Free Republic

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has given the public some clarity on his veto last week of $32 million in arts and culture grants from next year’s state budget. According to a story published in the Tampa Bay Times, DeSantis said the cause was Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival, which he characterized as being overtly “sexual” and therefore an inappropriate recipient of state funds. While it’s unclear if the Orlando festival was slated to receive any money from the grants, the state of Florida awards money for cultural projects based on a ranked list. The Fringe Festival was ranked toward...

Today, Vote No On 4 Florida formally launched its multilingual campaign to defeat Amendment 4 on the upcoming November ballot with the unveiling of new websites in both English and Spanish and the rollout of its first campaign video entitled “Not What it Seems” which exposes the deceptive nature and extreme ramifications of Amendment 4. The 2-minute video reveals that while other amendments provide clear definitions, the 34-word Amendment 4 fails to define any of its terms, including crucial words like “viability,” “healthcare provider,” and “patient’s health,” leaving voters in the dark about its true impact. “Amedment 4 was deceptively...

Members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet should consider invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president, two sitting U.S. senators suggested. They said Biden’s performance in the first presidential debate against former President Donald Trump raised questions about his ability to perform his office. “We’ve definitely entered 25th Amendment territory,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote on X. ... Members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet should consider invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president, two sitting U.S. senators suggested. They said Biden’s performance in the first presidential debate against former President Donald Trump raised questions about his ability to perform...

Muhammad Musri, president of American Islam and Chairman of the Board of the Islamic Society of Central Florida discussed in his June 21, 2024 Friday sermon plans to buy up abandoned churches and turn them into mosques. He said that Muslims are turning churches into mosques in order to serve the same community, because one day they will become Muslims. Musri said that 100 years ago Christians invaded Islamic countries and built missionary schools destroying mosques and Islamic schools. He added that now the Muslims are "returning the favor" by converting churches into mosques and turning the local schools into...

Detectives with the Broward Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit shared a video showing a man leaving a 3-year-old on a sidewalk after he carjacked the child’s mother. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office said it received a call reporting a stolen vehicle in Oakland Park around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Investigators said a mother and her 3-year-old daughter were involved in a crash with another vehicle. When the mother exited her car to exchange information with the other driver, deputies said an unknown man jumped into her car and began to drive away with the woman’s daughter inside. Investigators said the mother...

Last week, police arrested Jonathan Edward Elwing, senior pastor of Palm View Baptist Church, for possessing child pornography, but new information paints a far more disturbing picture. Previously law enforcement received a tip that the pedophile pastor used cryptocurrency to buy child porn online. They acquired a warrant and executed it the very next day, seizing his devices and finding four images of child porn on his cell phone. Things have changed. After seizing multiple electronic devices, including phones, tablets, and computers, a preliminary search has revealed even more images, including ones that shows him sexually abusing a child. Elwing...

Good news! We recently reached a favorable settlement for our clients at Heartbeat of Miami, a faith-based ministry that provides life-affirming services and support to women and couples facing unplanned pregnancies in Hialeah, Florida. While we cannot publicly discuss the specifics of the settlement quite yet, the vandals associated with Jane’s Revenge who sought to injure, intimidate and interfere with access to Heartbeat of Miami, and several Florida pregnancy resource centers, will be held to account. Last year, First Liberty and volunteer attorneys from Lawson Huck Gonzalez filed a federal lawsuit seeking to hold accountable the individuals who defaced and...

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, states have been allowed to pass their own abortion laws. As certain states began to pass stronger protections for preborn human beings, other states began to eliminate protections — and ‘abortion travel’ became a hot-button issue. Some companies began funding abortion travel as a “benefit” to employees, and abortion funds began to pay for airfare, hotels, and the like in order to assist women living in pro-life states to obtain abortions in states where abortion was more available. Since that time, the Guttmacher Institute...

In spite of intense pressure from deep green “environmentalist” and “animal rights” groups, Florida Governor DeSantis signed HB 87 on June 21, 2024. If Governor DeSantis had not signed the bill, it would have become law on June 22. HB 87 restores the right of people to protect themselves, their pets, and their homes from destructive, rogue black bears.Animal rights groups wanted to continue a failed policy that demanded people ask permission from a bureaucratic agency before they were “allowed” to shoot a destructive bear.From clickorlando.com:DeSantis signed HB 87, Taking of Bears, which allows people to claim self defense in...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is warning that abortion proponents in the state are preparing to smuggle a radical ballot measure across the finish line in November. “Because all of the Southeast has various forms of pro-life legislation, Florida would become the abortion mecca of this region—and maybe one of the abortion meccas of the entire world, because it would be one of the most liberal abortion regimes anywhere in the world,” the Republican governor warned during a Zoom call Thursday with hundreds of pastors and faith leaders. “This amendment is written maybe more liberal than New York and California, but...

Florida has joined 22 other states in extending its infant surrender law to allow a 30-day surrender period up from seven days of age. Additional amendments to the law include a provision for the mom to call 911 for a direct surrender to responders, provided she remains with the baby until their arrival. Governor Ron DeSantis’ signature means HB 775 takes effect on July 1, 2024. The anonymous surrender granted by the law provides parents immunity from criminal prosecution if there are no indications of abuse or neglect. The extension to 30 days is vital to situations where premature infants...

Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed the Sunshine State won’t abide by potential bureaucratic restrictions on Second Amendment rights after the U.S. surgeon general declared firearm violence a “public health crisis.” The Biden administration’s surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, said guns “[pose] a serious threat to the health and well-being of our country.” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ webpage for the advisory does not list any new legal action taken on restrictions, but DeSantis warned that similar advisories were issued at the start of the coronavirus pandemic – preceding lockdowns and other government mandates. “During COVID, unelected bureaucrats used...

A 20-year-old man is accused flying across the country and trying to murder someone with whom he had an online gaming dispute in a hammer attack. Edward Kang, 20, flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Jacksonville, Florida, to confront someone he had an online dispute with, Nassau County, New Jersey, Sheriff Bill Leeper said. Court records show he was charged Monday with second-degree attempted murder and attempted burglary.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida public school employee who faces firing because she allowed her transgender daughter to play girls high school volleyball assailed those who outed her child, saying Tuesday that the ensuing investigation destroyed the girl’s life. Jessica Norton said her daughter was thriving at Monarch High School in suburban Fort Lauderdale before an anonymous tipster notified a Broward County school board member in November that the 16-year-old was playing on the girls varsity volleyball team in apparent violation of state law. The 2021 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act bars students who were born male from...

Joe Biden’s campaign chairwoman, Jen O’Malley Dillon, has already conceded Florida’s 30 electoral votes to former President Donald Trump. During a podcast interview with the far-left Puck, O’Malley Dillon was asked if the campaign considered Florida a legitimate battleground state His Fraudulency would contest in the coming months. Her answer was a flat, “No.” Heilemann: And you’re saying you see North Carolina also as a battleground state? O'Malley-Dillon: Yes. Heilemann: Florida? O'Malley-Dillon: No.https://t.co/lfxbxyXSJy — Nick Field (@nick_field90) June 24, 2024 It gets even better… Biden’s “ground organizing staff” in Florida heard the news and is now completely demoralized.

The Congressional Budget Office has underestimated Medicaid spending by billions of dollars every year for some time now and a new law that reduced illegal immigration in Florida may explain why. Since 2000, the CBO has underestimated an average of $15 billion a year of Medicaid spending, while often overestimating Social Security and Medicare spending. The latest CBO budget outlook bumped up Medicaid spending estimates yet again, this time by another $50 billion over the next 10 years. But judging by its recent performance, the new projections will still be too low. Something in the Medicaid program is adding tens...

Have been checking this question out online and not getting very far. Older FR posts from 20 years ago pull up on the search, ostensibly discussing ping lists and offering them, but this gets confusing the deeper I drill down, no guidance as to how to actually identify, access, or even create one. Some of the postings go back to the early 2000's. Looks like they are trying to be helpful but I can't make heads nor tails of the links they offer. Am stumped. Any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong and how to do it the right...

Gov. DeSantis signs Florida ban on balloon releases

A Florida firefighter killed his wife in an apparent murder-suicide just weeks after she opened up online about how his grueling work schedule left him “exhausted” and “never functioning 100% at home.” St. Johns County Fire Rescue Lt. Shawn Yarbrough, 46, and his wife, financial adviser Andrea Nichole Nahrup Yarbrough, 34, were found dead in the bathroom of their St. Augustine home earlier this month, the sheriff’s department said. Police were called to the couple’s home on June 13 after Andrea’s mother requested a welfare check when she couldn’t reach her. Andrea’s death is considered a homicide, while her husband...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Stinging jellyfish, rays with their whip-like tails and sharks on the hunt are some ocean hazards that might typically worry beachgoers. But rip currents are the greatest danger and account for the most beach rescues every year. Six people drowned in rip currents over a recent two-day period in Florida, including a couple vacationing on Hutchinson Island from Pennsylvania with their six children and three young men on a Panhandle holiday from Alabama, officials say. About 100 people drown from rip currents along U.S. beaches each year, according to the United States Lifesaving Association. And more...