Fitzgerald: Where The Giant Soldiers Enlisted

SUNRISE — There’s something uniquely gripping about the manner Paul Maurice discusses Florida Panthers playoff games. He stomped the length of the bench in the second period of Tuesday’s Game 5, snorting and ranting to his players about their mysterious lack of energy to the point you expected cartoon smoke to blow from his ears. He was properly mad, too, because of all the reasons you don’t expect to lose this time of year, the biggest remains this: They weren’t ready. How could the Florida Panthers not be ready to go? You spend a season to reach nights like this. How could they not be emotionally and desperately ready to bring their best game, finish off Boston,  advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, stave off any potential surprise and even gain a few days of valued rest? “I didn’t like our game,’’ Maurice said after the 2-1 loss that pushed the series to Boston for Friday’s Game 6. He was then asked about his blow-out anger behind the bench.

About eight schools could be considered for closure as soon as 2025, as Broward School Board members decided the superintendent’s plan to restructure a few schools didn’t go far enough to deal with dwindling enrollment. School Board members decided at the end of a five-hour meeting Tuesday night to direct Superintendent Howard Hepburn to bring back options on May 29 for possibly closing seven to eight schools during the 2025-26 year or delaying school closures until the 2026-27 school year.

Dear Amy: A wedding dilemma: My sister recently had a small wedding, and all of our family members were involved and pitched in. I planned and paid for her shower, our mother made a beautiful wedding cake, and our uncle officiated (he is a pastor). Additionally, we all gave them shower gifts and wedding gifts, including gifts of cash to be put toward their honeymoon (they had asked for this). My sister and her new husband just sent an email to our immediate family, more or less berating us for not giving them more — or larger — gifts. We are pretty shocked and don’t know how to react.

The city of Margate, which has long planned to create a bustling downtown, is dreaming even bigger about the possibilities. It’s starting anew with plans to create a destination that draws people to converge on the city — to eat, shop and play there. And some visitors may like it so much, they decide to move there, enticed by the many new apartments that’d be built there. Carline Jean/Sun SentinelMargate will seek a new developer for its downtown vision.

Internment camps during war have a very bad reputation, conjuring images of suffering Jews in Poland or of Japanese-Americans in California in World War II. However, Israel might consider establishing humanitarian refugee camps to which Gaza citizens could flee, voluntarily and temporarily, to escape the death and famine they inevitably face in Gaza.

At the Florida Chamber of Commerce, our purpose is securing Florida’s future. As the leading voice of business in Florida, we are focused on leading Florida to a diverse and sustainable economy that prioritizes global competitiveness, high-paying jobs, and vibrant and resilient communities. At the Florida Chamber Foundation’s 2023 Florida Technology & Innovation Solution Summit, Saif Ishoof, founder of Lab22c and an artificial intelligence (AI) expert, summed up the 21st century global economy by noting that “the keys to survival in this age of disruption are mindset, curiosity, thinking globally.” He went on to admonish the business leader attendees that when it comes to AI, “the shot clock has started.” That is why Florida must continue to serve as a leader in AI innovation and use.