Associated Press – Sun Sentinel https://www.sun-sentinel.com Sun Sentinel: Your source for South Florida breaking news, sports, business, entertainment, weather and traffic Thu, 15 Aug 2024 15:46:59 +0000 en-US hourly 30 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Sfav.jpg?w=32 Associated Press – Sun Sentinel https://www.sun-sentinel.com 32 32 208786665 Donald Trump asks judge to delay sentencing in hush money case until after November election https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/15/donald-trump-asks-judge-to-delay-sentencing-in-hush-money-case-until-after-november-election/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 15:27:03 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11693387&preview=true&preview_id=11693387 By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is asking the judge in his New York hush money criminal case to delay his sentencing until after the November presidential election.

In a letter made public Thursday, a lawyer for the former president and current Republican nominee suggested that sentencing Trump as scheduled on Sept. 18 — about seven weeks before Election Day — would amount to election interference.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche wrote that a delay would also allow Trump time to weigh next steps after the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, is expected to rule Sept. 16 on the defense’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.

“There is no basis for continuing to rush,” Blanche wrote.

Blanche sent the letter to Merchan on Wednesday after the judge rejected the defense’s latest request that he step aside from the case.

In the letter, Blanche reiterated the defense argument that the judge has a conflict of interest because his daughter works as a Democratic political consultant, including for Kamala Harris when she sought the 2020 presidential nomination. Harris is now running against Trump.

By adjourning the sentencing until after that election, “the Court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings,” Blanche wrote.

Election Day is Nov. 5, but many states allow voters to cast ballots early, with some set to start the process just a few days before or after Trump’s scheduled Sept. 18 sentencing date.

Merchan, who has said he is confident in his ability to remain fair and impartial, did not immediately rule on the delay request.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Trump’s case, declined to comment.

Trump was convicted in May of falsifying his business’ records to conceal a 2016 deal to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with him. Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him during his first campaign.

Trump says all the stories were false, the business records were not and the case was a political maneuver meant to damage his current campaign. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is a Democrat.

Trump’s defense argued that the payments were indeed for legal work and so were correctly categorized.

Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation, a fine or a conditional discharge which would require Trump to stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment. Trump is the first ex-president convicted of a crime.

Trump has pledged to appeal, but that cannot happen until he is sentenced.

In a previous letter, Merchan set Sept. 18 for “the imposition of sentence or other proceedings as appropriate.”

Blanche argued in his letter seeking a delay that the quick turnaround from the scheduled immunity ruling on Sept. 16 to sentencing two days later is unfair to Trump.

To prepare for sentencing, Blanche argued, prosecutors will be submitting their punishment recommendation while Merchan is still weighing whether to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. If Merchan rules against Trump on the dismissal request, he will need “adequate time to assess and pursue state and federal appellate options,” Blanche said.

The Supreme Court’s immunity decision reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal. Trump’s lawyers argue that in light of the ruling, jurors in the hush money case should not have heard such evidence as former White House staffers describing how the then-president reacted to news coverage of the Daniels deal.

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11693387 2024-08-15T11:27:03+00:00 2024-08-15T11:46:59+00:00
Vance and Walz agree to a vice presidential debate on Oct. 1 hosted by CBS News https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/15/vance-and-walz-agree-to-a-vice-presidential-debate-on-oct-1-hosted-by-cbs-news/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 15:08:25 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11693348&preview=true&preview_id=11693348 By MEG KINNARD Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance have agreed to debate each other on Oct. 1, setting up a matchup of potential vice presidents as early voting in some states gets underway for the general election.

CBS News on Wednesday posted on its X feed that the network had invited both Vance and Walz to debate in New York City, presenting four possible dates — Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 — as options.

Walz reposted that message from his own campaign account, “See you on October 1, JD.” The Harris-Walz campaign followed up with a message of its own, saying Walz “looks forward to debating JD Vance — if he shows up.”

Vance posted on X that he would accept the Oct. 1 invitation. He also challenged Walz to meet on Sept. 18.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio speaks at a campaign event, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in Byron Center, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio speaks at a campaign event, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in Byron Center, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Officials with the Kamala Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Vance’s acceptance of the earlier debate that he said would be on CNN or whether Walz would participate in that one as well.

Representatives for CNN confirmed that Vance had accepted the network’s debate invitation.

“CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of “Face the Nation” will moderate the Oct. 1 debate, according to the network.

Whether or not Walz and Vance would debate before the Nov. 5 general election had been in question. In just the past several weeks, President Joe Biden left the campaign and Democrats selected Harris to lead their ticket.

Vance has largely kept his focus trained on Harris, whom he would have been set to debate before Biden’s departure from the race. Vance has lobbed critiques against Walz, including questioning the retired Army National Guardsman’s service record.

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, has said he wanted Vance to debate Walz on CBS, which had been discussing potential dates for that meeting.

The debate is expected weeks after the Sept. 10 top-of-the-ticket debate recently solidified between Trump and Harris on ABC News.

Trump has said he negotiated several other debate dates, on three different networks. Fox News has also proposed a debate between Harris and Trump to take place on Sept. 4, and NBC News is angling to air one on Sept. 25.

During an appearance in Michigan, Harris said she was “happy to have that conversation” about an additional debate.

AP Media writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.

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11693348 2024-08-15T11:08:25+00:00 2024-08-15T11:17:26+00:00
At least 1 arrest made in connection to Matthew Perry’s death, law enforcement source says https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/15/at-least-1-arrest-made-in-connection-to-matthew-perrys-death-law-enforcement-source-says/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 14:31:58 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11693233&preview=true&preview_id=11693233 By MICHAEL BALSAMO and ANDREW DALTON

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities have arrested at least one person in connection with Matthew Perry’s death from an accidental ketamine overdose last year, a law enforcement official tells The Associated Press.

The official was not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. Authorities have scheduled a news conference in Los Angeles to announce details in the case later Thursday morning.

Los Angeles police said in May that they were working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with a probe into why the 54-year-old had so much of the surgical anesthetic in his system.

An assistant found Perry face down in his hot tub on Oct. 28, and paramedics who were called immediately declared him dead.

His autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery.

The decades-old drug has seen a huge surge in use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain. People close to Perry told coroner’s investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy.

But the medical examiner said Perry’s last treatment 1 1/2 weeks earlier wouldn’t explain the levels of ketamine in his blood. The drug is typically metabolized in a matter of hours. At least two doctors were treating Perry, a psychiatrist and an anesthesiologist who served as his primary care physician, the medical examiner’s report said. No illicit drugs or paraphernalia were found at his house.

Ketamine was listed as the primary cause of death, which was ruled an accident with no foul play suspected, the report said. Drowning and other medical issues were contributing factors, the coroner said.

Perry had years of struggles with addiction dating back to his time on “Friends,” when he became one of the biggest television stars of his generation as Chandler Bing alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit sitcom.

___

Balsamo reported from New York.

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11693233 2024-08-15T10:31:58+00:00 2024-08-15T10:47:32+00:00
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says Kyiv troops have full control of the Russian town of Sudzha https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/15/ukrainian-president-zelenskyy-says-kyiv-troops-have-full-control-of-the-russian-town-of-sudzha/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 09:24:33 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11693404&preview=true&preview_id=11693404 By SAMYA KULLAB and JON GAMBRELL

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that the country’s troops have full control of the Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk region in their incursion into Russian territory.

The town, the largest that Ukraine has reportedly seized so far, had a prewar population of around 5,000 people. It holds a measuring station for Russian natural gas that flows through Ukrainian pipelines to Europe.

Natural gas flows from West Siberian gas fields through pipes that pass through Sudzha and cross the Ukrainian border into Ukraine’s system.

Zelenskyy said a Ukrainian military commander’s office is being set up in Sudzha. He didn’t elaborate on the details or the functions of the office.

The claim couldn’t be independently verified. Russia did not immediately respond to Zelenskyy’s statement, but its defense ministry said earlier Thursday that Russian forces had blocked attempts to take several other communities.

There was no indication of any disruption of the gas flow through Sudzha, which accounts for about 3% of Europe’s imports.

Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press on Thursday show that a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian air bases damaged at least two hangars and other areas.

Images taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC show that two hangars at Borisoglebsk Air Base had been struck, with a field of debris around both. It was not immediately clear what purpose the hangars served. There also appeared to be potential damage to two fighter aircraft at the base.

Separately, at Savasleika Air Base, one burn mark could be seen on the apron in images Wednesday, though there was no apparent damage to the fighter jets and other aircraft there.

Kursk acting Gov. Alexei Smirnov on Thursday ordered the evacuation of the Glushkovo region, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) northwest of Sudzha, as Ukraine’s daring incursion into the bordering Kursk region entered its second week.

The evacuation order suggests Ukrainian forces are gradually advancing toward the area. Authorities say more than 120,000 residents in the Kursk region already have been evacuated.

At a facility receiving evacuees, Tatyana Anikeyeva told of her flight from the fighting. “We were rushing from Sudzha. … We hid in the bushes. Volunteers were handing out water, food, bread to people on the go. The sound of the cannonade continued without any break. The house was shaking,” she told Russian state television.

Evacuees milled around and waited in long lines for food and other supplies. One man stroked his pet dog and tried to comfort her, while saying that he felt nauseous and couldn’t eat himself.

Russia also declared a federal-level state of emergency in the Belgorod region. A regional-level state of emergency had been declared a day earlier in Belgorod, and the change in status suggests officials believe the situation is worsening and hampering the region’s ability to deliver aid.

Residents who suffer severe health damage will be eligible to receive payments of up to 600,000 rubles ($6,600). Those who experience a loss of property are eligible for up to 150,000 rubles ($1,700), Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said.

Ukraine’s chief military officer, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, declared that Ukrainian forces have taken 1,000 square kilometers (about 390 square miles) of the Kursk region. That claim couldn’t be independently verified. The contact lines in Kursk have remained fluid, allowing both sides to maneuver easily, unlike the static front line in eastern Ukraine where it has taken Russian forces months to achieve even incremental gains.

Russian military bloggers have claimed that Russian reserves arriving in the region have stemmed Ukrainian advances, but they also noted that Ukrainian small mechanized groups have continued to probe Russian defenses.

Speaking to reporters at the U.N. on Wednesday, Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky dismissed Syrskyi’s claim of having gained 1,000 square kilometers of the Russian territory.

“What’s happening in Kursk is the incursion of terrorist sabotage groups, so there is no front line as such,” Polyansky said. “There is an incursion because there are forests that are very difficult to control.”

He said Ukrainian troops in the forests will be singled out and eliminated within “a very brief period of time.”

Polyansky called the Ukrainian incursion an “absolutely reckless and mad operation,” and said Ukraine’s aim to force Russia to move its troops from eastern Ukraine is not happening because “we have enough troops there.”

___

Associated Press journalist Jim Heintz contributed from Tallinn. Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations.

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11693404 2024-08-15T05:24:33+00:00 2024-08-15T11:39:36+00:00
White House says deals struck to cut prices of popular Medicare drugs that cost $50 billion yearly https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/15/white-house-says-deals-struck-to-cut-prices-of-popular-medicare-drugs-that-cost-50-billion-yearly-2/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 09:04:14 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11692668&preview=true&preview_id=11692668 By AMANDA SEITZ and ZEKE MILLER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Thursday that drug price negotiations will knock hundreds of dollars — in some cases thousands — off the list prices of 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs.

The discounts, agreed to after months of negotiations with drug manufacturers, range between 38% and 79%. That is the medication’s cost before any discounts or rebates are applied, but not what the price people actually pay when filling their prescriptions.

Medicare spent $50 billion covering the drugs last year and taxpayers are expected to save $6 billion on the new prices, which do not go into effect until 2026. Older adults could save as much as $1.5 billion in total on their medications in out-of-pocket costs. Administration officials released few details about how they arrived at those calculations.

The newly negotiated prices will impact the price of drugs used by millions of older Americans to help manage diabetes, blood cancers and prevent heart failure or blood clots. The drugs include the blood thinners Xarelto and Eliquis and diabetes drugs Jardiance and Januvia.

It’s a landmark deal for the Medicare program, which provides health care coverage for more than 67 million older and disabled Americans. For decades, the federal government had been barred from bartering with pharmaceutical companies over the price of their drugs, even though it’s a routine process for private insurers.

“This meant that drug companies could basically charge whatever they want for life-saving treatments people rely on, and all Americans paid the price,” White House adviser Neera Tanden told reporters in a Wednesday night call.

The drug deals will become a focal point for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, especially since she cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the law. She will join President Joe Biden Thursday to announce the drug prices, their first joint speaking appearance since she replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket, as they both struggle to convince voters that costs will trend down after years of above-normal inflation. Harris is set to unveil part of her economic agenda on Friday in North Carolina, where she was aiming to roll out other ways she plans to help cut costs and boost incomes for the middle class.

The pair last appeared publicly together to welcome back to the U.S. Americans detained in Russia who were freed as part of a massive prisoner swap earlier this month.

Powerful drug companies unsuccessfully tried to file lawsuits to stop the negotiations, which became law in 2022, when a Democratic-controlled Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), overhauling several Medicare prescription drug regulations. But executives of those companies have also hinted in recent weeks during earnings calls that they don’t expect the negotiations to impact their bottom line.

Pharmaceutical officials blasted the news from the White House, saying it will spread health care costs to taxpayers in other ways, including their Medicare premiums.

“The administration is using the IRA’s price-setting scheme to drive political headlines, but patients will be disappointed when they find out what it means for them,” Steve Ubl, the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). “The ironically named Inflation Reduction Act is a bad deal being forced on American patients: higher costs, more frustrating insurance denials and fewer treatments and cures for our loved ones.”

Next year, the Department of Health and Human Services can select another 15 drugs for price negotiations.

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11692668 2024-08-15T05:04:14+00:00 2024-08-15T09:26:44+00:00
Today in History: August 15, Woodstock music festival begins https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/15/today-in-history-august-15-woodstock-music-festival-begins/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:00:47 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11692329&preview=true&preview_id=11692329 Today is Thursday, Aug. 15, the 228th day of 2024. There are 138 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 15, 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York; more than 460,000 people attended the three-day festival, which would become a watershed event in American music and culture.

Also on this date:

In 1057, Macbeth, King of Scots, was killed in battle by Malcolm, the eldest son of King Duncan, whom Macbeth had slain.

In 1914, the Panama Canal officially opened as the SS Ancon crossed the just-completed waterway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

In 1935, humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow in the Alaska Territory.

In 1947, India gained independence after nearly 200 years of British rule.

In 1961, as workers began constructing a Berlin Wall made of concrete, East German soldier Conrad Schumann leapt to freedom over a tangle of barbed wire.

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk was sworn in as acting president of South Africa, one day after P.W. Botha resigned as the result of a power struggle within the National Party.

In 1998, 29 people were killed by a car bomb that tore apart the center of Omagh (OH’-mah), Northern Ireland; a splinter group calling itself the Real IRA claimed responsibility.

In 2003, bouncing back from the largest blackout in U.S. history, cities from the Midwest to Manhattan restored power to tens of millions of people.

In 2017, President Donald Trump, who’d faced harsh criticism for initially blaming deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on “many sides,” told reporters that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the confrontation and that groups protesting against the white supremacists were “also very violent.” (In between those statements, at the urging of aides, Trump had offered a more direct condemnation of white supremacists.)

In 2021, the Taliban regained control of the Afghan capital of Kabul after the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country.

Today’s Birthdays:

  • Actor Jim Dale is 89.
  • Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 86.
  • U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is 86.
  • Author-journalist Linda Ellerbee is 80.
  • Songwriter Jimmy Webb is 78.
  • Actor Phyllis Smith is 75.
  • Britain’s Princess Anne is 74.
  • Actor Tess Harper is 74.
  • Actor Zeljko Ivanek (ZEHL’-koh eh-VAHN’-ehk) is 67.
  • Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio is 62.
  • Film director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (ihn-YAH’-ee-tu) is 61.
  • Philanthropist Melinda French Gates is 60.
  • Actor Debra Messing is 56.
  • Actor Anthony Anderson is 54.
  • Actor Ben Affleck is 52.
  • Olympic gold medal beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings is 46.
  • Rock singer Joe Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 35.
  • Actor Jennifer Lawrence is 34.
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11692329 2024-08-15T04:00:47+00:00 2024-08-15T04:01:07+00:00
Trump scheduled to hold news conference at his New Jersey golf resort https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/15/trump-scheduled-to-hold-news-conference-at-his-new-jersey-golf-resort/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 04:08:23 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11692675&preview=true&preview_id=11692675 BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump invited reporters to his New Jersey golf club Thursday for his second news conference in as many weeks as he adjusts to a newly energized Democratic ticket ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention.

Trump will meet the press at 4:30 p.m. EDT as he steps up his criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris for not holding a news conference or sitting down for interviews since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed her to replace him.

The vice president has barely engaged with reporters since becoming the Democratic nominee, though she travels with journalists aboard Air Force Two and sometimes answers shouted questions while boarding or leaving the plane for campaign stops.

In one brief interaction last week, she told reporters she wants “to get an interview together by the end of the month.”

Trump on Wednesday made little effort to stay on message at a rally in North Carolina that his campaign billed as a big economic address, mixing pledges to slash energy prices and “unleash economic abundance” with familiar off-script tangents.

He aired his frustration over the Democrats swapping the vice president in place of Biden at the top of their presidential ticket. He repeatedly denigrated San Francisco, where Harris was once the district attorney, as “unlivable” and went after his rival in deeply personal terms, questioning her intelligence, saying she has “the laugh of a crazy person” and musing that Democrats were being “politically correct” in trying to elevate the first Black woman and person of south Asian descent to serve as vice president.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that Americans are more likely to trust Trump over Harris when it comes to handling the economy and immigration, issues that he has put at the center of his case for returning to the White House.

In his news conference last week, Trump taunted his rival, boasted of his crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, and lashed out at questions about the enthusiasm Harris’ campaign has been generating. He spoke for more than an hour and made a number of false and misleading claims.

Thursday’s news conference will be livestreamed on apnews.com.

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11692675 2024-08-15T00:08:23+00:00 2024-08-15T10:14:54+00:00
A slain Parkland teacher loved attending summer camp. His mom is working to give kids the same opportunity https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/15/a-slain-teacher-loved-attending-summer-camp-his-mom-is-working-to-give-kids-the-same-opportunity/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 04:03:50 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11692696&preview=true&preview_id=11692696 By TERRY SPENCER

PIERSON, Fla. (AP) — Linda Beigel Schulman smiled as she watched 25 young campers from Fort Lauderdale and Miami spend an afternoon frolicking in a rural Florida spring. The scene brought back memories of her murdered son, Scott Beigel, who loved attending summer camp.

That’s why Beigel Schulman raises money in his name so they and children elsewhere can attend sleep-away camp. It’s something she and her husband, Michael Schulman, have done annually since the 2018 massacre at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left her son, two other staff members and 14 students dead.

The Scott J. Beigel Memorial Fund sent 264 children ages 9 to 16 to seven sleepaway camps this summer in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, most of them underprivileged or touched by gun violence.

“We want to take them out of their environment, send them to camp and let them just be kids,” Beigel Schulman said. “Let them leave their woes and their troubles and everything behind. Let them meet new friends. Let them learn how to trust.”

Scott Beigel became a geography teacher, in part, so he could keep attending camp and give children the same opportunities he had. He started at 7 as a camper, became a counselor in his teens, and, eventually, an administrator. He loved the sense of community such camps provided and how they helped younger generations appreciate the great outdoors.

He would have kept returning but he was fatally shot at age 35 on Feb. 14, 2018, after heroically herding 31 students to safety inside his classroom.

“Scott loved camp — that was Scott’s happy place,” his mother said. “I remember him saying, ‘I don’t quite know what I want to do, Mom.’ And I was like, ‘Scott, the writing’s on the wall. If you want to keep going back to camp, you have to go into teaching, because it’s the only profession that’s going to let you have summers off.’”

The program started with 54 children in 2018 and has grown steadily since. More than $360,000 was raised this year — all paying for the campers’ enrollment and transportation. Once in the program, children can return each summer if they maintain good grades and stay out of trouble. At 17 and 18, the fund pays for them to be counselor trainees.

Beigel Schulman is not alone in honoring a loved one lost at Stoneman Douglas. Most other victims’ families have also started foundations that award scholarships, promote school or gun safety, or fight disease.

It was almost 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius) and muggy on a recent morning at one of the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches, this one cut into the woods an hour’s drive north of Orlando. Pushing through the heat, administrators and counselors got their 38 campers outside for archery, biking and working through an obstacle course as a team.

The Beigel fund financed 25 of the campers. The counselors are a mix of volunteer deputies and college students. It’s the one camp with a law enforcement theme the foundation sponsors.

“We are showing them who is behind the uniform in this atmosphere where you can feel like you belong and you’re out of your own comfort zone,” said Elisha Hoggard, the ranches’ programs vice president. “It’s giving the kids an opportunity to have a genuine positive interaction with a law enforcement officer.”

Hoggard said most children attending the ranches’ camps are recommended by an officer as needing a boost. Maybe the students are running with the wrong crowd or are new at school and not making friends. Or, perhaps, their parents are divorcing or they had a traumatic experience.

Broward County Deputy Al Hibbert, one of the counselors, said it’s important that city kids like those from South Florida get a chance to interact with nature.

“They don’t see this kind of life and to know that they can enjoy being away from their community,” Hibbert said.

The campers are required to make their beds, clean their cottages, share their food and treat each other with respect. Cursing is not allowed.

Esteban Martinez, 13, conceded he is often shy, so coming to camp for the first time gave him a chance to make new friends.

“Being here is fun, it really changed me. It’s good you get to be around other people,” Esteban said.

A.J. Kozak, 15, said camp gives him a chance to interact with the police in a way he doesn’t back home.

“It makes me think cops aren’t that bad. Because in the real world, cops are aggressive,” he said. “They are just humans at the end of the day.”

A highlight of the Florida camp is the high ropes — while cinched tight into a safety harness, willing campers walk across a 40-foot (12-meter) pole stretched horizontally that inclines from 15 feet (4.5 meters) to 25 feet (7.6 meters) above the ground. The courageous next climb to a thin cable stretching another 10 feet (3 meters) up, grabbing ropes strung from above to keep their balance as they walk across.

“This is a biggie — I am deathly afraid of heights,” screamed Isa Marti, 14, as she edged onto the pole. She felt some pressure after her friend, Hazel Stampler, crossed. A few years ago, an assailant drew a gun on Isa’s family during an argument at a park. No shots were fired, but she and her brother took cover.

As Isa inched forward, she repeatedly wanted to quit and be lowered to the ground. Still, she didn’t stop, encouraged by other campers. After letting out a mild obscenity, which drew a counselor’s admonishment, she made it across — and climbed to the cable above, one of few who did.

“I kinda love this,” she yelled as she worked her way across the wire, drawing other girls’ cheers.

After being lowered, Isa beamed as Hazel greeted her. They talked about how scared they were but pushed through.

The ropes exercise “helps you overcome your fears, which will help you grow,” Hazel said.

The next morning, the campers bused to nearby De Leon Springs State Park, donning life jackets before jumping into the water. Some socialized with kids from other camps or came with their families.

Beigel Schulman looked at the tableau of playing, splashing children and couldn’t help but wish her son could see it.

“Isn’t this great? All of these kids together — it doesn’t matter what ethnicity, what religion, what this, what that. They are all one. If they could only bring this back home, it would be amazing,” she said.

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11692696 2024-08-15T00:03:50+00:00 2024-08-15T09:25:47+00:00
Marlins fumble three-run lead as Schwarber grand slam lifts slumping Phillies https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/14/schwarbers-grand-slam-lifts-slumping-phillies-to-needed-9-5-win-over-marlins/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 01:39:20 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11691693&preview=true&preview_id=11691693 By DAN GELSTON

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kyle Schwarber quieted the boo birds with his seventh career grand slam, shaking the Philadelphia Phillies out of their mid-summer malaise and leading them to a 9-5 victory over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night.

Trying to fight their way out of a rut, the Phillies got a needed win, a night after they suffered a four-hit shutout loss to one of the worst teams in baseball. Once the winningest team in baseball, the Phillies needed Schwarber’s go-ahead slam to help snap a four-game losing streak and they won for just the eighth time in 24 games since the All-Star break.

Hours after manager Rob Thomson hinted that a team meeting could be on deck, the Phillies delayed the opening of the clubhouse to reporters by 70 minutes ahead of the game. Thomson demurred when asked about the meeting, saying only “what happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse.”

The lineup, though, is very much public and Thomson rattled his high-priced crew of slumping sluggers when he benched All-Star shortstop Trea Turner. Turner, in the second season of a $300 million, 11-year contract, was batting just .168 with 20 strikeouts since the break and had just three hits over his last five games.

“It’s more time in the cage to hone his swing, get him off his feet and just let him breathe for a minute,” Thomson said.

Tyler Phillips, the South Jersey native who grew up rooting for the Phillies before he took the mound for them, gave up a three-run homer to Jonah Bride in the first inning that seemed to set an early tone for another crushing defeat.

The Phillies cut it to 3-2 against Edward Cabrera (2-4) until Jesús Sánchez added a run-scoring single and Bride had a sacrifice fly in the fourth for the three-run cushion.

After two singles and a walk loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth, Schwarber knocked one the other way on a changeup, hitting his 28th homer of the season to left-center for the 6-5 lead.

Phillies fans that had unleashed their pent-up boos over the last two games after the last two wildly successful seasons roared again for the go-ahead shot.

Cabrera gave up six runs in four innings and even tossed a cooler in the dugout after allowing the grand slam.

“I attacked him with my best pitch, and I wouldn’t change anything,” Cabrera said.

José Ruiz (3-1) recorded the last two outs of the fifth to earn the win.

Alec Bohm added an RBI single and J.T. Realmuto busted the game open with two-run double in the seventh for a 9-5 lead.

Since the All-Star break, the Phillies lost two of three to Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Cleveland and Seattle, were swept in a three-game set by the Yankees and are coming off a 4-6 road trip against the Dodgers and Arizona.

NEXT UP

The Marlins head to New York for a four-game set with the Mets.

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Gena Rowlands, acting powerhouse and star of movies by her director-husband, John Cassavetes, dies https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/08/14/gena-rowlands-acting-powerhouse-and-star-of-movies-by-her-director-husband-john-cassavetes-dies-2/ Thu, 15 Aug 2024 01:29:16 +0000 https://www.sun-sentinel.com/?p=11691652&preview=true&preview_id=11691652 By MARK KENNEDY

Gena Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practice the craft and a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, and later charmed audiences in her son’s tear-jerker “The Notebook,” has died. She was 94.

Rowlands’ death was confirmed Wednesday by representatives for her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes. He revealed earlier this year that his mother had Alzheimer’s disease. TMZ reported that Rowlands died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, California.

Operating outside the studio system, the husband-and-wife team of John Cassavetes and Rowlands created indelible portraits of working-class strivers and small-timers in such films as “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Gloria” and “Faces.”

Rowlands made 10 films across four decades with Cassavetes, including “Minnie and Moskowitz” in 1971, “Opening Night” in 1977 and “Love Streams” in 1984.

She earned two Oscar nods for two of them: 1974’s “A Woman Under the Influence,” in which she played a wife and mother cracking under the burden of domestic harmony, and “Gloria” in 1980, about a woman who helps a young boy escape the mob.

“He had a particular sympathetic interest in women and their problems in society, how they were treated and how they solved and overcame what they needed to, so all his movies have some interesting women, and you don’t need many,” she told the AP in 2015.

In addition to the Oscar nominations, Rowlands earned three Primetime Emmy Awards, one Daytime Emmy and two Golden Globes. She was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2015 in recognition of her work and legacy in Hollywood. “You know what’s wonderful about being an actress? You don’t just live one life,” she said at the podium. “You live many lives.”

A new generation was introduced to Rowlands in her son’s blockbuster “The Notebook,” in which she played a woman whose memory is ravaged, looking back on a romance for the ages. Her younger self was portrayed by Rachel McAdams. (She also appeared in Nick Cassavetes’ “Unhook the Stars” in 1996.)

In her later years, Rowlands made several appearances in films and TV, including in “The Skeleton Key” and the detective series “Monk.” Her last appearance in a movie was in 2014, playing a retiree who befriends her gay dance instructor in “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.”

One of her career triumphs was 1974’s “Woman Under the Influence,” playing a lower middle-class housewife who, the actress said, “was totally vulnerable and giving; she had no sense of her own worth.” In “Gloria” (1980) she portrayed a faded showgirl menaced by her ex-boyfriend, a mobster boss. She was Oscar-nominated as best actress for both performances.

She and Cassavetes met at the American School of Dramatic Arts when both their careers were beginning. They married four months later. In 1960 Cassavetes used his earnings from the TV series “Johnny Stacatto” to finance his first film, “Shadows.” Partly improvised, shot with natural light on New York locations with a $40,000 budget, it was applauded by critics for its stark realism.

Gena (pronounced Jenna) Rowlands became a seasoned actor through live television drama and tours in “The Seven Year Itch” and “Time for Ginger” as well as off-Broadway.

Her big break came when Josh Logan cast her opposite Edward G. Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky’s play “Middle of the Night.” Her role as a young woman in love with her much older boss brought reviews hailing her as a new star.

MGM offered her a contract for two pictures a year. Her first film, a comedy directed by and costarring Jose Ferrer, “The High Cost of Loving,” brought Rowlands comparisons to one of the great 1930s stars, Carole Lombard.

But she asked to be released from her contract because she was expecting a baby. Often during her career she would absent herself from the screen for long stretches to attend to family matters.

In addition to Nick, a director (“Alpha Dog,” “My Sister’s Keeper”) and actor, she and Cassavetes had two daughters, Alexandra and Zoe, who also pursued acting careers.

John Cassavetes died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1989, and Rowlands returned to acting to assuage her grief. Between assignments she sometimes attended film festivals and societies for Cassavetes screenings.

“I want everyone to see his films,” she said at the San Sebastian Festival in 1992. “John was one of a kind, the most totally fearless person I’ve ever known. He had a very specific view of life and the individuality of people.”

Virginia Cathryn Rowlands was born in 1930 (some sources give a later date) in Cambria, Wisconsin, where her Welsh ancestors had settled in the early 19th century. Her father was a banker and state senator. She was a withdrawn child who loved books and make-believe. Her mother encouraged the girl’s ambition to become an actress.

Rowlands quit the University of Wisconsin in her junior year to pursue an acting career in New York. Like other actors of her generation, she gained invaluable experience in the thriving field of television drama in the 1950s, appearing on all the major series.

After leaving her MGM contract, she was able to choose her film roles. When nothing attracted her, she appeared in TV series such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Bonanza,” “Dr. Kildare” and “The Virginian.” One of her career delights was co-starring with her icon Bette Davis on the TV movie “Strangers” in 1979.

Her other movies included “Lonely Are the Brave” with Kirk Douglas, “The Spiral Road” (Rock Hudson), “A Child Is Waiting” (with Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland, directed by Cassavetes), “Two Minute Warning” (Charlton Heston), “Tempest” (co-starring with Cassavetes and Molly Ringwald, in her screen debut) and the mother who wants to do right by her children in Paul Schrader’s 1987 study of a blue-collar family “Light of Day.”

In middle age and beyond, Rowlands continued playing demanding roles. In Woody Allen’s austere drama, “Another Woman,” she was cast as a writer whose life has been shielded from emotion until dire incidents force her to deal with her feelings. In the groundbreaking TV movie “An Early Frost,” she appeared as a mother confronting her son’s AIDS.

Rowlands commented in 1992 that her roles remained in her memory.

“Sometimes, those white nights when I have no sleep and a lot of time to think about everything, I’ll examine different possibilities of different characters and what they might be doing now,” she said.

___

Film Writer Jake Coyle in New York contributed to this report. The late Associated Press writer Bob Thomas contributed biographical material to this report.

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