawski, one of the app developers that filed the lawsuit Apple is settling, hailed the freedom to email users as a “game changer” in a declaration field with the court in Oakland, California. App developers “will take fill advantage of this change in customer communications as a way to further reduce the commissions paid to Apple,’” predicted Czeslawski, CEO of Pure Sweat Basketball.

Apple already has been tinkering with its app store commission system in response to legal pressure and mounting scrutiny among lawmakers and regulators around the world taking a harder look whether the company ironclad control of the store is stifling competition and innovation.

Earlier this year, Apple lowered its in-app commissions from 30% to 15% for developers with less than $1 million in annual revenue — a move covering most of the apps in its store. As part of the settlement announced Thursday, Apple is guaranteeing the lower commission for small developers will be extended for at least three more years.

But the lower commissions don’t help the largest app makers like Epic and Spotify, which are the leaders in a coalition trying to topple Apple’s so-called walled garden that prevents outsiders from offering other options. Apple maintains it prevents alternative stores from offering apps on its iPhone to protect its own customers’ security and privacy while its critics contend the company is simply trying to protect a cash cow that that generates billions of dollars in profit annually.

Those tensions are likely to come to a boil when Gonzalez Rogers issues her ruling in the Epic case.

Gonzalez Rogers will also approve or disapprove the proposed settlement announced Thursday. A hearing on that is scheduled Oct. 12

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Congress provided hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up the nation’s election system against cyberattacks and other threats, but roughly two-thirds of the money remained unspent just weeks before last year’s presidential election.

A recently released federal report says the states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories had spent a little more than $255 million of $805 million in election security grants through Sept. 30 of last year, the latest figures available.

States were given leeway on how and when to spend their shares because election concerns and potential vulnerabilities of voting systems vary widely across the country. Several election officials cited two main reasons for the slow pace of spending: More than half the money wasn’t allocated until the 2020 election was less than a year away, giving election officials and state lawmakers little time to make major spending decisions. And the coronavirus pandemic upended last year’s election planning, forcing officials to focus on safety at the polls and pivot to provide more early voting and mail-in balloting.

“Security was still on everybody’s mind, but it took a back seat to just making sure that the election ran without it just having a total meltdown,” said Don Palmer, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which issued the report.

A state-by-state snapshot the commission released last month shows that as of the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, when early voting was already happening in the presidential election, the nation’s 50 states plus the District of Columbia and five territories had spent roughly 31% of the election security funding. The grant money came in two chunks since 2018 under the Help America Vote Act.

Louisiana, one of the last states to use aging voting machines statewide that have no paper trail, spent none of its $12.5 million election security grant ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Its initial efforts to replace thousands of voting machines were scrapped amid controversy over the bid-selection process.

In July, Louisiana’s Democratic governor and its Republican lawmakers agreed on a process requiring an auditable paper trail for whatever voting system the GOP secretary of state chooses.

In 2017, the federal government notified election officials in 21 states that hackers had targeted their systems before the 2016 presidential election. The widespread nature of the attempts raised concerns at the time among some election officials and lawmakers, although being targeted did not mean the hackers had succeeded in penetrating election systems or were able to manipulate voter data or results.

North Dakota — one of the targeted states — spent none of the $6 million it received in election security grants by Sept. 30. The state told the Election Assistance Commission in its own financial report that it purchased no voting equipment nor did it conduct any security training during the year. It instead was prioritizing other funding sources that have expiration dates. North Dakota had initially requested the election security money to buy a statewide digital scan voting system and electronic poll books for every polling location in the state.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report said Russian operatives successfully compromised the Illinois State Board of Elections computer network in June 2016 and gained access to a voter registration database containing the information of millions of people. Still, as of Sept. 30, Illinois officials had spent less than 16% of the state’s $28.1 million in federal election security money. EAC Commissioner Benjamin Hovland told lawmakers that Illinois’ expenditure appeared low because the state was spending most of its money on a multi-year project called the Cyber Navigator Program, which aims to defend, detect and recover from cyberattacks.

Pennsylvania, a presidential battleground that also was among the targeted states in 2016, spent nearly 90% its $28.6 million before the 2020 election, mostly to replace voting machines. Other politically important states that were targeted — Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin — spent roughly half their money.

Hovland said the election grant money didn’t come with expiration dates, explaining it was “the first real money” to come to states for elections in a long time and people didn’t have confidence there would be additional federal funding.

A review of state progress reports by commission staff found that one “common activity” among states was spending the money to audit the November presidential election. The report noted that Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa and many other states plan some form of audit.

The agency’s 2020 report says states’ spending of the federal grant money fell mostly under three categories: nearly 39% was used to make cybersecurity upgrades; about 25% was invested in new voting equipment; and 11% went to upgrade voter registration databases.

During the 2020 general election, only 32 voting jurisdictions across the nation relied on voting machines with no paper backup. Nine states — Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Tennessee and Texas — used electronic voting machines that did not have a verifiable paper trail in at least one of their jurisdictions.

Five states that in 2018 used voting machines that did not have a paper backup had stopped using them by the 2020 general election. Those were Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

Lack of consistent federal money for election security is likely one reason many state election officials have been reluctant to spend their federal grants, said Lawrence Norden, director of election reform at the Brennan Center for Justice.

Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who served as vice chairman of former President Donald Trump’s now-disbanded election fraud commission, was the state’s top election official when Kansas received the first infusion of what eventually would total $9.3 million. None of that money was spent at the time.

Kobach said that when the federal money arrived, the Legislature was not in session to provide the required matching funds. Under his successor, Scott Schwab, Kansas ended up using just $19,200 before the 2020 election for testing and training to ensure election personnel were using email in “a safe and secure manner.” State officials say they since have spent more than $3.4 million of the grant funding, in part to enhance security of Kansas’ statewide voter registration system and supplement its cyber-security efforts.

Some states have opted to hold on to the federal money because technology that seems to be effectively securing elections now could be outdated in 10 years, said Danielle Root, an elections security expert with the Center for American Progress.

“A lot of states view securing elections as a marathon, not a race, and many states want to reserve some of this funding to update their systems as new threats and technological advances emerge,” she said.

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