Florida Senate passes 'Teddy Bridgewater Bill' allowing coaches to use personal funds for student welfare

Teddy Bridgewater has become something of a martyr in Florida.

While coaching at Miami Northwestern High School, the former NFL quarterback admitted to providing players with financial benefits, including Uber rides, meal costs and physical therapy for the team.

His actions led to his suspension last summer, but they are closer to being legal after a bill was signed in the state.

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Florida lawmakers on Thursday passed Senate Bill 178, the "Teddy Bridgewater Bill," which requires "the Florida High School Athletic Association to adopt bylaws authorizing a head coach to support the welfare of a student by using personal funds to provide certain effects to the student."

The bill says the coach must report the use of funds to the association, "providing that such use of personal funds is presumed not to be an impermissible benefit, etc."

The bill will now go to Florida's House of Representatives.

Speaking to the media last August after signing a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Bridgewater explained his thought process behind the events that led to his suspension.

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"Honestly, I think everyone knows that I'm just a cheerful guy, a cheerful giver as well. I'm a protector. I'm a father first before anything," he began. "When I decided to coach, those players became my sons and I wanted to make sure that I just protect them in the best way that I can. I think that's what came about." 

He reached out on social media asking for donations "so I no longer have to take from my personal funds to keep smiles on these young men's faces and remind them that they matter."

"Miami Northwestern is in a tough neighborhood, and sometimes things can happen when kids are walking home and different things like that," Bridgewater said at the time. "So, I just tried to protect them, give them a ride home instead of them having to take those dangerous walks. I just want people to continue to see me for the person that I've been from the time I arrived in the NFL, from the time that I arrived at the University of Louisville – just a humble guy who has a big heart and a cheerful giver."

Bridgewater was a one-time Pro Bowler in 10 years in the NFL and coached the school to a state title.

Fox News' Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.

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Plastic surgeon apologizes for failing to 'speak up’ against youth trans surgeries at major NYC hospital

A plastic surgeon who trained at a major Manhattan hospital is apologizing for failing to "speak up" after witnessing minors as young as 13 undergo "irreversible" gender surgeries.

"As a father to three young children and as a physician who took an oath to do no harm, I failed to speak up, and I just want to thank President Trump for having more clarity on this," Dr. Ira Savetsky said Thursday on "Fox & Friends."

Savetsky, who trained at NYU Langone Health, said the culture inside elite medical programs left little room for voicing his concerns.

"You're at the number one plastic surgery program, you're just grateful to be there. There's no room to speak up. You're a soldier…" he said.

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"You work so hard to get there… you don't want to make waves."

Savetsky's comments come as the Manhattan hospital announced it would end its Transgender Youth Health Program, a move that follows regulatory pressure from the Trump administration, which has threatened to pull federal funding from hospitals offering such care.

"Given the recent departure of our medical director, coupled with the current regulatory environment, we made the difficult decision to discontinue our Transgender Youth Health Program," a hospital spokesperson told The New York Post.

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"We are committed to helping patients in our care manage this change. This does not impact our pediatric mental health care programs, which will continue."

While reflecting on the patient procedures, Savetsky questioned the pressure families receive when their child questions their gender.

"I can only imagine what the parents were going through. I mean, they're told that their child is going to kill themselves if they don't have these surgeries," he said.

"They're pressured, and what are you supposed to do? You've dropped everything to do the right thing for your child, and I think that, unfortunately, there was a lot of financial motivation with these institutions."

NYU Langone did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

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WWE star Logan Paul explains reason behind viral Bad Bunny reaction before Super Bowl

WWE star Logan Paul went viral before Super Bowl LX when he was asked by Fox News Digital whether he was excited for Bad Bunny’s halftime show.

He responded with a resounding, "No!" as he walked off a red carpet the night before the game.

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Paul explained his thinking behind the one-word comment on the latest episode of "IMPAULSIVE."

"Bad Bunny is a world-renowned superstar. He also can be a WWE superstar when he wants. He’s a good wrestler. He can f---ing wrestle. There have been talks about maybe us wrestling. Like, it’s been floated around. I’ve been candid about the fact that I’d love to do that. I think it would be the greatest WWE match of all time. I really believe that.

"In that regard, any time I’m asked about Bad Bunny, I think that in the back of my mind. So, it’s like to set that up, when I’m asked if I’m excited for the halftime show, saying ‘No,’ one word, it’s like, OK, now people are talking about it. However, there is truth to the fact that I’m a 30-year-old man, I’m not excited about any halftime show. I don’t care. I also didn’t even watch the game really that much."

Paul said his remark was 80% him working his audience and 20% being he didn’t really care whether it was Bad Bunny or anyone else.

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He had some lament about his brother, Jake Paul, firing off posts about Bad Bunny. The boxer wrote on X that he had an issue with Bad Bunny "openly hating America" with regard to the singer’s comments about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"It was very circumstantial because I didn’t work myself into a shoot. My brother worked my work into a shoot, brother," Logan Paul added.

He said that he felt it was "important" to separate his own stance about Bad Bunny from his brother’s comments made on X.

"I love him, but that doesn’t mean we agree on things," Logan Paul said. "And it complicates things because people confuse us. They already think we’re the same person. I’ll walk outside right now and get called ‘Jake’ five times. He’ll go outside in the Netherlands and get called ‘Logan.’

"I felt in this scenario I had to put my flag in the sand. And I’m glad I did."

Paul said he still would like to meet Bad Bunny in a pro wrestling ring.

"I think it would be insane. I think it transcends WWE," he said.

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California surfer murdered in apparent robbery at his home in Costa Rica: reports

A prominent surfer from California was murdered at his home in Costa Rica during an apparent break-in over the weekend, according to reports.

Kurt Van Dyke, a 66-year-old expatriate who owned a hotel in the Costa Rican town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, was found dead Saturday inside his apartment, the Tico Times reported.

A preliminary exam indicated that Van Dyke’s body showed signs of asphyxiation and multiple stab wounds, the outlet reported.

Van Dyke, a native of Santa Cruz, California, was in the apartment Saturday morning when two armed men stormed inside, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The men then held Van Dyke and his 31-year-old girlfriend, whom he shared the apartment with, in a room.

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The girlfriend survived the ordeal and told authorities that the men had bound her hands and feet with zip ties and assaulted her, according to the report. At some point during the incident, Van Dyke was killed, she said.

The girlfriend also said the men stole some of the couple’s valuables, including a 2013 Hyundai Elantra.

Security footage from the scene showed the two suspects fleeing the property in the Elantra and a second vehicle, the report said. 

No arrests have been made, and officials have yet to announce a motive.

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Van Dyke’s brother, Peter Van Dyke, remembered his brother as a kind soul in a text message to the Chronicle.

"My brother was a very benevolent, giving person who would help just about anybody," Peter Van Dyke said. "Kurt would never hurt anybody, and he was always there when you needed him. Everyone that he met knew this about him." 

Officials in Costa Rica said that Van Dyke’s death shocked the community.

"I am deeply saddened," Roger Sams, president of Costa Rica’s Southern Caribbean Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, told Costa Rican newspaper La Nación in Spanish. "We’ve had a long period of calm and tranquility.… This shocks and saddens us because the Caribbean has been so peaceful."   

Van Dyke had developed a notable reputation among Santa Cruz’s surfing community before permanently settling in Costa Rica, where his skill surfing big waves earned him the moniker of "King" from the local surfing community, the Chronicle reported.

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Obama claims Democrats face greater governing challenges than Republicans in current political climate

Former President Barack Obama said during a podcast on Saturday that Democrats have the "harder job" governing, and that Republicans have it easier because they just tear "stuff down."

"Look, I think we have to acknowledge that we’ve got the harder job, right?" Obama said. "So we believe in government as a tool for good — for as a potential force to more jobs and as a way to make sure that the planet doesn’t roast. To make sure that as we move forward and the economy grows, that everybody, and not just some, are benefiting, and the kids are getting a good education. And what that means is that we have to think about the consequences of our actions. We have to try to figure out how do we get working majorities to actually pass laws and to implement those laws and to make things happen?"

Obama spoke to podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen and was responding to a question about whether Democratic leadership understood how to fight back against the GOP.

He added, "Tearing stuff down doesn't require all that."

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The former president said Republicans were unraveling a set of rules and norms that were already in place, and that it's easy to do.

"I say that because we should accept the responsibility and the challenge that our job is going to be a little bit harder, because in order for us to get stuff done, like, let's say the Affordable Care Act, well we've got to cobble together a majority, and we've got to persuade, and we've got to convince. And so, I do think that there's been some unwillingness on the part of Democrats in the past to break down some of the institutional barriers for us getting stuff done, just because, well, it's always been done that way," Obama said.

Obama explained that the filibuster in the Senate frustrated him as president, and said Democrats had been trying to preserve something that in some ways blocks the government from being effective.

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"The Senate is already structurally skewed and anti-majoritarian, right? Like the – it's hard for majorities to get stuff done, whether it's trying to pass civil rights legislation in the '60s or trying to get gun control legislation or what have you, because even though majority people support it, Delaware and Wyoming have the same number of senators as California, right? So that would require a constitutional amendment. You then compound that with a filibuster, and the truth is that Democrats, for some time, have been traditionalists in wanting to preserve that when it blocks us from making government effective, which in turn makes people feel like government is corrupt and not caring about them," Obama said.

He said it gave people like President Donald Trump "an opening."

Trump has called for ending the filibuster in the Senate, which has also gained some traction with other Republicans.

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Obama said he didn’t think Democrats should "duplicate" the behavior of Republicans but argued they shouldn’t cling to traditions either.

"I don't want us to simply duplicate the behavior of the other side. I don't want us to have a slash-and-burn strategy where we don't care about rule of law. We don't care about some of the guardrails around our democracy. We start lying and having no regard for the truth the way the other side seems to be comfortable with right now, because if that's how we fight, then we lose what we're fighting for. But that doesn't mean we have to get punked or be saps. And I do, or to cling to traditions just for the sake of tradition," he said.

Obama was also asked directly if aliens were real.

"They're real, but I haven't seen them," Obama said.

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'England have no chance at T20 World Cup if they do not improve'

England got back to winning ways against Scotland but their T20 World Cup hopes look slim unless there are significant improvements, writes Matthew Henry.

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Iran regime accused of killing 19 Christians in anti-regime protests as persecution continues: watchdog

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s atrocities against demonstrators opposed to the regime has reportedly resulted in security forces killing at least 19 Iranian Christians, according to Article 18, an organization that promotes religious freedom in Iran.

Article 18 reported on Feb. 9 that "The total number of Christians confirmed to have been killed during the protests is at least 19, including members of Iran’s recognized (Armenians and Assyrians) and unrecognized (converts) communities."

According to the Article 18 statement, the Islamic Republic’s "brutal response to last month’s mass demonstrations" resulted in the security forces murdering Iranian Christians Nader Mohammadi, 35, and Zahra Arjomandi, 51, who were both shot dead on Jan. 8 in separate protests 1,000 miles apart.

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Mohammadi was the father of three young children, and was killed in Babol in northern Iran. Arjomandi, who was a mother of two children, died in her son’s arms on the Persian Gulf island of Qeshm, in southern Iran, noted Article 18.

The Iranian Christian website Mohabat News stated that regime security forces refused to release Arjomandi's body for six days. Mohabat reported that her body was only released for burial under "strict security measures", which included a media blackout and prohibiting a memorial service.

Mansour Borji, the executive director for Article 18, told Fox News Digital that, "Today, Christians, like millions of other Iranians, seek the freedom and justice that they have been denied for nearly five decades, and they know well that this comes at a price. Every year many Christians are arrested and imprisoned under torturous conditions for practicing their right to religious freedom, where a simple act like praying together in house-churches seems like an act of civil disobedience."

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He continued, "Our organization considers the Islamic Republic’s massacre of all peaceful protesters a crime against humanity that should not go unpunished. There must be an end to the impunity that, for far too long, has enabled this regime to commit crimes like at home and abroad. Branding peaceful protesters as ‘terrorists,’ and Christians that are persecuted every year as ‘Zionist mercenaries,’ is nothing but scapegoating."

He warned that "The Islamic Republic's regime has, since its inception, demonstrated all traits of a totalitarian state. Most Iranians have now come to realize that their fundamental rights have been taken away from them, including the freedom to choose one’s own religion or belief, political self-determination and even their lifestyle choices. Christians were some of the earliest to experience this, when an Anglican priest and convert to Christianity, Rev. Arastoo Sayyah, was killed in his church office less than 200 hours after the 1979 revolution."

A comprehensive 2025 report titled, "The Tip of the Iceberg" about the persecution of Iranian Christians was released by Article 18 in collaboration with Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Middle East Concern.

According to the "The Tip of the Iceberg" report, Mohammad Nasirpour, the deputy prosecutor of Tehran and head of the 33rd District Prosecutor’s office, stated in his indictment against four Iranian Christians on June 2022: "Armenian and Assyrian Christians in the Protestant denomination, with their evangelical nature and mission to Christianize Iran, are perceived as a security threat to the Islamic Revolution, aimed at undermining the Islamic foundation of the Islamic Republic. It could be said that Persian-speaking evangelical movements are supported by fundamentalist evangelical Christians and Zionists." 

According to a Feb. 10 report on the website of Christianity Today, Iranian Christians want President Trump to intervene to stop the Ayatollah’s regime from continuing with its massacre of Iranians.

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"That’s probably one of the most frustrating aspects of the whole situation right now," said Shahrokh Afshar, founder of Fellowship of Iranian Christians. "Everyone was hoping he would do something," Afshar told the outlet after the Iranian authorities killed thousands of protesters in January, according to some estimates.

Fox News Digital has reported over the decades on the Islamic Republic’s high-intensity persecution of Iranian Christians in the wake of the growing popularity of Christianity in the Muslim-majority country. Iran’s regime targets diverse groups of Christians, including Evangelicals and Catholics. In 2017, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested two Christians – a mother and her son – as part of a brutal crackdown on Catholicism in the country’s West Azerbaijan Province.

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The family’s bibles and literature on Christian theology were also seized during the raid.

The United States State Department has designated Iran as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC)" because the Islamic regime has "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom" with respect to violations of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

The Iranian regime -controlled statistical center of Iran claims there are 117,700 Christians of recognized denominations as of the 2016 census, according to the most recent U.S. State Department report on the plight of Iranian Christians. 

However, the State Department noted that, "The Christian advocacy NGO Article 18 estimates there are 500,000 to 800,000 Christians in the country, while the Christian advocacy NGO Open Doors International estimates the number is 1.24 million. Christian NGOs report many Christians are converts from Islam or other recognized faiths." The population of Iran is roughly 92 million.

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