Franchise Opportunities in Miami, FL

Passengers say more than 100 people on the Carnival Spirit, which left from FL, tested positive for COVID when the ship docked in Seattle.

SEATTLE, WA — A COVID-19 outbreak on an Alaska-bound Carnival Cruise ship traveling from Miami infected dozens of travelers and overwhelmed crew members.

Passengers say more than 100 people on the Carnival Spirit tested positive for the coronavirus when the ship docked Tuesday in Seattle, overwhelming staff and forcing many to isolate or quarantine in area hotels because of sickness and exposures, according to King 5 news. Some passengers say as many as 200 people fell ill during the trip.

After the ship left Miami, it sailed to the Panama Canal before heading north to Seattle. It will eventually make its way to Alaska, reports said.

Once the coronavirus outbreak hit the vessel, travelers described a chaotic cruise.

"They didn't have enough staff to handle the emergency that was happening, period," said Darren Sieferston, who is in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, according to The Associated Press. "They were overwhelmed and they didn't have a backup course in how to handle about 200 people affected with COVID. We all suffered."

Another passenger, Walter Babij, traveling from Texas, told King5, "I think that they were unprepared. I think they were understaffed. I think that they were overwhelmed. I don't think they had clear guidance as to how to handle this."

Sieferston also claimed that those who tested positive were isolated in their rooms and faced long wait times for meals and meetings with medical staff on the ship.

"We couldn't call anybody. ... Basically, we sat in the room, you call and it would ring, ring, ring and ring all day long," he said.

Karin Ross, another passenger on Spirit, told Kiro 7 that her travel companion and roommate tested positive during the trip. She claims that despite being exposed to COVID-19 and sharing a room with someone who is ill, the ship's medical center told her she didn't need to be tested.

"I'm in a room with somebody who has COVID and you're not interested in testing me?" said Ross. "I'm not a medical person, but it really seems wrong to let me run around that boat for 24 hours while rooming with someone who has COVID."

Carnival told AP that there were no serious health issues connected to the outbreak. The company also wouldn't confirm the number of passengers who tested positive.

The cruise line requires guests to be fully vaccinated and tested before any trip, according to its website. There are some exemptions with required testing and other protocols for unvaccinated travelers.

The NHL may have forsaken South Florida sports fans, but Miami sports bars will not.

Fans of Miami Heat basketball and Florida Panthers hockey are thrilled their teams are surging deeper into the playoffs, with the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics and the Panthers taking on their in-state nemesis, the Tampa Bay Lightning, in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But some fans are less thrilled that most of the games — six out of a potential seven — will be played on the same nights. Both teams start their series on Tuesday.

With the Panthers chasing puck in the northern kingdom of Sunrise and the Heat commanding a Biscayne Bay view in the 305, the fan bases don’t fully overlap. The NBA is more popular nationally and internationally, and Miami has developed into a Heat-first town (thanks to the miracle of Dwyane Wade and those other guys who made up the Big 3). The city did flirt heavily with Panthermania in 1996, when a team of unlikely underdogs played at the raucous old Miami Arena and gloriously sailed into the Stanley Cup Finals on a cloud of rubber rats and the sublime power of a jaw-dropping Bill Lindsay goal.

Now, it’s all “Pepas” all the time. But while the Heat may come first, local bars won’t ignore the Panthers, because happily this is not 1977 and sports bars tend to have a lot of screens. This development is helpful at a time when many of us are too cheap to pay for cable.

Joe Webb, CEO of Duffy’s Sports Grill, which has locations in Kendall and North Miami Beach as well as Broward and Palm Beach counties, says that despite the fact that Duffy’s is known for hosting Heat watch parties, hockey fans can always find a spot to watch the game. The restaurants have more than 80 TVs per location, with more than 100 in North Miami Beach.

“This is exactly why we’re built,” he says. “We have big restaurants with a lot of seats. We’ve got plenty of room for everyone. We’re flexible. If a group comes in and wants to watch hockey, we’ll set them up. They can watch both games at the same time if they want.”

Jimmy Flanigan, president and CEO of South Florida’s beloved Flanigan’s, had hoped the games would be staggered because playoffs mean higher sales. In previous years, when the Heat played a playoff game, he estimates that his Miami-Dade restaurants collectively took in around $55,000 more per night.

He confesses that in his Miami-area restaurants, you should expect most TVs to be tuned to the Heat games. In Broward, where fervor for the Panthers runs deeper, the attention will be spread a little more evenly across the screens.

“Competing against the Heat in Miami is a losing proposition,” he says. But even in Hialeah, “there will be at least one TV that will be on hockey if some crazy Panthers fan makes sure it happens.”

Eddie Fuentes, owner and operator of Grails Miami, a sports bar and restaurant in Wynwood with 70 TVs, says as a businessman and a Miami Heat fan he plans to show the games of both teams — as long as Panthers fans show up.

“I gotta go with the masses,” he says, adding that sometimes during the NFL season he’ll even turn on Patriots games if fans ask, even though the Patriots are thoroughly loathed by Miami Dolphins die-hards. “So if the Panthers fans show up, it’s going to be a battle for the TVs. I like that! I like Miami standing up for itself.”

He’s also hoping for game 7s in both series, not only for financial reasons but also because the NHL will have to be more accommodating to South Florida: “If we start winning championships, we can move the needle and demand changes to the schedule.”

With more than 30 TVs, Bottled Blonde in Wynwood plans to split its attention, too. Owner Les Corieri said that since the Panthers games start earlier at 7 p.m. , TVs will tune in to those games first. At 8:30, when the Heat hits the court, half will switch to basketball, and the game sound broadcast throughout the bar will switch to the Heat game as well.

Even restaurants with small bars won’t shun the Panthers. Whiskey Joe’s Bar & Grill in Key Biscayne plans to split the four screens at its tiki bars between the games.

There’s another important supporter of the Panthers in Miami-Dade, too: the Miami Heat itself. Fans at FTX Arena on Tuesday watching Miami and Boston will hear Panther updates during the game.

If you happened to be watching the college baseball game between the Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles on Sunday afternoon on ESPN2, you were likely expecting to hear familiar sounds like the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd. Instead, you got the blaring sound of a fire alarm for a rather significant amount of time.

…is everything OK there in Tallahassee pic.twitter.com/epxsj0KnpP

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) May 15, 2022

As Timothy Burke noted in a follow-up tweet, the fire alarm continued sounding for at least ten minutes around the eighth inning of play.

FSU beat writer Curt Weiler chimed in to confirm that it was indeed the fire alarm in the press box, which accounts for why it sounds so loud but no one on the field seemed to be impacted or bothered.

Fire alarm in the press box. It's still going off.

— Curt Weiler (@CurtMWeiler) May 15, 2022

We can assume there was no actual fire taking place as well, so that’s good.

just a lil fire alarm, nbd

— FSU Baseball (@FSUBaseball) May 15, 2022

Apparently, it’s been that kind of weekend for reporters at Dick Howser Stadium.

The A/C in the Howser press box hasn't been working all weekend.

So it kind of makes sense that the fire alarm just starting going off.

— Curt Weiler (@CurtMWeiler) May 15, 2022

Florida State did win the game 6-4, which gave them the series win over the rival Hurricanes. So all’s well that ends well, even if it was a little hard to hear for a while there.

The final pitch of the regular season at Howser! pic.twitter.com/yNpPhS5NdF

— FSU Baseball (@FSUBaseball) May 15, 2022

[Tim Burke]

The Miami Hurricanes split a doubleheader with the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday afternoon. The Hurricanes won the first game of the doubleheader 8-2, but the evening game saw a 6-4 victory for Florida State, setting up a dramatic game three that is key for each team as they position themselves ahead of the ACC Tournament and seeding in the NCAA Tournament.

Game One: 8-2 Miami

The opening game of the doubleheader and the series began at 2:30 on Saturday after a postponement due to weather on Friday night. Carson Palmquist was excellent in the opening game, working six innings while striking out five and allowing just two runs, neither of which was earned.

The first run Palmquist allowed came in the bottom of the first. Jordan Carrion led the game off with a single, and after reaching second stole third and scored on a throwing error on the play. Miami immediately gave Palmquist run support however. Jacob Burke led off the top of the second with a single, and a Dominic Pitelli single put a second runner on base for the Hurricanes. Ariel Garcia then hit a three-run home run to give the Hurricanes the lead.

Miami added on a run in the top of the fourth inning. Dominic Pitelli doubled with one-out for his second hit as part of a three hit game, and Dorian Gonzalez hit a clutch two-out RBI-single to extend the lead. The sixth inning saw the Hurricanes add another run to the lead. Jacob Burke walked and scored after two singles from Dominic Pitelli and Dorian Gonzalez, but the Hurricanes left two men on base after a strikeout ended the inning.

In the bottom of the inning Florida State scored a run to reduce the lead to three. A walk and a single opened the inning for the Seminoles and gave FSU their best opportunity for a rally since the first inning. Palmquist nearly worked out of the jam without allowing a run, but a throwing error on a lineout allowed the runner to reach third, and a groundout drove home the runner from third for the second unearned run of the game.

However, the top of the seventh inning saw the Hurricanes extend the lead. A CJ Kayfus single opened the inning, and Yohandy Morales followed with a two-run home run to immediately earn the run back for Palmquist and extend the lead. Jacob Burke then created another scoring opportunity with a double, and Zach Levenson, who moved up to fifth in the batting order in the first game on Saturday, drove him in with the second consecutive double in the inning.

After Miami extended the lead to six Gage Ziehl entered the game in relief. Ziehl worked the final three innings of the game, striking out six in the process. With the three scoreless innings of relief, Ziehl earned the first save of his college career.

Winning Pitcher: Carson Palmquist (8-3, 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K)

Losing Pitcher: Parker Messick (6-3, 5.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K)

Save: Gage Ziehl (1)

Game Two: 6-4 FSU

Saturday night’s game didn’t go as well for the Hurricanes. FSU again took the lead in the bottom of the first inning when a balk allowed the first run of the game to score. Afterwards, a four-run fourth inning forced Miami to look for an unlikely comeback.

The FSU rally started with a single from Tyler Martin. After the single, Jordan Carrion hit a two-run home run to left field to score the first two runs of the inning without an out having been recorded. Hurricanes starting pitcher Karson Ligon recovered to get the next two batters out, but issued a two-out walk to Reese Albert. Florida State took advantage of the walk, with Brett Roberts hitting an RBI-double to drive home Albert before former Miami first baseman Alex Toral hit an RBI-single to drive home Roberts. A strikeout ended the inning, but FSU took a 5-0 lead.

Miami got back in the game with a three-run rally in the top of the fifth inning. Dorian Gonzalez walked and reached second on a wild pitch, and a two-out RBI-single from CJ Kayfus scored the first run of the game for the Hurricanes. Kayfus, like Gonzalez, also advanced to second on a wild pitch, before Yohandy Morales struck out but reached first safely after the ball got away from the catcher. Maxwell Romero then hit an RBI-single to score Kayfus, before Jacob Burke hit another RBI-single scoring Morales, but Romero was out at home on the play trying to score to bring the inning to an end.

Florida State responded with a run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Reese Albert hit an infield single to open the frame, and Brett Roberts advanced Albert to third with another hit. Alex Toral followed with a sac-fly to earn his second RBI of the night against his former team.

The Hurricanes tried to find a comeback over the next four innings, but could only score one run which came in the top of the seventh inning. Dorian Gonzalez led off the inning with a single, and a hit by pitch and a bunt single loaded the bases for Miami. A passed ball scored Gonzalez, but two strikeouts and a flyout ended the Hurricanes’ best chance for a comeback.

Miami had only one other baserunner in the last four innings outside of the seventh inning, and as a result the Hurricanes couldn’t comeback in the second game of the series. The loss set up a key series finale, with the game being vital for both teams position in terms of the ACC and NCAA Tournament.

Winning Pitcher: Bryce Hubbart (8-1, 5.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K)

Losing Pitcher: Karson Ligon (6-4, 5.0 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 6 K)

Save: Wyatt Crowell (2)

A $5 million healthcare scam run of medical clinics in Miramar and West Miami-Dade ended last week with a 21-year-old office employee sentenced to restitution and prosecutors trying to find the man who got the longest prison sentence.

Between those extremes, seven people are doing federal prison time and one other person has been slapped with restitution for a healthcare fraud that tried to get $17.9 million out of Blue Cross Blue Shield with fraudulent claims. They wound up getting about $4.8 million. Each person pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.

The disappeared fraudster, Jorge Gonzalez Perez, hasn’t been seen since before the Jan. 4 sentencing hearing for which he didn’t appear. The online docket entry that accompanied Perez’s Jan. 20 sentencing includes the line, “The government stated that it was possible the defendant had fled to Mexico.”

Wherever Perez is, it’s not in federal prison starting his sentence of 10 years and $4,143,892 in restitution. By not appearing, both his bonds are forfeited, the $75,000 bond for which Perez put up $7,500, and the $150,000 bond guaranteed by his wife, mother and a friend.

Perez, 57, was the owner of Life Blue Medical Center, 12260 SW Eighth St., in West Miami-Dade and Blue Life Medical Center, 6272 Miramar Pkwy., in Miramar. Miami Medical Therapy and Research Center, 10380 W. Flagler St., was owned by David Sacerio, 30, and Kiamy Perez, 36.

The healthcare scheme included 66-year-old Dr. Orlando Leiva. He worked at Life Blue and Miami Medical.

Patient recruiters steered or brought patients to these clinics. Perez’s admission of facts says the the clinics “primarily submitted claims for therapy procedures, including electrical stimulation, ultrasound therapy and therapeutic exercises, as well as allergy tests and durable medical equipment.”

Were these necessary? Leiva signed off on them. But as court documents filed by Leiva’s attorney stated, he saw patients for their first visit, but didn’t do follow-ups.

“Approximately seven to ten days after the initial consultation, he would go to the clinic and signcharts for follow-up consultations without seeing the patients,” the description of Leiva’s role stated. “The charts were left on a desk for him and he would sign them without asking questions. Dr. Leiva requested payment of $250 to $300 per patient. He falsified medical records and signed documentation falsely indicating that (Blue Cross Blue Shield) beneficiaries had received physical therapy services, treatment and follow-up treatment,when in fact, they had not.”

This documentation would be used for the phony claims.

Also sentenced, in addition to Perez, for this scheme are:

? Leiva, sentenced to four years, nine months in prison, three years supervised release and $2,867,770 in restitution;

? Sacerio, sentenced to four years, three months in prison, three years supervised release, and $686,086 in restitution;

? Perez, sentenced to two years, 10 months in prison, three years supervised release, and $686,086 in restitution;

? Patient recruiter Enry Guzman, 43, sentenced to two years, nine months in prison, three years supervised release, and $228,075 in restitution;

? Physical therapy assistant Kyrenia Maqueira Rodriguez, 40, sentenced to two years, six months in prison, three years supervised release, and $686,086 in restitution;

? Patient recruiter Freymil Lozada, 34, sentenced to two years, three months in prison, three years supervised release, and $184,393.52 in restitution;

? Patient recruiter Haniel Rodriguez, 45, was sentenced to two years in prison, three years supervised release, and $198,540.57 in restitution;

? Patient recruiter Brian McIntosh, 53, got sentenced to $119,174.66 in restitution;

? Miami Medical office worker and last person sentenced, Melissa Cruz, 21, got sentenced to $686,086.33 in restitution.