Latest news with #SunSentinel
Axios
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
Connie Francis, international pop singer and movie star, dies at 87
International pop singer Connie Francis died Wednesday at 87. Francis, known in part for her hit " Pretty Little Baby," had been living in Parkland since the late 1990s, per the Miami Herald. She was born in Newark, New Jersey. Flashback: Francis' film "Where the Boys Are," which was set and filmed in Fort Lauderdale, put South Florida's beaches on the map as a popular spring break destination. In 2010, on the 50th anniversary of the film, the city established a Walk of Fame on Fort Lauderdale beach at the inaugural Great American Beach Party to pay tribute to Francis with a star, the Sun Sentinel reported. The intrigue: Last month, Universal Music Group honored Francis with a plaque to honor the recent streaming success of "Pretty Little Baby."
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Clean dining: See all 74 South Florida restaurants, food trucks with perfect inspections in June 2025
June marked the return of report-card season at our schools — and that included our South Florida eateries, where 74 restaurants and food trucks earned straight As. In June, 74 'gold-star' restaurants and food trucks made the list of perfect inspections because not one violation — minor, intermediate or high-priority — was red-flagged at the time of the surprise visit from Florida safety and sanitation inspectors. Inspections typically take place at random every six months to a year. In Broward County, 46 eateries earned perfect scores. Meanwhile, in Palm Beach County, 28 passed their inspections without a single incident. The Sun Sentinel has tallied them all up in an easy-to-read format below. NOTE: All restaurants and food trucks listed below have been sorted by city. Those without physical addresses on their Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation inspection reports have been trimmed from the list. Food and drink concessionaires, professional caterers, event planners — any purveyor that's not a restaurant, food truck, flea market stall or food hall vendor — are also excluded from the roundup. If your city isn't listed, either no restaurants there were inspected that month, or none earned a perfect score.
Miami Herald
30-06-2025
- Miami Herald
These South Florida cities will get millions from ‘forever chemicals' settlement
South Florida cities from Fort Lauderdale to Boca Raton are in line for a mega windfall in the form of multimillion-dollar settlement payouts from manufacturers of potentially toxic 'forever chemicals' that have made their way into the country's drinking water. The cities were plaintiffs in a national class-action lawsuit that accused 3M, DuPont and dozens of other manufacturers of polluting the water supply of municipalities around the country with perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS — commonly referred to as 'forever chemicals.' Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach and Sunrise are collecting combined damages of $35 million, said James Ferraro Jr., one of the lead attorneys in the class-action case who represented several cities in Florida, Georgia and Massachusetts. Read the full story at the Sun Sentinel.
Miami Herald
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
No ‘foreign invasion' as the American flag flew high at South Florida protest
At the 'No Kings' protest on Fort Lauderdale Beach Saturday morning, the real story was evident from the countless American flags of all sizes being waved: This was an American protest, not a foreign invasion. President Donald Trump claimed to soldiers at Fort Bragg on Tuesday that sending Marines to Los Angeles was justified because protesters there were actually 'rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion.' But on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, the protesters lining State Road A1A were braving the hot sun to push back against the Trump administration's escalating anti-immigrant offensive and abuse of power. These weren't invaders but people who took to the streets to exercise a right that's as American as it gets: to protest their government. The patriotic display was fitting given that Saturday also marked Flag Day, which commemorates the adoption of the American flag on June 14, 1777. 'We're here to protect the Constitution,' Nina McCamley of Davie told a member of the Herald Editorial Board. McCamley is a registered Democrat but was a Republican until Trump's first election in 2016. She said she was particularly upset about the 'mass deportations of people who have done nothing wrong.' On one side sitting next to her was a woman wearing a shirt and hat emblazoned with the American flag. On the other side was Deter Partington of Fort Lauderdale, originally from London and a naturalized U.S. citizen. He said when he immigrated to the U.S. 40 years ago he felt a 'relief' that his rights were protected by the Bill of Rights. (The U.K. does not have a single written constitutional document like the U.S.) Now, he said, the Bill of Rights is 'being written all over.' With protests across the country scheduled on the same day as the military parade in Washington, D.C. — a frivolous and expensive show of military might catering to the president's ego — and coinciding with Trump's 79th birthday, the protesters in South Florida decried Trump's growing embrace of authoritarian tactics with chants like 'Let's let it rain on his parade' and signs like 'No kings since 1776.' As cars drove down A1A, many honked in support. And, yes, flags were also waved from other countries, such as Mexico and Ukraine, as well as from Puerto Rico — symbols of America's and South Florida's multiculturalism. This is a country where you can be as proud of the Stars and Stripes as you are of your heritage. The Fort Lauderdale demonstration attracted at least hundreds, with the Sun Sentinel reporting a crowd of 2,000 people. In Miami Beach, hundreds of people streamed into Pride Park Saturday morning at another rally. Monica Tracy, a 67-year-old retired real estate agent who organized the event, told the Herald: 'Our founding principle is that we didn't want a king, and now we have one.' There were other rallies, too, including one at the Torch of Friendship in downtown Miami, where thousands gathered, the Herald reported. The protests across the country and in Florida are a sign of the growing clash between visions for the United States. There's no question on which side Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis falls. He has embraced Trump's vision as a way of trying to get back in the president's good graces after challenging him for the Republican presidential nomination last year. He warned earlier in the week that law enforcement was at the ready, and that protesters would be arrested if they blocked streets or destroyed property. He even went so far as saying that drivers who run over protesters who block roadways likely wouldn't be at fault under the state's anti-riot law passed in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020. This country cannot afford the continuing divisiveness and anger, a point driven home by the assassination attempts against Trump and, on the same day as the protests, the shooting of two Minnesota legislators in 'what appears to be a politically-motivated assassination,' according to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Patriotism takes a lot of forms, and protest is one of them. No side of the political aisle owns patriotism. Protests sometimes get out of hand or become violent — in California last weekend, protests devolved into violent clashes. Demonstrators need to stay peaceful to be heard. But these protests, stretching across the country, need to be heeded. Trump's authoritarian tendencies are clear in the way he is handling immigration, in his craving for a military parade, in his shrugging off of due process. Protesters are drawing the line and exercising their right to criticize their government. Click here to send the letter. Click here to send the letter.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Broward judge denies violating judicial conduct code over deepfake AI call
Broward County Judge Lauren Peffer in a new court filing Friday formally denied the ethics charges filed against her, stemming from her promotion of a scandalous book and a deepfake AI recording during her campaign last year. In the routine filing with Florida's Supreme Court, Peffer denied the Judicial Qualifications Commission's charges filed last month that she violated judicial ethics rules that govern 'inappropriate political activity.' Peffer, a first-time judicial candidate, won her seat in August and began her term in January. During her campaign, which centered on trustworthiness and ethics in the judiciary, Peffer referenced in an endorsement interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board a book written and published by a former courthouse employee in the Orlando area called, 'The Ninth Circus Court of Florida, My 30-Year Job from Hell!' The book, written by someone who had been terminated, 'portrays the judiciary in the Ninth Judicial Circuit as corrupt and incompetent and attacks the character' of numerous judges, including current Chief Judge Lisa Munyon, according to the JQC's charging document. Peffer wrote in response to a Sun Sentinel editorial board questionnaire that the book's 'recent revelations' had 'highlighted an image crisis within Florida's judiciary,' according to the JQC's notice of formal charges. At the time Peffer cited the book in the Sun Sentinel interview, it lacked any published reviews and appeared to have generated no public discourse or impact, the Sun Sentinel previously reported. Asked by the Sun Sentinel about evidence of the book creating public mistrust, Peffer sent the newspaper a link to an 18-minute recording of what purported to be a phone call about the book between Munyon, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz and Justice Renatha Francis, according to the notice of charges. But the recording was fake, likely made with generative AI, and could be deemed so by 'any reasonable person,' the JQC said in its notice of charges. Broward judicial candidate drops Orlando author's self-published tell-all from her campaign stump speech Peffer was forwarded the link to the recording 'by another lawyer,' her response filed Friday said. Peffer in her response to the charges on Friday acknowledged that she had not 'carefully listened to the call but had a recollection that the judiciary was being criticized in the recording' and did not try to determine its veracity before providing it to the newspaper. 'Judge Peffer acknowledges that she should have more carefully listened to the recording before referencing it in her answers to the editorial board. In responding to these proceedings, Judge Peffer listened to the recordings without distraction, and it was immediately apparent that the purported phone call was a 'deep fake,'' her response said. However, she denied that she shared the recording 'despite clear evidence of its inauthenticity,' as the JQC alleged in its charges. In her response, Peffer also admitted that she never read the disgruntled employee's book before referencing it to the Sun Sentinel and did not research the claims the employee made. 'Judge Peffer did not intend to promote the validity of the book but instead, she intended to point to the book as an example of criticism of the judiciary,' her response said. She previously acknowledged issues with the book in a July interview with the Sun Sentinel and said she would stop citing it. Peffer denied that she 'ignored' the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee's training on campaign ethics as the notice of charges alleged and denied that she 'helped facilitate the former employee's farce,' according to her response.
