Tampa Bay Rays and Orlando Magic sideline reporter cut loose for racist remarks

Emily Austen, a Fox Sports Florida and Fox Sports Sun sideline reporter who covers the Tampa Bay Rays and Orlando Magic, has been taken off the air after making derogatory, racist and anti-Semitic remarks on Barstool Sports’ “Rundown” show this week.

Austen, a 27-year-old Tampa native, disparaged Mexican, Chinese and Jewish people, as well as Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, on the daily show broadcast on Facebook Live on Thursday. It no longer appears on the site or its Facebook page, but it is visible on several websites and on Vimeo.

Asked about a high school valedictorian who had bragged on Twitter about being an undocumented immigrant, she said: “I didn’t even know Mexicans were that smart. …That’s f—– up. I didn’t mean it like that. You see, you guys know that the Chinese guy is always the smartest guy in math class.”

Austen talked about working as a server in Boca Raton, Fla., and wasn’t pleased with some of her customers. “The way I used to talk to the Jews in Boca. … I just didn’t care. They would complain and b—- about everything. I gave a guy, delivered his beer, and he was complaining to me that there was too much head. I knew that he was a stingy a—— and he wasn’t going to give me a tip.”

The Cavs’ Love, who missed Game 3 of the NBA Finals with a concussion, isn’t very popular with her, either. “I think Kevin Love is a little b—-. … I’m just saying, in general, he’s a little b—- because even when he doesn’t have concussion. I’m not saying he’s a little b—- because he didn’t play because he had a concussion. Because he can’t play. I’m just not a fan, and he’s such a diva.”

Austen’s remarks were so inflammatory that host Dan Katz joked at the end of the show: “We might have to hire you because you’re gonna get fired.” Early Friday morning, Fox Sports Florida said that Austen was “not scheduled to appear” on any upcoming broadcasts.

“We were made aware that Emily Austen appeared in a social media video unaffiliated with FOX Sports in which she made insensitive and derogatory comments. She was not speaking on behalf of Fox Sports, nor do we condone any of the statements she made in the video,” Steve Tello, the network’s senior vice president, said in a statement (via the Tampa Bay Times). “Emily has been advised that her comments were unacceptable, and she is not scheduled to appear on any upcoming Fox Sports Florida or Fox Sports Sun broadcasts.”

Austen hosted “Inside the Rays” and other shows as a contract employee paid per event, according to the Times. “The Rays fully support Fox Sport Sun’s decision regarding Emily Austen,” the team told The Times in a statement. She is not employed by the team.

Dave Portnoy, Barstool’s “El Presidente” and founder who also appeared in the Facebook Live feed, explained Friday that the video was taken down because “we’re not in the business of getting in trouble.” The site, he said, doesn’t intentionally post things to try to get people fired. “We protect our guests.”

Toddler’s body recovered after alligator attack at Disney resort near Orlando

UPDATE: The body of a 2-year-old boy snatched by an alligator at a Disney resort has been found, ending a desperate search that lasted more than 18 hours, officials in Florida said late Wednesday afternoon.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said the body was recovered at about 3:30 p.m. and while a formal identification is pending, “there is no reason to believe that the body that was recovered is not that of” the toddler.

ORIGINAL STORY: Investigators are now focused on recovering the body of the 2-year-old boy attacked by an alligator at a Disney resort near Orlando, saying that it’s highly unlikely that the boy survived.

“There is no question we will lose the 2-year-old child,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said at a midday news conference. “It’s now been 15 hours since the child has been taken into the water. We are working on recovering the body of the child at this point.”

He added: “Our ultimate goal is to try and bring some closure to this family by bringing home their loved one.”

The toddler’s parents watched Tuesday night as the alligator grabbed their son and dragged him deeper into the water, officials said. The father, who was not identified, rushed in and grabbed desperately for his son; he cut his hand but was unable to save the boy.

The attack occurred on the third night of vacation for the Nebraska family. They relaxed on the white sandy beach that stretches along Disney’s luxe Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, one of the features the hotel uses to entice its guests, and watched their young son wade ankle-deep into the man-made lake known by vacationers as Seven Seas Lagoon.

The boy was just about a foot beyond the sand when, after 9 p.m., the alligator attacked.

[Alligators found eating human remains in Florida Everglades]

Authorities from Disney World, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have deployed more than 50 law enforcement officers in helicopters and boats to the Seven Seas Lagoon, desperately searching for the missing toddler.

By late Wednesday morning, divers with the sheriff’s office had entered the water, and investigators are using sonar technology to try to locate the boy. Divers may enter again Wednesday at “an appropriate time,” Demings said.

“It’s somewhat of a complicated operation because this is a man-made body of water” and there are “systems built in the waterway,” Demings said.

The sheriff’s office will provide an update on the investigation around 4 p.m., local time.

Authorities said that although alligators are indigenous to Florida, an attack of this nature is rare. “This type of thing” has never happened before in Disney’s 45 years of operating in the state, Demings said.

Disney closed all beach areas and recreational marinas in its resort, although the Disney World theme parks were open Wednesday.

The Florida resort did not have signage warning of alligators in the water, and the company will “thoroughly review the situation for the future,” according to a Disney official.

Trappers had caught and euthanized four alligators, authorities said at an early morning news conference. Wildlife officials said they had not yet found any evidence that the euthanized animals were responsible for snatching the boy. They later investigated a fifth alligator.

As rescuers searched through the night, Demings said his crews would not leave until they found the child. That remained the plan by daybreak, when new crews of law enforcement officials arrived at the Disney complex to offer “fresh eyes” for the search.

More than 15 hours later, officials had switched to recovery mode, as Demings said the situation was not “survivable at this point.”

“We are going to continue to search until we find the body,” Demings said later Wednesday. “Hopefully that will be today, but if it has to extend beyond that, we will continue.”

Authorities did not release the names of the child or his parents, but said grief counselors and victim advocates sat with the family throughout the night. Their grief was incomprehensible, said sheriff’s office spokesman Jeff Williamson.

“They are very shaken up, extremely shaken up,” he told reporters. “Imagine if it were you? What would you be?”

Although alligator attacks are rare in Florida, this case — inside Disney World, involving a very young child — seemed to hit all involved especially hard. Williamson said many of the law enforcement officers on scene have children of their own and feel deeply empathetic for the boy’s parents, who witnessed the entire attack.

“It is tragic. It is heartbreaking. There’s no other way to say it,” he said. “I cannot come to grips with what it must have been like to be in that situation.”

Witnesses who were nearby when the alligator snatched the boy gave law enforcement “detailed” information about what happened, but at an earlier news conference, Demings did not recount specifically what they said.

One witness dialed 911 at 9:16 p.m., Demings said. The mother and father, who at different points both ran into the water after the child, shouted for the help of a nearby lifeguard.

“The parents diligently tried to get the child,” Demings said.

Demings said that, according to witnesses, the family had set up a baby pen about 20 to 30 yards from the water on the sand, reported CNN. With the parents and 2-year-old boy was a daughter, who is 4, the network reported. A witness told CNN that a movie was being screened on the beach Tuesday night.

[‘It was a monster’: Hunters kill enormous 800-pound alligator that was feasting on farm cattle]

There were no other people in the water at the time of the attack, according to authorities. Signs posted near the lake warn against swimming in it, but there were no signs warning of alligators. The sheriff said there had been no recent reports of any nuisance alligators in the area, but questions about their presence in the lake will be part of the ongoing investigation.

The gator that got the child, Demings said, was reported to be somewhere between four and seven feet in length.

“As a father, as a grandfather, we’re going to hope for the best in these circumstances,” the sheriff said. “But based upon my 35 years of law enforcement experience, we know we have some challenges ahead.”

Florida hosts the largest alligator population in the United States and made the creature its official state reptile in 1987, according to the National Zoo. An estimated 1.3 million to 2 million gators live across all 67 counties in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reported in 2013, and inhabit fresh water marshes, swamps, rivers and lakes across the state.

Despite that, Wiley emphasized Wednesday that alligator attacks are an “extremely rare occurrence.”

“Millions of people enjoy Florida safely,” he said. “But you have to be careful.”

Since 1948, 383 people in Florida have suffered alligator bites, according to Florida FWC records. Twenty-three of those attacks were fatal. Last year, one person was killed by an alligator, and before that, the last recorded fatality was in 2007.

Alligators and crocodiles have jaws strong enough to crack a turtle shell, according to the National Zoo, and prey on fish, snails, birds, frogs and “mammals that come to the water’s edge.” Their vise-like grip is nearly impossible to escape because the animals perform a spinning move, called the “death roll,” to drown and subdue their prey.

Officials told reporters that, according to records, this was the first alligator attack at Disney. Wiley said the Florida FWC works closely with the theme park to remove any “nuisance alligators,” or gators that are at least four feet in length and could pose a threat to people, pets or property, according to the Florida FWC website.

Wiley didn’t know how often his agency removes nuisance gators from the park, and he wasn’t able to provide an estimate for how many live in the waters on Disney property.

“Everyone here at the Walt Disney World resort is devastated by this tragic accident,” a Disney official told reporters Wednesday. “Our thoughts are with the family. We are helping the family and doing everything we can to assist law enforcement.”

The Grand Floridian Resort and Spa is nestled among Disney’s sprawling complex, positioned just south of the Magic Kingdom theme park in the Orlando area. It stretches along the west side of the Seven Seas Lagoon, a man-made lake that park visitors cross on ferries en route to the Magic Kingdom.

Man wounded in Englewood shooting

A man was shot early Sunday in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

The 24-year-old man was sitting in a vehicle in the 200 block of West Marquette at 4:15 a.m. when someone in a gray four-door car opened fire, according to Chicago Police.
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He was shot in the shoulder and drove himself to St. Bernard Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

Man shot in Englewood

A man was shot early Sunday in the South Side Englewood neighborhood.

The 26-year-old was standing on the sidewalk in the 7200 block of South Aberdeen about 4:20 a.m. when a male in a dark-colored car opened fire, according to Chicago Police.
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The man was shot in the back and right foot and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

Man shot to death in North Lawndale

Officers responding to a call of person shot about 1:25 a.m. found a 32-year-old man lying on the ground in the 1300 block of South Central Park Avenue, according to Chicago Police. The man had suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Family members identified him as Fredrick Lee Blount, who has a 1-year-old daughter, a 12-year-old son and three sisters.

Man shot during robbery in Parkway Gardens

A man was shot during a robbery early Sunday in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood on the South Side.

The 45-year-old was inside a restaurant about 4:50 a.m. in the 6300 block of South King Drive when three males walked in and announced a robbery, according to Chicago Police.
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The males then took some of his personal property, and one of them opened fire, police said. The three males then ran away.

The man was shot in the left arm, hand and left ankle and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

A police source said the robbers made off with some of the man’s jewelry.

Two men shot in West Town

Two men were shot early Sunday in the West Town neighborhood.

The men, ages 22 and 23, were walking in the 600 block of North Ashland about 4:15 a.m. when they heard several gunshots and felt pain, according to Chicago Police.
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Both men were shot in the legs, police said. Someone driving by picked the men up and drove them to Stroger Hospital, where their conditions stabilized.

Police said both victims are documented gang members, and the shooting is thought to be gang-related.