News

A new case of measles has been confirmed in Florida, in an adult between the ages of 55 and 59 who had traveled outside the United States.

That brings the 2024 case count in the state up to 11, according to information posted on the Florida Department of Health reportable diseases searchable database.

The bulk of the cases — seven — were found at an elementary school in Broward County in February, and were the result of local transmission. Two additional cases were reported in Broward, and the other in Polk County in Central Florida, also in February. The newest case was reported in Martin County.

Broward County Public Schools notified parents of the first confirmed case of the highly contagious infection on Feb. 16, a third-grader at Manatee Bay Elementary in Weston who had no history of travel. Superintendent Peter Licata told reporters on Feb. 27 that the number of confirmed cases at the school had reached seven but that the person had not been on campus since Feb. 15. On March 8, after the end of the infectious period, the Department of Health confirmed that the outbreak was over.

A total of 64 measles cases have been reported in the United States as of March 21, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the 17 states reporting the cases are Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York City, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. In 2023, a total of 58 measles cases were reported in 20 states, CDC records show.

International travel is a typical way for unvaccinated people in the United States to get the disease; most Americans are protected against measles through vaccination, and the disease was considered eradicated from the country in 2000, according to the CDC.

The disease is highly infectious: Nine out of 10 unvaccinated people will catch it if exposed. It can be prevented through vaccination; according to the CDC, two doses of the measles vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles if one is exposed to the virus. One dose is about 93% effective.

Don Lindich | Tribune News Service (TNS)

Vimifuso charger proves its worth: I recommended the Vimifuso 140W USB charger as a gift idea last year. I’ve had a chance to use mine for several months now and have been so pleased I feel I did not do it justice before, so I am correcting that now.

So many devices we depend on every day need USB charging, including headphones, Bluetooth speakers, computers, household gadgets of all types and, of course, tablets and phones. The six-port Vimifuso makes charging them so very easy, all from a single device, and it offers other benefits I did not fully appreciate until I had more experience with it. It also checks all the quality and safety boxes with FCC, UL and CE certification, which makes recommending it even easier.

Vimifuso USB Charger. (Don Lindich/TNS)

I love that it uses an AC cord to connect to the wall, and is not a heavy, bulky device with retractable prongs that is prone to fall off the wall socket. Plug the cord into the wall, connect the charger and you are ready to go. I travel quite a bit and this has proven especially handy in hotel rooms. I have enough cord to put the charger on the nightstand or on the bed with me, and then my USB charging cables extend the reach so I can keep my devices close at hand. There is also no worry about yanking the charger off the wall when picking up the phone or tablet. It is a sinking feeling when you are at a trade show and wake up to a phone at 10% rather than 100% because charging stopped. That never happens with the Vimifuso.

There are four USB-C ports and two standard USB-A ports, so it is unlikely you will ever experience a situation the Vimifuso cannot handle. This versatility has paid off in ways I did not expect. I was with a friend who was using his MacBook to catch up on emails as I charged my iPad and he said, “Darn, I am about to run out of power and I forgot my cord.” Looking at the MacBook and seeing the USB-C power port, I said, “I’ve got you covered” and connected the Vimifuso’s 65-watt USB-C port to his MacBook with a USB-C cable. My friend looked at the charger and said, “What is that thing? Something tells me I have to get one.” He travels even more than me, and he has one now too.

The Vimifuso charger sells on Amazon, and when I decided to revisit it I was expecting to recommend it at the $45 price. When I checked Amazon it was 30% off with a checkbox coupon, which I hope holds for a while for the sake of anyone who wants one. For about $30 you will be a very happy camper, especially if you travel, charge lots of devices or have multiple family members charge their phones from a single outlet or charger.

Q. We disconnected from cable TV and installed an antenna. The TV is fine, but there is no way to access a guide to see what programs are broadcast, or what channel or times. We would also like the ability to record. Can you recommend something to remedy our problem?

—R.G., Sheboygan, Wisconsin

A. There are multiple HDTV tuners available that will record on a USB flash or hard drive. I have used the Mediasonic HomeWorx models successfully for years, and they feature an on-screen program guide. The free phone and tablet app TV Listings Plus is phenomenal and I highly recommend it to TV fans. Learn more about TV Listings Plus at guidepluslabs.com.

(Contact Don Lindich at www.soundadvicenews.com and use the “submit question” link on that site.)

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

One of the best aspects of photographing Aretha Franklin — as Matthew Jordan Smith did frequently between 2005 and 2014 — was that she sang during their sessions.

“I had a playlist of my favorite Aretha Franklin songs, and she’d often start singing along — the only artist I’ve ever worked with who did that,” says Smith, 60, who’s just published “Aretha Cool: The Intimate Portraits,” a collection of his Franklin photos named after that playlist.

Photographer Matthew Jordan Smith recently published “Aretha Cool: The Intimate Portraits,” a photo book drawn from his many sessions with Aretha Franklin. (Photo courtesy of Matthew Jordan Smith)

“I remember the first time I used (the playlist), the one song comes on and she starts humming along to it, then she starts singing to the song — ‘You’re All I Need to Get By,’ one of my all-time favorite ones. I’m 4, 5 feet in front of her and I kinda forgot where I was and I started singing along with her.

“She stops me — ‘Jordan, baby, don’t sing.’ She said it firmly, actually, but the whole room burst out laughing. Then she starts laughing and the whole time I’m shooting everything. I love the pictures of her laughing that day, full-on, the whole room letting loose. Every time I hear that song, I think of that day.”

Those photos are among the dozens of images, and memories, that populate “Aretha Cool.” It’s a book Smith — who previously published “Sepia Dreams: A Celebration of Black Achievement Through Words and Images” — says he felt a call to create, the impetus coming from the death of Franklin’s longtime companion, Willie Wilkerson, from COVID-19 in April 2020.

“He’s the first person I know who passed from COVID, and I started thinking about how much things had changed, people we lost and the importance of legacy,” explains Smith, who remained close with Franklin until her death in 2018. “I thought: ‘OK. This book must be done. People have got to know about this side of her, from a photographer’s point of view and how it was for me working with her …’ cause there was nobody like her, and nobody’s really talked about or covered this last stage of her life.”

Smith — born in Brooklyn and raised in South Carolina, where his father exposed him to photography — was already a well-established high-end fashion and celebrity shooter when he met Franklin, whose work had appeared in international magazines and advertisements. When the Queen of Soul was looking for a new photographer in 2005, her publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn, recommended Smith, who had just published “Sepia Dreams.”

“I did my research,” he notes, and upon discovering that Franklin favored yellow roses, he sent her some with a note: “Looking forward to a great shoot. Looking forward to meeting you.”

“Then, before I got out there — we were shooting in Detroit — she called me on her phone, from her private number,” Smith recalls. “I’m like, ‘Who is this calling me,’ and then, ‘Oh, snap, it’s Aretha calling me!’ We talked about life, food. She said, ‘No photographer ever sent me yellow roses before.’

“Then we met and had a great shoot in Detroit, and we just kept going from there.”

Smith did make one minor faux pas during that first session, however. “The playlist — this was before I made the Aretha playlist — had Mariah Carey on it, and it looked like (Franklin) wasn’t into it,” Smith remembers. “I asked her who her favorite new artist was, and she said, ‘Me!’ And then I asked her again — new artist — and she said, ‘Me!’ Then it hit me. … Put some of her music on! Of course!”

This is one of Matthew Jordan Smith’s early portraits of Aretha Franklin. It’s included in his new book “Aretha Cool: The Intimate Portraits.” (Photo courtesy of Matthew Jordan Smith)

He went on to photograph Franklin on several occasions, in Detroit and New York — including a hat-oriented shoot following her performance of “My Country Tis of Thee” at Barack Obama’s first inauguration in January 2009. The images over the years were used for promotional and personal use and in a variety of publications and media outlets. They spoke on the phone frequently as well — even after Smith moved to Japan, where his wife is from, eight years ago, which initially made Franklin mad until he promised her “it’s only a flight.”

“A lot of stars are not comfortable being in the camera,” says Smith, who last photographed Franklin in 2014, though subsequent sessions were scheduled but canceled due to her deteriorating health. “There’s a facade that comes up. That’s normal, but she was not that way. She was very real from the jump and you could feel that, and you don’t get that every day with a lot of people, especially in Hollywood.

“She just had this very real feeling about her from the first moment I met her — no pretension, nothing, and I loved that. That made me feel more comfortable and made me feel like being myself. I think that’s what made us get along so well.”

Smith still has the iPod with the Aretha Cool playlist and has posted it on Spotify. Not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about Franklin, he says, and he’s hoping the book gives readers some sense of how special he found her to be.

“I want people to see the other side, the real side of her that I fell in love with,” Smith explains. “She was like an aunt that everybody knows. Everybody has an Aretha in their family. In Black America, we all have an Aretha in our family. I’ve shot so many people, but never felt the connection like I had with her. I’ll always miss her.”

By FARNOUSH AMIRI (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans threatened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress if he did not turn over unredacted materials related to the special counsel probe into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.

In a letter Monday — obtained by The Associated Press — Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan demanded that Garland comply with the subpoena the two Republican chairmen sent last month as part of their emerging investigation into Special Counsel Robert Hur’s decision not to charge the president.

Comer, chair of the Oversight Committee, and Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee, ordered the Justice Department to turn over the unredacted audio and transcripts of Hur’s hourslong interviews with Biden and his ghostwriter by April 8.

“If you fail to do so, the Committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings,” the two lawmakers wrote.

The Justice Department reacted to the letter late Monday, saying the department “has been extraordinarily transparent with Congress” throughout the process.

“The Attorney General released Mr. Hur’s report to Congress and made no redactions or changes, the Department provided documents to Congress including a copy of the President’s interview transcript, and Mr. Hur testified before Congress for more than five hours about his investigation,” Emma Dulaney, a department spokesperson, said in a statement to AP. “Given the Department’s ongoing and extensive cooperation, we hope they will reconsider this unnecessary escalation.”

The threat is just the latest tension point between Republicans and the GOP-appointed federal prosecutor who appeared before lawmakers two weeks ago for a more than four-hour interrogation surrounding his 345-page report that questioned Biden’s age and mental competence but ultimately recommended no criminal charges for the 81-year-old president. Hur said that he found insufficient evidence to make a case that would stand up in court.

“What I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe,” Hur said. “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly.”

Despite his defense, Hur faced an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the aisle for the commentary in his report and the decision to withhold pressing charges against Biden.

Hours before his testimony, the Justice Department released a redacted transcript that provided a more nuanced picture of the roughly yearlong investigation, filling in some of the gaps left by Hur’s and Biden’s accounting of the exchanges.

Republicans, including Comer and Jordan, have insisted for the past year that unlike Biden, former President Donald Trump has been treated unfairly in his own Justice Department case for mishandling classified documents. During the hearing, GOP members reiterated that while Biden was let off the hook, Trump has been singled out and vilified, questioning if the facts of the two cases were all that different.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., called it a “glaring double standard.”

“Donald Trump’s being prosecuted for exactly the same act that you documented Joe Biden committed,” he told Hur.

However, there are major differences between the two probes. Biden’s team returned the documents after they were discovered, and the president cooperated with the investigation by voluntarily sitting for an interview and consenting to searches of his homes. Trump, by contrast, is accused of enlisting the help of aides and lawyers to conceal the documents from the government and seeking to have potentially incriminating evidence destroyed.

___

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

Bannon Home Inspections Offers Top-Rated Home Inspection Services to the Monroe, NC Area  News Channel Nebraska

Bannon Home Inspections Offers Top-Rated Home Inspection Services to the Monroe, NC Area  WICZ

Bannon Home Inspections Offers Top-Rated Home Inspection Services to the Monroe, NC Area  newschannelnebraska.com

Bannon Home Inspections Offers Top-Rated Home Inspection Services to the Monroe, NC Area  News Channel Nebraska

Caroline Garcia defeated Naomi Osaka 7-6 (4), 7-5 on Sunday in a third-round Miami Open match in which the pair combined for 28 aces.

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion and one-time South Floridian, came up short despite playing some of her best tennis of the season in Miami. She beat 17th-ranked Elina Svitolina 6-2, 7-6 (5) on Saturday, which was her second win over a top-20 opponent in her previous four matches.

Garcia advances to play No. 3 Coco Gauff, the 20-year-old who grew up in Delray Beach, in the fourth round.

In other women’s matches, fifth-ranked Jessica Pegula defeated No. 35 Leylah Fernandez 7-5, 6-4 to reach the Round of 16 for the third straight year; and No. 24 Sorana Cîrstea beat 11th-ranked Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 7-6.

In men’s play, last year’s Miami Open runner-up and third-ranked Jannik Sinner rallied after dropping the first set to outlast No. 26 Tallon Griekspoor 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 and advance to the fourth round. A light rain shower briefly stopped match play with Griekspoor leading 7-5, 3-3, but Sinner took control of the match after the delay.

By AARON BRACY (Associated Press)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sam Reinhart scored two goals to reach 50 on the season, Brandon Montour added three assists and the Florida Panthers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night.

“Very cool,” Reinhart said. “It’s obviously a number I never really thought about.”

Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers, who tied Boston with 97 points atop the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division. Florida will host the Bruins on Tuesday night.

Bobby Brink scored for the Flyers.

“I thought we played really well,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “We can build off the whole game.”

Both teams were playing the second games of a back-to-back and used their backup goalies. Philadelphia defeated Boston 3-2 on Saturday while the Panthers lost 4-3 in a shootout at the Rangers. Anthony Stolarz made 32 saves for the Panthers while Philadelphia’s Felix Sandstrom allowed three goals on 14 shots.

“(Stolarz) was outstanding,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.

The Flyers are playing without starting goalie Carter Hart, who took a leave of absence from the team in January.

Court documents show that Hart is one of five players from Canada’s 2018 world junior team who has been charged with sexual assault in connection to an incident alleged to have happened on June 19, 2018, in London, Ontario. Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils, Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames and former NHL player Alex Formenton also are facing charges.

Asked about Sandstrom’s performance, Tortorella threw his hands up, stared down the questioner and then abruptly departed the postgame podium without saying a word.

The Panthers, who entered leading the East and third in the NHL with a plus-55 goal differential, scored the lone goals in the first and second periods to take a 2-0 lead into the third.

Reinhart put Florida on the board with his first of the day 10:34 into the first, breaking free in the slot and shooting a wrister off Sandstrom and into the net. He reached his milestone tally with 1:12 remaining into an empty net. Reinhart entered third in the NHL in goals, trailing Toronto’s Auston Matthews by 10. He also had an assist.

“Such a rare thing in a player’s career,” Maurice said of Reinhart’s milestone. “That puts you in elite class. There are very few people’s names who score 50 that you don’t know. They’re superstars. We’re just so fortunate to have him.”

The Panthers went in front 2-0 just 55 seconds into the second with a power-play tally when Tarasenko beat Sandstrom from the circle.

“I need to be able to step up to keep us in it,” Sandstrom said. “I’m not too happy about today. It was one of those days of why and how did that happen. I just got to be more detailed and make sure I probably track them better.”

Stolarz stood tall in the second when Philadelphia made a strong push to get on the board. The Panthers goalie also got some good fortune, as Philadelphia center Sean Couturier beat him with a backhander that went off the crossbar.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Host Bruins on Tuesday night.

Flyers: At Rangers on Tuesday night.

___

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

MIAMI – Observations and other notes of interest from Sunday night’s 121-84 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers:

– This is how the Heat can be both inspiring and infuriating at the same time.

– Inspiring because of the bounceback after Friday night’s no-show against the Pelicans.

– Infuriating because of losses like that game against New Orleans, when it seemed as if they simply could not be bothered.

– A little more of what the Heat offered Sunday, and a little less of what was on display on Friday night, and there wouldn’t be this desperate scramble in the play-in bracket.

– No excuses this time for injuries.

– Simply effort.

– Because sometimes it can be that simple.

– Such as Sunday’s first half.

– When the defense was stifling and Bam Adebayo was everywhere.

– That’s how you win when missing the scoring of Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr.

– And when missing the shooting of Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love.

– For the most important games, each of those will be needed.

– For games like this, effort (and a few timely 3-pointers) can go a long way.

– Next the ante will be upped, with the Warriors visiting Tuesday in the third-game of this four-game homestand.

– Asked pregame about his frustration level with the injuries, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra turned the question around.

– “I’m not even thinking about frustration,” he said. “I’m just thinking about, ‘What do we need to do to prepare, put ourselves in a position to win?’ You have to attack whatever your reality is and not overwhelm yourself with things you can’t control.”

– He added, “We’ve proven that when we get consistent to our identity, it doesn’t matter in the short term who is available and who’s not. And we’re wrapping our minds around to get the job done by any means necessary.”

– The Heat again opened with a lineup of Adebayo, Nikola Jovic, Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier and Patty Mills.

– It was the first time Adebayo was available in the teams’ four matchups this season.

– The Cavaliers also were shorthanded, without Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus, among others.

– Spoelstra said that did not necessarily alleviate any concerns.

– “They have a very good defense,” he said. “You have to be very intentional and do things with pace and motor.”

– Of the game possibly being a playoff preview, Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, “There are mind games, and obviously part of the league is when teams feel like they can dominate.”

– He also downplayed the Heat’s absences.

– “They compete at a level every single night that you’re forced to respect,” Bickerstaff said.

–  Caleb Martin and Delon Wright entered as the Heat’s first reserves.

– Haywood Highsmith followed.

–  Martin and Highsmith each converted their first 3-point shot on a night the Heat needed to find shooting.

– Thomas Bryant made it nine deep for the Heat.

– Adebayo entered having converted a 3-pointer in a career high five consecutive appearances.

– He was off on a first-period attempt, his lone attempt of the game.

– “I love that about Bam, that he just continues to work that improvement,” Spoelstra said. “And that’s also a talent in this league, to have a work ethic and a commitment to constantly grow. He’s been able to add things that have been necessary, particularly against the better defenses.”

– Spoelstra added, “Will he be a volume 3-point shooter at this time? That’s not necessarily what we’re looking for. But that’s a good look for him, especially when teams just totally sag off.”

– Rozier, a native of the Cleveland area, entered in his 25 career games having scored at least 20 against the Cavaliers, with two 30-point games and a 42-point game.

– And that was in addition to his theatrics with his winning shots Wednesday in Cleveland.

– The Cavaliers’ Garden entered tied with Grayson Allen and Klay Thompson for the NBA’s most 3-pointers since the All-Star break, with 60.

– Meanwhile, down on the farm, guard Alondes Williams, on a Heat two-way contract, scored 45 points Sunday in the G League.

MIAMI – The body doubles arrived as needed Sunday night, in a much needed 121-84 Miami Heat victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Kaseya Center.

No Tyler Herro? Patty Mills instead stepping into shots with confidence.

No Duncan Robinson? Haywood Highsmith making all four of his three 3-pointers.

No. Kevin Love? Nikola Jovic essentially putting the game away with a scoring binge at the start of a blowout second half.

No, Jaime Jaquez Jr.? Caleb Martin again bringing the energy with tangible results.

Need further perspective? The Heat played Pepas, their victory anthem, with 6:42 to play, their lead cresting at 45.

“We were just having fun out there,” Haywood understated.

Granted, the Cavaliers were without Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus, but after being humiliated Friday night by the New Orleans Pelicans, the Heat were beyond much in the way of empathy.

So after scoring all of 88 points against the Pelicans, the Heat this time reached that total before the end of Sunday’s third period.

And, yes, that was a 40-point lead in the third quarter, even with Herro out with his foot ailment, Robinson with a sore back, Love with a heel issue and Jaquez a late scratch with knee and ankle soreness.

For the Heat, it was the right opponent at the right time. Prior to Sunday, the Heat’s largest lead this season had been 33 in their Nov. 22 victory over . . . the Cavaliers.

And, no, coach Erik Spoelstra did not have an explanation of such a dramatic turnaround two days later.

“I don’t know, and if anybody had an answer for that, I could do a lot of things,” he said. “That’s what makes this league humbling. We were on the other end of it the other night.”

With the Heat up 33 at the end of the third quarter, it was a boxscore that did not necessarily show the dominance of individuals, with Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler given the final period off.

Adebayo closed with 15 points and 16 rebounds in 28 minutes. Butler added 15 points in his 24 minutes. The Heat also got 18 points from Haywood Highsmith, 14 from Terry Rozier, 14 from Thomas Bryant and 11 from Martin.

“There were a bunch of inspiring plays,” Spoelstra said.

The Heat’s four-game homestand continues Tuesday night with the lone visit of the season by the Golden State Warriors.

Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:

1. Game flow: The Heat led 32-22 at the end of the first period and 60-39 at halftime, with Rozier beating the buzzer for baskets to end each of the first two periods,

“The starters did a great job of setting the tone,” Highsmith said.

Then, after pushing the lead to 40 in the third, the Heat went into the fourth up 90-57.

At that stage, the lone Heat starter still in the game was point guard Patty Mills.

“You can definitely tell it was a different sense of urgency during the game,” Adebayo said.

Eventually,Spoelstra began to empty his bench, with Jamal Cain entering with 9:20 to play and the Heat up 38 and then Cole Swider entering with 7:25 left and the Heat up 35.

“More than anything about the score, it’s to see a collective response,” Spoelstra said.

2. Highsmith heights: Highsmith entered in Spoelstra’s initial substitutions and immediately provided a spark, converting his first five attempts from the field, including three 3-pointers.

That had him as the game’s leading scorer in the middle of the second period, with 13 points in his first eight minutes..

Highsmith entered having scored three or fewer points in 10 of his previous 11 appearances, scoring in double figures prior to Sunday only once since Feb. 26.

Highsmith’s first miss was an open dunk attempt in the second period.

“It was a great bounce-back win that we needed,” Highsmith said.

And a rare quality home win.

“I think our fans really deserved this,” he said.

3. Martin contributes: Having shot a combined 1 of 15 in his previous two games, including 0 for 8 in Friday night’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, Martin converted his first two shots, a pair of three pointers, tossing up his arms in celebration after each conversion.

Martin had been listed as questionable until an hour prior to tipoff, due to knee and ankle soreness.

Martin had converted multiple 3-pointers only once in his previous six games.

“You see the ball go in, in an easy fashion, that can change things,” Spoelstra said. “I like the energy. I like the enthusiasm.”

4. Moving up: Adebayo was up to 11 points, seven rebounds and three steals at the intermission.

The double-double was the 186th of Adebayo’s career, pushing him past Hassan Whiteside for third on the franchise all-time list, now only behind the 221 of Rony Seikaly and the 205 of Alonzo Mourning.

“He’s going to keep on passing all these franchise records,” Spoelstra said.

Adebayo also closed with five steals and four assists.

“A massive collective defensive effort,” Spoelstra said of the overall performance that included the Heat forcing 17 turnovers that led to 35 Heat points.

5. Attack mode: Butler already was up to 4 of 5 from the line before the end of the first period, the first player to reach double figures, doing it on a free throw 1:58 into the second quarter.

Eight of Butler’s 13 first-half points came from the line.

He closed 3 of 6 from the field and 8 of 9 from the line, with six assists and three rebounds.

Fourth Annual Spring Fling EGGstravaganza at Las Olas Oceanside Park on Sunday, March 24, 2024. The event included egg hunts, a craft corner, live music, contests, games, and photos with the Easter Bunny.

Florida Democrats, from community activists to the top of the state party, say they’re energized and ready for the November elections — vowing to organize, mobilize and compete.

They face strong headwinds — including the ever-increasing numbers of registered Republican voters, an inability to generate enthusiasm in the 2022 midterm elections, and difficulty attracting the kind of big-money financial support needed to help them dig out of their hole.

As hundreds of Democrats gathered in Fort Lauderdale over the weekend they vowed not to cede Florida to the Republicans.

“We’re going to give them a good fight. We’re going to try to take back Florida,” said Laurie Plotnick, president of the Democratic Senior Caucus of Florida. “We’re not going to lay down and give them this state.”

Nikki Fried, chair of the state Democratic Party, offered a similar assessment during a break Saturday night at the Broward Democratic Party’s annual Obama Roosevelt Gala at the Broward County Convention Center.

“Democrats are hungry. They’re hungry to take back the state. We’re seeing, no matter where you are, … Democrats are coming out to events,” Fried said. “They’re signing up to run for office. They’re volunteering for campaigns because we understand what’s on the line in November.”

Truly competitive?

After decades as a swing state that could award its presidential electoral votes to either the Democratic or Republican nominee, Florida is now widely seen as largely Republican red.

To many, including Democrats speaking privately, that means Florida is less likely to get attention from the presidential candidates — except to raise money from the state’s deep-pocketed donors.

Democrats are not writing off Florida, said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee.

“That’s completely untrue, factually untrue. We are an expansion state on the Biden campaign map,” she said. “They are in the process of standing up a coordinated campaign, hiring staff, coordinating with our state party and our local parties. Florida is going to be in play and then we’re gonna make a real aggressive statewide effort.”

Wasserman Schultz, like Fried, cited victories since the 2022 midterm elections — when Florida Democrats received a shellacking — and the success of a petition drive to get an amendment on the ballot to enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution.

The Florida Supreme Court still has to rule on whether the proposed amendment will appear on the ballot. Democrats like Wasserman Schultz and Fried see it as something that could make Florida more competitive by increasing turnout of people who favor abortion rights.

“Presuming that we have substantive issues like reproductive freedom on the ballot, we will have an infrastructure in place to be able to get people to the polls,” Wasserman Schultz said. “We have momentum and we’re going to capitalize on it,” citing what she called “the contrast right now between the MAGA extremists in the Republican Party, whether it’s Ron DeSantis or Trump versus ‘Team Normal’ in Democrats led by President Biden.”

Fried too said national Democrats haven’t given up on Florida.

“Every single conversation that we are having with our national partners with the national surrogates, they understand that if you’re going to take back democracy for the country and fight for freedom,  that you’re going to come to the belly of the beast. That’s here in the State of Florida,” Fried said. “We are part of the expansion map, and we are ready to make sure that we flip Florida and to deliver it to President Biden.”

Related Articles

• Politics | ‘Frozen in time’: Vice President Kamala Harris reacts to viewing site of Stoneman Douglas shooting
• Politics | Rabbi, political activist, former state legislator Barry Silver dies
• Politics | Where Trump showed strength, and weakness, as Florida Republicans gave him another big primary victory
• Politics | FAU national poll finds Biden-Trump tie. State of the Union didn’t help president.
• Politics | Lawmakers stuff state budget with local projects. Here’s what’s earmarked for South Florida.

Expansion states are the ones that could get attention in addition to the half-dozen swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — that could determine the outcome of an election.

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Parkland, was less optimistic, pointing to the long decline in the party’s fortunes that preceded Fried’s election as state party chair in February 2023.

“I think, frankly, we made her captain of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg,” Moskowitz said.

“This is not something that’s going to be fixed in a year or two years. We’ve had a systemic breakdown and it’s gonna take a while to fix that. And we have a math problem: There are 800,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats,” he said.

Democrats have some wins since 2022, so “I don’t think all is lost, but we’re not starting from an even place. We are starting from behind. At the end of the day, if the Biden campaign invests in Florida, then you can put it in play.”

Republicans scoff

Joe Budd, the elected state Republican committeeman from Palm Beach County, sees little chance of Democrats prevailing in Florida in 2024.

“Not Florida. I believe this is a securely red state,” Budd said.

Richard DeNapoli, the elected state committeeman from Broward and a former county party chair, said via text that there so far hasn’t been the kind of national Democratic Party money and involvement that Fried and Wasserman Schultz said might come.

“It does not seem that the national Democrat Party considers Florida flippable, given Florida’s status as an increasingly Republican state and the massive amount of money it takes to campaign in such a large state and its media markets.”

DeSantis, in a news conference last week, said the state has trended so much toward the Republicans, that a robust presidential campaign in Florida is unlikely.

“I don’t anticipate there being much campaign here for the top of the ticket,” he said. “As people look at kind of how the election will turn out, I don’t think Florida is gonna be a place where you’re gonna see a lot of activity, and that’ll be the first time in probably most of our lifetimes where that’s been the case.”

The Republican governor also mocked Florida Democrats’ abilities. “They have a really serious habit of just doing dumb things over and over again,” he said. “They continue to shoot themselves in the foot.”

Former Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief, left, a candidate for Florida Senate, and state Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried share a laugh after the Broward Democratic Party’s Obama Roosevelt Gala on March 23, 2024. Fried said posing with Sharief was “not an endorsement.” (Anthony Man/South Florida Sun Sentinel) Harris visit

Fried and several other Democrats pointed to Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to Parkland earlier on Saturday as a sign the Biden campaign hasn’t written off the state.

It was the vice president’s 11th trip to Florida since she was sworn in in 2021.

“When a state is not in play, I can tell you from experience, the travel doesn’t happen,” Wasserman Schultz said.

The vice president spent about five hours at the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where she toured the building that was the site of the 2018 massacre in which 17 people were killed and 17 wounded, met with family members of victims, and promoted initiatives she said could reduce gun violence.

The trip was official business, but it generated criticism from some Republicans and spurred back and forth among some family members whose children were killed at Stoneman Douglas about whether the trip was political.

Ryan Petty, father of Alaina Petty, told Fox News last week that he found her visit political, terming it “offensive.” Fred Guttenberg, father of Jaime Guttenberg, and Max Schachter, father of Alex Schachter, said on social media that it emphatically was not political, but aimed at identifying ways to prevent gun violence at schools.

Moskowitz, a Stoneman Douglas graduate who represents Parkland and helped arrange and guide the tour, strongly pushed back at the notion that politics was in play. “The vice president was here to honor the families, to go through the building before it gets torn down,” he said. “It was not politics.”

Harris was near the Democratic Party’s dinner venue Saturday evening as the event was beginning. Air Force Two left Fort Lauderdale at 6:12 p.m. But she didn’t stay later to stop at the event, as some rank-and-file party members hoped she would do, a move that would have fueled the contention that her trip was motivated by politics.

The Parkland visit was praised by Democrats. And many Caribbean American Democrats have positive feelings toward Harris, whose father is Jamaican American.

Republicans, by contrast, revile just about everything she does.

A March 17 nationwide USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll found 38% of voters said Harris is qualified to be president and 54% said she is not.

Among Democrats, it’s 75% qualified and 17% not. Among Republicans it’s 6% qualified and 92% not qualified.

For many Republicans, Budd said, their “greatest concern is Biden does become unfit to be president and we end up with Kamala Harris. I think that’s a major concern for Republicans,” adding that for many “the biggest reason not to vote for Biden is we’ll get Kamala Harris who really doesn’t seem like she’s up to the task.”

Last week, after she voted for Trump in the Republican presidential preference primary on Tuesday, Joyce Holzapfel of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea offered two reasons: “First of all, I’m a Republican,” she said, adding, “A vote for Trump is a vote against Kamala.”

Holzapfel described Harris as “dangerous,” and objected to the vice president’s speaking style. “She’s talking to us like we’re first-graders,” she said.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the media after the vice president and the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention met with families whose loved ones were murdered during the 2018 mass shooting that took the lives of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Saturday, March 23, 2024. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald) Broward warning

Democrats gathered for the Broward event outlined plans to mobilize voters for November, and sought to warn other party activists what’s at stake in the state’s largest remaining Democratic stronghold.

Broward Democratic Chair Rick Hoye exhorted party members to remain optimistic.  “Don’t ever let anybody tell you that Florida is written off,” he said, before sounding some cautionary notes.

“You guys have seen the Trumpers at, at early voting and not on Election Day. It’s always strength in numbers,” Hoye said, adding that the opposition party is “continuously putting money in here to make Broward not blue. We can’t afford for that to happen. We just can’t afford for that to happen.

Joshua Simmons, a Coral Springs commissioner, cited an upcoming local election. “The Republicans are trying to crack back into Coral Springs, and we are not gonna let that happen.”

And Steve Geller, a former Democratic leader in the Florida Senate who is running for reelection to the Broward County Commission this year, sounded a note of urgency.

In the 2022 midterm election, “I saw something different than what I had ever seen before: There were more Republican volunteers at the polls in 2022 than there were Democratic. And that’s just not OK,” Geller said.

Money

Organizing political operations takes money, and that was the purpose of Saturday night’s Broward Democratic gala.

Hoye said the money would support several programs in neighborhoods, including open houses and other events to energize and educate voters and recruit volunteers. The keynote speaker, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, sent a brief video from an airport after weather delays prevented him from making it to Fort Lauderdale.

Some 400 or so people attended, and the event raised $203,000, Hoye said.

The contrast between the fortunes of Florida Democrats was illustrated by another county party fundraising dinner eight days earlier.

On March 15, the Palm Beach County Republican Party held its annual Lincoln Day dinner.

The event was held at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump’s club and residence in Palm Beach. The gathering featured several high-wattage headliners, including Trump, who was given the county party’s “lifetime achievement” award and  U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Panhandle Republican, who was honored as “Statesman of the Year.”

Palm Beach County Republican Chair Kevin Neal said via email the event was sold out, with 800 attendees. He said the dinner broke a fundraising record, taking in more than $1 million.

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

MIAMI GARDENS — Third-ranked Coco Gauff came from behind in the first set to beat Océane Dodin 6-4, 6-0 and advance to the fourth round of the Miami Open for the second time in her career.

Gauff won 10 straight games after Dodin took a 4-2 lead in the opening set, thanks partly to nine double-faults by Dodin at critical moments.

Gauff has just one loss in her past 23 matches in the United States. That defeat came against Maria Sakkari at Indian Wells earlier this month.

Gauff, who turned 20 on March 13, is the youngest American player to hold a top three seed at Miami. The reigning U.S. Open champion, who is from South Florida, attended the event growing up and said capturing a title there would be special.

“It would be really cool to win here at home,” said Gauff, who was born in Delray Beach. “I think the best part about winning here is just being able to drive home with the trophy and not have to fly and pack. … And I’m a Dolphins fan, so maybe if I win here they can win another trophy at the Super Bowl.”

Gauff will face No. 27 Caroline Garcia, who defeated Naomi Osaka 7-6 (4), 7-5 on Sunday.

Broward Sheriff’s deputies were on scene early Sunday morning after shots were fired at the Players Sports Bar and Grill in North Lauderdale.

Media reports indicate three people were shot at about 3:30 a.m., one of whom may have died. The Broward Sheriff’s Office has not released any confirmation or other information as of early Sunday afternoon.

The bar is located on the 5200 block of State Road 7, roughly halfway between Prospect Road to the south and Commercial Blvd, to the north.

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

 

As the moon prepares to blot out the surface of our sun in two weeks, it’s warming up with a penumbral lunar eclipse Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on your time zone.

In general, eclipses are the result of a delicate dance between the moon, the sun and the Earth. Lunar eclipses occur when the planet slides between the sun and the moon. That’s in contrast to a solar eclipse, which happens when the moon interjects between the other two bodies.

“It’s all about shadows,” said Noah Petro, a planetary geologist who works on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA. The sun beams light on Earth, casting a long shadow behind it.

“And every once in a while, the moon wanders into that shadow,” Petro said.

In the most dramatic version of the event, the darkest part of Earth’s shadow washes over the lunar surface, making it shine crimson. This is a total lunar eclipse, also known as a blood moon.

But you won’t see that happen overnight. At 12:53 a.m. Eastern time Monday, the moon will start to pass through only the outermost part of Earth’s shadow, known as the penumbra. As a result, its full face will slightly dim.

Is that worth trying to see? Petro thinks so. But the change will be difficult to catch with the naked eye, so he encourages using binoculars or a telescope, and taking note of how the moon’s brightness changes through the night.

Lunar eclipses happen slowly over several hours, Petro said, so “if you only go out once to look at it, you may not even notice that it’s happening.”

Unlike their solar counterparts, lunar eclipses can be viewed by everyone on the nightside of Earth. According to Petro, the reason for this difference has to do with the varying sizes of the celestial bodies.

Because Earth is so much bigger than the moon, its shadow is large enough to envelop the entire lunar surface — an effect that Sunday night will be visible to people across much of the Americas. Skywatchers in the western half of Africa, and in eastern parts of Asia and Australia, might also see some of the eclipse.

The moon, on the other hand, is much smaller than our planet. So during a solar eclipse, it plunges only a narrow path on Earth’s surface into darkness.

Different though they are, the two celestial events are related. Both have to do with the alignment of the moon, Earth and sun, but in different orientations. Lunar and solar eclipses always occur in pairs, two weeks apart — the amount of time it takes for the moon to move from one side of Earth to the other.

“The moon is this dance partner that we’ve now had for 4 1/2 billion years,” Petro said, adding that both kinds of eclipses should remind us of the importance of our cosmic companion.

“We are part of a system,” Petro said. “Eclipses are great reminders that we are not alone in space.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

TALLAHASSEE — DJ Uiagalelei has played in 47 college games and thrown for 8,319 yards. He’s learned different offenses at Clemson and Oregon State. But in his final season of college football, he’s enjoying a new challenge at Florida State.

“I’m an older guy,” Uiagalelei said. “I’ve played in a little bit of games, but it’s my first days in the offense. There are guys that have been in the offense for over a year now, know this offense a lot more than me. I try to look at them, ask them questions.”

After memorable season, Norvell’s ‘Noles face challenges as spring camp commences

This is the dynamic for one of college football’s top transfers, an experienced mentor as well as a new guy learning his third playbook. But it’s a relationship that works for him as well as a room full of freshmen quarterbacks, with Brock Glenn the only one who has played at FSU. There’s also true freshmen Luke Kromenhoek and Trever Jackson, an Orlando native, but Uiagalelei is viewed as the front runner to grab the starting job in his final year of college football while helping Glenn prepare for the future.

What Uiagalelei brings to the table was evident at Clemson and Oregon State, a 6-foot-4 frame that has zip on the ball to the far side of the field as well as can slingshot a deep pass. In the first few days of FSU’s practices, Uiagalelei showed he’s still building rhythm and timing in the passing game.

The relationships are building and he’s often accurate, but at other times a missed connection on high-percentage short passes pop up (it’s one of the question marks as his completion percentage was just 57.1 in 2023 at Oregon State). Deep passes look almost effortless, and he’s often thrown it on time to an FSU receiving corps that has added speed through the transfer portal and has developed talented, fast younger players, too.

WR Coleman in spotlight at FSU Pro Day

Uiagalelei offered the most praise for Alabama transfer Malik Benson, who he said “has the right mindset to go out there and dominate.” But he also took time to compliment FSU veterans Ja’Khi Douglas, Darion Williamson and Deuce Spann as well as second-year standouts like Destyn Hill and Hykeem Williams.

There is a learning curve — as to be expected with a new offense, teammates and coaching staff. But FSU coaches have optimism based on what they’ve seen and how they’ve interacted with Uiagalelei.

“There’s a fine balance between a guy that’s played a lot of football and figuring out what he does really well with and at,” FSU quarterbacks coach Tony Tokarz said. “It’s a fun challenge for me as a coach of finding that balance of give and take with it. And then just from a schematic standpoint, he has seen a lot of football.

In his only season at Oregon State, DJ Uiagalelei ran for 6 TDs and threw for 2,600 yards. He began his career at Clemson. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

“Some of those conversations are fun. He challenges me as a coach, which I absolutely love. And at the same time my job is to continue to find ways to challenge him so he doesn’t get bored. It’s a good little game of ping-pong sometimes.”

Ping-pong is rapid. The same goes for FSU’s practices. Uiagalelei said he isn’t as used to the tempo of practice, although coach Mike Norvell said the pace picked up considerably after Day 1.

“At Oregon State we were a little slower, huddled every play,” Uiagalelei said. “The practice tempo is a lot faster. Coach Norvell brings that intensity, brings that energy every single time. It’s nice though to have a guy like coach Norvell who really cares about each player’s development on and off the field.”

 

Home and Garden Show: Why home inspections are important  WISN Milwaukee

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Jannik Sinner advanced to the third round of the Miami Open with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over fellow Italian Andrea Vavassori on Saturday.

The third-ranked Sinner, the Australian Open champion and last year’s Miami Open runner-up, had to wait overnight to clinch the opening victory at Miami after rain forced a suspension of the match on Friday with Sinner leading 3-2.

The 22-year-old Sinner stretched his record to 12-0 against fellow Italians on tour level.

“I thinks it’s a lot of difference between here and anywhere else,” Sinner said. “Here maybe the court suits me a little bit better because the ball is not that bouncy. But I feel just mentally quite free to play, and I think that’s most important.”

Andy Murray advanced to the third round with a 7-6, 6-3 victory over 29th-ranked Tomás Martín Etcheverry. That match was also suspended on Friday because of rain. Murray, who won the Miami title in 2009 and 2013, snapped a nine-match losing streak against top 50 players with the win and has now played 995 career tour-level matches.

“My body feels that,” said Murray, who turns 37 in May, “It feels like I’ve played a thousand. I’ve obviously been on the tour a long time. My first matches on tour were just as I turned 18 years old … It’s been a long career but an amazing career.”

In women’s play, top-ranked Iga Świątek, coming off an Indian Wells title last week, defeated Camila Giorgi 6-1 ,6-1 in just over an hour. The victory gave Świątek 81 wins in the first 100 matches of her career at the WTA-1000 level. Only Serena Williams (87) had more wins in her first 100 matches at that level.

Naomi Osaka continued her comeback journey by defeating 17th-ranked Elina Svitolina 6-2, 7-6 (5). Osaka, who is comng off a third-round loss at Indian Wells, now has two wins over top 20 opponents in her last four matches.

A day after rain and wind delayed the start of play and suspended several matches, downpours again pushed the start of Saturday’s matches back by nearly three hours.

On a day with several upsets on the men’s side, Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild stunned American Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4 to reach the third round. Numerous Brazilian fans were in attendance to watch their compatriot play, and they cheered so loudly that Fritz complained to the chair umpire.

Christopher O’Connell topped 22nd-ranked Francis Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6; 14th-ranked Tommy Paul appeared to roll his left ankle in the second set of his match against Martin Damm Jr. and was forced to retire; last year’s Miami Open winner Daniil Medvedev advanced, beating Márton Fucsovics 6-4, 6-2.

In other action, fifth-ranked Jessica Pegula advanced to the second round after Zhu Lin retired with an illness while trailing 6-4, 4-1.

___

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