Latest news with #FloridaPanther
Bloomberg
02-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Trump Plans to Offload National Park Sites, But States Don't Want Them
Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve sprawls north from Everglades National Park over 729,000 acres of swamp, an ancient forest that protects the endangered Florida panther and the pristine waters of the Everglades — the source of drinking water for millions of south Floridians. About 2.2 million people visited last year, roughly three times the number at Everglades National Park, according to National Park Service data. The preserve and others like it are 'typically the places where the local people enjoy the most,' said Neal McAliley, an environmental lawyer at Carlton Fields in Miami and a former environmental litigator at the Justice Department.
Toronto Star
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Star
I used to love watching Leafs games in Florida. But after a dark turn at the Panthers' arena, I don't think I can go back
'Hey, welcome back. Are you the 51st state, yet?' My feet hadn't even touched the ground of my driveway. That was the greeting I received from a neighbour on Day 1 of my annual trip to Florida. Game four of the second round and I was determined to fly the Leafs colours and drive the two-hour, mind-numbing, high-speed straightway to Sunrise, Fla., on a highway appropriately named Alligator Alley. I arrived at Amerant Bank Arena to find a sea of Florida Panther red jerseys and the atmosphere on the walk from my car to the arena was great; there was no trash talk because I assumed they're used to seeing Leaf fans at their home games. This game was no different. Or was it? I was wearing my Leafs jersey (of course) as I settled in to my seat behind the Florida net for the first period, just eight rows from the ice — but I wasn't in Kansas anymore, or Scotiabank Arena for that matter. Stephen Grant's view of Joseph Woll in net for the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Toronto-Florida playoff game earlier this week in Sunrise, Fla. Stephen Grant photo Back home I would have been surrounded by Bay Street suits entertaining clients, but here my section was full of 'real' hockey fans, most in their 30s, swigging beer, dancing to the pre-game tunes blasted on the speakers and generally preparing for three hours of 'rock 'em, sock 'em' hockey. How great is this? The mood change was swift. It started during our national anthem when halfway through the second verse some leather lung 'fan' shouted out '51st state.' At least they didn't boo our anthem, I guess. Nobody enjoys a good heckle more than me. As I lifelong Toronto sports fan I've been taunted by Hamilton Ticat fans at their home games. I've been jeered at Fenway by Red Sox fans and got an earful full from Yankee fans in New York. I understand it and expect it. You pay your money, you should be able to express yourself. I almost bit through my lip in the first period as the woman behind me entertained the children in the section by shrieking vulgarities in between screams of 'north 51!' Again, I understand fans are passionate, but as the beer continued to flow through the second and third period it was getting ugly. I texted my wife and told her what was going on and I recognized the fact that I had to remain calm, or I was going to get into a fight and I'm a Leaf lover not a fighter. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW It was almost predictable when the Leafs lost, but I wasn't prepared for the reaction from the 'fans.' A 'gentleman' two rows in front of me was recording the cheering with his cellphone when he locked eyes with me. I stared right back at him only to have him take his thumb in draw it across his neck to simulate (I can only guess) slitting someone's throat. Stephen Grant in Florida, where he frequently vacations. 'As I left the arena for the long walk to my car, the chants of 'F*ck Canada' and 'Go home, Canada' reverberated from the open car windows of 'fans.' I was disappointed my team lost, but I was confused and hurt by the notion that I don't think I can come back to this arena again,' Grant writes. Stephen Grant photo Of course there was the standard U-S-A, U-S-A chants, which I never understand, but the 'go home Canada' and 'F*ck Canada' chants were particularly disappointing. I wanted to ask one of these so-called hockey fans what their issue was with our country? They live in Florida, surely they have come in contact with Canadians at some point in their lives. What did we do to have them suddenly despise us so much? As I left the arena for the long walk to my car, the chants of 'F*ck Canada' and 'Go home, Canada' reverberated from the open car windows of 'fans.' I was disappointed my team lost, but I was confused and hurt by the notion that I don't think I can come back to this arena again. I've got another couple of weeks down here and I'll be joined by one of my golf buddies next week but I'm afraid this might be my last trip down south for a while.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Newly Minted DOJ Employee Michael Caputo Keeps Posting ‘Antifa' Death Fantasies Online
The week before last, veteran GOP operative Michael Caputo was hired by one of President Trump's most controversial nominees to advise him ahead of what is expected to be a tough confirmation fight. It was a surprising pick, in part because Caputo has a history of his own that includes years of conspiratorial rants on social media. And, even in the days since he joined the Trump administration, Caputo has made multiple posts online continuing a long-running bit in which he muses about 'antifa' coming to his home to threaten him, and instead being eaten by wild animals. In the early morning hours of April 14, Caputo posted a picture of a panther on Elon Musk's 'X' social network along with an ominous caption indicating it was lying in wait for 'antifa' near his home. 'This Florida Panther was in my neighborhood,' Caputo wrote. 'Antifa may come again, but this time they won't leave.' One day earlier, on April 13, Caputo posted a nearly identical message along with a picture of a black bear. And, on April 12, Caputo made a similar post featuring an image of an alligator and another message indicating 'antifa' would meet its end in the creature's jaws. The New York Times reported that Caputo was officially hired the week before last to advise Ed Martin, who Trump nominated in February to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and who has held that role in an acting capacity for most of the administration so far. According to the Times, prior to his hiring, Caputo was 'informally counseling' Martin, a longtime conservative activist who served as an attorney for some Jan. 6 defendants. Martin's nomination has attracted controversy for his past work and his conduct since arriving in the U.S. attorney's office, including sending letters to Democrats in Congress indicating their criticisms of Trump and the Supreme Court could be seen as 'threats against public officials.' Senate Democrats have put a hold on Martin's nomination, slowing down the process, and at least one Republican senator has expressed skepticism about his confirmation. When Caputo's hiring was revealed, Martin gave a statement to the Times praising him as 'a great fighter' with a long personal relationship with Trump. Caputo certainly does have a reputation as a political brawler. Throughout his career, Caputo specialized in what he has called 'smashmouth' politics. His no-holds-barred approach has included sparring — on the internet and in other mediums — with members of the media, including with this reporter. And his combative approach to the internet has been evident in the days since he signed on with Martin. Within just the past week, Caputo has, among other things, issued an ominous warning to a Democratic strategist who criticized Martin and mocked a woman with an OnlyFans page as 'fat.' And, on April 19, after journalist John Harwood posted anti-Trump commentary, Caputo declared Harwood had 'completely lost his mind' and predicted he would have a 'violent outburst that will cause something horrible.' Yet even among these intense messages, Caputo's dark musings about 'antifa' stand out as particularly dramatic. Caputo's posts about the animals hunting down 'antifa' clearly contain an element of the fantastical and are almost certainly sarcastic. However, even as humor, this type of violent language is unusual coming from an employee of the Department of Justice. Last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche sent out a letter to agency staff restricting their social media activity amid concerns about political rhetoric posted by some Trump appointees. Caputo's recent comments fit with what has been a running series on his 'X' account involving visions of animals taking down 'antifa.' In other posts he has referred to the gator as 'Victor.' Caputo's April 13 message about the bear prompted another user of the site to share a picture of another gator and declare that, 'Victor has backup.' 'It's always lunchtime for Victor,' Caputo replied. In an email to TPM, Caputo suggested the posts were entirely joking. 'To comply with the April 15 DOJ policy directive on personal use of social media, I have stopped training attack alligators, bears and panthers and returned to schooling humorless media,' Caputo wrote. These tales of the bear and the gator — and the suggestion 'antifa' would fall prey to them — have been part of a larger narrative that Caputo has spun on social media in recent years, including descriptions of alleged threats. In Caputo's telling, he had to move with his family from their home in Western New York to Florida due to 'antifa' and others on the left. Since arriving in the Sunshine State, Caputo has made multiple posts suggesting that he felt safer there because local laws would authorize him to defend his home with deadly force against any potential 'antifa' intrusion. 'After attacks on me and threats against my children back home in NY, I do not reveal where we live,' Caputo said in a March 2023 post referencing his move. 'I searched for this sanctuary for a year. We are now out of reach of the disordered Antifa types in a state where the Castle Doctrine assures I could introduce them to the coroner.' And along with his own weaponry, Caputo repeatedly indicated he had backup — from the animals. 'I know: Antifa is afraid of Florida. Gators find skinny, black-bloc, pimpled weaklings delicioso,' Caputo wrote in April 2023. Caputo elaborated on the theme in a March 2024 post after he noted 'Our alligator Victor is sneaking up on a bird.' 'Victor's too lazy to attack. He tried to scare the bird into dropping the fish for him to eat. He's like a hunter waiting for a deer to fall dead in front of his tree stand,' wrote Caputo, before adding, 'Unless it's Antifa. We've been training him for that eventuality.' In multiple other 'X' posts, Caputo has warned that Democrats are in league with 'antifa.' And while Caputo's visions of bears and gators are striking, he isn't alone among right-wing commentators and Trump administration officials in his fascination with 'antifa' — or his concern they are working with Trump's political opponents. 'Antifa,' which is short for 'antifascist,' has been a persistent fixation for many on the right during the Trump era. While some activists who identify as 'antifa' have participated in protests and vandalism in recent years, the group is not a single, defined organization. Many Trump allies have baselessly tried to tie his political opponents to 'antifa' and even promoted a false narrative suggesting the group, rather than the president's supporters, was responsible for January 6. Caputo's personal focus on 'antifa' also fits with a pattern of his perceiving threats that notably preceded his decision to take leave from a prior government post. Caputo, who describes Trump's longtime adviser, Roger Stone, as akin to a 'big brother' and mentor, has known the president since the 1980s. During that decade, he worked for the DC lobbying firm headed by Stone and Trump's 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Caputo's career also took him abroad. A veteran, Caputo worked for a USAID-funded endeavor that consulted on the election process in Russia in the 1990s. He ended up living in the country and working on public relations for various politicians and businesses in Russia and Ukraine through the early 2000s. These various connections helped Caputo secure a place in Trump's orbit as the president began his political career. He worked on Trump's campaigns in 2016 and 2020. And, during the first Trump administration, Caputo served as an assistant secretary for public affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services. Caputo's ties to Russia also helped attract the interest of investigators with the House, Senate, and special counsel Robert Mueller who were examining the Kremlin's interference into the 2016 election. Caputo has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in conjunction with that campaign and framed the results of the Mueller probe as vindication. He has also written publicly about how being 'ensnared' in what he has called a 'bogus' investigation kicked off a wave of danger. According to Caputo, the attention led to what he described as over 50 violent threats against him. Since then, social media controversies and descriptions of anticipated 'antifa' violence have both played a prominent role in Caputo's career. In April 2020, shortly after he was tapped to serve as the top spokesperson from Trump's HHS during the COVID pandemic, CNN reported that Caputo had deleted almost all of his old tweets. Prior to that deletion, Caputo's posts contained what the network described as 'racist and derogatory comments about Chinese people' and conspiratorial assertions both Democrats and the press were trying to benefit from the virus. A lengthy Politico profile noted that, soon after, in May 2020, Caputo's wife called police in their Western New York town to report a man had driven past their home shouting obscenities. The next month, as false rumors swirled in far-right circles that antifa was staging attacks on 'white neighborhoods,' Caputo, according to the Politico profile, called police to say he was 'advised that antifa will be targeting small towns tonight' and 'concerned' that 'they will target East Aurora and his residence.' All of this culminated in a September 2020 incident where Caputo made a 26 minute broadcast on Facebook Live where, without providing any evidence, he warned that government scientists and others in the federal bureaucracy were plotting 'sedition' against President Trump. Caputo also claimed that there were anti-Trump 'hit squads being trained all over this country.' At the time, Caputo had just been diagnosed with head and neck cancer. While he did not reveal that on the broadcast, Caputo said he was not in good physical health and declared that his 'mental health has definitely failed.' He went on to describe feeling 'alone' in Washington where there were 'shadows on the ceiling in my apartment.' 'There alone, shadows are so long,' Caputo said. After the streaming session made headlines, Caputo apologized to HHS staff for bringing them negative attention. He attributed his statements on the broadcast to combined stress from his physical health issues and alleged death threats. He subsequently took a leave of absence. Caputo went on to drop out of the public eye to undergo cancer treatment. In the Politico profile, which was published in August 2021, Caputo indicated he turned to religion during this time and expressed a belief his disease was 'stress-induced' after the Russia probes and his work on the pandemic response. Caputo also indicated the experience had led him to 'really turning away from smashmouth politics.' However, a few years after that story of survival and redemption, Caputo is back in government and clearly back to brawling on social media. And, despite insisting he remains under threat of violence, Caputo shows no interest in retreating. On April 17, Caputo shared an 'X' post mocking the author Stephen King for criticizing Trump. He included a dramatic vow. 'I'm never deleting this app,' Caputo said.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Panthers Reveal Timeline Update for Brad Marchand
Brad Marchand has been a Florida Panther for almost three weeks though he has yet to play for them. The former Boston Bruins captain has been out to an upper-body injury since March 4. Regardless of his health condition, Bruins general manager couldn't come to an agreement with Marchand on an extension and elected to send him to a division rival for a conditional 2027 second-round pick. Panthers head coach Paul Maurice offered an update that he is targeting a Friday return against the Utah Hockey Club for the veteran winger. Advertisement "He has been on the ice for a little bit now," Maurice said. "That's probably the advantage to four days [off] in that we don't lose another game. We'll get him through a full practice [Thursday] and make an assessment. But we are shooting for Friday against Utah right now." In the meantime, Marchand skated with Tomas Nosek and Mackie Samoskevich on the Panthers' second line during Wednesday's practice. Maurice emphasized there is no rush to activate Marchand just because he began skating again. "We're not jamming these guys back on their first available day," he said. "We're not bringing them in early. If he says he wants a few more days, we're good with that." Florida Panthers left wing Brad Marchand (63) in action with the Boston Bruins at the American Airlines Miron-Imagn Images The Panthers are also without star forward Matthew Tkachuk while they sit tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for first place in the Atlantic Division. Advertisement When Marchand does return, Maurice explained that he will slide neatly into Tkachuk's role while the team awaits both to be available. "With Matthew out of our lineup, there's a place for [Marchand], for sure," Maurice said. "That's just comfort level. Of all the games he has played with our guys, the most have been with Sam Bennett (internationally for Canada). He has some conversation there. That's the idea of putting him there." In 61 games this year, Marchand has notched 21 goals and 47 points.
New York Times
03-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Blackhawks trade board 2.0: Can Petr Mrázek be moved ahead of Friday's deadline?
Well, that was quick. Nine days after Seth Jones went public with his trade request to force Kyle Davidson's hand, the Chicago Blackhawks general manager shipped him off to South Florida. So much for the immovable contract. So much for worrying about the salary floor. So much for this dragging into the summer, or even into next season. Advertisement Not only did Davidson have to retain just $2.5 million of Jones' cap hit over the next five seasons, but he also managed to get a potential starting goaltender in Spencer Knight and yet another future first-round pick (albeit one that'll surely be late in the round). The Blackhawks are demonstrably worse than they were before the trade, and Davidson has a complicated goaltending situation on his hands, but he did just about as well as he could have hoped for in one of the most significant trades of his tenure. So, what now? The trade deadline isn't until Friday at 2 p.m. CT, and the Blackhawks are one of just a handful of teams that are obvious sellers. They might not have another four-time All-Star to offer, but Davidson still has some pieces to play with. With that in mind, let's update the trade board now that the former No. 1 is a Florida Panther. Donato continues to boost his trade stock. He scored two more goals Saturday and increased his career-best total to 21 goals. Most impressively, nearly all of his goals have come in five-on-five play. He has 17 goals at five-on-five, which is tied for 10th in the league, and he has played significantly fewer minutes than a lot of the players ahead of him. The Blackhawks will undoubtedly get calls for Donato over the next week, but Davidson doesn't feel an urgency to move him. Donato has value on the Blackhawks now, even if they don't re-sign him. If they move him, it'll make sense in the biggest picture. The Blackhawks aren't motivated to move Reichel, but they'll certainly listen if someone approaches them with an interesting offer. The Blackhawks are fine holding on to him, too. His $1.2 million cap hit is small, and they obviously don't mind benching him when they feel it's warranted. Reichel returned to the lineup Saturday after back-to-back healthy scratches and responded with a goal and an assist, his first multi-point game since Oct. 19. If he can get on a roll over the next week, that could affect things, too. Advertisement The Blackhawks seemed set for this season and next when they signed Laurent Brossoit over the summer. But Brossoit hasn't played all season because of an injury, and Arvid Söderblom stepped in and looked like a potential future No. 1 goalie. Now, by adding Knight in the Jones trade, the Blackhawks have three NHL-caliber goalies signed for next season and a fourth (Söderblom) whom they'll certainly want to re-sign as a restricted free agent. The Blackhawks will prioritize Knight and Söderblom, so where does that leave Mrázek and Brossoit? The Blackhawks would love to move Mrázek if they could in the next week. There are a couple of challenges, though. One, Mrázek doesn't look anything like he did earlier in the season. In November, he posted a .927 save percentage. Then, he had an .821 save percentage in December, a .904 in January and an .850 in February. For the season, he's at .890. The other hurdle is that Mrázek has another year left on his contract and a $4.25 million cap hit. The Blackhawks are out of salary retention spots, so it's unlikely they'll be able to move him. A buyout could be a possibility in the offseason. The Jones trade makes a Murphy trade less likely because the assumption was the Blackhawks would also have to retain salary on Murphy, who has another year left on his contract and a $4.4 million cap hit. Two of the three retention spots will open in the offseason, with Jake McCabe and Blackhawks legend Mikko Rantanen coming off the books, so that might put Murphy back into play this offseason. Donato leads the Blackhawks in goals and points per 60 minutes of five-on-five play, but Smith quietly has been second in both categories. In limited minutes and despite missing nearly a month with a back injury, Smith has eight goals and seven assists in 38 games. Modest numbers, to be sure, but he can provide some depth scoring and be had for a song. If any contenders are going bargain-hunting, they could do a lot worse than Smith. Advertisement Maroon's fate could be up to him. If he'd like to be moved, Davidson probably would be happy to oblige. The 36-year-old is a three-time Stanley Cup champion making just $1.3 million, and a contender might be happy to have his experience in the room and net-front presence on the ice. But if Maroon would rather finish out the season in Chicago, Davidson will be fine with that, too. Highly respected veterans get that luxury. The return would be negligible anyway: a late-round pick or 'future considerations.' Maroon has been a strong mentor for Reichel, but he obviously isn't part of the future in Chicago. Kurashev was always unlikely to be moved at the deadline, but it's even less likely now after suffering a hand injury. The shame of it is that he had been playing some of his best hockey of the season before the injury. Like Maroon, Martinez's fate is largely in his own hands. Another well-regarded three-time champion, Martinez probably could find a depth role on a good team somewhere. But he has a young kid at home and another on the way, and as he told The Athletic recently, he has the luxury of being a champion and not having to go Cup-chasing in the twilight of his career. (Top photo of Petr Mrázek and Ryan Donato: Adam Eberhardt / NHLI via Getty Images)
