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Hamburger Mary's files federal lawsuit against Florida and DeSantis

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A popular Orlando restaurant that regularly features drag shows filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday, less than a week after he signed a bill that targets drag performances.The lawsuit filed in Orlando federal court by the owner of Hamburger Mary’s Orlando claims the state is depriving the business of its First Amendment rights to free expression. The restaurant is asking the court to temporarily stop the law from taking effect while the case moves forward. Colorado offers safe haven for abortion, transgender care DeSantis has made anti-LGBTQ+ legislation a large part of his agenda as he prepares to seek the Republican presidential nomination. He signed the bill restricting drag performances — along with bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors, restrict discussion of personal pronouns in schools and force people to use certain bathrooms — last Wednesday in front of a cheering crowd at the evangelical Camb...

Bobrovsky gets shutout, Panthers top Hurricanes 1-0 for 3-0 lead in East final

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 32 shots for his first career playoff shutout, Sam Reinhart scored a power-play goal midway through the second period and the Florida Panthers moved one win away from a most improbable trip to the Stanley Cup Final by blanking the Carolina Hurricanes 1-0 on Monday night.Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett had the assists on the Reinhart goal for Florida, which now leads the Eastern Conference final 3-0. The Panthers haven’t played for the Stanley Cup since 1996, but can clinch a trip to the title round with a win in Game 4 on Wednesday.This marks the 205th time that a team has taken a 3-0 series lead in NHL playoff history. Of the first 204, 200 went on to win the series. The Panthers are 2-0 when taking the first three games of a series; the Hurricanes are 0-5 when dropping the first three.It wasn’t a perfect night for Florida, however: Captain Aleksander Barkov left with about 7 minutes left in the first period with a lower-body injury and...

Fishing charter boat rescues 3 men on top of capsized boat in Fort Lauderdale

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

A day out fishing for a group of men turned frightening when their boat capsized. They say they feared for their lives, but nearby boaters came to their rescue.Three men on the boat said that it took about three minutes once the water started coming aboard, which almost caused the boat to be completely submerged. They do not know would have happened if the one fishing boat nearby didn’t come to save them. “I saw my life going, but I was tired, I couldn’t do anything else,” Justin Peck said. Cameras captured Peck on the capsized boat exhausted. He and his friends spend the day fishing Monday afternoon when their boat began to take on water about a mile off Fort Lauderdale. “I was trying to bail the water out of the boat with a bucket, and then the bucket came out of the boat, and I jumped out of the boat to get the bucket because we were going to sink without the bucket,” Peck said.The boat ended up flipping and the trio was unable to grab their r...

Not paid and can’t afford an attorney

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

He was hired to put together a New Years Eve party for a luxury condo. He put on the party, but they wont pay him, and he can’t afford to hire an attorney to sue them, so he asked Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser to step in.Parties are in Jonathan’s blood. Not going to them, making them happen.Jonathan McCane: “I’ve been doing this for, like, practically my whole life. I mean, I was 12 years old when my aunt would call me, ‘Hey, it’s time. Come pick up some chairs,’ you know?” Jonathan’s family owns La Jolla Ballroom, a well known location for events in Coral Gables..Jonathan McCane: “It’s the nicest, most beautiful venue in this area. And we do weddings, corporate events, and we have our ballroom upstairs.”After growing up in the business, Jonathan decided to also try to open his own business.Jonathan McCane: “I started a new company, Gables Event Design in September.”Last fall, Jonathon thought h...

Deterring Russia? Follow the example of Ireland’s fishing industry

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow American Enterprise Institute and advisor at Gallos Technologies.Russia is a country unlikely to pass up an opportunity for menace.Earlier this month, four Russian vessels led by a warship turned up in Ireland’s exclusive economic zone — and stayed there. The ships didn’t just loiter in a random spot, but they remained suspiciously near the undersea cables connecting Ireland with the world. And the Irish Naval Service could do nothing to coax them to leave.Meanwhile, last month, a group of Russian commercial vessels similarly parked themselves off the Irish coast, close to where a new undersea cable connecting Galway to Iceland was recently inaugurated.This is all a crucial reminder to other Western countries that protecting critical national infrastructure doesn’t just begin when a threat materializes — it begins by signaling that such menacing moves won’t be tolerated. And those signals need to involve both the government, the private sector and t...

Sanctions cause rising business fears in Ukraine

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.When asked whether she felt safe, Smart Holding CEO Julia Kiryanova — head of one of Ukraine’s largest investment conglomerates — paused and then said firmly, “Nobody’s safe.”For months now, Kiryanova has been battling to save Smart Holding from what appears to be a corporate raid — one she believes involves senior Ukrainian government officials and is aimed at forcing the company to agree to a fire sale. There’s peril in resisting “because when the law is not there, any person can be persecuted for no reason,” she said.Kiryanova believes Russia’s war on Ukraine is being used by powerful and politically connected players in Ukraine to enrich themselves by extorting, plundering and weakening commercial rivals — as well as an opportunity to redistribute corporate assets, partly in a bid to strip the old elite of wealth in order to shape a new one. And it’s all being done with scant regard to the rule of law.“New oligarchs will appear ...

McCarthy says he had a ‘productive discussion’ with Biden but still no debt limit deal

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

(CNN) — The countdown is on, the stakes are high – and there is no still debt limit deal.House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters on Monday that he had a “productive discussion” with President Joe Biden at the White House, but said a deal has not yet been reached as the US rapidly approaches June 1, the date when the country could for the first time default on its debts.“I felt we had a productive discussion – we don’t have an agreement yet, but I did feel the discussion was productive in areas that we have differences of opinion,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to have the staffs continue to get back together and work based on some of the things that we had talked about.”Pressed by CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, McCarthy said that raising revenue through taxes, as Biden had previously suggested, was not something Republicans would be willing to consider – in a sign of the differences between the two sides.“No,” McCarthy told Diamond, “The problem is not revenue, the problem is spending.” Ah...

SpaceX mission carrying former NASA astronaut, three paying customers docks with space station

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

(CNN) — A SpaceX capsule carrying a decorated former NASA astronaut and three paying customers linked up with the International Space Station on Monday, kicking off a historic weeklong mission for the crew.After launching from Florida on Sunday afternoon, the crew spent about 16 hours aboard their Crew Dragon spacecraft as it maneuvered toward the space station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.The spacecraft officially docked with the space station at 9:12 a.m. ET.The mission, called AX-2, was put together by the Houston-based company Axiom Space and marks the second all-private mission to the orbiting outpost, meaning it’s being carried out by commercial companies rather than a government.It also makes history as stem cell researcher Rayyanah Barnawi becomes the first woman from Saudi Arabia to travel to space.The AX-2 mission is one in a lineup of missions designed to spur private sector participation in spaceflight — particularly in low-Earth orbit, wh...

Jesse Scholtens fills in well, but the Chicago White Sox are shut down in a 3-0 loss to the Cleveland Guardians

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

Jesse Scholtens was ready to be the next pitcher up.With Mike Clevinger on the injured list, Scholtens joined the Chicago White Sox from Triple-A Charlotte. He entered Monday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians after opener Jimmy Lambert pitched a scoreless first, and Scholtens allowed one run in five innings.“Just tried to get myself ready and execute as many pitches until they told me to stop, and that’s what I did,” Scholtens said. “There were some times — a lot of the times — I was behind, but (catcher Yasmani Grandal) hung with me a little bit and helped get me back in some at-bats and helped me get through those innings.”Unfortunately for the Sox, the offense couldn’t get much going against Hunter Gaddis in a 3-0 loss in front of 13,878 at Progressive Field.Gaddis, who entered the game with a 6.86 ERA, and four relievers limited the Sox to three hits — singles by Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn and a double by An...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, visiting Australia, wants closer bilateral defense ties

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:16:09 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Narendra Modi has arrived in Sydney for his second Australian visit as India’s prime minister and told local media he wants closer bilateral defense and security ties as China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region grows.Modi is the only one of the so-called Quad leaders to continue with his Australian visit plans after President Joe Biden pulled out last week to return to Washington to focus on debt limit talks. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who hosted a Group of Seven meeting last week, later canceled his Australia trip as well.Modi is giving an address to the Indian diaspora at a sold-out 20,000-seat Sydney stadium Tuesday. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will attend the stadium event and has a bilateral meeting scheduled with his Indian counterpart on Wednesday.Modi told Tuesday’s edition of The Australian newspaper he wanted to take India’s relationship with Australia to the “next level,” including closer defense and security ties to help ensur...