South Florida Local News

MIAMI GARDENS — The Hurricanes’ run game had been sleepy the last two games.

Mark Fletcher Jr. woke it up.

The junior running back rushed for 106 yards and a career-high three touchdowns to lead the No. 9 Hurricanes (6-1, 2-1 ACC) to a 42-7 win over Stanford (3-5, 2-3 ACC) at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday.

“I think Mark Fletcher again showed why he’s such a great player and so important to this football team,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “You give him the carries necessary to get him going, and I think the tone and the perspective of the game changes.”

Miami got off to a slow start in the win, looking less like the team that won its first five games and more like the one that lost to Louisville last week. The Hurricanes moved down the field on their first drive, but Carter Davis missed a field goal at the end.

Stanford got on the board first after the missed field goal. The Cardinal drove 74 yards and completed the drive with a 9-yard pass from Ben Gulbranson to Caden High.

Miami’s offense, which struggled against Louisville in the team’s first loss of the year, came out slow against Stanford. After missing a field goal on the first drive, UM punted on its second drive and turned the ball over on downs on its third drive.

The Hurricanes finally got on the board late in the first half when UM quarterback Carson Beck connected with receiver CJ Daniels on a third-down, endzone fade pass to tie the game.

Star freshman Malachi Toney set Miami up for the go-ahead score. The standout American Heritage alum returned a punt 31 yards to put UM at the Stanford 40 for its first drive of the second half. The Hurricanes got the rest of the way down the field and scored on a 1-yard touchdown run by Mark Fletcher Jr., his seventh of the season.

“That definitely got us going,” Fletcher said. “We just had to continue to execute, and that’s what we did.”

Another long Toney punt return — this one for 42 yards — but Miami was stuffed on fourth-and-1 at the Stanford 21-yard line, keeping the game a one-score contest.

Miami’s defense, which bounced back following Stanford’s first drive, set the offense up perfectly late in the third quarter. Veteran linebacker Wesley Bissainthe picked off a pass from  Gulbranson and returned it to the Cardinal’s 3-yard line. Fletcher scored his second touchdown of the game on the next play, putting Miami ahead 21-7.

“I thought I was going to get (to the end zone),” Bissainthe said. “I almost did, but I didn’t make it.”

The Hurricanes’ defense continued its strong play, as Wisconsin transfer Xavier Lucas notched his first interception as a Hurricane. Fletcher capped that drive with a 7-yard touchdown — his third score of the night.

Miami brought in the backups in the second half of the fourth quarter, and Girard Pringle Jr. scored the last touchdown of the night.

“When you have an opportunity like that, those last 16 to 18 plays are critical because it’s not about scoring or trying to score,” Cristobal said. “It’s about roster development as you head further and further into the season.”

Five takeaways 1. Offense slow to start but turns it on in the second half

After scoring a season-low 21 points against Louisville, the offense struggled again on Saturday, at least to start. The Hurricanes scored just seven points in the first half.

The offense started moving more in the second half and eventually finished the game with 42 points and 404 total yards, their highest total against a Power 4 team this season.

The Hurricanes had a balanced approach, rushing for 199 yards and passing for 205.

2. Defense carrying the team

While the offense struggled, Miami’s defense stepped up. The Cardinal had a good first drive, getting down the field and scoring. But Stanford’s next two drives ended with a punt, and its final drive of the first half would have been a three-and-out had the half not ended.

Nothing changed,” Bissainthe said. “We just had to go out there and execute. That’s all it was.”

The defensive excellence continued in the second half — but added some turnovers. Bissainthe and Lucas picked off passes, setting up scoring drives.

The Hurricanes held Stanford to 144 yards in the win, which is the second-lowest total by a UM Power 4 opponent this season.

3. Malachi Toney excels on punts now, too

Toney has done it all for Miami this year. Now he’s making opponents look silly on punts.

The star freshman had 73 yards on two second-half punts, making several players miss and giving Miami great field position.

“We trust him a lot,” Cristobal said. “And we saw what you saw: an explosive guy that is always ready to make a play for his teammates. A guy that is fearless. A guy that not only wants the ball, wants to throw his body around in there and block. Just a complete team player and certainly a game-changer.”

4. Big day for American Heritage alumni

The Hurricanes have recruited Broward County powerhouse American Heritage well over the past few years, and it paid off in a big way on Saturday.

Three former Patriots had big games.

Fletcher had the biggest impact, rushing for three of Miami’s touchdowns for his first career three-score game. He finished the game with 106 yards on 23 carries. It was the first time the Hurricanes had a 100-yard rusher

Toney, the breakout player of the season, had another strong effort. He had five catches for 52 yards and had those two excellent punt returns. He also ran for 13 yards on one carry.

Lucas, a cornerback, also starred at American Heritage. He signed with Wisconsin out of high school but transferred to UM this offseason. He had his first interception as a Hurricane on Saturday night.

5. Running game comes alive

Miami’s run game struggled against FSU and Louisville, and it was more of the same in the first half on Saturday. But the running backs injected life into the UM offense in the second half.

The Hurricanes finished the game with 199 rushing yards, which is their highest total against a Power 4 opponent this season. Fletcher scored three touchdowns in the win, and sophomore Jordan Lyle scored his first touchdown of the season in the fourth quarter.

“There’s a lot of different schemes that we run,” Cristobal said. “Some between the tackles, some stuff outside or designed to go outside. But the running game, in my opinion, as the game wears on, you should get better.”

 

SUNRISE — Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 17 shots for his 50th career shutout, Cole Schwindt scored against his former team and the Florida Panthers became the first team to beat the Vegas Golden Knights in regulation this season, winning 3-0 on Saturday night.

Bobrovsky became the 33rd goalie in NHL history with that many regular-season shutouts, with 17 of them coming since he joined the Panthers.

Sam Reinhart and A.J. Greer also scored for Florida, who evened their record at 5-5-0 and improved to 4-1-0 at home. Reinhart’s goal opened the scoring late in the first period, Schwindt made it 2-0 early in the third period and Greer pushed it to 3-0 with 9:56 left.

Vegas (5-1-2) had its four-game winning streak snapped. The Golden Knights earned at least one standings point in all seven of their games coming into Saturday.

Akira Schmid stopped 23 shots for the Golden Knights.

It was a matchup of the teams that have combined to win the last three Stanley Cups, with Vegas beating Florida for the crown in 2023 and Florida then beating Edmonton for the title in each of the last two seasons.

Schwindt was facing Vegas for the first time since the Panthers claimed him off waivers last month. Florida had traded Schwindt away three years ago in the deal that landed Matthew Tkachuk from Calgary.

Schwindt spent last season with Vegas, playing in 42 games and finishing with a goal and seven assists. He played in three games with Florida in 2021-22 and four games with Calgary in 2023-24.

Up next

Golden Knights: Visit Tampa Bay on Sunday.

Panthers: Host Anaheim on Tuesday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Blake Horvath rushed for four touchdowns, Coleman Cauley forced two big turnovers, and Navy scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to hold off Florida Atlantic 42-32 on Saturday night, extending the Midshipmen’s win streak to a program-tying 10.

Navy (7-0, 5-0 American Conference) last won 10 straight in 1959-60 and is 7-0 for the first time since ’78.

Horvath scored on a pair of 7-yard runs in the first half when Navy took a 21-13 lead. After Alex Tecza scored from the 1 in the fourth quarter, Horvath added 19- and 31-yard TDs following a forced fumble and an interception by Cauley, making his first start, to lead 41-19.

The Owls (3-5, 2-3) scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes.

Horvath finished with 174 yards rushing on 21 carries and passed for 83 more. Brandon Chatman rushed 141 yards on 10 carries and Braxton Woodson added a TD in a 397-yard ground game.

Caden Veltkamp, who came leading the nation at 30.8 completions per game, was 25 of 41 for 299 yards passing, two touchdowns and an interception for the Owls, who rushed for only 69 yards. Jayshon Platt had five catches for 121 yards and a score, and gave FAU a 7-0 lead on a 43-yard grab. Jabari Smith Jr. had two touchdown catches and Kaden Shields-Dutton one.

___

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The Hurricanes will have to play without one of their top defenders against Stanford on Saturday.

Defensive end Akheem Mesidor was listed as a game-time decision on Miami’s gameday availability report, and he was not dressed in uniform during the team’s pregame warmups. He was the only player listed as a game-time decision, and he was the only one on the injury report who has received significant playing time.

Mesidor suffered a foot injury in UM’s loss to Louisville but returned later in the game.

Mesidor is fourth on the team with 28 tackles and leads Miami with 3.5 sacks. He has the second-best Pro Football Focus defensive grade on the team (89.2) among frequent players. Mesidor is second on the team with 25 quarterback pressures.

Mesidor, a sixth-year senior, has dealt with foot injuries throughout his career. 

Other players out for the game include tight end Jack Nickel and wide receiver Chance Robinson.

During this season of the supernatural, with Halloween and Day of the Dead looming, we’re putting a spotlight on the super-famous (and infamous).

More specifically, on the gravesites at South Florida cemeteries that hold the secrets of some of our most notorious names.

Among the public figures buried here, we discovered creators of music we love, and stars of movies and TV shows that made us laugh. Some were sports stars in the ring and on the field, others coaches behind championship teams. One ran a tabloid, while others were frequent subjects of the headlines.

Comedian, actor and variety show host Jackie Gleason is one of our most beloved, having recently landed on a list of “Celebrities & Public Figures Americans Would Most Want to be Buried Beside.” At No. 21, Gleason was Florida’s highest-ranking celebrity in Choice Mutual life insurance agency’s survey of 3,128 people.

Below, find a roundup of notable South Florida burial spots. But remember, if you plan to pay your respects, check each location’s hours and policies first, and always be considerate of the grounds.

Comedian Jackie Gleason clowns for photographers after a news conference in Miami Beach on Jan. 21, 1966. (AP file photo) JACKIE GLEASON & DON SHULA

Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery
11411 NW 25th St., Doral

• Best known for his role as Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden in “The Honeymooners,” Jackie Gleason died at age 71 in Lauderhill in 1987. He moved in the 1960s to Miami Beach, where “The Jackie Gleason Show” was filmed in what is now The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater. “Known for his quick wit and larger-than-life personality, Gleason left a legacy of laughter and joy,” according to the Choice Mutual survey results. “His final resting place features an epitaph that reads: ‘And away we go!’ — a nod to his famous catchphrase. Fans of classic television and comedy may feel inspired to rest near this entertainment icon.”

Mike Stocker / Sun SentinelThe late former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula talked about turning 80 in 2010 during an interview at his home. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

• The Miami Dolphins coach, dubbed the NFL’s most winningest, led the team to two consecutive Super Bowl titles in 1973 and 1974. Don Shula retired after the 1995 season and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997. He’s been linked to steakhouses and a hotel, promoted various products and served as the Dolphins’ vice chairman. He died in 2020 at age 90 in Indian Creek in Miami-Dade County and is in the Doral cemetery’s main mausoleum.

The epitaph on singer Connie Francis' crypt at The Gardens of Boca Raton Cemetery and Funeral Home reads: "I think I did OK." (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel) CONNIE FRANCIS & XXXTENTACION

The Gardens of Boca Raton Cemetery & Funeral Home
4103 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton

• Connie Francis, the pop singer, actress and Parkland resident who had a slew of hit songs in the 1950s and ’60s, died at age 87 this past July 16. Before her death, the “Where The Boys Are” star enjoyed a resurgence when her 1962 song “Pretty Little Baby” went viral on TikTok. Her crypt is in one of the mausoleums on-site with the inscription: “I think I did OK.”

The mausoleum of rapper XXXTentacion (Jahseh Onfroy) features a glass photo of him at The Gardens of Boca Raton Cemetery and Funeral Home. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

• XXXTentacion (Jahseh Onfroy), the rapper and singer-songwriter who lived in Parkland, was killed in a shooting after shopping for a motorcycle in Deerfield Beach on June 18, 2018. The Lauderhill-raised 20-year-old had signed a $10 million record contract for his third official release before his murder. He is in a private mausoleum overlooking a pond.

Related Articles

• ‘An amazing human being’: Fort Lauderdale icon, unlikely TikTok star Connie Francis remembered
• Three sentenced to life in prison for murder of XXXTentacion
• Happy 101st Jackie Gleason. How Sweet It Was.

The grave of actor Leslie Nielsen is shown at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel) LESLIE NIELSEN

Evergreen Cemetery
1300 SE 10th Ave., Fort Lauderdale

The “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun” star is still giving us a chuckle nearly 15 years after his death at age 84 in Fort Lauderdale. Known for his flatulence-inspired pranks, the comedic actor’s memorial marker proudly states: “Let ‘er rip.” On the other end is a park bench etched with some of his sage advice: “Sit down whenever you can.”

A bench inscribed with a quote from actor Leslie Nielsen is shown at the foot of his grave at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale. (Amy Beth Bennett/ South Florida Sun Sentinel) ROXIE ROKER

Southern Memorial Park
15000 W. Dixie Highway, North Miami

The Miami native saw success on the 1970s-’80s show, “The Jeffersons.” As the character of Helen Willis, she was part of one of the first interracial married couples featured on primetime television. In real life, Roxie Roker was married to TV producer Sy Kravitz, and their son is musician and actor Lenny Kravitz. In 1995, she died at age 66 in Los Angeles. She is buried in East Court 2 alongside her mother, Bessie Roker.

The crypt of boxing legend Rocky Marciano is shown at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens Central in Fort Lauderdale. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel) ROCKY MARCIANO

Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens Central
499 NW 27th Ave., Fort Lauderdale

The professional boxer who held the world heavyweight championship from 1952 to 1956 is interred in a crypt in this Fort Lauderdale mausoleum, near the statue of a woman in a pool of water. He retired undefeated in 1956. Born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, he died in a small plane crash in 1969 at age 45, one day before his 46th birthday. His wife, Barbara, is entombed next to him.

Actress Esther Rolle's grave is in the Westview Community Cemetery in Pompano Beach, the city where she was born and raised. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel) ESTHER ROLLE

Westview Community Cemetery
1900 W. Copans Road, Pompano Beach

The Pompano Beach native is best known for her role as Florida Evans on the TV series, “Maude,” and its spin-off, “Good Times” (for which she won the 1974 NAACP Eighth Image Award for Best Actress in a Series). Northwest Third Avenue, which runs through her childhood neighborhood, was renamed in her honor. Esther Rolle died in 1998 at age 78 in California. Her gravesite features a diamond-shaped headstone with a rose engraved on it.

Jaco Pastorius pictured while performing a free concert on Young Circle in downtown Hollywood on Sept. 10, 1983. (Phil Skinner/South Florida Sun Sentinel file) JACO PASTORIUS

Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery 
1500 S. State Road 7, North Lauderdale

Considered one of the best bassists of all time, Jaco Pastorius was born in Pennsylvania but moved to Broward County in the late 1950s, graduating from Oakland Park’s Northeast High School in 1969. Born John Francis Pastorius III, he became a member of the jazz fusion band Weather Report in the 1970s, and also played with Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, and Blood, Sweat & Tears. He died in 1987 at age 35 from injuries sustained during a fight outside a Wilton Manors nightclub. The city of Oakland Park named Jaco Pastorius Park, 4000 N. Dixie Highway, in his honor. His plot is in Section L of the cemetery.

Perry Como is buried alongside Roselle, his wife of 65 years, at Riverside Memorial Park in Tequesta. (Kari Barnett/South Florida Sun Sentinel) PERRY COMO, MIKE DOUGLAS, GARY CARTER & CHUCK DALY

Riverside Memorial Park
19351 SE County Line Road, Tequesta

• Perry Como, singer, actor and TV variety show host, died at age 88 in 2001 in Jupiter Inlet Colony. Roselle, his wife of 65 years, is buried alongside him. He recorded songs, including “Papa Loves Mambo” and “Catch a Falling Star,” for RCA Victor for 44 years. He’s also known for starring in numerous Christmas TV specials from 1948 to 1994. He is buried in the Garden of Reflection.
• Mike Douglas, big band singer and entertainer, was host of “The Mike Douglas Show,” a daytime talk show that had a 21-year run. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1976. He died in 2006 at age 81 in Palm Beach Gardens. His crypt is in the Liberty Hall Mausoleum.
• Gary Carter, the Hall of Famer who played most of his 19-year career in Major League Baseball with the Montreal Expos and New York Mets, died in 2012 at age 57 in Palm Beach Gardens. He won the 1986 World Series with the Mets. After his retirement in 1992, he served as an analyst for Florida Marlins television broadcasts and later became head baseball coach at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach in 2009. He is buried in the Reflection 5 section.
• Chuck Daly, the Hall of Fame basketball head coach, died in 2009 at age 78 in Jupiter. His Detroit Pistons team won back-to-back NBA championships in 1989 and 1990. He also led the 1992 U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball team, aka the Dream Team, to a gold medal. He also is buried in the Reflection 5 section.

Generoso Pope Jr., owner and publisher of The National Enquirer, is buried in Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery in Royal Palm Beach. (Kari Barnett/South Florida Sun Sentinel) GENEROSO POPE JR. & VIC DAMONE

Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery
10941 Southern Blvd., Royal Palm Beach

• Generoso Pope Jr., the media mogul who transformed The National Enquirer into its successful supermarket tabloid form, died in 1988 at age 61 in Manalapan. He relocated the tabloid’s headquarters from New York to Lantana in 1971. The inscription on his memorial marker in the St. Matthew section reads: “The Man Who Made Millions and Millions of People Happy.”
• Vic Damone, the pop and big band singer who had hits such as “An Affair to Remember” and “On the Street Where You Live,” died in 2018 at age 89 in Miami Beach. He performed in movies and movie musicals, and became a regular guest performer on variety shows. His fifth wife, Rena Rowan Damone, a fashion designer, businesswoman and philanthropist who died 2016 at age 88, is in the crypt alongside him in the mausoleum at the back of the cemetery.

Singer Vic Damone and his wife, fashion designer Rena Rowan, have a crypt in Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery in Royal Palm Beach. (Kari Barnett/South Florida Sun Sentinel) MEYER LANSKY

Mount Nebo Miami Memorial Gardens
5505 NW Third St., Miami

As the “mob’s accountant,” Meyer Lansky helped organize the National Crime Syndicate with his friend, Charles “Lucky” Luciano. He used financial schemes such as money laundering to hide profits and led the expansion of mob-backed casinos in places like Florida, Nevada and Cuba. He served as inspiration for the character Hyman Roth in “The Godfather Part II.” Lansky died in 1983 at age 80 in Miami Beach.

Charles Whitman, the "Texas Tower Sniper," is buried in Hillcrest Memorial Park in West Palm Beach. (Kari Barnett/South Florida Sun Sentinel) CHARLES WHITMAN

Hillcrest Memorial Park
6411 Parker Ave., West Palm Beach

The Lake Worth Beach native became known as the “Texas Tower Sniper.” On Aug. 1, 1966, the 25-year-old killed his wife and mother before heading to the University of Texas at Austin. There, he randomly shot and killed 14 people and wounded 31 others before he was shot and killed by police.

GAINESVILLE — Isaiah and AJ Brown waged war on the driveway of their home in Orlando. The sun had set, and the streetlight flicked as the two brothers, now competing for the Florida Gators, went toe-to-toe, dribbling up the side of the imaginary basketball court.

First, the two played to 11 points, and then, to 15. AJ, Isaiah swore, played the hardest defense of his life, pushing him back. But Isaiah had an ace up his sleeve. He had perfected a trick shot in middle school to better his chances at beating his older brother. So, Isaiah took a step back and threw against the back before the ball ricocheted into the net with a swish.

Isaiah ran into his house as he celebrated the win. “I’m done,” he said.

AJ, though, wasn’t having it, and he pulled Isiah back into the court.

“No,” AJ replied. “We’re going to 21, now.”

AJ and Isaiah Brown are the first pair of brothers on a Florida men’s basketball team since Dwayne and Travis Schintzius in the 1989-90 season. The Browns will face off against each other for playing time on an already stacked Gators roster.

The Browns never strayed much from contention. And, like many younger siblings, Isaiah used basketball as a way to be around AJ.

“It was always the competitive spirit that I loved about it,” Isaiah said. “Just being able to hang out with him.”

The Gators recruited Isaiah and AJ to join coach Todd Golden’s national championship-winning team, a continuous stream of solid basketball players who rotate between resting and playing. The Browns are expected to slot in behind junior Thomas Haugh in the forward position and junior Urban Klavzar and Princeton-transfer Xaivian Lee at guard.

AJ and Isaiah fill in spots with Florida’s scout team, but both have proven themselves. The Browns won back-to-back Class 2A state championships at Orlando Christian Prep, a K-12 private school.

AJ also competed collegiately at Ohio State, where he averaged 11.4 points per game. He’s fairly efficient with the ball in his hands, making 56.6% 2-point shots and 38.8% of his 3-pointers. However, he tore his labrum, the cartilage lining his shoulder socket, against Miami in March. AJ underwent surgery and rehabbed in preparation for the season, but he hasn’t ruled out medically redshirting this season.

“It was encouraging to me just to take my time and then play at my own pace,” AJ said. “But I’ve been going to rehab. I’ve been playing 100%. No problems with it, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Isaiah, on the other hand, joined Florida as a four-star prospect by ESPN, On3 and Rivals (though 247Sports ranked him as a three-star). He competed with the Gators last season and won a national championship, scoring 36 points in 19 appearances.

No matter the distance between the two, one thing remains constant: neither likes losing to the other. The competition amplifies the Browns’ performances, as Florida gears up for its first game against No. 13 Arizona on Nov. 3.

Still, the love between the two hasn’t disappeared. Not entirely.

“It’s the most wholesome competition ever,” Isaiah said. “If I’m the one winning this competition, he’s happy for me. 
If he’s the one winning the competition, I’m happy. There’s no bad blood either way the competition goes. That’s kind of the best competition to have.”

Florida guard Isaiah Brown, right, celebrates with center Micah Handlogten in the locker room after winning the NCAA Final Four game against Auburn at the Alamodome in San Antonio Texas on April 5, 2025. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

MIAMI — Ahead of Sunday’s 2025-26 regular-season home opener against the New York Knicks, the Miami Heat announced Saturday that Michael Baiamonte, the second-longest tenured public-address announcer in the NBA, will retire at the end of the season.

Baiamonte, over his first 34 seasons in the job, has announced more than 1,500 games, including six NBA Finals, at both Miami Arena and the facility now known as Kaseya Center.

Known for his booming baritone intonations, his signature calls have included, “Stand up and make some noise!” amid Heat moments of truth and “Dos Minutos” at the ends of quarters.

In a statement, Baiamonte said, “After giving this much thought and consideration, I have decided that this season, my 35th with the Miami Heat organization, will be my last.

“I want to thank the Miami Heat for their understanding and support of my decision as I move to the next chapter of my life with my wife Natalie and our daughters.”

Baiamonte’s overall Heat tenure dates to when he stepped in as the backup announcer on February 21, 1990. In 1991-92, he was hired full time.

Over the years, Baiamonte’s voice has been heard in the NBA 2K’s Take-Two Interactive game, announcing Shaquille O’Neal’s arrival to Miami, hosting the Welcome Event in July 2010 as the Heat ushered in the Big Three era with LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, and hosting three NBA championship celebrations.

The Heat will hold a season-long “Mike Drop” campaign in his honor, with a nationwide search for his replacement scheduled to commence in coming weeks.

MIAMI GARDENS — Desperate times can bring the best out of teams.

That would sound great if the Miami Dolphins weren’t already desperate last week against the lowly Cleveland Browns, only to suffer an abysmal 31-6 loss. It was a defeat of the likes that, at 1-6 and in the fourth year of a coach-general manager tandem, would call for immediate change at the top of most franchises.

Not so with the Dolphins, as owner Steve Ross wants to remain patient with coach Mike McDaniel and GM Chris Grier.

McDaniel is paying that patience forward to his quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, keeping him in as the starter after back-to-back three-interception games.

As difficult as it may be to imagine this Dolphins team starting a midseason turnaround, that is what they aim to do, beginning Sunday afternoon against the Atlanta Falcons (3-3) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

And it isn’t unheard of in similar situations for recent Dolphins teams.

Just last year, the Dolphins started 2-6. They won six of the next eight to still have a shot at the playoffs entering the regular-season finale.

In 2021, former coach Brian Flores’ last season at the helm, Miami was 1-7 before winning seven consecutive and eight of nine to finish 9-8.

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One coach who was on both of those staffs was running backs coach Eric Studesville, and he knows the mindset needed to pull off the 180.

“I think it’s really a mentality of taking everything one step at a time. Don’t get too far. Don’t worry about everything we just had. We got to win today,” Sudesville said this past week. “You can’t fix everything at one time, but everybody can do what they’re supposed to do right now where we are. And let’s fix that one step at a time. I think that’s the answer to it.

“It sounds simple, but it’s really difficult to do when you’re talking about all the different individuals that are incorporated, coaches and players in this, that all of us have to do that at one time. And I do believe that that is the direction everybody here is working for.”

But how does a team do that when there’s so much noise surrounding the poor performances and speculation over coaching changes and trade possibilities?

“I don’t know that there’s any advantage to listening to it,” Studesville said. “So, if there’s no advantage to listening to it, tune it out.”

With coach, GM, quarterback and all assistant coaches remaining in their roles, change could come in the form of lineup alterations Sunday in Atlanta.

Dolphins Deep Dive: Prediction time — Does Miami have a chance vs. Falcons in Atlanta? | VIDEO

“Sometimes, an active decision is no change and sometimes an active decision is change,” McDaniel said. “I’ve got to give you reasons to tune in on Sunday, so I won’t spoil.”

The Falcons appear bound to change quarterbacks, out of necessity. Second-year starter Michael Penix is dealing with a knee injury, and veteran Kirk Cousins is expected to start for him.

Regardless of quarterback, the key for Miami will be for its league-worst run defense to contain elite running back Bijan Robinson.

“Pack mentality,” McDaniel said, “meaning you don’t have this one special guru tackler. You have to be sound, but you have to be urgent. You have to have multiple players in the vicinity, make him stop his feet and have a group of people putting their pads on him at once. If you are in space and he’s coming up on you, you have to shoot your guns and wrap. You can’t just try to knock him down with a shoulder pad, you better wrap up.”

Said defensive line coach Austin Clark: “This guy’s elusive. He can hit any hole, the cutback and, even when you got the numbers, he just breaks tackles. His amount of yards after contact is unbelievable. I’m very impressed by him and their line.”

Defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver likened Robinson, who is dangerous as a ball carrier and pass catcher, to Marshall Faulk and Chris Johnson.

“We’re going to have to muck this game up a little but for us to go out there and play successful,” Weaver said.

Tagovailoa will try to operate against the league’s No. 1 pass defense while without star wide receiver Tyreek Hill, tight end Darren Waller and with Jaylen Waddle playing through tweaked hamstrings.

“I think we got a lot of guys that can step up in their opportunities,” Waddle said. “They’re in the NFL for a reason. We believe in all our guys to go out there and make plays and contribute to a team win.”

The Dolphins need to play with desperation and urgency, but players say that doesn’t change.

“We’re always urgent,” defensive back Elijah Campbell said. “You shouldn’t need to take whatever the record is, you should attack every week the same. And we have been doing that. A lot of it is media. That’s (the media’s) job, at the end of the day, apply pressure. But we apply pressure on ourselves. We hold a standard that we want to meet, and we haven’t met it. So we’re more hard on ourselves than (anyone).”

Added left tackle Patrick Paul: “We can’t look to the past anymore. We have to just move forward. We have so much season left, and we can turn it around.”

The Dolphins never seem to put a full season together.

While 2021 and 2024 had midseason turnarounds, 2022 and 2023 involved late-season collapses after 8-3 and 9-3 starts, respectively. The 2022 team had a winless December and five-game losing streak before barely sneaking into the playoffs. The 2023 unit blew a three-game lead in the AFC East with five weeks remaining, bowing out to the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the postseason.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has set a special election to fill a vacant state representative seat in Palm Beach County — but he delayed acting for so long that 114,281 registered voters who live in the district won’t be represented in Tallahassee during the 2026 legislative session.

The special general election is set for March 24 — 11 days after the Legislature’s scheduled March 13 adjournment.

In an executive order he filed Friday afternoon with the Secretary of State’s Office, DeSantis also set the special primary for the District 87 seat for Jan. 13. The district is in the central part of the county along the Atlantic coast.

DeSantis set the special primary and general election dates 17 days after a lawsuit was filed seeking a court order compelling him to act.

DeSantis sometimes acts quickly to set dates for special elections and sometimes waits weeks to set the dates. The governor’s office doesn’t respond to questions about his rationale for timing of those elections, and his representatives haven’t responded to inquiries about the District 87 vacancy.

He’s been sued in the past, and has responded by moving quickly to set election dates — avoiding the prospect of a court ordering him to act. That’s what happened with the Palm Beach County special election he set on Friday.

The lawsuit was announced by Democrat Emily Gregory’s campaign, although the candidate didn’t file it herself. The petitioner, similar to a plaintiff, is a supporter and resident of the district, Paula Mcclease. The attorney who signed it, Matthew A. Goldberger, is Gregory’s campaign treasurer.

“We were hopeful the election would be before the next legislative session. We’re disappointed that there won’t be representation for our district,” Gregory said Saturday. “I would like a voice in Tallahassee in the next session but that’s out of our control.”

Republicans have a commanding majority over Democrats in the Florida House of Representatives, so the vacancy is unlikely to affect the outcome on major issues. Not having a representative means there won’t be someone in the House advocating for funding projects in the district.

DeSantis is responsible for the vacancy in the 87th state House district. He appointed then-state Rep. Mike Caruso, a Republican, to fill the vacant job of Palm Beach County circuit court clerk and comptroller. Caruso resigned from the District 87 seat when DeSantis appointed him to the new job on Aug. 18.

DeSantis can fill many vacancies on his own, but he doesn’t have the authority to pick replacements for members of Congress or state Legislature. But he is responsible for setting the dates of the special primaries and special general elections.

On July 21, Blaise Ingoglia resigned from the Florida Senate because DeSantis named him as the state’s new chief financial officer. On July 22, DeSantis set the dates for special primary and general elections to fill the resulting vacancy.

Gregory called the quick action for one vacancy and the delay in another “peculiar.” But, she said, “We’re happy that there was an election called, and we are going to do everything we can to get in front of the voters and share our vision for Florida.”

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Another Democrat, Laura Ann Levites, has filed paperwork with the Division of Elections to run in the regular 2026 primary in District 87. Republicans Jon Maples and Gretchen L. Miller Feng have also filed to run in their party’s primary.

Typically what happens in such situations is the candidates who’d planned to run in the normal election cycle move up their timetables and run in the special election.

Republican Tracy Caruso, wife of Mike Caruso, is still listed as an active candidate by the Division of Elections, but in September she said she would not run to succeed her husband.

Also on Friday, DeSantis set the special primary and general election dates for a Hillsborough County vacancy created when the governor appointed then-state Sen. Jay Collins to fill the empty post of lieutenant governor.

Palm Beach County will see a flurry of election activity from now through March.

A special general election is Dec. 9 to fill the vacancy left by the death of state Rep. Joe Casello. And most cities, towns and villages in Palm Beach County have their local elections on March 10.

Key dates

The state Division of Elections posted a calendar of election activities that stem from the governor’s actions.

Primary: Deadline to register to vote, Dec. 15; Deadline to request vote-by-mail ballot, Jan. 1; early voting, Jan. 3-10; primary day, Jan. 13.

General election: Deadline to register to vote, Feb. 23; Deadline to request vote-by-mail ballot, March 12; early voting, March 14-21, Election Day, March 24.

Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.

MIAMI — I am watching a man paralyzed from the neck down lift an artificial arm by merely thinking about do so. I am watching another quadriplegic play drums thanks to similar microchip in his brain.

I am listening to doctors talk of hypothermia protocol, brain-computer interface and how artificial intelligence will help change the wheelchair world.

“What do you think?” a scientist asks.

“This is the greatest sports story of my lifetime,” I say.

Dalton Dietrich looks around as people in wheelchairs talk with doctors and doesn’t see sports. But the scientific director of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, which is part of the University of Miami, understands.

“Look at all the good since that awful day 40 years ago,”  he says.

*

Forty years ago Sunday, Marc Buoniconti made a tackle as a Citadel linebacker took the final step of his life on the 42-yard line of the East Tennessee State football field.

He has said, many times through the years, how he saw his arm flop beside him on the field and couldn’t feel it. He has said, many times, how he immediately knew he was paralyzed.

He has said, as he did to me at the 10th and 15th and 25th and 35th anniversary of his tackle, how he’d purposely stay busy on this day so he wouldn’t think too hard about it. He would, however, reserve a moment to recognize it.

“I call it a celebration,” he said before the 15th anniversary. “I celebrate I’m alive. I celebrate the culmination of what we’ve been able to accomplish and celebrate what we’ll accomplish in the next year. I’m not bitter about what happened. I’m enthusiastic and optimistic for the future.”

He paused, then said, “I think that’s how I stay sane.”

Buoniconti didn’t say anything for this story. He couldn’t. He is too ill, and he’s been ill for a while. He didn’t make the Miami Project’s annual dinner in New York in September. That tells how serious it is, because the dinner is their big fundraiser, the one he and his late father, the great Miami Dolphins linebacker Nick Buoniconti, used as the centerpiece toward their raising hundreds of millions of dollars to build the Miami Project into a top research center for spinal-cord injuries.

“I won’t walk again, but I’ll help others walk,” Marc said before the 25th anniversary.

Listen, you can back up your idea of the greatest sports story with numbers and statistics and maybe you’re right or maybe the guy showing the analytics of another story is right.

But listen to this: Barth Green, the Miami neurosurgeon whose medical vision combined with the Buoniconti’s fund-raising ability to build The Miami Project, is asked how many people walked out of wheelchairs or saw their lives improve dramatically from the day of that tackle 40 years ago.

“Thousands upon thousands,” he said. “But there are millions we need to help.”

Now that’s a sports stat to remember.

“We really launched with Marc,” Green said of The Miami Project. “From the start, he never gave up his leadership position as an international spokesman.”

*

For this 40th anniversary, Scott Roy, The Miami Project’s director of communications, asked the 175 scientists, researches, clinicians and support staff for the project’s top 10 medical and social breakthroughs. His first list had 60 such achievements.

Some are easy to understand like helping paralyzed men to father children for the first time or alleviating the chronic pain that comes with most spinal-cord injuries. Others are like trying to explain color to a blind person. Regeneration of the nervous system. FDA approval of Schwann cell transplantation in clinical trials.

Their idea of hypothermic treatment just needs the video of Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett laying on the ground after a hit in 2007. Within minutes, an intravenous, ice-cold saline solution was administered by doctors — an “ice-pack for his spinal cord,” as Green called it.

That was a Miami Project creation, and maybe it helped Everett walk again. No one can really say. After recovering in Buffalo, Everett visited the Miami Project to thank them and met a man in a wheelchair who years before that treatment was invented had suffered a similar dislocation of the third and fourth vertebrae.

Marc was 42 by then.

“If we’d had that treatment back when I was hurt, maybe I’d be out of this chair,” he once said. “That’s why we’re doing this. I love to see people get out of this chair.”

*

Buoniconti’s wasn’t the only person hurt on that tackle 40 years ago. Herman Jacobs, the East Tennessee running back, walked away a different person.

“For years, I carried such guilt about it,” Jacobs said. “I punished myself, like I was to blame. I played in a semi-pro league after college, but had to quit. I had flashbacks to it. It affected my life.

Twenty-two years after that tackle in 2007, Buoniconti’s former Citadel teammate, Joel Thompson, put Jacobs in touch with Buoniconti.

“I was scared to death to call him,” Jacobs said. “I wasn’t sure how the conversation would go. But he said he didn’t blame me for what happened. He assured me it wasn’t my fault. I started feeling better at that moment, like this heavy weight lifted off my shoulders.”

Buoniconti did something more, too, because he knew Jacobs wasn’t happy with his life direction.

“What is your dream, if you could do anything?” he asked.

“I want to be a chef,” Jacobs said.

Buoniconti invited him to Miami. He took Jacobs on a tour of Johnson & Wales culinary school. He helped Jacobs enroll in the school and had Jacobs live with him for six months. He then got Jacobs an interview with a top chef, Norman Van Aiken, who hired him at the chef’s Coral Gables restaurant.

“Marc’s my brother and he’s inspirational to me,” said Jacobs, who now works in a Tampa restaurant. “He always has time for people, to help them in any way he can. What he did for me, hopefully, one day, I can do for others.”

*

Forty years ago, I was in the newsroom when news of Marc’s injury came and was assigned to write about it. That began a career-long relationship with his story. I went to Charleston, S.C., in 1988 to cover the trial of his failed lawsuit accusing the Citadel team doctors of causing his injury by tying his facemask to his shoulder pads seemingly to help a sore neck.

I stood in the crowd in 2000 as Green and the Buounicontis broke ground for The Miami Project.

“That’s where it happened,” Nick said that day, pointing a mile away at the Orange Bowl. “It was one thought no team could win them all. It was once considered an impossible dream. Like our ’72 Dolphins had (Larry) Csonka and (Jim) Kiick and (Dick) Anderson and (Jake) Scott, the Miami Project has Green and Marc and a team of scientists to do the impossible.”

I watched Marc deliver the introduction at his father’s Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in 2001, interviewed him in his condominium several times, listened to him talk through tears at his father’s memorial in 2019 and saw him go from a scared teenager of 19 to a grown man of 59 with a wife, Cynthia, and several private businesses.

Now I sit in a classroom on the seventh floor of the Miami Project as a neurosurgery resident, Seth Tigchelaar, talked to a small audience of students and donors of the next step being taken. “Neuralink: Restoring autonomy with brain interfaces,” his talk was titled.

Diagrams and photos show a Neuralink chip being implanted in the part of the brain that involved arm movement. A video shows a quadriplegic thinking about moving his arm and a mechanical arm bringing him a cup of water to drink. Another video shows a father who is quadriplegic playing tic-tac-toe with his daughter. Another, the first woman to receive this chip, shows her artwork she can now make.

“There are three patients in Miami that we have worked with,” Tigchelaar said.

There are only 11 such patients worldwide. Tigchelaar talks of the ability in years to come to do thousands of such surgeries a year. The problem is a common one: Money.

“You know how on a great team everyone knows their role?” Marc once said. “Raising money is my job.”

The greatest sports story of them all?

Maybe because it’s far beyond sports.

By JIMMY GOLEN

BOSTON — Brad Marchand had two assists in his emotional return to Boston, and Carter Verhaeghe scored the winner with 27 seconds left to help the Florida Panthers beat the Bruins 4-3 on Tuesday night.

Boston rallied to tie it after trailing 2-0 lead in the third period, then Marchand skated through the neutral zone and flipped the puck ahead to Eetu Luostarinen as he burst ahead of the last defender and beat Jeremy Swayman to make it 3-2 with 10 minutes to play.

With the Boston net empty, Morgan Geekie made it 3-3 with 1:31 left. But Verhaeghe broke the tie with 27 seconds to play.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who snapped a four-game losing streak.

Swayman made 19 saves for Boston, which lost its fifth straight game after starting Marco Sturm’s coaching tenure with three wins in a row.

Marchand received a standing ovation when he was the last player to leave the ice after the pregame warmups, and then another when the TD Garden scoreboard played a highlight video from his time in Boston.

The four-time All-Star and the last remaining member of Boston’s 2011 Stanley Cup championship team, who was dealt to Florida at the trade deadline last season, broke down as he waved to the crowd and tapped his heart.

Marchand, who went on to help the Panthers win their second straight Stanley Cup title, drew a tripping penalty 33 seconds into the game and was swiping at the puck in the crease on the ensuing power play along with Mackie Samoskevich, who was credited with the goal.

A.J. Greer made it 2-0 in the second period. Pavel Zacha and Elias Lindholm also scored for Boston.

Up next

Florida hosts Pittsburgh on Thursday night.

Panthers left wing Brad Marchand, right, celebrates after a goal by right wing Mackie Samoskevich (11) during the first period on Tuesday in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Although it was just an exhibition game, UCF held its ground against No. 6 Duke for 24 minutes at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night. However, the Blue Devils used a 16-2 run to secure a comfortable 96-71 win over the Knights.

UCF senior guard Riley Kugel had a team-high 22 points and seven rebounds, while junior forward Jordan Burks added 21 points on 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range.

The Knights shot 38.4% (28 of 73) from the field, including 26.7% (8-30) from beyond the 3-point arc.

Cameron Boozer, the son of former Blue Devils all-American Carlos Boozer, had a team-high 33 points with 12 rebounds in his college debut at Duke. Boozer’s brother, Cayden, had nine points. Isaiah Evans and Nikolas Khamenia added 14 points apiece.

This was a return home for UCF coach Johnny Dawkins, who was an all-American and Naismith Player of the Year with the Blue Devils. He would eventually serve as an assistant coach under legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski, winning a national championship in 2001.

It had been 18 years since Dawkins had returned to Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“It’s going to be really odd,” Dawkins told the Sentinel in July. “This is the first time I’ll ever go into that building where I wasn’t on the team, either as a player or a coach. It’s going to be awkward for me with regard to that, but I’m excited for my guys.”

The Knights are gearing up for the new season with an overhauled roster, bringing in 13 newcomers, including 11 players through the transfer portal. The only returning players are reserves Poohpha Warakulnukroh and Elijah Hulsewe.

Fifth-year guard Themus Fulks had 11 points, four assists and three rebounds for UCF, which was outrebounded 54-41.

UCF returns home to host LSU in another exhibition game on Sunday at Noon.

The Knights tip off the season against Hofstra (8 p.m., ESPN+) at Addition Financial Arena on Nov. 3.

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and COREY WILLIAMS

Daniel Naroditsky, a standard-bearer in the world of competitive chess that flourished in the COVID-19 pandemic, died Monday at the age of 29, leaving behind a legacy as one of the greats of the game who helped usher in its digital era.

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The American grandmaster won several championships and amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube, Twitch and other platforms, where he would livestream matches and explain strategy in real time. But he also struggled with the cyberspace he helped build.

High-speed games became wildly popular online during the pandemic, creating a chess community that was soon rife with cheating allegations as players gained access to sophisticated computer programs that could give them an unfair advantage.

Naroditsky’s untimely death has shined a spotlight on the dark underbelly of the game that fellow pros say brought undue criticism and hostility upon the chess star in his final months.

His cause of death has not been released.

Legacy of integrity

Naroditsky had been dogged by unsubstantiated claims of cheating from Russian grandmaster and former World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik, whom Naroditsky had called one of the “heroes” he looked up to as a young player.

The California-born pro had denied the claims as he excelled at blitz and bullet chess, where players have mere minutes to finish intense matches. He was vocal about how the allegations took a toll on him.

“Ever since the Kramnik stuff, I feel like if I start doing well, people assume the worst of intentions,” Naroditsky said Saturday in the last livestream he filmed before his death. “The issue is just the lingering effect of it.”

He ruminated about his legacy and hoped other top players would trust that he played with integrity.

Grandmasters and other chess pros from around the world have applauded Naroditsky as an honorable ambassador of the game who used his online platform to make chess accessible to everyone. His family said in a statement that they hope he will be remembered for the joy and inspiration he brought people every day.

Naroditsky became a grandmaster, the highest title in chess aside from World Chess Champion, at the age of 18. He was consistently ranked in the top 200 worldwide for traditional chess, and he won the U.S. National Blitz Championship in August. He spent much of his time training young players in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This undated photo released by Charlotte Chess Center shows Daniel Naroditsky playing chess on the board. (Kelly Centrelli/Charlotte Chess Center via AP

“Daniel was an incredible teacher and explainer of chess and concepts and ideas,” said Daniel Weissbarth, co-owner of Silver Knights Chess Academy in Fairfax, Virginia.

Arkady Dvorkovich, president of the International Chess Federation, said the organization will establish a prize in memory of Naroditsky and his contributions to chess. Dvorkovich described the young grandmaster as brilliant, kind and a truly good person.

Blame game

Many pros this week called for an end to the constant finger-pointing that seemed to follow players like Naroditsky who thrived in fast-paced play.

Kenneth Regan, a chess international master and computer science professor at the University at Buffalo, said the opportunity to cheat has exploded as the cerebral sport has shifted online. There are ways to police the game online, but Regan said they are intrusive.

“The rate of cheating online is 100 to 200 times higher than the rate over the board,” Regan said. “From my point of view, there are five to 10 cases per year over the board.”

The popular internet chess server Chess.com shut down Kramnik’s blog on the site in 2023, saying he had used it to spread baseless cheating allegations about “many dozens of players.” At the time, the platform warned of “Kramnik’s escalating attacks” against some of the most respected members of the chess community and some promising young talents.

The speedy style of play popularized in chess’ digital arena is somewhat reliant on the honor system.

Top talents analyze the board so quickly and move with such precision that cheating allegations have become common. Bullet chess is so fast, Regan said, that it’s essentially “playing chess entirely with your gut.”

Nurturing young talent

Last week, Naroditsky posted a video on his popular Speedrun chess series on YouTube, telling viewers he was “back, better than ever” after a short “creative break.” His videos, in which he gave tips and discussed strategy, were great tools for chess players of various abilities, said Benjamin Balas, professor of psychology at North Dakota State.

“He would tell you ‘This is the kind of mistake you’re going to see at this level,’ and he would make mistakes, too, and talk to you how to manage them,” Balas said.

Other grandmasters such as Hikaru Nakamura and five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen are using social media to take chess to a wider audience, increasing its popularity around the world.

“People, they see Daniel or other streamers and they start to play online chess,” said John Hartmann, editor of Chess Life magazine. “The streaming personalities, they lead people into the chess world.”

Carlsen credited Naroditsky for his work in the streaming space, saying he was universally loved and “such a resource to the chess community.”

PORTLAND (AP) — A baby elephant at the Oregon Zoo had more tricks than treats to show when handlers gave it a small pumpkin to play with during an annual fall event where giant elephants smash half-ton pumpkins.

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Weighing just 775 pounds, eight-month-old Asian elephant Tula-Tu is about the heft of one of the giant pumpkins so is too small to smash them. Instead, zoo handlers gave her a small pumpkin to practice with. The little elephant dribbled the gourd around like a soccer ball, a video from the zoo shows.

Her elephant family at the Oregon Zoo enjoyed the large pumpkins on Oct. 16 at the annual “Squishing of the Squash,” a tradition that goes back to 1999 when a farmer donated a pumpkin weighing 828 pounds. The donated pumpkins have gotten bigger, around 1,000 pounds this year, thanks to competitive hobbyists at the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers Club.

To break open the gargantuan gourds, zookeepers present them to Tula-Tu’s adult relatives like her brother and father who weigh slightly over 10,000 pounds. In a video from the zoo, they appear to delicately place one foot at the top, and gently press down. The pumpkins crack with a loud pop, sending rind and seeds flying.

Past years’ videos have shown midsized, young elephants putting both feet on top of the pumpkins but being too light — or lacking technique — so the giant vegetables don’t burst.

This year the adults elephants smashed the massive pumpkins in front of a cheering crowd of zoo visitors, and then the family of elephants ate the many tons of squash fragments.

Asian elephants like Tula-Tu and her family are considered highly endangered, according to Oregon Zoo officials. There is a fragmented population of around 40,000 to 50,000 such elephants in the wild in places ranging from India to the Malaysian island of Borneo. But there have been successful conservation milestones in recent years, including in Cambodia.

A professor at the University of Central Florida was arrested last week after chasing an Oviedo middle schooler onto school property and smacking the boy’s bicycle helmet off his head, according to his arrest report.

Shuo Sean Pang, 41, was arrested Oct. 14 on charges of battery and trespassing at Jackson Heights Middle School in Oviedo, the report shows.

Pang’s profile page on UCF’s website says he is an associate professor at the school’s College of Optics and Photonics who has won several awards since he joined the faculty. His arrest was first reported by The Charge, UCF’s student newspaper.

Oviedo police responded to the middle school around 10 a.m. that morning and were informed by a school resource officer about a chase involving a student and an adult man, who was later identified as Pang, the report said.

The student told police he was riding his bike to school when the man called out to him to slow down. The boy said “no,” and the man then followed him on foot as he rode to school.

Pang’s home address on his arrest report shows he lives about three miles from the middle school.

When the boy arrived on campus, he said the man also came onto school property, approached him and grabbed his arm, according to the report.

The boy said he asked the man to stop touching him. The man then yelled that the boy was not wearing a helmet and proceeded to smack the boy’s helmet off his head, the report said.

One of the student’s friends then got in between him and the man, trying to get the adult away. The friend told police the man then tried to push him, the report shows.

The friend’s mother told police she witnessed the incident and stepped in when the man put a hand on her son. She said the man continued to behave aggressively towards her son until school staff arrived and diffused the situation, according to the report.

The report said surveillance footage confirms the students’ stories. The parents of both boys want Pang prosecuted, it said.

When questioned by police, Pang admitted to chasing the student after telling him to stop riding his bike. He also admitted he followed the child to the school and requested he apologize.

A UCF spokesperson didn’t immediately respond Tuesday evening to a request for information about Pang’s employment status. Pang also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

His UCF page says Pang has a PhD in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and won awards at UCF for excellence in undergraduate teaching in 2019, among others. His research, the page says, focuses on “modeling and developing optoelectronic system for sensing, imaging and computing applications, including the application of AI in solving imaging and photonic design problems.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the federal government owes him “a lot of money” for prior Justice Department investigations into his actions and insisted he would have the ultimate say on any payout because any decision will “have to go across my desk.”

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Trump’s comments to reporters at the White House came in response to questions about a New York Times story that said he had filed administrative claims before being reelected seeking roughly $230 million in damages related to the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago property for classified documents and for a separate investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump said Tuesday he did not know the dollar figures involved and suggested he had not spoken to officials about it. But, he added, “All I know is that, they would owe me a lot of money.”

Though the Justice Department has a protocol for reviewing such claims, Trump asserted, “It’s interesting, ’cause I’m the one that makes the decision, right?”

“That decision would have to go across my desk,” he added.

He said he could donate any taxpayer money or use it to help pay for a ballroom he’s building at the White House.

The status of the claims and any negotiations over them within the Justice Department was not immediately clear. One of Trump’s lead defense lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, Todd Blanche, is now the deputy attorney general at the Justice Department. The current associate attorney general, Stanley Woodward, represented Trump’s valet and co-defendant, Walt Nauta, in the same case.

“In any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials,” a Justice Department spokesperson said. A White House spokesperson referred comment to the Justice Department.

Trump signaled his interest in compensation during a White House appearance last week with Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was part of Trump’s legal team during one of the impeachment cases against him.

President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters during a Diwali celebration in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

“I have a lawsuit that was doing very well, and when I became president, I said: ‘I’m suing myself. I don’t know. How do you settle the lawsuit?’” he said. ”I’ll say, ‘Give me X dollars,’ and I don’t know what to do with the lawsuit. It’s a great lawsuit and now I won, it looks bad. I’m suing myself, so I don’t know.”

The Times said the two claims were filed with the Justice Department as part of a process that seeks to resolve federal complaints through settlements and avert litigation.

One of the administrative claims, filed in August 2024 and reviewed by The Associated Press, seeks compensatory and punitive damages over the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and the resulting case alleging he hoarded classified documents and thwarted government efforts to retrieve them.

His lawyer who filed the claim alleged the case was a “malicious prosecution” carried out by the Biden administration to hurt Trump’s bid to reclaim the White House, forcing Trump to spend tens of millions of dollars in his defense.

That investigation produced criminal charges that Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith abandoned last November because of department policy against the indictment of a sitting president.

The Times said the other complaint seeks damages related to the long-concluded Trump-Russia investigation, which continues to infuriate the president.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction started this week on the $250 million ballroom that President Donald Trump is adding to the White House as construction crews began tearing down the facade of the East Wing, where the new space is being built.

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The Republican president and top White House officials had initially said nothing would be demolished during construction.

The 90,000-square-foot ballroom will dwarf the main White House itself, at nearly double the size, and Trump says it will accommodate 999 people.

Trump said on social media that the ballroom won’t cost taxpayers a dime because it is being privately funded by “many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.”

Here are some things to know about the newest White House construction project:

Why is Trump building a ballroom?

Trump says the White House needs a large entertaining space and has complained that the East Room, the current largest space in the White House, is too small, holding about 200 people. He has frowned on the past practice of presidents hosting state dinners and other large events in tents on the South Lawn.

Who is paying the $250 million construction tab?

Trump says the project will be paid for with private donations and that no public money will be spent on the ballroom. The White House promised to release information on which individuals and corporations have pledged or donated money and invited some of the donors to an East Room dinner last week, but has not released a comprehensive list and breakdown of funds.

Some $22 million for the project came from YouTube, a Google subsidiary, as part of a recent settlement for a 2021 lawsuit Trump brought against the company.

The White House also has not said how much of his own money Trump is contributing.

Why tear down part of the East Wing to build the ballroom? A window dangles from the East Wing as work continues on the demolition of a part of the East Wing of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Washington, before construction of a new ballroom. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The East Wing is traditionally the social side of the White House and sits across East Executive Avenue from the Treasury Department. It’s where tourists and other guests enter for events.

The president and his chief spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said over the summer that the White House itself would remain intact as the ballroom was going up.

“It’ll be near it but not touching it,” Trump said. “Nothing will be torn down,” Leavitt added.

That turned out not to be the case.

The White House said some demolition was needed because the East Wing, the traditional home for the first lady and her staff, is being modernized as part of the ballroom project.

People watch as work continues on the demolition of a part of the East Wing of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Washington, before construction of a new ballroom. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Can Trump build a ballroom?

He’s moving ahead with construction despite the lack of sign-off from the National Capital Planning Commission, the executive branch agency that has jurisdiction over construction and major renovations to government buildings in the region.

Trump named a top White House aide, Will Scharf, to head the commission. Scharf has made a distinction between demolition work and rebuilding, saying the commission was only required to vet the latter.

What happens to the East Room?

By Trump’s telling, it will become a space where guests will mingle, sip cocktails and eat hors d’oeuvres until they are called into the ballroom for dinner. Trump said a set of windows in the room will be removed to create a passageway to and from the ballroom.

What will the new ballroom look like?

Renderings released by the White House suggest a strong resemblance to the gilded ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and home in Palm Beach, Florida.

The project also has grown in size since it was announced, going from accommodating 650 seated guests to holding 999 people, big enough to fit an inauguration if needed, he said at a recent White House dinner for donors. Windows will be bulletproof, he said.

When will the ballroom be completed?

The White House has said the ballroom will be ready for use before Trump’s second term ends in January 2029, an ambitious timeline.

Has Trump made other changes to the White House?

Yes. He has heavily redecorated the Oval Office by adding numerous portraits, busts and gold-toned adornments. He converted the Rose Garden into a stone-covered patio, installed towering flagpoles on the north and south lawns, and decorated an exterior wall with portraits of every president except his immediate predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.

Gold colored ornaments and decor are seen as US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on September 25, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump also said he renovated the bathroom in the famous Lincoln Bedroom in the private living quarters and laid down marble floors in a passageway leading to the South Lawn.

How has construction changed the White House over the years?

Presidents have added to the White House since construction began in 1792 for a host of reasons, and Trump aides say his decision to build a ballroom follows that long tradition.

Many of the prior projects were criticized as being too costly or too lavish, but eventually came to be accepted, according to the White House Historical Association.

Thomas Jefferson added the east and west colonnades.

Andrew Jackson built the North Portico on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House, aligning with the South Portico that James Monroe added after the original mansion was rebuilt after the British burned it during the War of 1812.

Theodore Roosevelt added the West Wing to provide dedicated space for the president and key staff, while Franklin D. Roosevelt added the East Wing, which over time became the home base for the first lady’s staff and social functions.

One of the most significant White House renovations happened under Harry Truman, when the mansion was found to be so structurally unsound that he ordered a complete gutting of the interior that lasted from 1948 to 1952. The project, including Truman’s addition of a balcony to the second floor of the South Portico, was highly controversial.

Other changes include the creation of the Rose Garden during John F. Kennedy’s administration and Richard Nixon’s decision to convert an indoor swimming pool that was built for FDR’s physical therapy into a workspace for the growing White House press corps.

A woman, a firefighter and a police officer were taken to hospitals Tuesday evening after a fire erupted inside of a 10th floor unit in an apartment building on Hollywood beach.

Firefighters were called to the building in the 300 block of North Surf Road and found the unit ablaze, fire rescue spokesperson Chai Kauffman said.

Live video from WPLG-Ch. 10 showed flames spreading through the windows and the rear sliding glass doors toward the balcony of the apartment, which is a corner unit situated beneath the building’s rooftop pool.

The three people were taken to hospitals for evaluation, Kauffman said. Additional information about their conditions was not available late Tuesday.

Hollywood firefighters battle a blaze on the top floor of a high rise on New York Street and Surf Road in Hollywood on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Firefighters had extinguished the blaze as of shortly after 6 p.m., Kauffman said. The man who lives in the apartment was out of the unit on a bike ride when it erupted and was not injured.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — An immigration enforcement sweep targeting vendors on New York City’s famed Canal Street turned chaotic on Tuesday, as droves of bystanders and protesters surrounded federal agents and attempted to block them from carrying out the operation.

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The confrontation between the agents and hundreds of angry New Yorkers took place along a busy commercial thoroughfare that has long been a hub of the city’s not-so-underground market for knock-off designer handbags, watches, perfumes and sunglasses as well as phones and other electronics.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the agents were carrying out an enforcement operation against sellers of “counterfeit goods” when “rioters who were shouting obscenities, became violent and obstructed law enforcement duties including blocking vehicles and assaulting law enforcement.”

At around 4 p.m., an Associated Press reporter observed dozens of federal agents as they made one of a number of arrests in the area, detaining a street vendor who appeared to be selling bedazzled smartphone cases.

A contingent of protesters then surrounded the masked officers, attempting to block their vehicle from driving off as they shouted “ICE out of New York” and other chants.

The agents, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and other federal offices were seen pushing protesters to the ground and threatening them with pepper spray, before detaining several of them.

As more New Yorkers joined the fray, some of the federal agents retreated on foot, followed by jeering protesters and honking vehicles. Additional federal agents, armed in combat gear and carrying long guns, also arrived with a military tactical vehicle known as a BearCat and made additional arrests.

• Federal agents walk down Lafayette Street as demonstrators follow behind after an immigration sweep on Canal Street through Chinatown, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)
• A woman stands in front of an armored vehicle operated by federal agents on Lafayette Street as demonstrators follow along after an immigration sweep on Canal Street through Chinatown, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)
• Federal agents walk down Lafayette Street as demonstrators follow along after an immigration sweep on Canal Street through Chinatown, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)
• Federal agents walk down Lafayette Street as demonstrators follow along after an immigration sweep on Canal Street through Chinatown, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

Show Caption1 of 4Federal agents walk down Lafayette Street as demonstrators follow behind after an immigration sweep on Canal Street through Chinatown, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz) Expand

At least one person was arrested for assaulting an officer, the DHS spokesperson said. The spokesperson didn’t say how many vendors were detained in the operation.

In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams said the city had no involvement in the action and was still gathering details.

“Our administration has been clear that undocumented New Yorkers trying to pursue their American Dreams should not be the target of law enforcement, and resources should instead be focused on violent criminals,” he said.

The sweep came just two days after a conservative influencer shared video on X showing the bustling sidewalk bag vendors, urging the official ICE account to “check this corner out.”

TALLAHASSEE — In what could be Florida’s 17th execution this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a death warrant for a man convicted of raping and murdering a Putnam County convenience-store manager in 1988.

Richard Barry Randolph, 63, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 20 for the murder of Minnie Ruth McCollum, who was beaten, stabbed and raped at a Handy Way store in East Palatka. Randolph was a former employee of the store, and McCollum interrupted him as he tried to steal money or lottery tickets, according to a 1989 sentencing order issued by then-Circuit Judge Robert Perry.

“When Minnie Ruth McCollum interrupted the defendant in the process of stealing from the store, he brutally beat her about the head with his hands and fists, kicked her, strangled her with a ligature and stabbed her with a knife, inflicting wounds which medical evidence showed caused her death on August 21, 1988,” Perry wrote. “The defendant went back to the victim on four or five separate occasions while trying to murder her. His statements reflect that she was much tougher than he thought and that he had to repeat the beatings and/or strangulations.”

Randolph took McCollum’s car and cashed stolen lottery tickets elsewhere, according to the sentencing order.

If the death warrant is carried out, it would add to a record for executions in a year in Florida — and could continue a recent pace of two executions a month. DeSantis on Oct. 10 signed a death warrant for Bryan Frederick Jennings, 66, to be executed Nov. 13 in the 1979 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Brevard County.

The state on Oct. 28 is scheduled to execute Norman Grim, 65, in the 1998 murder of a Santa Rosa County woman. Samuel Smithers, 72, was put to death by lethal injection Oct. 14 in the 1996 murders of two women in Hillsborough County.

Florida also carried out two executions in May, two in June, two in July, two in August and two in September.

Richard B. Randolph is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 20, 2025, after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant. (Florida Department of Corrections/Courtesy)

DeSantis has said little publicly about the rapid pace of executions, but the previous modern-era record in a year was eight in 1984 and 2014. The modern era represents the time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling halted it.

Typically, the signing of a death warrant begins a flurry of legal activity about whether the execution should be carried out.

In addition to Smithers, inmates executed this year were Victor Jones on Sept. 30; David Pittman on Sept. 17; Curtis Windom on Aug. 28; Kayle Bates on Aug. 19; Edward Zakrzewski on July 31; Michael Bell on July 15; Thomas Gudinas on June 24; Anthony Wainwright on June 10; Glen Rogers on May 15; Jeffrey Hutchinson on May 1; Michael Tanzi on April 8; Edward James on March 20; and James Ford on Feb. 13.