Florida
Stephen King reacts as Florida bans 23 of his books
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Critically acclaimed horror author Stephen King has reacted passionately after finding out Florida banned 23 of his books from school libraries.
In 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation in the state banning books in schools that included any kind of sexually explicit material. The decision was driven by complaints from groups like Moms for Liberty. Republicans, including DeSantis, have said the legislation prevents students from obtaining books that are not age-appropriate, but critics view the law as an attempt to stifle discussion about issues including race and the LGBTQ+ community in public schools, raising concerns that this law may censor many topics.
Now after allegedly hundreds of titles were banned from school libraries, six major book publishers have sued the state of Florida. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday by Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers and Sourcebooks and argues that Florida’s law violates First Amendment rights to free speech.
King is no stranger to sharing his social and political opinions on social media and on Saturday, he responded after finding his books have been included in the ban, with his name also being mentioned in the lawsuit.
“Florida has banned 23 pf [sic] my books. What the f***?” the author wrote on X, formerly Twitter. At the time of writing, his post had been viewed 12.5 million times.
Florida has banned 23 pf my books. — Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 31, 2024
What the fuck?
Newsweek emailed spokespeople for King and DeSantis for comment on Monday.
As with most of King’s posts, this post has proven to be divisive. Some people have shared their support for King and disapproval of the ban.
“MAGA: ‘Reading is dangerous. It’s like math but with letters,’” one person commented.
“If this is the Collier County Public Schools ban then apparently they’ve banned Updike, Hemingway, Vonnegut, Neil Gaiman, Arthur C. Clarke, and novels likes [sic] Catch-22 and Brave New World. You’re in great company, Mr King,” said another.
“We’re working on taking back Florida and making sure they keep their bans off our bodies AND our books!” wrote Barbie Harden Hall, a Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress.
However, others have supported King’s books being banned, with one person writing: “Babe, elementary school kids don’t need to be reading The Shining. It’s not personal. It’s parenting.”
“Did they develop a sense of taste?” asked another.
John Lamparski/WireImage
Numerous books, including Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, have been pulled from school libraries since the book ban went into effect in July 2023. According to the publishers, popular contemporary novels by writers like Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume and King have also been removed.
The historic lawsuit targets the “sweeping book removal provisions” of House Bill 1069, which required school districts to set up a mechanism for parents to object to anything they deemed inappropriate or pornographic. The lawsuit also names the Authors Guild and several individual writers as plaintiffs.
“Florida HB 1069’s complex and overbroad provisions have created chaos and turmoil across the state, resulting in thousands of historic and modern classics, works we are proud to publish, being unlawfully labeled obscene and removed from shelves,” Dan Novack, vice president and associate general counsel of Penguin Random House, said in a statement.
“Students need access to books that reflect a wide range of human experiences to learn and grow. It’s imperative for the education of our young people that teachers and librarians be allowed to use their professional expertise to match our authors’ books to the right reader at the right time in their life.”
The lawsuit claims that the book removal provisions violate earlier rulings by the Supreme Court regarding the evaluation of works for their literary, artistic, political and scientific value while taking into account any potential obscenity.
However, according to the BBC, Florida officials have said the lawsuit is a “stunt” and have denied that the state has banned books.
“There are no books banned in Florida. Sexually explicit material and instruction are not suitable for schools,” said Florida Department of Education spokesperson Sydney Booker.
Earlier this year, a lawsuit was filed by a local teacher and PEN America that challenges the Escambia County School Board’s removal of approximately 200 books from school libraries, citing violations of free speech and educational rights. However, the school board contends that under a 2023 Florida law, it has the authority to decide which books are appropriate for students.
In a March 2023 statement, DeSantis spoke about the book-banning legislation: “In Florida, pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been snuck into our classrooms and libraries to sexualize our students violate our state education standards. Florida is the education state and that means providing students with a quality education free from sexualization and harmful materials that are not age appropriate.”
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Florida
‘Incredible’ to see bipartisan support for protecting threatened Florida wildlife: Conservationist
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Florida
Ex-Florida coach Dan Mullen appears to shade Billy Napier after disastrous opener
![Ex-Florida coach Dan Mullen appears to shade Billy Napier after disastrous opener Ex-Florida coach Dan Mullen appears to shade Billy Napier after disastrous opener](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/newspress-collage-3xjx31orj-1725201156331.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1725186892&w=1024)
With Florida fans chanting for his firing amid a blowout loss, head coach Billy Napier wasn’t about to find any sympathy from predecessor Dan Mullen.
Mullen, a college football analyst, recirculated a post on X from his ESPN colleague Matt Barrie that read, “The Florida coach that got fired went to three consecutive new years six games in his first three years. And was let go in his 4th season.”
The facts check out that Mullen posted a 29-9 record with appearances in the Peach Bowl, Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl (2-1 bowl record) over his first three seasons — climbing as high as No. 4 in the polls — before he was fired for going 5-6 in 2021.
His reluctance to fire defensive coordinator Todd Grantham until it was too late in powerbrokers’ eyes was a major contributor.
With one retweet on Saturday, Mullen suggested he’s still not over it.
Time seems to be ticking on Napier, whose tenure has been a disaster so far.
He was 11-14 through his first two seasons, including a loss in the Las Vegas Bowl, and he opened Year 3 with Saturday’s 41-17 loss at home to rival Miami.
Chants of “Fire Billy” and “Billy, you suck” reportedly rang out from the stands during the second half.
Napier was a hot Power Five coaching candidate after he went 40-12 in four seasons at Louisiana, but the success hasn’t carried over in the SEC.
To add insult to injury, Miami quarterback Cam Ward — a Washington State transfer — took a shot at Gators fans and the renowned atmosphere at the “Swamp.”
“I played at USC. USC wasn’t packed, but it was louder than this,” Ward said. “I played at Oregon and it was louder than this. The Pac-12 is misspoken for. That’s where I believe real football is played. Coming from Washington (State), Washington is one of the loudest environments I’ve played.
“Some advice to the fans: I would say if you’re going to be loud, be loud when we’re huddling. You can’t just be loud when we break the huddle. By that time, there’s no point. We hear the play and we communicated already. But it was a good atmosphere to play in, and I was just excited that we were able to get a victory.”
What figures to get louder is the sound of the pressure on Napier.
Florida
College Football Week 1 Takeaways: Florida Gators Entering Crisis Mode
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College football is back in full swing as the majority of FBS teams took the field for the first time on Saturday.
It’s always hard to get a gauge on Week 1 performances when there’s so much to learn about each team as the season progresses.
With that said, here are five takeaways from the first big Saturday of the year.
Billy Napier’s hot seat is scorching after a no-show loss to in-state rival Miami
No. 19 Miami walked into The Swamp with transfer quarterback Cam Ward and looked every bit the part of an ACC title contender. Ward threw for 385 yards and three touchdowns, as the Hurricanes rolled over Florida 41–17.
But as impressive as the victory was for Miami—a team that appears to be the class of an underwhelming ACC—this game signals more about the state of Florida’s program than anything else.
Through two seasons (and one game) of the Billy Napier era, the tenure has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. The Gators posted a 6–7 record in Napier’s first season, and followed that up that with a 5–7 record in 2023.
Napier’s predecessor, Dan Mullen, took Florida to New Year’s Six bowl games in each of his first three seasons, but was fired at the first sign of trouble in Year 4 due to uneven recruiting, athletic department politics and an underwhelming on-field product in 2021.
Three years later, the Gators appear worse off for it. After an 0–1 start, Florida now must navigate one of the toughest schedules in college football to try to make a bowl game in Napier’s third season.
As if things weren’t bleak enough in Gainesville, Napier’s buyout is $26 million, making for a tricky situation for a program that deserves better.
No. 14 Clemson posts a program referendum loss to No. 1 Georgia
Clemson lost four ACC games in 2023 for the first time since the ‘10 campaign—Dabo Swinney’s second full season as head coach.
If you thought that would be enough for Swinney to change his well-documented aversion to using the transfer portal, think again.
Instead, Swinney doubled down on his program’s culture and doing things his way, while the rest of college football embraced the transfer portal as another method to roster building.
Swinney’s defiance of the current state of affairs in college football has led to his program falling swiftly from the ranks of the sport’s elite class. The Tigers have not made a College Football Playoff appearance since Trevor Lawrence’s junior season in 2020, and the program now seems far more susceptible to losing multiple conference games per year than it does to dominating the ACC like it once did.
Saturday’s 34–3 loss to top-ranked Georgia would have been shocking five years ago.
Now? It’s expected when the Tigers contend with elite competition.
And that’s a problem.
No. 8 Penn State found a passing game, making it an actual Big Ten contender and College Football Playoff threat
On paper, No. 8 Penn State entered 2024 as the third-best team in the Big Ten and a program that appeared primed to battle for one of the last handful of spots in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.
Based on a 2023 season that saw the program go 10–3 behind a stout defense but an offense that lacked a legitimate passing game against top-flight competition, a similar formula seemed reasonable enough to get Penn State into this year’s playoff.
But if the passing game in 2024 takes as big of a step forward for the entire season as it did on Saturday against West Virginia, then look out.
Penn State head coach James Franklin hired Andy Kotelnicki away from Kansas in the offseason to become the program’s primary play-caller and spearhead an improved passing game, and the early returns on Saturday were phenomenal.
Junior quarterback Drew Allar tossed three touchdown passes as the Nittany Lions cruised into Morgantown and came away with a convincing 34–12 victory over West Virginia.
Allar looked more comfortable in the pocket than he did at any time last season, and if Saturday is any indication, Penn State looks primed to not only seriously compete for a Big Ten crown, but perhaps win a game or two in the College Football Playoff.
No. 3 Oregon and No. 9 Michigan left plenty to be desired in their season opening victories
No. 3 Oregon was a 44-point favorite against theIdaho Vandals of the FCS, while No. 9 Michigan was favored by three scores against Fresno State. Both teams escaped with victories, but neither was particularly pretty.
For Michigan, this was somewhat expected, given the turnover on the coaching staff and across the roster following last year’s national championship. Even so, the Michigan quarterback situation appears to be a total mess. Former walk-on Davis Warren earned the starting nod over junior Alex Orji, a former four-star recruit, which probably says more about the staff’s lack of confidence in Orji throwing the football than anything else.
Warren completed 15 of his 25 passing attempts for a mere 118 yards with one touchdown and one interception. That was good enough on Saturday night to earn the Wolverines a 30–10 victory over Fresno State, but certainly won’t be good enough next Saturday when Michigan hosts the Texas Longhorns in the Big House.
Oregon, meanwhile, couldn’t gain separation from Idaho in their 24–14 win thanks to plenty of sloppiness. The Ducks had a missed field goal, a fumble on the edge of the red zone and two failed fourth down conversion attempts despite outgaining the Vandals by nearly 300 yards.
Michigan’s issues can be easily tied to a downgrade at quarterback, while Oregon simply could not stop stepping on its own feet against an overmatched opponent. But more will be expected in the near future.
No. 7 Notre Dame’s offensive line struggled, but the Irish defense was still elite in a road win over No. 20 Texas A&M
Much of the talk entering the game of the day in college football between No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 20 Texas A&M in College Station revolved around the Irish’s inexperienced offensive line going up against an Aggies defensive front featuring plenty of future NFL talent.
Notre Dame struggled offensively throughout the night as expected, but came through in the clutch when it needed to the most. With the game tied at 13 with 6:12 remaining in regulation, the Irish embarked on a back-breaking eight-play, 85-yard touchdown drive capped off by a 21-yard touchdown scamper by running back Jeremiyah Love.
The Irish defense, like it did all night, closed out the Aggies on their final offensive possession of the night with less than two minutes remaining, and added a late field goal to cap off an impressive 23–13 road victory to spoil Mike Elko’s Texas A&M debut.
Notre Dame is a likely favorite in each of their remaining 11 games, and earned an early feather in the cap to their College Football Playoff resume.
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