South Florida Local News

Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida may soon follow Texas and craft a state law that would make it a crime for migrants to enter the state without authorization, a move that would create a process for state courts to order local law enforcement to transport migrants back to the border for deportation if they are convicted.

No legislation has been filed in Florida yet. But DeSantis said in an interview on The Sean Hannity Show podcast on Thursday that his administration is working to see what can be done to have such a law in place in the near future, “I am working with folks to craft, if there is something we can do in a special legislative session, to give our law enforcement more authority to arrest and detain,” DeSantis said. “I think that would be a huge disincentive for people to come if we can do it.”

Read the full story at miamiherald.com.

By DAVE COLLINS (Associated Press)

Former U.S. Rep. George Santos of New York said Friday that he will leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in a bid to return to Congress after having been expelled while facing federal fraud charges.

In social media postings, Santos criticized Friday’s vote by the GOP-controlled House of Representatives to approve a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills.

“After today’s embarrassing showing in the house I have reflected and decided that I can no longer be part of the Republican Party,” Santos said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The Republican Party continues to lie and swindle its voter base. I in good conscience cannot affiliate myself with a party that stands for nothing and falls for everything.”

Santos announced earlier this month that he was challenging Republican Rep. Nick LaLota in the GOP primary in an eastern Long Island district that is different than the one he represented before he was expelled. Among those vying to be the Democratic candidate for the seat is John Avlon, a former CNN anchor.

In December, Santos became just the sixth member in history to be expelled by fellow House colleagues, following a critical House Ethics Committee report that cited “overwhelming evidence” of lawbreaking by Santos.

Santos has pleaded not guilty to charges including lying to Congress about his wealth, receiving unemployment benefits he didn’t deserve, and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses like designer clothing.

A judge has tentatively scheduled the trial for September, after the primary.

Santos, who has admitted to lying about his job experience and college education during his previous campaign, was bashed again Friday by New York Republicans, who also criticized him when he announced his candidacy.

“George Santos’ expulsion from Congress was good for the nation and his resignation from the Republican Party is good for commonsense conservatives,” LaLota said in a statement. “Santos can watch me defend this important swing district and the November election results from his prison cell as he’s being held accountable for stealing an election and ripping off donors.”

Jesse Garcia, the Suffolk County GOP chair, also weighed in.

“This is nothing more than the continuation of George Santos’ need for celebrity status,” Garcia said in a phone interview. “There is no appetite amongst the voters of the First District, Long Island or even the nation for the Santos clown car show to continue.”

In his X postings, Santos criticized LaLota for voting in favor of the spending package.

“ @nicklalota and @JohnAvlon ill see you boys in November!” Santos wrote, ending the tweet with a kissing emoji.

By MELISSA GOLDIN (Associated Press)

Conservative influencers and politicians are calling for a boycott of Tyson Foods after false claims spread online saying the multinational meat producer is planning to hire 52,000 people who came to the U.S. illegally.

“Tyson is closing its facility in Perry, Iowa and laying off its 1,200 workers,” reads one X post that had received approximately 20,000 likes and 11,700 shares as of Friday. “Instead, they plan to hire thousands of new illegals in states like New York. #BoycottTyson. Pass it on.”

But the company, the latest in a growing list of businesses targeted with calls for a boycott amid claims of “woke” policies, has no such plans.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Tyson Foods is hiring 52,000 people who entered the U.S. illegally.

THE FACTS: The company has no current plans to hire 52,000 workers in the U.S., a spokesperson for the company said. In addition, all of its workers are required to have legal authorization for employment in the country.

“That is categorically false,” Tyson said of the claims spreading online.

Tyson told The Associated Press that it has between 5-8% of roles open in its 500 U.S. locations at any given time, “all of which are available to anyone who is qualified and legally authorized to work in the United States.”

“Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration,” it wrote in a statement.

The company’s U.S. workforce comprises approximately 120,000 employees, according to Tyson. This means that it currently has roughly between 6,000 to 9,600 open positions.

In 2022, Tyson committed to hiring 2,500 refugees in the U.S. over three years as a member of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a network of more than 400 major multinational companies. Refugees — people who face persecution and were granted entry to the U.S. while living outside the country — are legally authorized to work as soon as they arrive in the U.S.

People granted asylum in the U.S. also face persecution, but applied for protection after they entered the country. Those whose applications are pending typically qualify for work authorization under an Employment Authorization Document, or EAD, 180 days after they file their asylum application. Anyone already granted asylum can legally work without an EAD.

Both refugees and individuals granted asylum have legal status in the U.S. Tyson said that approximately 42,000 of its current U.S. employees are noncitizens with work authorization. Haiwen Langworth, a spokesperson for the Tent Partnership for Refugees, told the AP that Tyson’s 2022 commitment includes people with legal refugee status, as well as others such as asylum seekers or grantees with permission to work.

The false claims appear to stem from a Bloomberg article published March 11 about Tyson’s Tent Partnership for Refugees commitment. Garrett Dolan, associate director of human resources at Tyson, said in the article that the company plans to hire 52,000 people for factory jobs in 2024. According to Tyson, Dolan “misspoke.”

Bloomberg told the AP that it stands by its reporting.

Scripps News published its own article two days later, which reported that Tyson “wants to hire 52,000 asylum seekers for factory jobs.” The outlet has since retracted the story for “serious factual inaccuracies,” writing that it was “unable to verify that number.” But false claims around the figure spread widely on social media.

The reports sparked calls to boycott Tyson, hardly the first company to face opposition to what are often described as “woke” policies. Bud Light sales plunged last year amid conservative backlash over the beer giant’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Target made changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise ahead of last year’s Pride month after customers confronted workers and tipped over displays.

Rebekah Wolf, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, told the AP that U.S. companies relying on immigrant labor is “nothing new,” especially when it comes to industries such as meat processing with roles considered undesirable by many U.S. citizens.

Wolf said that hiring people willing to take jobs that are not particularly attractive to others is crucial to the economy.

She added that the U.S. has “really robust policies for ensuring that big companies like Tyson are employing people who are authorized to work in the United States.” She also pointed out that many employers have recently struggled to fill jobs given labor shortages.

Tyson announced March 11 that it is closing a pork processing facility in Perry, Iowa, the town’s largest employer. The company did not provide specifics, saying the closure was related to “specific business reasons” and that the decision “is not related to our hiring efforts at other facilities.” The announcement came after the company closed a plant in both Virginia and Arkansas in 2023 and consolidated its corporate operations the year prior.

Although Tyson declined to comment when asked how many of the Perry plant workers are non-citizens, it said in a statement that “any insinuation that we would cut American jobs to hire immigrant workers is completely false.”

The company also noted that it has encouraged the Perry employees to apply for other positions at Tyson.

Some social media alleged that following the Perry closure, Tyson will be hiring in New York, where there has been a massive influx of migrants. However, Tyson said that it “does not operate in New York nor does it have any plans to do so.”

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This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

Homeless people all over Florida will soon be banned from sleeping in public places — including sidewalks, streets and parks — under a controversial new state law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday.

Now, attorneys throughout the state are busy dissecting what critics are calling a vague law that will likely lead to legal battles, including some that challenge the law itself.

A key component of the new law gives local governments the option to set up homeless camps that can remain in place for one year. The camps will be required to have security, running water and working bathrooms. The law also requires strict enforcement to keep the camps free of drugs and alcohol.

The law won’t go into effect until October.

But it already has some city and county officials throughout the state fretting over how the new rules will work in reality and how many lawsuits they might face if they can’t figure that out.

Starting in January, the law grants permission to residents and business owners to file a civil suit against local governments that fail to enforce the public camping ban within five days after receiving written notice of the alleged violation. If the plaintiff prevails, the court can award attorneys’ fees along with witness fees and court costs.

Legal experts throughout Florida are scrutinizing the new law with little guidance from the state, said Ray Taseff, an attorney with the Florida Justice Institute in Miami, a nonprofit legal aid organization that focuses on civil rights cases.

“We’re not the only ones looking at this,” he said. “Our organization and other civil rights lawyers across the state are trying to find out what the law requires and what the consequences will be. We’re all trying to figure this out, without much clear guidance from the state.”

‘Don’t put it here’

Even if a local government wants to set up a homeless camp, where will it go?

“Wherever you pick, there’s going to be challenges from residents and businesses,” Taseff said. “Don’t put it here. Don’t put it there. And where is that money going to come from to set it up? You’re kind of putting a gun to the head of the local government: Get these people out by whatever means.”

Here are more details about the legislation, HB 1365.

If a homeless shelter has reached maximum capacity, the law directs the Department of Children and Families to authorize temporary campsites with access to clean and operable restrooms and running water as well as access to substance abuse and mental health treatment.

A county can designate public land to be used for a homeless camp. If the property lies within a municipality, the county will need approval from the city commission.

The county will be required to submit a request for certification to the state Department of Children and Families along with proof of the following:

• There are not enough beds in homeless shelters to house the county’s homeless population.

• The designated encampment is not next to property designated for residential use by the county or municipality in the local government comprehensive plan and future land use map.

• The encampment would not negatively affect the safety of children or the property value of nearby residential or commercial property.

The state will have 45 days to certify the request.

Carline Jean / Sun SentinelA homeless woman keeps belongings with her in Fort Lauderdale, in this file photo. Under a new state law that takes effect in October, homeless people will not be allowed to sleep on sidewalks and other public places. ‘Ship them to Tallahassee’

Steve Geller, a Broward County commissioner and former state senator, says he has “massive concerns” about the new law.

“It basically says that if you have a homeless person, the city or county has a legal obligation to clear them away,” Geller said. “And if they don’t, any person in Broward County can sue. It’s horrible. Where’s the city supposed to take them? I guess we could put them on buses and ship them to Tallahassee.”

Geller says he wonders where state legislators expect the homeless camps to go.

“I think they’re saying we’d have to put them in our county parks or city parks, which would devastate our parks,” he said. “Do they think the cities and counties just have large vacant tracts of land, other than our parks? And they give no money for any of this.”

Longtime lobbyist Ron Book defended the new law as “the beginning of a larger discussion about a statewide effort” to end homelessness.

Book, chair of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust board, suggested local officials think outside the box if they don’t want to set up homeless camps.

“As the Broward School District makes decisions about shutting schools, could the county or city rent that school from the district and turn it into a shelter?” Book said. “There is nothing in the law discouraging that.”

Book has these words of advice for critics complaining that the law is vague on details.

“I think sometimes laws are intended to be vague for different reasons,” he said. “The effective date is October. It’s not today. They intended to delay the effective date to give folks an opportunity to deal with the new law and figure it out. And if there were problems, the Legislature would be in session not long after the first of the year (in 2025) to address those problems.”

Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Steve Glassman says he supports the new law, but has questions about how things will work on a practical level.

“Here’s the deal,” he said. “We’re at the point now where we really have to do something. The status quo is not acceptable. But who’s paying for everything? Where are we taking people? We clear the parks. We clear the streets. Then what? I wish the state would have allocated some funding. That would have been helpful.”

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis says the new law will have zero impact on helping solve the homeless problem in his city.

“We are not setting up a camp,” he said. “We’ve been there, done that. And it didn’t solve the problem. The state is putting the burden on the counties and the cities to fund these operations. The cities are put in a bind here to try to solve a very difficult situation. I’m not sure they thought this through. I’m not sure it will change the landscape in Fort Lauderdale.”

Many cities, Fort Lauderdale included, already have laws on the books prohibiting people from setting up encampments on sidewalks and in parks, Trantalis noted. But they often go unenforced.

“It’s not a crime to be homeless,” said Bob Jarvis, a constitutional law professor at Nova Southeastern University. “It’s a crime to loiter. The federal courts have said to put people in jail for being homeless is unconstitutional.”

But nothing in the U.S. Constitution says we have the right to turn a public sidewalk or park into a home, Jarvis said.

“The problem with sleeping in public is you are now interfering with the rights of other people to enjoy public property,” he said. “But can you be put in jail for being homeless? No. Now you have a state law that says you can’t let them stay in public. What gets confusing is what happens if you don’t have a shelter or your shelters are full. What do you do with them?”

Some legal experts are even confused about whether the law bans sleeping in public places only at night or around the clock.

Fort Lauderdale City Attorney Tom Ansbro said he thinks the new law only applies to people sleeping overnight in parks and other public places.

Book, the lobbyist, says he reads the new law as banning public camping day and night.

A homeless woman sleeps at a bus stop on Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 28. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel) Better than nothing?

Fort Lauderdale Commissioner John Herbst says the new law might not be perfect, but it will help keep his city from turning into another San Francisco.

“It allows counties and cities to establish a short-term mechanism for housing people,” he said. “It’s still a lot better than people living in the bushes. If we have camps with sanitary systems, that has to be better than people camping under trees and alongside highways.”

Still, Herbst admits he, too, has questions about the bill.

The law says the encampments can only remain in place for one year. What happens after the year is up?

“That’s a good question and I don’t know the answer to that,” Herbst said. “This is meant to be a temporary solution. It’s meant to get people off of park benches while we try to find a more permanent housing solution for folks.”

Where in Broward County would be the perfect spot for a homeless camp?

Not Holiday Park, Herbst said.

“I think it’s safe to say that it would not wind up in Holiday Park,” he said. “The City Commission would never agree to it.”

Homeless advocate Sean Cononie blasted the bill, saying it will force people to choose between a homeless camp or jail.

“I’m not in favor of forcing people into a tent, he said. “You are going to have people who are too scared and paranoid to be in a place with too many people. Those people are not going into a camp or a shelter. You can’t force people to go in there. That’s a slippery slope, where freedoms are being curtailed.”

Jarvis, the constitutional law professor, predicts the state will eventually face legal challenges over its new law.

“It’s going to get challenged,” Jarvis said. “I’m sure the ACLU is going to argue this new law is an attempt to criminalize homelessness. We’re going to have people sue the counties if they don’t (follow the law). We’re going to have people who live near the homeless camps sue and argue that they’re lowering property values. That’s all going to have to be worked out by the courts.”

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan.

By MATTHEW LEE and JOSEF FEDERMAN (Associated Press)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday once again left the Middle East empty-handed as Israel’s prime minister rejected American appeals to call off a promised ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is overflowing with displaced civilians.

The tough message from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sets the stage for potentially difficult talks next week in Washington between top U.S. officials and a high-level Israeli delegation. Netanyahu said Israel is ready to “do it alone” in Rafah if necessary. Despite their differences, the Biden administration has continued to provide crucial military aid and diplomatic support, even as Israel’s war against Hamas has killed more than 32,000 people in Gaza and led to a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Israel says Rafah is the last remaining stronghold of Hamas and says the group’s forces there must be defeated for Israel to meet its war objectives. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas following the group’s Oct. 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people, took 250 others hostage and triggered the fierce Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza.

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, and EU.

Rafah now shelters over 1 million homeless Palestinians who fled fighting elsewhere in Gaza. The U.S., along with most of the international community, fears an Israeli ground invasion will endanger civilians’ lives and impede the flow of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the territory, most of which comes through Rafah.

Netanyahu said he told Blinken that Israel is working on ways to evacuate civilians from combat zones and to address the humanitarian needs of Gaza, where international aid officials say the entire population is suffering from food insecurity and famine is imminent in the hard-hit north.

“I also said that we have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah,” Netanyahu said. “I told him that I hope we would do this with U.S. support but if necessary – we will do it alone.”

Blinken, wrapping up his sixth visit to the Mideast since the war broke out, told reporters that the U.S. shares Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas.

“But a major ground operation in Rafah is not, in our judgment, the way to achieve it and we were very clear about that,” he said, adding that Israel faces growing isolation if it presses ahead.

The looming Rafah invasion has cast a shadow over ongoing efforts to forge a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. Blinken, who also met with Arab leaders during his trip this week, acknowledged “there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Blinken spoke shortly after a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire resolution in the U.N. Security Council was vetoed by Russia and China. Blinken said it was “unimaginable” that the measure had been rejected.

RAFAH TENSIONS RISING

The U.S. initially sided strongly with Israel after the Oct. 7 attack. But relations have increasingly soured as the war, drags on into its fifth month.

Palestinian health officials in Gaza said Friday that at least 32,070 people have been killed, with at least two thirds of them women and children. Israel claims at least one-third of those killed are members of Hamas, and says the group is responsible for civilian casualties by hiding and operating in residential areas.

The U.S. position on a Rafah operation has shifted in recent days. Initially, U.S. officials called for a plan to get civilians out of harm’s way. Now, they say there is no credible way to do that.

“It risks killing more civilians. It risks wreaking greater havoc with the provision of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long term security and standing,” Blinken said.

U.S. officials say other options, including specifically targeted operations against known Hamas fighters and commanders, are the only way to avoid a civilian catastrophe.

Roughly three quarters of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled into Rafah, the farthest south they can go before the Egyptian border. Sprawling tent camps now dot the city.

The U.S. will share its ideas for alternatives at next week’s meetings, when a delegation led by Netanyahu’s national security adviser and a member of Israel’s War Cabinet heads to Washington. Israel’s defense minister, another member of the War Cabinet, will also visit.

Blinken said talks would focus on post-war plans, another area of disagreement.

The U.S. wants the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority – which Hamas ousted from Gaza in 2007 – to return to power in the territory, along with a clear path toward an independent Palestinian state beside Israel. Netanyahu rejects Palestinian independence or a role for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank, and says Israel must maintain long-term security control over Gaza.

AN ELUSIVE CEASE-FIRE

International mediators, led by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt, have been working on a cease-fire to pause or end the war in Gaza.

Israel is seeking the release of the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas, while Hamas wants an end — not a temporary pause — to the war along with the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Hamas wants Israel to release large numbers of Palestinian prisoners.

After his talks with Israeli leaders, Blinken met with families of hostages who hold U.S. citizenship before departing. He later greeted a small group of protesters who gathered in solidarity with the families outside his hotel.

Protesters chanted “Blinken, thank you,” as he walked by the crowd. He said the U.S. was “working to bring them home” as he shook hands.

Blinken told reporters that progress has been made in recent weeks, but the final gaps “tend to be the hardest.”

“There’s still a lot of work to be done, hard work to be done,” he said.

Toward those efforts, he said he also discussed the need to increase humanitarian aid entering Gaza. He said “some positive steps” have been taken in recent days. “But it’s not enough.”

Israel says it places no restrictions on the amounts of humanitarian aid it allows into Gaza. But international aid groups say deliveries have been impeded by Israeli military restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order.

So little food has been allowed into Gaza that up to 60% of children under 5 are now malnourished, compared with fewer than 1% before the war began, the head of the World Health Organization said Thursday.

U.N. RESOLUTION WAS ‘CYNICALLY VETOED’

At the United Nations, Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored U.N. resolution supporting “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war. The two countries called the measure ambiguous and said it was not the direct demand to end the fighting that much of the world seeks.

The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 11 members in favor and three against, including Algeria, the Arab representative on the council. Guyana abstained.

A key issue was the unusual language that said the Security Council “determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire.” The phrasing was not a straightforward “demand” or “call” to halt hostilities.

It also appeared to loosen, but not drop, previous U.S. demands that Hamas release all hostages as part of a cease-fire.

Blinken said the measure had been “cynically vetoed” and should have been embraced.

“We were trying to show the international community’s sense of urgency about getting a cease-fire tied to the release of hostages,” Blinken said. He also said it had sought to condemn Hamas. “It’s unimaginable why countries wouldn’t be able to do that.”

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Federman reported from Jerusalem.

Margate’s police chief announced his retirement late Thursday afternoon, the day after city commissioners agreed to dock his pay during a six-month probation period where he could’ve faced being fired in the end anyway.

In an email to the city manager obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Chief Joseph Galaska said he was retiring “on my own accord.”

“Under the current circumstances, my request to retire as soon as possible, and that I may be afforded to utilize accrued time until my request is approved, making my retirement effective immediately,” he wrote.

The city manager informed city commissioners by email minutes later that he would have the city’s attorney draft a “separation/retirement” agreement for their consideration.

In a Wednesday night meeting that ended in the early hours of Thursday, the chief was given six months to right his ship or risk being terminated.

The fallout comes after a city-commissioned investigation that reviewed some of the chief’s text messages. It concluded, “Chief Galaska’s conduct ultimately creates potential liability for the City in the future.” The investigation also found there is “concern regarding potential gender bias,” among other issues. Among the messages reviewed was one that said he would not promote a female lieutenant, or “I will never ever make her a major.”

Last week, the majority of Margate police officers in a union cast ballots expressing they have “no confidence” in Galaska’s ability to lead.

On Wednesday night, Galaska addressed the city commissioners, assuring them his record of hiring and promoting shows no bias against women. “I’d like to offer my sincere apologies I might have offended in previous text messages due to my poor choice of words,” he said.

Galaska told commissioners when he took over the agency — the last chief was fired — it was already riddled with problems and a “broken culture.”

“I was not handed the keys to a brand-new Mercedes. I was handed the keys to a lemon from a junkyard,” he told leaders referring to the police department.

But the report by attorney and investigator Ria Chattergoon showed “disturbing character flaws,” said Commissioner Joanne Simone at the city meeting, saying these weren’t the first formal complaints within the department against Galaska.

“The reputation of Margate is stained,” Simone said. “How does the department come back from this with this chief at the helm?”

Vice Mayor Arlene Schwartz called the texts “egregious” and showed “toxic issues.”

She said the chief’s public apology was three weeks late, and she called it an “outrage.” She has spoken to members of the department who have relayed to her concerns of “cronyism” and “infighting among upper management and a general lack of respect for the chain of command.”

“I know the department is broken,” she said. She said she was worried of a “mass exodus” unless there are changes.

Schwartz is the one who proposed Galaska’s deadline of six months to make “meaningful change” and warned if he is ultimately fired, she’d urge her colleagues to hire from outside the department to get somebody with “no alliances, no friendships.”

While ‘change’ within the department might be hard to define, Commissioner Anthony Caggiano said, “It’s like pornography: You know it when you see it.”

Still, “I can’t fire him over this,” Caggiano said. He also said people write “stupid” texts when they think they are talking to friends.

In December, Margate hired a law firm to conduct the third-party investigation regarding a lieutenant’s complaint against Galaska, in which a lieutenant alleged the chief’s texts inferred she engaged in a sex act with another former lieutenant “to advance her career,” the report says. The investigation states the woman and a former employee had a relationship more than 16 years ago, and the former employee did not have any supervisory authority over the female lieutenant.

Skirvin said at the meeting the female lieutenant who was the subject of the texts has been publicly humiliated.

Commissioner Antonio Arserio urged the commission to chose termination with no cause, saying another complaint was filed that same day. “I have a strong feeling we’re going to be up here again,” he warned.

Commissioners also agreed that during the six-month probation period, during the first month his pay would be docked by 75%, and the remaining five months he’d be docked 25%.

Even though that may be now moot, given the chief submitted his retirement, at least one commissioner said an investigation would continue anyway. The commission had agreed to pursue an investigation that looked further into what’s happened at the department.

The city needs to know if there are “other actors” and to “uncover what we can,” Commissioner Arserio said Thursday evening. It will be meaningful information for the next chief to fix the problems, he said.

“At the end of the day he’s doing the right thing,” Arserio said of the chief.

Rod Skirvin, president of the Broward County Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents the agency’s officers, told commissioners that more complaints were going to be filed. “The can of worms has been opened,” he said.

After news of the retirement Thursday, Skirvin said it was unclear if the complaints would still be filed.

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash

By MIKE STOBBE (AP Medical Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly 108,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2022, according to final federal figures released Thursday.

Over the last two decades, the number of U.S. overdose deaths has risen almost every year and continued to break annual records — making it the worst overdose epidemic in American history.

The official number for 2022 was 107,941, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, which is about 1% higher than the nearly 107,000 overdose deaths in 2021.

Earlier provisional data estimated more than 109,000 overdose deaths in 2022, but provisional data includes all overdose deaths, while the final numbers are limited to U.S. residents.

The female overdose death rate declined for the first time in five years, although the male overdose death rate continued to inch up, the report said. Males account for about 70% of U.S. overdose deaths.

The overall drug overdose death rate rose from 2021 to 2022, but the increase was so small it was not considered statistically significant.

The CDC has not yet reported overdose numbers for last year, although provisional data through the first ten months of the year suggest overdose deaths continued to be stable in 2023.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

MIAMI GARDENS — Anhelina Kalinina was down and almost out Thursday with former top-ranked player Caroline Wozniacki one point away from winning in straight sets at the Miami Open.

But the Ukrainian saved that match point and won the last five games of the second set before taking the third in a 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 victory in the second round.

Wozniacki, who won the Australian in 2018 and retired from tennis at the same tournament two years later, returned to the sport last year. She had two children during her time away from the game.

Wozniacki reached the quarterfinals in Indian Wells this month but retired from the match against top-ranked Iga Swiatek in the second set because of a right foot issue.

Beatriz Haddad Maia also overcame a slow start in hot and humid conditions on the hard courts, rallying to beat Diane Parry 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. It was the Brazilian’s first career victory in three tries against Parry, who won both previous matches on clay.

In other women’s matches, Katie Boulter advanced when Brenda Fruhvirtova retired from their match while trailing 7-6 (5), 1-0, Maria Sakkari beat Yuan Yue 6-2, 6-2, Taylor Townsend defeated Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2, and Anna Kalinskaya beat Wang Xiyu 6-2, 6-2.

In men’s action, Canadian hardcourt specialist Felix-Auger Aliassime was an early winner, beating Adam Walton 7-5, 6-4.

The 32 seeded players were given first-round byes. Aryna Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed in the women’s draw, is expected to play her opening match against Paula Badosa on Friday.

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

Palm Beach State College freshman Jeremiah Jean Jacques, an aspiring civil engineering student, recently received an exclusive hard hat tour from GL Homes at its new construction site at Lotus Edge in Boca Raton.

Jean Jacques, who was a longtime participant with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, also is the recipient of a $1,000 engineering scholarship from GL Homes.

“GL Homes wants to offer phenomenal opportunities for aspiring engineering students,” said Sarah Alsofrom, GL Homes director of community relations.

“If there is a young person out there who wants to be an engineer and they do not know how to do it or the next step to take, we are here for them. We love to see motivated, driven and ambitious young people who want to get into the engineering field. Nothing beats a hands-on hard hat tour and a really immersive experience with GL Homes. It allows this young person to see what his career could be like.”

Kelvin Rolle, a freshman at Florida A&M University, received a paid internship this upcoming summer with the engineering team at GL Homes in its land department. Rolle, a Benjamin School graduate and longtime Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County member, had previously received a hard hat tour with GL Homes at the Valencia Grand construction site in Boynton Beach.

“We hope there is a pipeline with Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County and GL Homes to bring these aspiring engineering students our way,” Alsofrom said.

“We would love to be able to foster the next generation of dynamic engineers. We are thrilled Kelvin has accepted an internship with GL Homes this summer. He is a star and a great success story. We are so proud of him. We want to support Jeremiah and we hope he will follow in Kelvin’s footsteps. GL Homes is giving another engineering scholarship to a promising young student.”

Chilondra Sheppard, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County corporate partnership director in West Palm Beach, said they support teens who come through their programs.

From left, Chilondra Sheppard (Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County corporate partnership director), Heather Swanson (GL Homes director of engineering), Jeremiah Jean Jacques and Anthony LoFurno (GL Homes director of land development) on a hard hat tour at Lotus Edge in Boca Raton. (Tracey Benson Photography/Courtesy)

“Jeremiah was a part of our career-bound program and he wanted to be a civil engineer,” she said.

“When the kids can say this is what I want to do, then it’s really our job to connect them. We want to connect with corporate partners to really share opportunities with teens about what careers look like. GL Homes is a perfect example of what a partnership looks like. We are hoping that other corporate partners look at the work that GL Homes is doing with us so we can replicate it and more kids can have opportunities to have internships and ultimately land jobs.”

GL Homes and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County work together on several initiatives throughout the year, including a back-to-school drive and hunger relief.

Jean Jacques, a Glades Central High School graduate, participated in cross country, baseball and basketball. He said a four-year program of engineering classes in high school guided him in his path.

“I was always interested in building things and I was looking into automotive at first,” he said. “I really liked engineering at the beginning of high school. I loved everything we did in that civil engineering class in my senior year. I was able to determine that I wanted to take this path and continue to learn more about it.”

Jean Jacques also received an internship last summer with Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County.

“The internship I was able to get was eye-opening,” he said. “It was nice to be in that setting and I liked the environmental aspect a lot and the many jobs that you can do.”

Jeremiah Jean Jacques, Anthony LoFurno, Chilondra Sheppard and Heather Swanson at Lotus Edge in Boca Raton. (Tracey Benson Photography/Courtesy)

Jean Jacques appreciated the support from GL Homes on his path as a civil engineering student at Palm Beach State.

“I am looking for more opportunities to better myself and learn something new,” he said. “I am ready to learn more about the construction side. It’s very interesting to me.”

Jean Jacques started with Boys & Girls Clubs at age 5. He spent several years with the club at Gove Elementary and at the Smith & Moore Family Teen Center of Belle Glade.

“They always were trying to find a way to push us to better ourselves as a person,” he said. “It’s really up to you to take the help they are giving you.”

Jean Jacques’ mother, Marie, said her son has been driven and focused.

“The whole family is proud of Jeremiah and I knew he had a bright future,” she said.

Jeremiah Jean Jacques and Marie Jean Jacques at Lotus Edge in Boca Raton.

“He has worked real hard for it. He can achieve and be anything he wants. My children started at a young age at the Boys & Girls Club. It’s a family community and they look after your children. The parents are busy working and it’s a place where they can do their activities, schoolwork and get snacks. They are not on the street, which is dangerous and exposed to anything.”

GL Homes Director of Land Development Anthony LoFurno and Director of Engineering Heather Swanson both provided the hard hat tour at Lotus Edge.

“We are excited to have Jeremiah join us and to continue his exploration of the engineering and construction world and try to figure out what he wants to do long term,” LoFurno said.

“We are glad to be a part of it. It’s really cool and neat to see. We are in need of more engineers in this industry. Math and science over the years has not been emphasized as much with kids. When we find someone who has an interest, it’s good. The industry has a lot of people retiring and not a lot of new people coming in at the rate I think we need to sustain development and construction. Civil engineering is not as glamorous as biotech and chemical engineering. We really do have a need on the civil engineering side.”

LoFurno, who said they started at the Lotus Edge site last summer, added it’s expected to take between a year and a half to two years to complete development work. He said they expect to start building homes in the next two months.

Anthony LoFurno, Jeremiah Jean Jacques and Heather Swanson at Lotus Edge in Boca Raton. (Tracey Benson Photography/Courtesy)

“Boca is one of the hottest markets in the country,” he said. “We are just happy to go ahead and build another phenomenal community. It’s going to be amazing.”

Swanson said it was exciting to provide support to an aspiring engineer.

“It’s always fun to have someone that is beginning college to come talk about why they have interest in civil engineering or construction and to hear their story,” Swanson said. “I take pride in any support we can provide to them or any questions we can answer because I had similar experiences. Being able to give them an opportunity to see something they may be interested in is really awesome.”

Swanson has enjoyed the opportunities provided by GL Homes in the field.

“In construction, it’s more male-dominated,” she said. “GL Homes takes pride in diversity and giving opportunities to everyone. I started in the field doing inspections and I was the only female out here. Everyone was welcoming and provided all the support needed for me. I have been here 10 years now and I absolutely love it.”

Diners at the 2-month-old Val+tino restaurant in downtown Fort Lauderdale may have noticed a glaring absence this past month: Where’s head chef Giovanni Rocchio?

Just 40 days into his new job, Rocchio left what was supposed to be the rebirth of his acclaimed Valentino Cucina Italiana during the last weekend of February, the chef and ownership told the South Florida Sun Sentinel this week.

Now the Italian-Mediterranean spot owners once christened “Valentino 2.0” is in quiet rebranding mode after opening in January, with an imminent name change and a retooled tasting-style menu under newly promoted chef Jake Abbott.

Gone are Rocchio’s signature handmade pasta dishes including butternut squash tortelli with brown butter and sage and cavatelli osso buco with porcini and ricotta salata. A slimmer seasonal five-course tasting menu ($129 each, plus $85 with optional wine pairing) now replaces the standalone pasta and dessert sections, although two pastas and two desserts still appear.

Also gone: Pastry chef Carlos Salgado (ex-One Door East), whom Rocchio says quit the same night he did.

“They can’t make all my pastas and now most are off the menu,” said Rocchio, reached Thursday in Manhattan on a business trip. “I get messages all the time from customers asking me, ‘Are you gone? Well, then I’m not going back.’ ”

Rocchio said behind-the-scenes management drama and “a toxic environment” led him to resign, which stemmed from a spat between he and a manager about Valentino Cucina Italiana’s original staff, many of whom were rehired for Val+tino’s revival.

For his part, Val+tino owner Mike Linder on Wednesday declined to say whether Rocchio quit or was fired, nor did he confirm details about the alleged rift that drove out his head chef. But he did acknowledge the timeframe of Rocchio’s departure. His SFL Hospitality Group also operates next-door Canyon, YOT Bar & Kitchen, Jet Runway Café and South Bar & Kitchen.

“Giovanni’s a great guy, and we parted ways amicably,” Linder said. “As we evolved, we started doing things differently. (Giovanni) left a good legacy of what the concept was.”

Val+tino’s Facebook account as of Thursday afternoon still listed the restaurant’s old staffing regime, naming Rocchio as executive chef and Abbott as chef de cuisine. Linder says that should be updated soon, along with a new name, signage and seasonal menu “in mid-May.”

“We wanted to give everyone a full picture all at once,” Linder said. “People have been noticing that Giovanni is gone but said the food is just as great. My concern about this is zero. I’m very confident in what’s about to come.”

Linder said there will be no interruption in Val+tino’s quality of service.

“Jake (Abbott) created every single menu item that is currently on Val+Tino’s menu,” he said. “He has his own great recipes. Whatever tasks Giovanni was doing have been taken over.”

Ohio native Abbott cut his teeth in New York’s restaurant scene working with Laurent Tourondel and with Joe Anthony at Michelin two-star Gabriel Kreuther, where he struck up a friendship with Rocchio.

Val+tino plans to test pop-up lunches and debut a late-night bar menu during the second half of 2024, Linder said, adding that the restaurant’s name will be changed to reflect “the legacy that Valentino has left behind.”

The restaurant’s name is steeped in South Florida history. Rocchio’s father, Tony, debuted the first Valentino in Lauderhill in 1972 before relocating it to Plantation in the ’80s. Rocchio worked there until his father’s retirement in 2000. After opening in 2006 at a former tire shop on South Federal, Valentino Cucina Italiana racked up acclaim when it moved into a bigger location at 620 S. Federal Highway in 2012, including a rare four-star review by the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 2019. Valentino Cucina shut in 2020.

Val+tino is located at 620 S. Federal Highway. Call 954-451-1200 or go to Valandtino.com.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Anhelina Kalinina was down and almost out Thursday with former top-ranked player Caroline Wozniacki one point away from winning in straight sets at the Miami Open.

But the Ukrainian saved that match point and won the last five games of the second set before taking the third in a 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 victory in the second round.

Wozniacki, who won the Australian in 2018 and retired from tennis at the same tournament two years later, returned to the sport last year. She had two children during her time away from the game.

Wozniacki reached the quarterfinals in Indian Wells this month but retired from the match against top-ranked Iga Swiatek in the second set because of a right foot issue.

Beatriz Haddad Maia also overcame a slow start in hot and humid conditions on the hard courts, rallying to beat Diane Parry 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. It was the Brazilian’s first career victory in three tries against Parry, who won both previous matches on clay.

In other women’s matches, Katie Boulter advanced when Brenda Fruhvirtova retired from their match while trailing 7-6 (5), 1-0, Maria Sakkari beat Yuan Yue 6-2, 6-2, Taylor Townsend defeated Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2, and Anna Kalinskaya beat Wang Xiyu 6-2, 6-2.

In men’s action, Canadian hardcourt specialist Felix-Auger Aliassime was an early winner, beating Adam Walton 7-5, 6-4.

The 32 seeded players were given first-round byes. Aryna Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed in the women’s draw, is expected to play her opening match against Paula Badosa on Friday.

___

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

(JTA) The premier Jewish history museum in the United States may come under the umbrella of the Smithsonian, providing a level of financial security and distinction to an institution that was facing bankruptcy four years ago.

On March 20th, a bipartisan slate of lawmakers introduced legislation to study whether the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, in Philadelphia, could become part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Weitzman, as it is known, already has an affiliation with the Smithsonian, but making it a full part of the trust would make the museum eligible for federal appropriations and give it a figurative place alongside the iconic museums that line the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty ImagesA view of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, March 17, 2020. Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images

Lawmakers cited the reported spike in antisemitism in recent months as a reason to include the museum in the Smithsonian trust.

“Educating all Americans, from all over the country, about these amazing Jewish impacts on our nation’s history, not only raises awareness but helps dispel harmful prejudices about our community,”  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Jewish Democrat, said in a press release about the legislation. Rep. Max Miller, an Ohio Jewish Republican, said, “With the recent rise in antisemitism, now more than ever it is imperative that Jewish-American Heritage be celebrated and exhibited at the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, the Smithsonian Institution.

If the initiative bears out, it would be a remarkable turnaround for a museum that was on the cusp of closure four years ago. In early March 2020, right as COVID-19 hit, the museum filed for bankruptcy protection in the face of a $30 million construction debt. It was rescued the following year by a donation from footwear entrepreneur Stuart Weitzman, giving the museum its current name.

The museum, under the leadership of Misha Galperin, is now said to be in economic health. Galperin said in November that this year would be his last as CEO. Like Smithsonian museums, it offers free admission.

The museum welcomed the bill in a statement and said that the Jewish community merited the attention that the Smithsonian has paid in recent years to other minority communities. The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in Washington in 2016.

“The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex,” the Weitzman said. “Several of its 21 museums — including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of the American Latino (as well as a potential National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture that is currently under study) — explore and educate about America’s minority communities. The American Jewish community merits a Smithsonian museum.”

The Smithsonian, a trust, runs its museums with a combination of fundraising and federal appropriations, with percentages varying among its many institutions. Most Smithsonian museums are in Washington D.C. and have free admission, although several are further afield, including the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan.

The bill would establish a commission of nine people to study the feasibility of the move, eight voting members appointed by leaders of both chambers and a non-voting member appointed by the museum board. Their report to Congress on the feasibility of the museum joining the Smithsonian would come within two years of the commission’s launch.

The other sponsors of the bill include Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman and Rep, Brendan Doyle, Democrats from the museum’s home state, Pennsylvania; Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican; Sen. Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican; Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican; and Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Jewish Democrat.

The bill is endorsed by the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federations of North America, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

To read more content visit www.jta.org

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed a package of bills that supporters say will help improve access to health care, boost the number of doctors in Florida and address issues such as mental-health treatment.

“What they (state leaders) are tackling right now are some of the biggest challenges that we face in the Sunshine State, and that’s access to health care in a reliable, reproducible, sustainable kind of a way,” said Tampa General Hospital President and CEO John Couris, who took part in a bill-signing event in Bonita Springs. “We’re facing a myriad of challenges in the health-care industry, in the health-care system. There are critical shortages in the health-care workforce. We’ve seen an exceptional growth in labor costs. Patients are struggling to access the care they need, and the demand for behavioral-health services is at a record high.”

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The bills were a priority of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican who dubbed them the “Live Healthy” initiative. Passidomo pointed Thursday to trying to meet health-care needs of a rapidly growing population.

“Unfortunately, the new Floridians are not bringing their health-care providers with them,” Passidomo said. “We’re going to change that. The good news is that Live Healthy will help grow Florida’s health-care workforce, increase access, incentivize innovation so Floridians can have more options and opportunities to live healthy here in the Sunshine State.”

DeSantis signed five bills, though much of the attention has focused on a wide-ranging measure (SB 7016) that includes $717 million in spending. The bill, for example, will provide money for increased residency slots for doctors and put additional dollars into loan-forgiveness programs for health-care professionals.

The bill also will take workforce-related steps such as helping clear the way for foreign-trained physicians to practice in Florida.

“Health care workforce is a challenge,” said state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who took part in the bill-signing event. “It’s tough to get appointments oftentimes, especially with specialty physicians. It’s tough to get a physical therapy appointment. It’s tough to see a nurse practitioner.”

The bill also includes issues such as trying to shift patients away from hospital emergency rooms for non-emergency conditions. It will require hospitals to take steps to divert patients such as by creating a “collaborative partnership” with federally qualified health centers or other primary-care providers.

The bill also includes allowing “advanced birth centers” that could provide cesarean-section deliveries for women who have what are considered low-risk pregnancies. Birth centers already exist but are not allowed to provide cesarean sections, which are surgical procedures done in hospitals.

Other bills signed Thursday included a measure (SB 7018) that will provide $50 million a year for a revolving-loan fund program for health-innovation projects. The program will provide loans with a maximum interest rate of 1 percent, with priority given to applicants such as rural hospitals and organizations that provide care in medically underserved areas.

Another bill (SB 330) will designate four behavioral-health teaching hospitals linked to universities to help address issues with treating patients for mental-health conditions.

The linked behavioral-health teaching hospitals will be Tampa General Hospital and the University of South Florida; UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville and the University of Florida; UF Health Jacksonville and the University of Florida; and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami and the University of Miami. The bill also will allow the state Agency for Health Care Administration to designate additional behavioral-health teaching hospitals as of July 1, 2025.

The bill will provide $100 million a year over the next three years to the teaching hospitals, with additional money provided for such things as residency positions for psychiatrists.

“I’ve said, look, I want more beds for mental-health patients, particularly people that are not able to function in society,” DeSantis said. “And so this is going to be, I think, a key component of that, and I think it’s something that’s going to be very, very meaningful.”

Other bills signed were a measure (SB 1758) that addresses programs and services at the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and a measure (SB 322) that creates a public-records exemption for certain health-care professionals.

The bills moved through the Legislature with almost no opposition, though Democrats repeatedly argued that the package should include expanding eligibility for Medicaid — an idea rejected for the past decade by Republican leaders.

Passidomo made clear as she began moving forward with the legislation that she would not consider expanding Medicaid.

“Access to health care is important at every phase of life,” Passidomo said Thursday. “Insurance, including Medicaid and Medicare, does not guarantee access. Even Floridians with great insurance face barriers to care.”

Man, so many Ghostbusters to call.

In theaters this week, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is the follow-up to the largely enjoyable 2021 adventure “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” The latter, which saw Jason Reitman — son of Ivan Reitman, director of 1984’s original “Ghostbusters” and its 1989 sequel, “Ghostbusters II” — at the helm, introduced a new generation of brave spirit-catching souls while also bringing back key legacy characters.

Well, the “Ghostbusters” franchise obviously isn’t ready to let go of the past.

“Frozen Empire” — co-written, like its predecessor, by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan, who takes over directing duties this time — is similarly packed with multiple generations of Ghostbusters. As a result, it doesn’t feel as fresh as “Afterlife.”

Nonetheless, it’s again a pretty entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

Following a prologue set in 1904 New York City in which a few frozen folks literally fall to pieces, we move to the modern Big Apple and catch up with the family at the heart of the new movie, descendants of deceased original Ghostbuster Egon Spengler. Mom Callie (Carrie Coon), son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) are out on the hunt, packed into the vehicle synonymous with the Ghostbusters, Ecto-1, being driven by Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), who’s graduated from being Phoebe’s teacher to her, um, “step-teacher,” as he awkwardly puts it.

The Ghostbusters, in Ecto-1, chase the Sewer Dragon Ghost through New York City in a scene from “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.” (Courtesy of Sony Pictures)

Bankrolled by Ghostbuster-turned-philanthropist Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), the family now resides in the Ghostbusters’ old Tribeca firehouse, traveling by pole from where they sleep to the other levels of the aged building.

Another hero is, again, Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz, the former Ghostbuster now spending his time buying old objects he eagerly scans with his PKE reader for paranormal energy and hosts an online show with the help of Podcast (Logan Kim), who has migrated to New York from Oklahoma along with the Spenglers, as has Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), Trevor’s friend.

Ray Stantz, portrayed by Dan Aykroyd, left, and Nadeem Razmaadi, portrayed by Kumail Nanjiani, make a deal in a scene from “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.” (Courtesy of Sony Pictures)

We also get — and no complaints here — Bill Murray’s original Ghostbuster Peter Venkman popping in for a few meaningful minutes of screentime.

Expect another familiar face or two, while newcomers include Patton Oswalt’s Dr. Hubert Wartzki, an expert in ghostly and ghastly folklore, and James Acaster’s Lars, a scientist working with Winston’s new Paranormal Research Center. (Making his film debut, Acaster is a very creative comedian who earns a few lab-related laughs.)

The more important new characters, however, are Melody (Emily Alyn Lind of “Gossip Girl”), a ghost trapped in this world who befriends Phoebe, and Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani), a neighborhood hustler who must embrace his destiny as “the firemaster” if humanity is to survive a coming threat.

That danger is Garraka, a terrifying demon with the power of “the death chill” who has been trapped in an ancient artifact for more than a century.

Garraka is the big, chilly bad of “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.” (Courtesy of Sony Pictures)

With so many characters to juggle and seemingly determined to give us a reasonable runtime, Reitman and Kenan don’t even try to give many of them arcs. The major exception is Phoebe, who’s benched after the fact that she’s only 15 becomes an issue for New York’s mayor, who’s not exactly a longtime ally of the Ghostbusters. (Meanwhile, Trevor is now 18 and wants to be treated like an adult, but “Stranger Things” star Wolfhard rather quickly becomes an afterthought in “Frozen Empire.”)

The most fun is provided by Nanjiani, the star of “The Big Sick” and “The Lovebirds” sticking some comedic lines as only he can as the increasingly important Nadeem.

Overall, even as “Frozen Empire” is essentially going through the ghostbusting motions, it is consistently pleasant thanks to its appealing cast. For example, Rudd (“Ant-Man”) is his usual brand of everyman-charming as Gary, who is asked by girlfriend Callie to start being more of a dad to her kids, which will mean being the bad guy sometimes.

Tastes surely vary on this kind of thing, but we’re pleased that, after building up the threat of Garraka, “Frozen Empire” doesn’t devolve into a seemingly endless supernatural battle sequence — like certain “Ghostbusters” installments we could name. Fear not, for there are ice spikes and proton packs aplenty in the climax, but we all know how this affair is going to end, so there’s no need to drag it out.

Counting the disappointing 2016 reboot, “Ghostbusters,” “Frozen Empire” — appropriately dedicated to Ivan Reitman, who died a few months after the release of “Afterlife” — is the fifth film in the franchise, and we’re guessing a sixth isn’t too far off in the distance.

We wouldn’t mind that, but maybe don’t invite quite so many folks to that paranormal party.

‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’

Where: Theaters.

When: March 22.

Rated: PG-13 for supernatural action/violence, language and suggestive references.

Runtime: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Stars (of four): 2.5.

A Coconut Creek Police officer was arrested recently in Palm Beach County, accused of driving under the influence after another driver saw him asleep behind the wheel at a traffic light.

Laurence Christopher, 58, is facing one DUI-related misdemeanor charge, court records show.

Sgt. Scotty Leamon, a spokesperson for the police department, confirmed that Christopher is a Coconut Creek Police officer. Leamon did not immediately know Wednesday evening how long Christopher has been with the department or if he has been assigned to administrative duties since his arrest March 15.

Christopher, driving a Ford truck, was stopped at a green light in the area of Lantana Road and South State Road 7 shortly before 2 a.m. that Friday when a witness noticed he was asleep while moving to go around the truck, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The witness told deputies he got out of his car and knocked on the truck window, and the driver “appeared lost” when he awoke, the affidavit said. He knocked several times on the window to wake up Christopher. The witness asked Christopher if he was having a medical emergency, and Christopher said he was not, according to the affidavit.

A passenger in the witness’s car called 911, and the witness told deputies Christopher fled in his truck when he heard the passenger calling 911. The witness followed Christopher as he allegedly sped north and drove “all over the place,” nearly hitting a median, according to the affidavit.

The witness recorded a video of the erratic driving and showed it to the deputy who pulled Christopher over, which was recorded on body-worn camera footage, according to the affidavit.

Christopher was the only person in the truck when the deputy pulled him over after observing him drifting from one lane toward a center median in the area of North State Road 7 and Southern Boulevard in Royal Palm Beach, the affidavit said.

He told the deputy he was “good” when asked if he was OK. The deputy noted he had glossy eyes and smelled alcohol coming from him and his breath and requested back-up, the affidavit said.

The second deputy who arrived also noted the smell of alcohol, red and glossy eyes and slurred speech, according to the affidavit. Christopher allegedly swayed as he talked to the deputy and staggered while walking to the deputy’s patrol car.

Christopher said he was on his way home and could have someone pick him up, the affidavit said. He refused to participate in roadside sobriety tasks and he refused to submit a breath test to determine his blood-alcohol content. He also told the deputy he did not have any medical conditions and was not taking any medication.

If a driver refuses to submit a breath or urine test, his or her driving privileges can be suspended for a year for a first offense or 18 months for a subsequent offense, according to the affidavit.

Christopher was released after posting bail, court records show. Leamon said Christopher was off-duty when he was pulled over.

Christopher’s defense attorney did not return an email seeking comment Wednesday after business hours.

Running off at the typewriter …

How are FSU and Clemson like James Harden and Kawhi Leonard?

Because like disgruntled NBA superstars who — even though they’re under contract — are able to create so much controversy and consternation that their teams succumb and get rid of them, FSU and Clemson are hoping they, too, can use the legal system to kick and scream their way out of the ACC.

First, it was FSU back in December,  and now it’s Clemson filing a lawsuit in an attempt to get out of a grant-of-rights contract that binds them to the ACC for 12 more years. The Tigers filed their lawsuit earlier this week and, within the legal crying and caterwauling, exclaimed that the ACC’s grant-of-rights contract and exit fees were “unconscionable” and “unenforceable.”

Question for Clemson (and FSU): Were the grant-of-rights contract and withdrawal fees “unconscionable” and “unenforceable” when you happily and voluntarily signed the contract (twice) in 2013 and 2016?

Don’t get me wrong. I get the financial reasons why Clemson and FSU both want out of the ACC, and I’d do the same thing if I were running their athletic departments. After all, it’s been well reported that the SEC and Big Ten annual media deals will soon be worth about $30-$40 million per team more than the ACC’s media deal.

In addition, Clemson’s lawsuit came on the same day that the College Football Playoff and ESPN announced a new six-year, $7.8 billion contract that further accentuated the financial gap between the SEC/Big Ten and the ACC. Annually, each SEC and Big Ten team will earn more than $21 million under the new playoff agreement while ACC teams will earn more than $13 million. That’s right: Vanderbilt and Indiana will get more playoff money than FSU and Clemson.

If you add up this TV revenue discrepancy over a 10-year period, ACC teams like FSU will make about $400 million less than SEC teams like Florida.

But it’s not like the ACC forced Clemson and FSU to sign the media-rights deal and the grant-of-rights agreement.  At the time, every ACC school signed those contracts voluntarily and were absolutely giddy that the ACC was getting its own TV network and a lucrative long-term deal with ESPN. However, when the market changed and TV rights fees rapidly escalated, the ACC was stuck with a protracted subpar media deal until 2036.

More power to FSU and Clemson if they can somehow use the legal system to extricate themselves from the ACC’s grant of rights, but it sure sounds like they are reneging on a signed contract now that it’s gone bad.

Like those of us who happily (and then sadly) bought Pets.com stock during the dot-com bubble, Clemson and FSU went all in on ACC stock and now they’re losing their shirts.

Considering member schools are on the hook for more than $500 million if they want to leave the conference, the strategy seems to be to create so much havoc and upheaval that the ACC will acquiesce and allow the Seminoles and the Tigers to leave with a reduced exit fee.

Good luck.

While kicking and screaming and creating chaos may work for disgruntled NBA superstars who want to leave town, I’m not so sure FSU and Clemson throwing a legal temper tantrum is going to result in a slam-dunk exit from the ACC. …

Short stuff: If you ask Florida Gators coach Billy Napier, I bet he would trade all of that  SEC TV money we just talked about for an ACC football schedule. The Gators not only play arguably the toughest schedule in the country this season, they found out Wednesday that they will play the exact same SEC schedule in 2025 — except that seven conference games (Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss and Texas A&M) will be flipped home and away while Georgia remains in Jacksonville. When you throw in FSU and Miami as non-conference opponents both years (with UCF also on the non-conference schedule this season), you can see the Kilimanjaro-like climb Napier faces to stay employed. … Shame on basketball programs such as St. John’s, Indiana, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Ole Miss, etc. who didn’t make the NCAA tournament and then turned down bids to play in the NIT. What a bunch of big, fat, whiny, babies. Just because you weren’t good enough to get into the NCAA tournament, you’re gonna take your ball and go home? Winners compete. Losers pack up their monopoly money and bail. …

It was announced earlier this week that new Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer was given an 8-year contract that averages about $11 million annually and is nearly fully guaranteed with a minimum buyout if he wants to leave. Coaching super agent Jimmy Sexton strikes again! This is just another example of how college ADs cower in the fetal position whenever Sexton sits down at the bargaining table. Hypothetically, if Alabama went 0-12 this season and wanted to fire DeBoer after one year, the school would owe him $70 million. However, if wanted to leave for another job after this season, he would owe the school just $5 million. If I’ve written it once, I’ve written it a million times: How screwed up is it that college athletic departments nationwide are shaking down fans and boosters for NIL money to pay players but at the same time they think nothing of handing out obscenely one-sided contracts that guarantee a coach nearly $100 million? …

Did you see where erstwhile Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh had a garage sale at his house in Ann Arbor this week amid his relocation to L.A.? No word yet on how much Connor Stalions’ marching orders and surveillance equipment sold for. … Not only are the Orlando Magic having a breakout season on the court, the organization itself was just named among “Best Places to Work in Sports in 2023” by the Sports Business Journal. Kudos to the Magic, who were the only professional franchise in four major sports to be on SBJ’s list. The Magic obviously do right by their employees and even former employees (see recent Shaq jersey retirement even after he bolted and wrecked the franchise all those years ago).  … Professor Pigskin’s Free Agency Grades: Tampa Bay Bucs (A+), Jacksonville Jaguars (B+), Miami Dolphins (C-). … Question: Why did the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee put cultural phenomenon Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes in the toughest bracket instead of the easiest one? If the Hawkeyes get eliminated before the Final Four, this will go down as the worst business decision since Pepsi Crystal. … I’m not saying NASCAR had a rubber-shredding fiasco at Bristol last weekend, but the last time I saw such shoddy tires was when I tried to take the corner too fast going from Office Supplies into Home Decor with my wobbly-wheeled Walmart shopping cart last week. …

Last word: With Thursday being actor Matthew Broderick’s birthday, let us all remember to live by the philosophy of the great Ferris Bueller: “The question isn’t: ‘What are we going to do?’ The question is: ‘What aren’t we going to do?’ “

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, as the last remaining UCF fans exited Addition Financial Arena for what would be the final time this season, coach Johnny Dawkins pondered what’s next for the Knights.

In those moments following UCF’s 83-77 loss to rival USF in their first-round matchup in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), Dawkins was asked to assess his team’s performance in its first season in the Big 12.

The Knights finished 17-16 overall and 7-11 in the conference, highlighted by wins over three ranked opponents: No. 3 Kansas, No. 23 Oklahoma and No. 23 Texas Tech.

“I have a really good idea of what we need moving forward,”  Dawkins said. “We were looking at that throughout the year  as we were playing the other Big 12 teams to determine what we have to do, who we matched up against, what they have, their style of play, whether it’s physicality, shooting or rebounding.

UCF’s late rally comes up short as USF advances in NIT showdown

“We’re studying every team we play to understand the theme of this league and the talent level needed to succeed.”

Dawkins said he believes the Knights exceeded expectations, especially considering how the team was picked to finish last in the Big 12. UCF wound up  11th in the 14-team league — which was ranked as the toughest conference in college basketball this season — and was one of 11 teams to earn postseason bids.

“We were able to get to the NIT, which means you finished as one of the top 100 teams in the country,” he explained. “I don’t think anyone would have expected that to happen. I don’t think that would have been expected.”

Even so, junior guard Jaylin Sellers believes the Knights could have achieved more this season.

“We underachieved this season,” said Sellers, who earned All-Big 12 honors after arriving through the transfer market from Ball State. “Just with the group of guys we had, this is probably the best team I’ve played on. You have to have people follow the game plan and listen to Coach. Things could have gone in a whole other way.”

An average of 8.8 points decided UCF’s 18 regular-season conference games and an average of 9.2 points decided the Knights’ 11 losses. But the Knights faced double-digit deficits in 11 of their 18 league games.

UCF lands commitment from Georgia defensive back Demarcus Gardner

The roster underwent a massive makeover last offseason, with 10 new players (such as Sellers) arriving from the transfer portal. Some of the new additions were Shemarri Allen, Omar Payne, Ibrahima Diallo, DeMarr Langford Jr., Marchelus Avery, Mintautas Mockus and Sellers.

There will be more turnover this offseason with the expected departures of Antwaan Jones, C.J. Walker, Allen, Payne and Diallo, who have exhausted their eligibility.

Sellers, however, will be back, announcing his decision hours before tipoff of the NIT game.

“Coach Johnny Dawkins is perhaps the best coach I’ve had in my life,” Sellers said. “With him believing in me, I never want to play for another coach in college basketball. He’s like another father figure to me. When I look into his eyes, I see me, and I’m pretty sure he sees a little bit of himself.”

Dawkins’ future, however, remains fodder for speculation.

He is entering the final year of his contract, and UCF officials have yet to announce their plans for an extension or a possible coaching change. But Dawkins, 60, believes he’s done enough this season to be back in 2024-25.

“I expect to be back here,” said Dawkins. “I have loved coaching UCF since Day 1 and I’ve put my whole heart into this university because they allowed me to be the coach here. I think the administration and everyone believe in me and what we’re doing here, and yet it will never end right for you unless you win a championship.”

New UCF strength coach Anthony Kincy brings family feel to Knights

For now, Dawkins’ focus is on next season, emphasizing the transfer portal and recruiting.

“I’m a next-play guy,” he said. “Season ends, but what we do as a program and what we must do as a staff continues immediately. We’ve got to start refocusing on the next phase.”

UCF already has a commitment from transfer Mikey Andrews, a five-star guard from Memphis who is considered a top-10 prospect, and Dawkins said the Knights will also be a factor with other candidates.

Still, he doesn’t want the disappointment of how the season ended to outweigh his team’s accomplishments.

“We overachieved compared to what people thought we were going to do,” he said. “I don’t think anybody can sit here and think we would win some of the games and win as many games as we did in the Big 12. But that’s not my standard. Everywhere I’ve been, we’ve won, so we have to do better than we’ve done this year.”

Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com

Former President Donald Trump easily won Florida’s presidential primary, cruising to an overwhelming victory in his adopted home state. But the results show lingering doubts about his candidacy among some Republican voters.

Trump’s 81.2% of the vote was big. He won each of the state’s 67 counties; 24 of them with more than 90% of the vote.

And those numbers mean one in five Republicans voted for someone else — not their party’s presumptive 2024 presidential nominee.

• The number of Republicans who voted in the state’s presidential preference primary on Tuesday was 9.5% lower than the number who voted in the 2020 primary — even as the number of Republican registered voters in Florida increased 8%.
• Trump received 252,000 fewer votes this year, in unofficial results as of midday Wednesday, than in the 2020 primary — a decline of 21.7%.
• The other six candidates whose names appeared on the ballot collectively received 19%. The biggest share was the 13.9% that went to former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who was the last remaining candidate before she dropped out in early March.

She was also one of Trump’s fiercest competitors, describing him as “not qualified to be president” and unable to win a November contest with President Joe Biden.

“The more significant number is former President Trump getting 250,000 less votes than he got in 2020, which was also an uncontested primary,” said Joe Budd, the elected Republican state committeeman for Palm Beach County. “There’s much less enthusiasm this go-around.”

Budd was an early supporter of Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy and later founded a large South Florida political organization now known as Club 47 to support the former president. He supported Gov. Ron DeSantis for the party’s presidential nomination this year.

Richard DeNapoli, the elected state Republican committeeman in Broward and a former county party chair who was also an early supporter of Trump’s 2016 candidacy, said the overall result is the key takeaway.

“President Trump had a resounding victory in Florida, and Republicans have always united behind our nominee in even greater numbers for the general election,” he said via text.

His biggest pockets were in northern and central Florida, along or near the borders of Alabama and Georgia, with a pop of support in the central part of the state — plus, significantly, Miami-Dade County, the state’s largest.

Trump’s support was weaker mainly along the state’s coastal regions, from Broward and Palm Beach counties north to Indian River County along the Atlantic Ocean, and from Hillsborough County south along the Gulf Coast.

Significance

The Florida presidential preference primary was as close to a pure test of Republican sentiment as possible. Unlike some other states, only people who were registered Republicans four weeks before primary day were allowed to participate.

And Democrats painted the results in Florida, as well as other primaries held around the country on Tuesday and previously, as ominous for Trump.

“Donald Trump struggled in his adopted home state,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said Wednesday in a video news conference. “Donald Trump is in trouble here in the state of Florida,” she said, arguing that the primary results “show that Donald Trump is weak and getting weaker by the day. He is in significant trouble, not just here in the state of Florida, but across the entire country.”

Eric Johnson, a Democratic strategist who has managed federal, state and local campaigns, said repeated rounds of voting this year have shown a “significant protest vote continuing to happen in Republican primary after Republican primary.”

“There is a canary in the coal mine for the Trump campaign,” Johnson said.

The question is what do those Republicans who didn’t favor Trump in the primaries do in November. “Do those voters go back to him in a binary choice? Some will. But to the degree that any of them switch over to Biden that’s a real problem for the Trump campaign,” he said.

Republicans scoffed at the notion that the results have any broader implications.

“Nikki Fried and the Democrats should focus on how to save their party from extinction in Florida. It’s normal in primaries to have some people vote for other candidates, but we are united and ready to send Joe Biden back to his basement in Delaware,” state Republican Chair Evan Power said via text.

And Sean Foreman, a political scientist at Barry University, said the lower turnout and the overall results were neither a surprise, nor an indication of how Republicans will do in Florida in November.

“I don’t think it’s cause for concern for the Trump campaign or that Democrats should be overjoyed by those numbers,” Foreman said. “The Florida primary just wasn’t significant this year.”

Foreman said some small but unknown share of the anti-Trump vote undoubtedly came from people who switched their voter registration to Republican just so they could participate in the primary.

Florida in play?

Florida once was the biggest swing state in the country, with the potential to have a major impact on presidential elections because its large cache of electoral votes could go to either candidate.

And for a generation that meant the state’s voters were courted, with candidate campaign visits, advertising and targeted messaging that sought to appeal to Floridians. But it’s become increasingly Republican red.

Few independent analysts — and privately, many Democrats — see Florida within Biden’s reach in 2024.

“Florida continues to be in play,” Fried declared.

Johnson was somewhat more cautious in his assessment.

“Trump only won Florida by 3 (percentage) points” in both 2016 and 2020, he said, so there is potential. It’s an expensive state for either side to campaign in. He said the Biden campaign is “putting in groundwork for a campaign. They’re preparing for one.”

Budd said there is no scenario for a Biden victory in Florida. “I think Florida’s securely red,” he said, pointing to the surge in Republican voter registrations in recent years. “The enthusiasm gap is not going to help Joe Biden in Florida, no way.”

DeSantis, at a Miami Beach news conference Wednesday, said the state is so sure to go Republican that the candidates won’t devote much time or advertising to the state this fall.

“This is not going to be a state that’s competitive in November. And that’s just the reality,” DeSantis said.

Foreman, too, said most of the Republicans who didn’t vote for Trump in the primary will in November.

Republicans will “come home in the fall and vote for Trump or Biden despite all the grumbling to the contrary that we will hear through the summer,” he said.

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Widespread win

Trump won big everywhere, but his performance wasn’t uniform.

His statewide total was 81%. In 16 counties he received a smaller percentage of the vote.

In 50 other counties he received a higher share of the vote.

Trump received 79.8% in Broward and 78.2% in Palm Beach County, slightly less than his statewide average.

He received 86.7% of the vote in Miami-Dade County.

Voters’ views

Most primary voters willing to speak to reporters outside polling places Tuesday said — as the results showed — they were voting for Trump.

Dominick Casale, voting in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, cast his ballot for Trump. “He’s the best,” Casale said. “We’ve got a mummy for a president right now. He’s destroying our country, every second.”

Alan Waxman, of Delray Beach, said he voted for Trump “because I love this country. I’m a patriot. And there was a time I was a Democrat, and then there was a time I was a Republican. And now I just care about this country.”

Joyce Holzapfel, a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Republican and Trump supporter, said she believes he’ll win in November, though she expressed a hint of concern.

From her home overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway, she said she used to see far more boaters flying Trump flags. Lately, she said, she’s seen fewer.

Lauren Douglas, of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, said she was “really frustrated that I don’t have any options” since all the non-Trump candidates dropped out.

Douglas said she was voting for Haley. “We need a female in office and somebody who’s not over 80,” she said. Trump is 77 and Biden is 81.

She declined to say if she’d vote for Trump, Biden, or another candidate in November. “It’s personal.”

Haley

Haley, the former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was the last candidate in the contest against Trump — and mounted the most explicitly anti-Trump campaign in its final weeks, arguing he wasn’t fit for the presidency and couldn’t win in November.

She received 13.9% of the statewide vote.

Haley did notably better in Broward and Palm Beach counties, receiving 16% in both.

She did worse than her statewide share of the vote in Miami-Dade County where she received 11% of the vote.

Budd said he wouldn’t read too much into the Haley vote because most of the state’s vote-by-mail ballots went to voters by Feb. 8. Haley was a candidate until March 6.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried, center, speaks with Democratic Party activists after a party-building event in West Palm Beach on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023. (Anthony Man/South Florida Sun Sentinel) DeSantis

Fried — nemesis of DeSantis when she was state agriculture commissioner from 2019 to 2021 and unsuccessful candidate for the 2022 Democratic nomination to challenge him — mocked him for receiving just 3.7% of the vote in the state he leads. He dropped out on Jan. 21, after months of personal attacks from Trump and failing to catch fire as a candidate.

Florida records all the votes from candidates who are on the ballot, even if they dropped out.

DeSantis received 2.9% in Broward, 17% in Miami-Dade County, and 3.7% in Palm Beach County.

During his news conference Wednesday, he spoke at length about, and took credit for, the state’s increasing Republican tilt.

But he avoided one question: who did he vote for in the primary?

Staff writers Danica Jefferies and Abigail Hasebroock contributed to this report.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Post.news.

A plan to close or overhaul schools is creating division on the Broward School Board, even before any specific school names are released.

Some board members said at a Wednesday workshop they’d prefer to only close no more than a tiny number of schools, while others proposed closing dozens. Some also questioned where the closures will come from and wanted to ensure they didn’t disproportionately impact schools in certain regions or with mostly minority students.

Superintendent Peter Licata said Wednesday he plans to bring forward ideas at an April 16 workshop proposals that could include specific schools that could be combined, merged or dramatically changed. Some could become charter schools, he said.

“It will be a list of proposals, including academic changes, mergers and potentially closures,” he said. “It will include partnerships with some cities that have charter schools. We’re also working with cities that want to create charter schools.”

The School Board is expected to make any final decisions by June and any changes would take effect for the 2024-25 school year.

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The district has published a list of 77 underenrolled schools. Some board members wanted to consider some action if a school was below 60%, others below 50%. Some didn’t say enrollment should be the primary consideration.

“I don’t think a school should be doomed just because it’s underenrolled,” Board member Brenda Fam said.

Fam said some underenrolled schools could becoming technical schools, noting the district’s existing technical schools perform well academically and attract students.

Board member Sarah Leonardi said she’s heard district officials say in past years they can’t invest in underenrolled schools because they’re underenrolled. Many were underenrolled because the district didn’t invest in them, she said.

“I do accept the idea that we may have to close some facilities,” she said.

Board members Debra Hixon, Jeff Holness and Nora Rupert voiced skepticism of closing many schools.

“Closing schools should be a last resort,” Holness said.

Allen Zeman and Daniel Foganholi voiced support for a more aggressive plan. Zeman said the district needs 180 campuses, not 239.

“We have to be grounded in reality. Our resource allocations are limited,” Zeman said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced the first of what he said would be many flights evacuating Floridians and other Americans out of Haiti amid the country’s spiral into violence.

DeSantis spoke at the Orlando Sanford International Airport shortly before the first chartered flight was scheduled to land Wednesday night. He left before its arrival.

DeSantis and state Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said 14 people were on the flight, including some children.

“We’re committed to rescuing Floridians from a bad situation,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis and Guthrie said 360 Floridians and 501 other U.S. citizens had requested the state’s help in being evacuated so far.

The state conducted similar flights out of Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, for which charter company ARS Global was paid $18.5 million by the state. But DeSantis said there was far less coordination with the Haitian government than with Israel’s.

“So it’s a more challenging situation,” he said. “But there’s been people that have been doing a lot of great work, and in really difficult circumstances, to be able to bring people to safety.”

Guthrie said the state sent its Orlando Regional Coordinator to the Haitian Consulate in Orlando “to knock on the door and try to get some help. … We’re just running into problem after problem getting people vetted.”

Guthrie said that for the last five days, “I’ve had a room of about 25 people working … with our federal government, State Department, [Bureau of] Consular Affairs.”

But DeSantis and Guthrie criticized the U.S. State Department’s requirement that people evacuated on their chartered planes reimburse the federal government.

Orlando resident Abson Louis flew out of Haiti on the first such flight  Sunday.

Orlando man escapes chaos of Haiti, hopes for family’s safety

“I think the last thing these people want is to get stuck with a bill when they’re just basically running for their lives,” DeSantis said.

As for Haitians themselves, however, DeSantis said anyone attempting to arrive in Florida by boat would be caught and turned back.

“People should just understand that the last thing you want to do is get into a boat and go over very dangerous waters just to get intercepted and sent back to where you came from,” he said. “It’s just not worth it.”

DeSantis told a conservative podcaster on Tuesday that for Haitians who land in Florida, “their next stop very well may be Martha’s Vineyard,” a reference to the controversial migrant flight program funded by the state that has enticed migrants onto planes bound for Democratic states and abandoned them there.

Earlier this week, Louis told the Orlando Sentinel that DeSantis should allow refugees into Florida and not send them back to the war zone.

“I think a lot of people want the same opportunity to come here out of the chaos,” he said.

Staff photographer Stephen Dowell contributed to this report.