Florida
Florida Panthers on a roll as they sweep road trip, notch 8 straight wins: CBS News Miami’s Steve Goldstein
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Florida Panthers went west to face tough opponents and simply swept them all away.
They won all four games, in Arizona, Vegas, Colorado and St. Louis, and extended the win streak to eight, the third longest winning streak in franchise history.
The Cats were clicking in all phases of the game, dominating on special teams, scoring in bunches and getting strong goaltending. Forty games into the season, the Panthers are one of the top handful of teams in the league and a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
Defense dominates
It has been a true team effort to become one of the top 3 defensive teams in the NHL. Starting with the goalies making the key saves, the Panthers have allowed two goals per game during the streak. Sergei Bobrovsky has won six in a row and is likely heading to the All Star game.
Anthony Stolarz has won two games during the streak, allowing one goal each game. Both have benefited from a stingy defense which is helped immensely by the forwards coming back to help. Defense wins championships and the Panthers have the right formula.
Sizing up the streak
The Panthers have outscored the opponents 36-15 the last 8 games. In the third period, it is a staggering 18-5. The last 5 games they are averaging 5 goals a game and allowing less than 2.
The Panthers get better as the games go on and have not trailed after getting the lead. They will try to make it nine Thursday against Los Angeles at Amerant Bank Arena.
Chucky is back
Look out NHL.
As if the defending eastern conference champions solid play so far this season wasn’t enough, Matthew Tkachuk has caught fire. While playing well and contributing, he wasn’t producing his usual offensive numbers. Until the last couple of weeks. Tkachuk scored a natural hat trick in the third period Tuesday in St. Louis.
He grew up there and had numerous family members and friends in the stands. He has a remarkable 15 points in his last 6 games
and has scored in every game in 2024. The Panthers are virtually unstoppable when he is scoring at the rate he is.
Reinhart the All Star
Sam Reinhart will be heading to Toronto for All Star weekend for the first time in his nine-year career. It’s a family event so to speak.
His father Paul was a terrific NHL defenseman and made the All Star game twice: in 1985 and 1989.
Sam wasn’t born yet, so he now gets to experience the All Star game for himself. Reinhart is having one of the best goal scoring seasons in Panthers history. He’s scored 29 in the first 40 games. Reinhart is second in the league goals and leads the NHL in power plays goals, game winners and shooting percentage.
Barkov assisting
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov may be the most unselfish superstar in sports. The man literally wouldn’t care if he scored 5 goals and had 95 assists.
He may even welcome it.
Barkov can shoot and score, he’s had 39 in a season, but his elite hockey sense leads to Barkov setting up teammates more often. Reinhart is having a great season and part of it is Barkov being his center man. During the current eight-game winning streak, Barkov has 14 assists
Florida
Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’
It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.
Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.
But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.
William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.
Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.
Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.
“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.
“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”
The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.
He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.
At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.
Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.
Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.
That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”
In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.
Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.
Florida
Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'
Florida
Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip
Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.
“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.
“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.
Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”
The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.
“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”
That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.
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