Florida

14 boaters rescued off Florida gulf coast in 1 week, Coast Guard says

Published

2 years ago

April 19, 2024

14 boaters rescued off Florida gulf coast in 1 week, Coast Guard says

It was a busy week for the U.S. Coast Guard in St. Petersburg.

Seventeen distress and marine safety calls led to the rescue of 14 boaters since April 12, Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg said in a news release Friday.

It started around 11 p.m. April 12, when Coast Guard watchstanders received a mayday call from three people reporting that their 47-foot commercial fishing boat was sinking 1 mile southwest of John’s Pass. The three people were found floating next to their boat, which was partially submerged and run aground, about 11:10 p.m. They were taken to John’s Pass Marina for care from emergency medical services.

The boaters worked with commercial salvage to coordinate the recovery of their vessel, and 605 gallons of diesel were pumped from the fuel tank Monday. The vessel was towed to Snug Harbor Boatworks on Tuesday, and no pollution was reported, the news release states.

Also on Monday, watchstanders received a distress call from three people aboard a disabled 20-foot vessel about 22 miles west of Egmont Key around 3:30 p.m. A boat crew from Coast Guard Station Cortez found the vessel around 7:45 p.m. and towed it to Egmont Channel. A search-and-rescue boat crew from Eckerd College towed the vessel from Egmont Channel to the Fort De Soto Boat Ramp.

On Tuesday, dispatchers from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office reported a person aboard a “disabled personal watercraft” near the Courtney Campbell Causeway around 3:30 p.m. A boat crew from Coast Guard Station St. Petersburg retrieved the person and towed their vessel to the Courtney Campbell Boat Ramp.

On Thursday, Pinellas sheriff’s office dispatchers again contacted the Coast Guard — this time for three people whose boat ran out of fuel about 14 miles west of Egmont Key around 1:45 p.m. A Coast Guard crew from St. Petersburg found the three people aboard the 21-foot vessel around 3:15 p.m. and towed it to Egmont Channel. An Eckerd College search-and-rescue boat crew towed the vessel from Egmont Channel to Fort De Soto Boat Ramp.

Around 2 p.m. Thursday, Coast Guard watchstanders received an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon alert and mayday call from four people aboard a 30-foot vessel 30 miles west of Venice. An aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater found the four people around 3 p.m. A boat crew from Coast Guard Station Cortez fixed the steering and escorted the vessel to Station Cortez.

No injuries were reported in any of the incidents, the Coast Guard said. In a statement, Capt. Michael P. Kahle, commander of Sector St. Petersburg, stressed the importance of having a communication device on your boat.

“Having a working marine VHF radio, a well-charged cellphone in a waterproof case and a properly registered EPIRB and PLB, can and will help save your life in a time of distress,” Kahle said in the statement.

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Related Topics:Featured section: Florida section: News section: Pinellas

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Florida

Read Florida’s lawsuit against Roblox

Published

11 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

The Florida Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, Dec. 11, filed a lawsuit against popular online gaming platform Roblox, accusing the company of failing to protect its millions of underage users from predatory adults who would “find, groom, and abuse children.”

“Roblox aggressively markets to young children, but fails to protect them from sexual predators,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a post to X. “As a father of three little ones and as Florida’s attorney general, my number one priority is simple: to protect our kids.”

The lawsuit claims Florida children have been talked into taking and sending sexual images of themselves and lists several recent incidences, including a 20-year-old California man arrested last month for having sexually explicit conversations with a Palm Coast child and asking for nude photos.

A Roblox spokesperson said the lawsuit “fundamentally misrepresents how Roblox works.”

“We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications,” Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement, adding that the company — currently the most downloaded game in the world — will be rolling out additional safeguards “beyond what is required by law and what other platforms do.”

Read Florida’s lawsuit against Roblox

Can’t see the embedded document? Click here.

What is Roblox?

San Mateo, California-based Roblox, released in 2006, hosts millions of user-created games (or “experiences”) constructed with the platform’s built-in game engine. Any user can create a game and share it with others, and there are millions of games available of all types.

The game platform and most games are free to use, but some cost to play. There is also a thriving economy based on Robux, an in-game virtual currency used to purchase virtual items. Roblox offers a subscription service called Roblox Premium that provides access to more features and a monthly allowance of Roblox.

Voice chat is available, but only for users aged 13 or older with verified ages. Age ratings were introduced for games in 2022, and in 2023, 17+ games were permitted to include more graphic violence, romance, and drinking.

According to Roblox, as of 2020, the monthly playerbase included half of all American children under the age of 16.

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Florida

Florida’s complete 2026 football schedule unveiled

Published

23 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Florida’s complete 2026 football schedule unveiled

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The 2026 football schedule for the Florida Gators has been set. Next year’s slate was unveiled Thursday night on SEC Network.

The most notable dates are Florida’s SEC opener on Sept. 19 — a Week 3 trip to Auburn, where the Gators haven’t played since 2011 — along with a road game at Texas on Oct. 17 and home games against Ole Miss (Sept. 26) and Oklahoma (Nov. 7).

Next season will mark the Sooners’ first-ever visit to Gainesville. The teams have previously played twice in the postseason, with the Gators defeating Oklahoma 24-14 in their first-ever meeting to win the 2008 national championship.

The Gators open the season in The Swamp on Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic. UF’s other non-conference opponents will be Campbell (Sept. 12) and at Florida State (Nov. 28).

Florida is also hosting South Carolina (Oct. 10) and Vanderbilt (Nov. 21). The Gators haven’t played the Gamecocks or the Commodores since 2023.

UF takes on Georgia in Atlanta on Oct. 31 after the bye week. Florida’s other road games are Missouri (Oct. 3), Texas (Oct. 17) and Kentucky (Nov. 14).

The Gators will be led by first-year coach Jon Sumrall. He won the American Conference title with Tulane last week and has the Green Wave in the College Football Playoffs. They will have a rematch against Ole Miss on Dec. 20 in the first round after losing in Oxford, 45-10, on Sept. 20.

Sumrall was back in Gainesville this week to assemble his staff. So far, he has hired offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, defensive coordinator Brade White and defensive line coach Gerald Chatman.

Date	Opponent	Location
Sept. 5	Florida Atlantic	Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 12	Campbell	Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 19	at Auburn	Auburn, Alabama
Sept. 26	Ole Miss	Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 3	at Missouri	Columbia, Missouri
Oct. 10	South Carolina	Gainesville, Florida
Oct. 17	at Texas	Austin, Texas
Oct. 24	Bye
Oct. 31	Georgia	Atlanta, Georgia
Nov. 7	Oklahoma	Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 14	at Kentucky	Lexington, Kentucky
Nov. 21	Vanderbilt	Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 28	at Florida State	Tallahassee, Florida

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Florida

Florida basketball has failed to meet expectations early on

Published

1 day ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Florida basketball has failed to meet expectations early on

A 5-4 start to Florida basketball’s national title defense is not what anyone had in mind — much less, the Gator Nation — but here we are nine games deep into the 2025-26 schedule.

To be fair, three of those losses have come against programs currently ranked among the top five in both major polls and have been off to stellar starts. The Arizona Wildcats, Duke Blue Devils and UConn Huskies are nothing to sneeze at, and while the TCU Horned Frogs are not quite on their tier, all of these losses came either on the road (Duke) or on a neutral court (the other three).

Maybe Todd Golden should reconsider playing in all of these early-season special events in the future. But alas, that is a story for another season.

ESPN thinks Florida has failed to meet expectations

Obviously, with a dominating frontcourt roster returning in full, there was plenty to be optimistic about heading into the campaign. However, the departure of three guards to the NBA and a fourth to the transfer portal has proven to be a void too large to fill with their offseason acquisitions.

And that is the crux of ESPN’s Myron Medcalf’s observation that the Gators have simply not met the bar so far.

“Months after winning a national title with an elite set of guards, Florida’s Todd Golden rebooted his backcourt with former Arkansas star Boogie Fland and Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee,” he begins.

“It hasn’t worked out as planned. In Florida’s two-player lineups — an on-court metric at EvanMiya.com that captures how teams perform when specific players are paired together — the Fland-Lee combination ranked 26th within its own team,” Metcalf continues.

“And though Lee scored 19 points against UConn in Tuesday’s game at Madison Square Garden, that loss was another example of the Gators’ limitations when Lee and Fland (1-for-9 combined from 3 against the Huskies) aren’t equally elite on the same night.”

He has not liked what he has seen, and his conclusion is not necessarily unfair.

“Ultimately, Florida hasn’t looked like a defending champion thus far, despite Thomas Haugh (18.6 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 2.8 APG) playing like an All-American.”

How does the NET, BPI and KenPom view Florida basketball?

While Medcalf’s assessment comes fully equipped with dark clouds, the objective metrics paint a much more optimistic outlook for the team overall.

According to the NET rankings, Florida is just inside the top 25 at No. 24 — one spot ahead of the Miami Hurricanes, who they beat in Jacksonville back in November. The Gators are 1-3 in Quadrant 1 matchups, 1-1 in Quad 2, 1-0 in Quad 3 and 2-0 in Quad 4.

KenPom views the Orange and Blue even more bullishly, ranking Florida at No. 15 despite the weak record. Golden’s gang currently sits at No. 15 with a plus-26.55 adjusted net rating — up from plus-25.70 (17th) at the end of November, while the offense (120.4) moved up from 24th to 23rd in the nation, and the defense (93.8) has only dropped one place — from 10th to 11th — despite allowing 0.6 fewer points per 100 possessions.

The most optimistic metric for Florida comes from ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, which has the Gators at No. 9 despite a 1-3 stretch over the past two weeks. They have an 18.8 overall BPI, with the offense logging in at 8.5 (22nd) and defense earning a 10.3 (8th) rating recently.

ESPN projects Florida to go 21.0-10.0 overall and 12.2-5.8 in conference play.

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

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