Today in History: February 6, Monopoly replaces iron piece with the cat

Today is Friday, Feb. 6, the 37th day of 2026. There are 328 days left in the year. Today in history: On Feb. 6, 2013, toy maker Hasbro Inc. announced that Monopoly fans had voted online to add a cat token to the board game, replacing the iron. Also on this date: In 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, the United States won official recognition and military support from France with the signing of the Treaty of Alliance in Paris. In 1862, during the Civil War, Fort Henry in Tennessee... Read More

Lightning rout Panthers 6-1 as fists fly in final game before break

By ERIK ERLENDSSON TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots to improve to 16-0-1 in his past 17 games, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Florida Panthers 6-1 on Thursday night in the final game for both teams before the Olympic break. Brandon Hagel, Oliver Bjporkstrand, Jake Guentzel, Erik Cernak, Pontus Holmberg and Zemgus Girgensons — who will all participate in the Olympic Games — scored for Tampa Bay. The Lightning are 19-1-1 in their last 21 games. Lightning... Read More

A funeral home stashed 189 decaying bodies and handed out fake ashes. His mother was among them

By JESSE BEDAYN COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Derrick Johnson buried his mother’s ashes beneath a golden dewdrop tree with purple blossoms at his home on Maui’s Haleakalā Volcano, fulfilling her wish of a final resting place looking over her grandchildren. Then the FBI called. It was Feb. 4, 2024, and Johnson was teaching an eighth-grade gym class. “’Are you the son of Ellen Lopes?’” a woman asked, Johnson recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. There had been an... Read More

Fort Lauderdale back to original plan: Build new City Hall for $200 million

Just two weeks ago, Fort Lauderdale was ready to scrap a long-term plan to spend $200 million building a new City Hall and purchase a less expensive office tower downtown instead. That plan went up in smoke on Tuesday when Commissioner Pamela Beasley-Pittman walked back comments she made two weeks ago saying she wanted to look into buying Tower 101 for $86 million. Commissioner Ben Sorensen broached the topic of buying the office tower after midnight on Jan. 20, four days after the commission... Read More

Financial advisor sentenced to 20 years in $94 million investment Ponzi scheme

A Broward County man who portrayed himself as an experienced international financial advisor has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty in a Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 150 investors of a combined $94 million. Andrew Hamilton Jacobus, 64, of Fort Lauderdale, began his career in financing in the 1990s, which included founding two companies, Finser International Corporation and Kronus Financial Corporation, that he used in the scheme, federal prosecutors... Read More

Broward business owner arrested in $1 million fraud scheme

A Broward County business owner was arrested Wednesday after detectives found she stole more than $1 million from another business she frequently worked with, then used the money to rent mansions, fly on a private jet and buy expensive jewelry, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said. Keshon Litesha Rivers, 32, of Fort Lauderdale, is the owner of Lock and Key Designs LLC, based in Fort Lauderdale. Rivers used her professional connection with Event Décor Direct in Deerfield Beach to take... Read More

Heat at NBA trade deadline prove to be a story about nothing (no Giannis, no Ja, no deal)

BOSTON — The NBA trade deadline proved to be a story about nothing, absolutely nothing for the Miami Heat. No harpooning of a whale with Giannis Antetokounmpo, who remains with the Milwaukee Bucks. No high-stakes risk-reward gambit for Ja Morant, who still is with the Memphis Grizzlies. Instead, with ample contacts to put in play and the seeming need for a shakeup amid a recent 7-9 run that has Erik Spoelstra’s team trending toward a fourth consecutive trip to the play-in round... Read More

Behind the scenes of ‘Back to the Future: The Musical’ | PHOTOS

The touring production of “Back to the Future: The Musical” hosted a behind-the-scenes media event Thursday at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Stars David Josefsberg, who plays Doc Brown, and Lucas Hallauer, who stars as Marty McFly, showcased the production’s signature DeLorean time machine on the Au-Rene Theater stage. View photos of the cast and the technical elements of the Olivier Award-winning musical, which runs in Fort Lauderdale through Feb. 15. ... Read More

10 Super Bowl watch parties in South Florida that are not to be missed (plus a Bad Bunny brunch!)

South Florida may not have any skin in the 2026 Super Bowl (maybe next year, Miami Dolphins?), but you can bet we’ll be watching the action unfold when the New England Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday night. After all, we do have one connection to the big game: Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny will bring some Latin flair to the halftime show as headline performer. Fresh off last Sunday’s Grammy Award win for Album of the Year,... Read More

An estimated 8,000 cold-stunned iguanas removed from parts of Florida

An estimated 8,000 invasive green iguanas were removed from various Florida communities this week after a record-breaking freeze event that sent overnight temperatures down to the mid-30s for two nights in a row. On Wednesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife and Conservation Commission released official numbers for its iguana drop-off sites. All told, the five sites collected 5,195 dead or cold-stunned iguanas. The drop-off sites were in Marathon, Sunrise, Tequesta, Fort Myers and... Read More