South Florida Local News

Pembroke Pines police officers will continue protecting 16 city schools after the city and school district settled a three-month dispute over costs.

The City Commission unanimously agreed Monday night to accept the district’s offer to reimburse the city $113,560 for each police officer for the coming year, with an increase to $119,240 the next year. The School Board is expected to approve the contract Aug. 21.

“We appreciate the City of Pembroke Pines for its ongoing partnership and financial commitment to securing our schools,” School District spokesman John Sullivan said Tuesday.

City leaders disliked the district’s offer, saying the reimbursement rate only covered part of the city’s costs of $165,251, which includes salary, benefits and equipment costs.

The school district argued its price is standard for all cities that provide school resource officers and was negotiated by the Broward League of Cities and the Broward County Chiefs of Police Association. The city said those negotiations were without its participation. After the city balked at the offer, the district said it would provide non-sworn security known as armed guardians in city schools.

Initially, Mayor Angelo Castillo and city staff agreed to that. But the City Commission faced major pushback from local parents and residents.

The district already provides guardians for a number of elementary schools in the county, but Pembroke Pines would have been the only city to not supply law enforcement officers for middle or high schools.

Another proposal would have kept Pembroke Pines in two district-run high schools, Charles Flanagan and West Broward, but not in middle or elementary schools.

But parents attended meetings last week and Monday to say they love Pembroke Pines police officers and want them in all elementary, middle and high schools.

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“The SRO’s are no guarantee something bad will never happen,” Ilenia Sanchez-Bryson told the City Commission on Monday night. “But it does ensure that the most skilled and trained individual is there if ever there’s a need for swift action in a dire situation, so that if the worst thing imaginable were to happen, we would not be left wondering why we didn’t do everything we could to protect our most vulnerable citizens.”

Vice Mayor Thomas Good told the audience attending Monday’s meeting that the commission took their concerns seriously.

“You spoke. We heard, and we are delivering to you exactly what you have been anticipating and expecting all along,” he said.

Castillo agreed to the contract but still voiced concern that the city was subsidizing school police services, which he sees as a responsibility of the school district.

“It’s unfortunate we’re not going to get the complete cost,” he said Monday night. “We understand we have to put the safety of the children first. That’s something we’ve always done, but the dynamic of this contract arrangement is reeking in bad public policy.”

By NADIA LATHAN

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — An investigation found no evidence of intent to influence 2022 election outcomes in Texas’ largest county, prosecutors announced Tuesday, but they will pursue criminal charges against a county employee who was allegedly working a second job while polls ran out of paper ballots.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s review is one of several to scrutinize Houston’s last midterm elections, when problems at polling places prompted Republican candidates to contest defeats in local races and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to sign a law removing the elections administrator in the county of more than 5 million residents.

Ogg, an elected Democrat, said during a news conference that her office and investigators with the Texas Rangers found no evidence that elections employees intentionally tried to sway the results. But she said the investigation found that the failures of one elections employee — whose job was to make sure polling locations had enough paper ballots — resulted in some voters being unable to cast ballots.

That employee, Darryl Blackburn, was not charged with any election-related crimes. Instead, he faces charges related to improperly claiming hours on his timesheets and filing for paid time off while secretly working a more lucrative outside job, including on Election Day as some polling locations ran out of paper ballots.

The most serious of six charges filed against Blackburn, theft by public servant, carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Blackburn’s attorney said his client is not guilty and slammed the charges as politically driven.

“This case isn’t about the election — it’s about timesheets,” Houston attorney Charles Flood said in a statement. “The Texas Rangers made clear that the evidence shows no intent or attempt to influence the 2022 election, so it seems Ms. Ogg’s only motivation is to try and claim my client as some sort of consolation prize.”

Ogg said the employee’s actions undermined voter confidence.

“It is clearly extremely important to look at these crimes in a nonpartisan way,” Ogg said.

Last year, an audit by the Texas secretary of state’s office also found that race outcomes were not affected by the issues in Houston. But the report did fault county administrators for failures, including insufficient training for elections staff.

After the 2022 elections, Republican lawmakers effectively dismantled Harris County’s elections office and turned the job back over to the county tax assessor and county clerk, which are both elected offices currently held by Democrats.

Harris County has been at the center of battles over voting rights and access in Texas in recent years. Democrats, who have expanded their victories in the county, have attacked new restrictions and state scrutiny over Houston’s elections as politically motivated.

A Texas judge last year denied efforts by losing Republican candidates to overturn election results after the 2022 midterms. But he later ordered a new election in one race that was among the closest. That case remains pending on appeal.

___

Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Yvonne Serrano, who was convicted in June of second-degree murder in the shooting death of her friend Daniela Tabares, was sentenced this week to life in prison.

The murder of Tabares was shocked her friends and family because it happened suddenly and apparently without motive. Serrano, 55, and Tabares, 21, were fellow members of a Broward gym who were out partying with friends in November 2019 at a World of Beer pub in Coconut Creek.

Jurors learned during the June trial that Serrano and Tabares were seen leaving together in Tabares’ car. The following morning, police were at Serrano’s home in Coral Springs trying to determine why Tabares was lying in her driveway, half in and out of her car, with a gunshot wound to her head.

Police questioned Serrano about the shooting, but she gave them conflicting stories, first denying that she even knew the victim and later admitting they were friends. The murder weapon was in Serrano’s bedroom.

Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, but Broward Circuit Judge Barbara Duffy could have imposed a lesser sentence if she determined it was warranted. She did not.

The victim’s mother, Isabel Tavares, told Duffy she would never recover from her daughter’s death.

“The day this woman took my daughter’s life, she took my whole life with her, because she was my all,” she said in court.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. 

By JEFF AMY

ATLANTA (AP) — Three independent and third-party candidates got one step closer to appearing on Georgia’s presidential ballot on Tuesday. But legal challenges still loom.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that officials have verified that independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz of the Party for Socialism and Liberation each collected more than the 7,500 signatures needed to qualify.

Raffensperger said 11,336 signatures were accepted for Kennedy after county election officials reviewed petitions, while 8,075 were accepted for Cornel West and 7,682 were accepted for De la Cruz.

While Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians have secure places on the Georgia ballot, other parties and independent candidates can qualify by petition.

But Georgia Democrats are still legally challenging efforts to place the three candidates and Green Party nominee Jill Stein on Georgia’s ballots. It is part of a nationwide effort to block candidates who could siphon votes from Vice President Kamala Harris.

Hearings on the Georgia challenges are scheduled to begin Monday. After an administrative law judge makes a recommendation, Raffensperger will issue a final ruling. A decision must be made in time for Georgia to mail military and overseas ballots beginning Sept. 17.

While some other states routinely put minor-party and independent candidates on ballots, Georgia voters haven’t had more than four options since 1948. The last time there were any candidates besides a Republican, Democrat and Libertarian was in 2000, when independent Pat Buchanan qualified.

Kennedy was kicked off New York’s ballot earlier this week when a judge ruled that the address in New York City’s suburbs that Kennedy listed as a residence on nominating petitions was a “sham” address he used to maintain his voter registration and to further his political aspirations. The judge ruled in favor of challengers who argued Kennedy’s actual residence was the home in Los Angeles he shares with his wife, the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines. Kennedy has vowed to appeal

It is unclear if Kennedy’s home address will be an issue in the Georgia hearings. Democrats have alleged that all the petitions followed improper procedures, making them invalid. The Kennedy campaign’s Paul Rossi said in a July 31 online news conference that there was nothing wrong with the campaign’s petitions, with Rossi describing the allegations as “throwing spaghetti at the wall.”

“Because they can’t challenge the signatures, they’ve made allegations which are simply not correct at all,” Rossi said.

Until this year, the only road to getting on the ballot in Georgia was by collecting signatures from 7,500 registered voters statewide. But Georgia’s Republican-majority legislature passed a law directing the secretary of state to also place on the ballot candidates of any party that makes ballots in at least 20 other states. That move was widely interpreted as trying to make trouble for Biden, although former President Donald Trump’s Republican campaign has also regarded the Kennedy campaign with suspicion.

The Green Party, which has nominated Stein, says it aims to make Georgia ballots using the 20-state rule.

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 13, the 226th day of 2024. There are 140 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 13, 1961, on what would become known as Barbed Wire Sunday, East Germany sealed the border between Berlin’s eastern and western sectors before building a wall that would divide the city for the next 28 years.

Also on this date:

In 1521, Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured Tenochtitlan (teh-natch-teet-LAHN’), present-day Mexico City, from the Aztecs.

In 1792, French revolutionaries arrested and imprisoned King Louis XVI; he would be executed by guillotine the following January.

In 1889, William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut, received a patent for the first coin-operated telephone.

In 1918, Opha May Johnson became the first woman to join the U.S. Marine Corps.

In 1952, Big Mama Thornton first recorded the song “Hound Dog,” four years before Elvis Presley’s famous version was released.

In 1969, New York City held a ticket-tape parade for Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins.

In 1995, Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer at age 63.

In 2011, seven people were killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair during a powerful storm just before a concert was to begin.

In 2020, in an interview on Fox Business Network, President Donald Trump acknowledged that he was starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is 91.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is 78.
• Opera singer Kathleen Battle is 76.
• High wire aerialist Philippe Petit is 75.
• Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke is 75.
• Golf Hall of Famer Betsy King is 69.
• Movie director Paul Greengrass is 69.
• Actor Danny Bonaduce is 65.
• TV weatherman Sam Champion is 63.
• Actor Dawnn Lewis is 63.
• Actor John Slattery is 62.
• Actor Debi Mazar is 60.
• Figure skater Midori Ito is 55.
• Country singer Andy Griggs is 51.
• White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is 50.
• Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is 42.
• Actor Sebastian Stan is 42.
• Actor Lennon Stella is 25.

General Daily Insight for August 13, 2024

New information has the potential to disrupt our comfort today. As the probing Scorpio Moon opposes unpredictable Uranus, we should be careful about asking questions we don’t really want answered. If we’re up for the challenge, though, we might enjoy the opportunity to dream big. After the Moon shifts into philosophical Sagittarius at 6:01 am EDT, we can flesh out any spontaneous brainstorms. Figuring out the details may be the hard part when Luna then squares practical Mercury. It’s okay to take our time!

Aries

March 21 – April 19

You might finally be ready to break away from someone who has been making demands on your resources for far too long. Cutting your losses and ending the arrangement ASAP probably makes more sense than waiting around in hopes they’ll pay you back something they owe you. However, the experience doesn’t have to be a total wash. What rules would you need going forward to avoid the feeling that you’re being exploited? Try to distill any lessons you’ve learned from this upsetting situation.

Taurus

April 20 – May 20

Shaking up a too-close relationship dynamic could seem inevitable now. You may not relish the emotional upheaval, even if you’re the one seemingly causing it. Finding a modern equilibrium with the other person might eventually be possible, but it’ll ask something from you — as the connection-craving Moon in your intimacy zone badgers articulate Mercury in your self-expression sector, you’ll need to define what you actually want. If you haven’t thought about that yet, this is a great time to start!

Gemini

May 21 – June 20

Paying attention to the mundane side of your life can open your eyes to impressive synchronicities going on all around you. Unfortunately, your attempt to relay such stories to a loved one may not go over well, due to the genuine Moon in your relationship sector clashing with critical Mercury. This type of reaction probably doesn’t mean that they have negative intentions toward you overall. Such mismatched interactions just reflect that they’re not quite on your wavelength — and that’s their loss!

Cancer

June 21 – July 22

Your social life could be especially zany and stimulating today. At some point, all things considered, you will have to return to your regular routine. It probably won’t be fun to call a halt when you’re having a good time, but making elaborate excuses for your departure will only make things more complicated than they need to be as the anxious Moon in your responsible 6th house goads creative Mercury in your communication sector. Just get to your point, and go when you must!

Leo

July 23 – August 22

Someone else could be using unpredictable behavior to maintain control over you at the moment. Although this isn’t the most obvious type of power grab, you’ll be wise to suspect it’s what’s happening if you feel unpleasantly jerked around. Should you call them out? That depends on what you value most in the overall situation. Pure candor, no matter how correct you ultimately are, can jeopardize your access to resources you need. Think carefully about what you’re getting out of the arrangement.

Virgo

August 23 – September 22

You’re likely curious and eager to feed your intellect today. It’s potentially exciting to disrupt assumptions that you weren’t particularly attached to in the first place. On the other hand, if you dig long enough, you may discover something that challenges a belief you cherish. As the delicate Moon in your sensitive 4th house pushes back against inquisitive Mercury in your sign, your discomfort is worth hearing out, but it shouldn’t be the final word on the subject. Focus on the facts.

Libra

September 23 – October 22

Which resources have you come to rely upon lately? Perhaps you’re utilizing something that was never entirely yours to begin with, but someone else found it convenient enough to share — until their circumstances changed. Although it’s understandable that you’d be disappointed by this development, you probably aren’t totally powerless. While the social Moon in your communication zone engages with information planet Mercury in your 12th House of Secrets, ask around about other options. The solution isn’t necessarily out in the open.

Scorpio

October 23 – November 21

The thought of a loved one leaving you might be too difficult to bear at this time. While the melodramatic Moon in your sign opposes unstable Uranus in your partnership zone, you may be tempted to use an emotional display, genuine or not, to tug on their heartstrings. Would you feel proud of this if your peers found out what you did? The situation has the potential to become more public than you prefer, so be careful to live in line with your values.

Sagittarius

November 22 – December 21

Taking a break from your regular routine would be a sensible move right now. Maybe you know you have a public appearance in the near future that will require you to be at the top of your game. It’s okay to decide that preparing for an upcoming event or project is your top priority for the time being, especially if it’s an unfamiliar experience for you! Although untangling yourself from your normal responsibilities can be inconvenient, you’ll likely find that most things can wait.

Capricorn

December 22 – January 19

Showing your peers an idiosyncratic side of yourself is presently possible. Still, even if this is a good choice for various valid reasons, you might wind up exhausted from the effort — changing an established dynamic usually isn’t easy. After the vulnerable Moon shifts into your contemplative 12th house, take the time you need to rest and reflect on your experience. The reactions you receive may not match your expectations, so you’ll potentially want to pin down exactly what you found surprising and why.

Aquarius

January 20 – February 18

Looking to the outside world for emotional security might be appealing today. Perhaps your private sphere feels uncomfortably unsettled. Focusing your energy outward, away from that chaotic atmosphere, could indeed be fertile ground for potential connections. That said, you’ll have to be realistic about the limits of this approach. While the impulsive Moon in your networking zone provokes chatty Mercury in your intimacy sector, you risk blabbing more personal information than the people around you are ready to receive. Take things slow for now.

Pisces

February 19 – March 20

Saying something disruptive is more risky than normal. While the spontaneous Moon in your free-ranging 9th house riles up wild Uranus in your 3rd House of Communication, maybe the idea you’ll spout off about is just a passing fancy — not anything you’re deeply attached to. Unfortunately, the topic might be quite personal to someone else involved in the conversation. You could wind up learning from the ensuing exchange, but the fallout may harm your reputation. Contemplate whether it’s worth it before jumping in.

DENVER (AP) — Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, a hero to election deniers, found guilty in breach of election computer.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A judge ruled Monday that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name should not appear on New York’s ballot, ruling that he falsely claimed a New York residence on nominating petitions despite living in California.

Kennedy’s lawyers on Monday vowed to appeal ahead of the Aug. 15 deadline. If the judge’s ruling is upheld, it would not only keep Kennedy off the ballot in New York but could also lead to challenges in other states where he used an address in New York City’s suburbs to gather signatures.

Judge Christina Ryba, in her 34-page decision, said the bedroom Kennedy claimed as his home in the state wasn’t a “bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a ‘sham’ address that he assumed for the purpose of maintaining his voter registration” and furthering his political candidacy.

“Given the size and appearance of the spare bedroom as shown in the photographs admitted into evidence, the Court finds Kennedy’s testimony that he may return to that bedroom to reside with his wife, family members, multiple pets, and all of his personal belongings to be highly improbable, if not preposterous,” the judge wrote.

Ryba said evidence submitted in trial showed Kennedy had a “long-standing pattern” of borrowing addresses from friends and relatives so he could maintain his voter registration in New York State while actually residing in California.

“Using a friend’s address for political and voting purposes, while barely stepping foot on the premises, does not equate to residency under the Election Law,” the judge wrote. “To hold otherwise would establish a dangerous precedent and open the door to the fraud and political mischief that the Election Law residency rules were designed to prevent.”

Clear Choice Action, which supported the legal challenge, said the Monday ruling makes it clear that Kennedy “lied about his residency and provided a false address on his filing papers and candidate petitions in New York, intentionally misleading election officials and betraying voters’ trust.”

The lawsuit backed by the Democrat-aligned political action committee claims Kennedy’s state nominating petition falsely listed a residence in well-to-do Katonah while actually living in the Los Angeles area since 2014, when he married “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines.

Kennedy argued during the trial that he has lifelong ties to New York and intends to move back.

During the trial, which ran for less than four days, Kennedy maintained that he began living in New York when he was 10 and that he currently rents a room in a friend’s home in Katonah, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of midtown Manhattan. However, Kennedy testified that he has only slept in that room once due to his constant campaign travel.

The 70-year-old candidate testified that his move to California a decade ago was so he could be with his wife, and that he always planned to return to New York, where he is registered to vote.

Barbara Moss, who rents the room to Kennedy, testified that he pays her $500 a month. But she acknowledged there is no written lease and that Kennedy’s first payment wasn’t made until after the New York Post published a story casting doubt on Kennedy’s claim that he lived at that address.

The judge also heard from a longtime friend of Kennedy’s who said the candidate had regularly been an overnight guest at his own Westchester home from 2014 through 2017, but was not a tenant there as Kennedy had claimed.

Attorneys representing several New York voters grilled Kennedy in often heated exchanges as they sought to make their case, pointing to government documents including a federal statement of candidacy with a California address, and even a social media video in which Kennedy talks about training ravens at his Los Angeles home.

Kennedy has the potential to do better than any independent presidential candidate in decades thanks to his famous name and a loyal base. Both Democrat and Republican strategists have expressed concerns that he could affect their candidate’s chances.

Kennedy’s campaign has said he has enough signatures to qualify in a majority of states, but his ballot drive has faced challenges and lawsuits in several, including North Carolina and New Jersey.

Clear Choice filed the New York suit on behalf of several voters in the state.

Kennedy told reporters last week that getting knocked off the ballot in New York could lead to lawsuits in other states where his campaign listed the same address.

After the trial ended Thursday, Kennedy argued that people who signed his petitions deserve a chance to vote for him.

“Those Americans want to see me on the ballot. They want to have a choice,” he said.

___

Marcelo reported from East Meadow, N.Y. Associated Press writer Michael Sisak contributed to this report.

Nine feet under water in a canal along West Broward Boulevard in Plantation, a diver reached his hand in through a small hole in the roof of the corroded car and pulled out an object resting on the backseat.

Mike Sullivan, one of the founders of Sunshine State Sonar, an independent organization that uses sonar technology to find missing people and cars in South Florida, surfaced with the object, brought it to shore and searched on Google to find out what it was.

The relic was a Fisher Price School Days Desk toy, made in the early 1970s. Inside the car were more baby toys, a little girl’s clothes and human remains.

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Sullivan and volunteers with Sunshine State Sonar, along with Plantation Police detectives and Broward Sheriff’s Office divers, found a 1960s model Chevrolet Impala in a canal in the 10100 block of West Broward Boulevard on Saturday. Bones were found inside, believed to be those of an adult and a small child, police department spokesperson Det. Robert Rettig said in a news release Monday.

Sullivan said all signs point to the remains being those of Doris Wurst and her 3-year-old daughter, Caren, who were reported missing from Plantation in November 1974. Rettig said he could not confirm whose remains were recovered until they are identified through DNA and dental records.

Wurst and Caren were last seen in 1974 a few miles away from where the car was found Saturday. The car in the canal was confirmed to be a 1961 Chevrolet Impala based on the taillights, the car they were known to be traveling in when they were last seen. Wurst was from Pennsylvania, where the car was registered, and snow tires were still on the car. And then the vintage baby toys and little girl’s clothes inside.

With all of the clues adding up, Sullivan said, “you just knew.”

“This was the little girl saying to us, ‘You found me. You got me,'” Sullivan said of surfacing with the Fisher Price toy.

Clothes and toys were recovered from a 1960s model Chevrolet Impala that was discovered in a canal in the 10100 block of West Broward Boulevard on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (Sunshine State Sonar/Courtesy)

Plantation Police were notified on Nov. 12, 1974, that a 35-year-old mother and her 3-year-old daughter were reported missing from their home in the 13400 block of Northwest Second Street, which was then the Sunshine City Trailer Park, Rettig said in the news release. Wurst and Caren were not named in the release.

Sullivan said he was relieved once they found the car with windows still sealed, increasing the chances that any possible remains could be found. In some cases where windows have been busted and cars have turned upside down, any remains may no longer be inside, he said.

“We were praying that they were still going to be inside the vehicle,” Sullivan said.

Law enforcement combed the vehicle methodically, Sullivan said, to recover any bone fragments, the toys, the clothes. It was a painstaking process to recover the car. The decades under water made the car so brittle that his “finger went right through it” any time he touched it, Sullivan said.

“It was inch by inch by inch with the tow truck,” Sullivan said. “They just moved it so slowly for hours.”

A 1960s model Chevrolet Impala was recovered from a canal in the 10100 block of West Broward Boulevard on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (Sunshine State Sonar/Courtesy)

Little information is publicly available about the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Wurst and her daughter.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement missing person flyer says Caren was last seen with Wurst in the Plantation area on Nov. 7, 1974, and that they may have been traveling in a red 1961 Chevrolet Impala. Wurst’s case profile in NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, says only that she disappeared with her daughter. A photo of Caren was published in Baltimore’s now-defunct The Evening Sun on July 29, 1987, which said she disappeared on Oct. 20, 1974, from Warminster, Pennsylvania, an area outside of Philadelphia.

The case became cold in 1975, and detectives continued follow-up investigations as the years passed. Three years after they were missing detectives still investigated. Then 14 years later. Two decades later. Throughout the 2010s, investigations continued, most recently in 2018, but the woman, her child and the car were never found. Sunshine State Sonar began working with detectives to search for Wurst and Caren in June 2023.

Rettig did not provide further details about the circumstances of their disappearance.

Sullivan said he doesn’t know much about the case. Longtime residents in the area where the car was found told Sullivan there were no guardrails in that section of West Broward Boulevard in the ’70s.

“I don’t think anybody’s ever going to be able to know why,” Sullivan said.

Caren Wurst, 3, and her mother, Doris Wurst, 35, disappeared from Plantation in November 1974. ( National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been spreading false claims that an image of thousands of people waiting at Detroit’s airport as Democrat Kamala Harris arrived for a campaign rally was fabricated with the help of artificial intelligence.

Reporters, photographers and video journalists representing The Associated Press and other news organizations who either traveled with Vice President Harris or were on the airport tarmac documented the crowd size last Wednesday as she arrived on Air Force Two. Harris’ campaign also denied the photo in question was manipulated and posted about it on social media.

Fifteen thousand people attended the Detroit airport rally, Harris’ campaign said. Harris and Walz spoke from inside a hangar where people were packed in. The crowd also spilled out onto the tarmac. The Wayne County Airport Authority, which oversees the airport, referred questions about the size of the crowd to Harris’ campaign.

Thousands of people have been showing up at her campaign rallies.

By the Harris campaign’s count, 12,000 people turned out for rallies in Philadelphia and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, last week, followed by 15,000 in Glendale, Arizona. In Las Vegas on Saturday, more than 12,000 people were inside a university arena when law enforcement halted admission because people were getting ill waiting outside in the extreme 109-degree heat. About 4,000 people were waiting in line when the doors were closed.

An Associated Press reporter who covered the Harris events in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, witnessed the throngs of people in attendance.

Trump pushed his false claims in back-to-back posts on his social media site on Sunday.

“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!.” he wrote. He included a post from another individual who made similar allegations about photo manipulation.

A minute later Trump posted, “Look, we caught her with a fake ‘crowd.’ There was nobody there!” He included a photo of the crowd that was partly shaded and partly exposed to the sun.

Harris’ campaign confirmed on Monday that the photo being questioned was taken by a staff member and was not in any way modified using AI.

Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley, professor who focuses on digital forensics and misinformation, analyzed the photo using two models trained to detect patterns of generative AI and found no evidence of manipulation. The models were developed by GetReal Labs, a company Farid co-founded.

Farid, responding Monday in an email, said he compared several versions of the photo and the only alteration he detected was some simple change to brightness or contrast, and perhaps sharpening. He said many other images and videos from the event last Wednesday show the same basic scene.

Trump started pushing false theories about the Harris campaign photo a few days after he held a news conference at his Florida estate on Thursday and was asked about the crowds at his Democratic rival’s rallies. Trump said no one draws crowds as big as he does.

“I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me,” Trump claimed at the news conference, his first since Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee.

He went on to falsely compare the crowd at his speech in front of the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, to the crowd at Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech on Aug. 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial.

But King drew far more people. Approximately 250,000 people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which King gave his speech, according to the National Park Service. The Associated Press reported in 2021 that there were at least 10,000 people at Trump’s address.

Some of Trump’s top advisers and supporters have been urging the former president to focus his criticisms on Harris’ policies and talk more about the border and the economy.

“Stop questioning the size of her crowds,” was the advice former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., offered during a Fox News appearance on Monday.

The Harris campaign needled Trump on a variety of issues in an email Monday titled “9 Days Since Trump’s Last Swing State Event.” The note included a bullet point that said, “he’s very mad about crowd sizes, claiming it’s all fake and AI-generated. (Maybe if he campaigned he’d get crowds too?)”

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge Monday sided with the Pinellas County town of Redington Beach in a long-running legal fight with waterfront property owners about public beach access.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington issued a 53-page ruling that said the town had adequately shown a history of “customary use” by the public of parts of the beach that are privately owned.

Covington upheld a 2018 ordinance that sought to protect customary use of what are known as “dry sand areas” of the beach for such activities as walking, sunbathing, fishing and building sand castles.

The waterfront property owners argued that the ordinance was an unconstitutional “taking” of their private property.

“The ordinance does not purport to ‘take’ the portion of dry sand beach in the town owned by plaintiffs,” Covington wrote. “Rather, it purports to recognize and protect the customary use rights of those residents who have gained, through custom, the right to make certain uses of that privately-owned beach.”

The Florida Constitution ensures public access to portions of beaches “below mean high water lines,” often described as wet areas of beaches. But Covington’s ruling, which came in two consolidated lawsuits filed by property owners, dealt with dry-sand portions of beaches closer to homes.

Florida lawmakers in 2018 made controversial changes to laws involving customary use. That included putting in place an extensive process for local governments that want to have customary-use ordinances, including requiring them to receive judicial approval.

Redington Beach passed its ordinance in June 2018. If local governments adopted ordinances before July 1, 2018, the state law said they could raise customary use as what is known as an “affirmative defense” if the ordinances were challenged in court.

Covington wrote that, under the law, Redington Beach could “keep its ordinance in effect if the court finds that the town’s evidence establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that the town’s residents and visitors have gained, by way of customary use, the right to use the privately-owned portions of the dry sand beach in the town.”

“The court finds that the evidence provided by the town at trial substantially surpassed the quantum of proof necessary to establish its affirmative defense,” she wrote in a conclusion. “Therefore, the court finds that the town has proven the customary use of the privately-owned dry sand beach in the town, and that those uses are consistent with the limited permitted uses set out in the ordinance. Further, the town has proven that this customary use has been by both town residents and those who may visit the town either as vacation renters or guests of residents.”

In one of the cases, which were consolidated later, U.S. District Judge James S. Moody in 2020 ruled in favor of a group of waterfront property owners. But a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling in 2021, sending the case back to district court.

UCF started its third week of preseason football camp on Monday by hosting its 12th practice indoors at the Nicholson Fieldhouse before moving outside to the Wayne Densch Practice Complex.

With the season opener less than three weeks away and two scrimmages under their belts, the Knights can focus on more specific issues before hosting New Hampshire on Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

“You’ve got enough information to start putting your pieces together,” said offensive coordinator Tim Harris Jr. “The next two weeks will focus on being specific and what we want certain guys doing.”

Top takeaway: When coach Gus Malzahn opened preseason camp a few weeks ago, he promised his team they would be tested. He guaranteed this fall camp would be unlike anything the Knights have experienced. So far, it has lived up to those expectations.

#UCF offensive coordinator Tim Harris Jr. breaks down last week’s scrimmage. pic.twitter.com/MGz6rjHdsq

— Matt Murschel (@osmattmurschel) August 12, 2024

“We’ve been straining a lot,” said fifth-year offensive tackle Amari Kight. “It’s been really hot outside and we’ve been going out there flying around and pushing each other every day.”

Malzahn believed applying pressure would help the team face adversity. The Knights will not honestly know if it works until they face someone other than themselves.

“We just haven’t played anybody else,” said Harris. “I would say that — just how we respond when we face real adversity against someone else, you won’t get that until you get to the season. We challenge our guys daily here, putting them in tough situations, and they’ve responded well.”

“It’s us against us,” added fifth-year linebacker Jesiah Pierre. “How we handle our mistakes on the field, how we handle hot conditions or when things don’t go our way when we have bad practices on defense. It’s how we respond and if we bend or we break.”

#UCF running back RJ Harvey describes this fall camp and how he’s improved over the last few weeks. pic.twitter.com/xFnxgolroi

— Matt Murschel (@osmattmurschel) August 12, 2024

“It’s about looking at ourselves, correcting our mistakes and attacking those situations in practice because what you are doing in practice you’re doing in a game.”

Step forward: Harris said redshirt junior running back Myles Montgomery, a transfer from Cincinnati, has had a strong showing during fall camp.

“If you had to pick an MVP through these first two scrimmages, it would be Myles Montgomery,” Harris said. “Everything that he does has been 100 miles an hour. His effort level, the little details, how he works, how hard he runs, and how he finishes runs and breaks tackles. He’s done a good job putting himself in a good position.”

UCF athletes receive hand up to enter workforce and succeed

Step back: With a long season ahead, running back RJ Harvey has been limited in both of the team’s scrimmages.

“I wish I could go out there and compete with my teammates, but I understand everything,” Harvey said of the decision. “Once the 29th comes, I’m ready to get out there and start doing my thing.”

Trainer’s room: Offensive linemen Cam Kinnie and Waltclaire Flynn were banged up and didn’t play during Saturday’s scrimmage at FBC Mortgage Stadium. Their absence has allowed some other players to get much-needed reps at center.

“The big thing is, when those things do happen, it’s unfortunate, but it’s kind of a blessing in disguise,” said Harris. “Because you don’t get through an entire training camp without any of it [injuries]. That would be the perfect best-case scenario. But during a season, things happen.

“So for us to move some things around during training camp and get guys some work a little earlier than you normally would have to, it’s good for us.”

Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com

The first day of school in Palm Beach County went smoothly with few issues Monday as the district eased into the new academic year, officials said.

“Things are running smoothly,” Schools Superintendent Michael Burke said. “All the hard work this summer that our team did is paying off with the great opening of the new school year.”

There were some concerns about school buses not arriving, as well as a power outage, as Burke visited five schools on Monday: Grove Park Elementary School in Palm Beach Gardens, Hagen Road Elementary School in Boynton Beach, Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, Plumosa School of the Arts in Delray Beach and Palm Springs Middle School in Palm Springs.

At Plumosa School, Burke asked second-grader Jaxon Barnes what he thought of Burke’s first-day-of-school outfit. Jaxon replied that the superintendent’s new suit and shoes were “pretty spiffy.”

Plumosa recently made the jump from being a C-rated school to an A-rated one.

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The Palm Beach County School District also went up a letter grade to an A. “We feel like we have a lot of positive momentum going into this school year, and we’re going to keep building on that success,” Burke said. That’s up from the B-rating it had in the 2022-23 school year.

During the 2023-24 school year, courses such as AP Psychology were threatened by the state law, and metal detectors were tested for the first time. But nearly 60 schools also improved one or more letter grade, and 131 schools earned an A or B grade, according to the district.

Unlike in Broward County schools, where the launch of metal detectors at high schools led to, in some cases, students waiting more than an hour outside to get into school and missing class, Burke said Palm Beach County’s schools didn’t experience any significant issues with metal detectors on Monday.

“I’m glad that we took the methodical approach last year, and we kind of rolled this out slowly, you know, week by week, school by school,” Burke said. “That made for a really seamless arrival today at our schools.”

There were a few issues, though. Forrest Hill Community High School lost power for about two hours, according to Florida Power & Light. Some buses experienced delays or didn’t show up at route stops at all, but these issues are generally expected for “about the first week,” Burke said.

On a Facebook post made by the School District of Palm Beach County account on Monday welcoming parents and students back to school, users expressed a mixture of frustration and excitement about the first day.

“Why didn’t the school buses show up?? Bus C059!!! What is going on?!!! Can’t even get through to the bus call center! This is ridiculous,” one user wrote.

Another user said their son’s bus also didn’t arrive, leaving them to take him to school.

“I know it’s the first day but please fix so they come tomorrow,” the user wrote.

In a reply to a comment, the school district account wrote the Here Comes the Bus app, which allows parents to see where their child’s bus is, will not be running for two weeks. Instead, the school district wrote parents should call the Transportation Call Center at 561-357-1110 with any questions.

During Burke’s visit at Spanish River High School, he asked a class full of students, “Are you guys excited to be back?”

Only one student chimed in with a “yes,” which was met with laughter by district officials, including School Board member Frank Barbieri.

Students work in Marissa Kingham’s global perspectives class during the first day of school at Spanish River High School in Boca Raton on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Excitement was more palpable among the younger students, particularly Jaxon, who regaled Burke with the details of the lunch he’d brought to school that day: a sandwich, carrots with ranch and Doritos.

“I hope everyone will have a great school year because I know I am,” Jaxon said.

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press

Donald Trump was once a cheerleader of publicizing hacked materials. “Russia, if you’re listening,” Trump said during a press conference in his 2016 presidential run, when Hillary Clinton’s deleted personal emails were a hot topic, “I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”

“I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” he said back then.

That changed when Trump’s latest presidential campaign declared this weekend it had been hacked by Iran. “Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want,” Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director, said in a statement on Saturday announcing that the campaign had been hacked.

The campaign has not responded to questions about why its view on hacking changed, including a query on Monday from The Associated Press. But its new position is a striking change from 2016, when Trump heartily embraced the Russian hacking of his opponent Clinton’s aides and the Democratic National Committee.

The current hack, so far, is murky.

On Friday, Microsoft issued a report stating that Iranian hackers tried to penetrate the account of an official with one of the presidential campaigns, but did not disclose additional details. On Saturday, the Trump campaign announced it had been hacked, though it also did not identify the individual whose account was breached. It did so after Politico said it had been contacted by an unknown source peddling what was represented to be internal documents from the campaign.

Iran has denied being involved in any hack. The U.S. government has not confirmed that any breach has occurred. On Monday, the FBI said in a statement it was investigating the matter.

In 2016, intelligence officials said Russian hackers obtained thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the personal account of Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. The initial batches came out in the summer, as Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination.

That was when Trump encouraged Russia to find his rival’s personal emails. He later argued he was joking.

The hacked material was released through third parties, including the online site Wikileaks, which began to publish daily tranches of Democratic documents in October, just after a videotape of Trump bragging about how he’d sexually assaulted women was disclosed.

Trump routinely touted the Democratic leaks at his campaign rallies, including declaring at one: “I love Wikileaks.”

The leaked documents received ample news coverage, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania who wrote the book “Cyberwar” on the 2016 hacking, said she found that coverage was what won the election for Trump.

“2016 was not an instance of which journalists should be proud,” Jamieson said in an interview Monday, adding that the greatest question is how news organizations apply their standards to whatever material finds itself in the public domain.

“That Trump is saying what is electorally convenient is not a surprise,” Jamieson said. “This is not a person for whom inconsistency is a concern.”

Nick Merrill was a spokesman for Clinton’s 2016 campaign and pushed back against publication of the hacked documents at the time. On Monday, he noted the Trump campaign was in a similar role this time.

“In addition to the characteristic hypocrisy, they just spent three weeks trying to explain they’re not weird,” Merrill said via text. “And I’d imagine that sharing their internal correspondence is going to help dispel that notion.”

Asked if that meant he now thought hacked materials should be published, Merrill replied: “A precedent has been set here. I’m not passing judgment on it.”