Free Republic

A radio station's turkey-frying stunt turned into a recipe for disaster this morning when an attempt to cook the frozen bird in a van resulted in the vehicle catching fire. During a stunt for "The MJ Morning Show" on WFLZ, 93.3 FM, a grease fryer was placed inside the van, which had furniture in it that caught fire, Tampa Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Bill Wade said. WFLZ employees were supposed to lower the turkey into the van using a crane but never got a chance before flames engulfed the vehicle. Firefighter Ken Licata injured his back during the incident at...

WASHINGTON — Not everyone thinks imitation is the best form of flattery. In fact, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Orlando took such offense at a parody website aimed at unseating him that the freshman Democrat has asked that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder investigate the Lake County activist who started the anti-Grayson website “mycongressmanisnuts.com.” Specifically, Grayson accuses Republican activist Angie Langley of lying to federal elections. His four-page complaint highlights the fact that the Clermont resident lives outside his district, but that Langley still uses the term “my” in “mycongressmanisnuts.com.” “Ms. Langley has deliberately masqueraded as a constituent of mine,...

Of these four ideas, the first is closest to becoming reality. There's a citizen petition drive to change the way Florida draws voting districts, aiming for the 2010 ballot. This effort is called Fair Districts Florida. Its Web site is www.fairdistrictsflorida.org. It is circulating two petitions, one for congressional races and one for the Legislature. Under these two constitutional amendments, voting districts could not be drawn "to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party."

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Florida finds former state House Speaker Marco Rubio leading Democrat Kendrick Meek 49% to 35%. Governor Charlie Crist leads Meek 42% to 36%.

There comes a time in politics when the particular details of a leader’s transgressions become a moot point. During his tenure as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Jim Greer has reportedly presided over lavish and irresponsible spending of donor money, the purging of critics and the use of dirty tricks like fake Twitter accounts to attack fellow Republicans. He also has rammed through dictatorial rule changes that would make Fidel Castro blush and used the RPOF as a club in the service of a single Republican politician. -snip- Greer likes to blame his troubles on Marco Rubio supporters...

Three veteran city police officers today were charged in Circuit Court with separate crimes ranging from accessory to murder to forgery and official misconduct, a development the state attorney's office says could jeopardize more than 70 felony cases. The announcement comes days after a former Riviera Beach police officer was convicted in Circuit Court of attempted sexual battery and other charges and adds another blemish to a city police department in turmoil. Riviera Beach Assistant Chief Dave Harris referred questions to city spokeswoman Rose Anne Brown, who said, "Riviera Beach takes the integrity of officers very seriously. Our standards are...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2009 – Doctors from Walter Reed Army Medical Center here and the University of Miami collaborated to perform the first pancreas islet cell transplant Thanksgiving Day on an airman whose pancreas was injured so severely in Afghanistan that it had to be removed. Army Col. (Dr.) Craig D. Shriver, chief of general surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., describes groundbreaking pancreas islet cell transplant surgery performed Nov. 26, 2009, to reporters during a Dec. 15, 2009, news conference. Dr. Pascal Goldschmidt, dean of the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami,...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is conducting an anti-trust investigation of a voting-machine company merger that would create a near-monopoly over the levers of democracy in Florida and much of the United States. McCollum’s office has issued at least six subpoenas covering every major voting-machine company as part of a civil investigation of Election Systems & Software’s $5 million acquisition of Diebold Inc.’s elections division — a merger that would give a private company too much power over the machines used to cast votes, voting-rights groups say."Our office engaged in this issue because anti-competitive behavior can seriously...

Sen. John McCain is known as a straight talker but he can dodge with the best of them. Asked if pal Charlie Crist's embrace of the stimulus was a political mistake, McCain demurred. "I don't know. I haven't kept up enough to really know about that. I can't judge other people," he told the Buzz. This comes from a guy who recently told Imus "hell no" he didn't support the stimulus. McCain said Marco Rubio is "mounting a serious threat," but quickly added, "I still think Charlie will win." The Arizona Republican and 2008 presidential nominee, who won Florida in...

Fort Lauderdale police officers should never again be allowed to guard a private residence on a permanent, 24-hour basis as they did for Ponzi scheme suspect Scott Rothstein, the mayor said Tuesday, advising that he will seek a ban to protect the city from another ``black eye.'' Mayor Jack Seiler's pronouncement is a turnabout for the city, which until now has steadfastly defended its April decision to let top police supervisors, undercover officers and the police spokesman guard Rothstein's home on Isla Bahia Drive. The city has been forced to defend the integrity of the police department as information continues...

In what has to be the toughest choice since deciding what his position is on Obama’s stimulus plan this week, Charlie Crist is expected to announce Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer will resign this month to “focus on his family.” No word on the exact date of the announcement, but likely in the days around Christmas when no one is paying attention to the news. Greer recently survived a “confidence” vote by the RPOF leadership, however, according to Hillsborough County State Committeeman A.J. Matthews the board was hoodwinked into the lopsided vote of support for Greer and this...

Scott Rothstein Almost Saved Us From Sarah Palin - Miami News - Riptide 2.0

Police shot and killed a man who they said had a metal object in his hand after an altercation in Northeast Miami-Dade. Officers were responding to a disturbance call at a home on 83rd St. just west of Biscayne shortly after 11 p.m. last night where two men were reported to be involved in a fight. When they got to the home, cops found one man bleeding, then chased down a second man. When the second man refused to drop the metal object he was holding, police opened fire. "The officers confronted the subject, he was armed with a metal...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Some of the facts about Monday morning's police-involved shooting are not in question. What is in question is exactly why a Jacksonville police officer opened fire on a man who wasn't armed, at least not with a gun. Sgt. J.T. Carey, an 18-year veteran officer, shot and killed 30-year-old Neil Southerland after a pursuit in Mandarin early Monday. Investigators are trying to determine if deadly force was justified. Police said Southerland intentionally rammed an officer's vehicle twice during the course of a slow-speed pursuit early Monday morning. After the second time, officers broke out the window of...

Canada duped Trump Tower Tampa developer SimDag. Father Barney Canada, a make-believe Roman Catholic priest accused of duping developers of Trump Tower Tampa out of $150,000, has been arrested and charged with swindling $2.7 million from developers across Florida and the United States.A grand jury in South Bend, Ind., charged Byron Levon Canada with 31 counts of wire and mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. The indictment was handed down in U.S. District Court on Dec. 9. Taken into custody Monday, Canada pleaded not guilty.Canada was charged with running an "advance fee scheme" that collected millions in application fees for...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A murder suspect has died after being found unresponsive at the Orange County Jail. A sheriff's spokesman said Korey Boisselle, 21, was found inside his single-person cell Tuesday afternoon. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital a short time later. A cause and manner of death was been released. Boisselle was awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. He was arrested in June for the 2008 slaying of Andrew Silas, 20. Police said Silas was found dead at an apartment, the victim of a robbery during a drug deal. Boisselle's trial was...

The Public Service Commission voted 4-1 Tuesday to allow Tampa Electric to purchase solar energy from a West Palm Beach-based company in 2011 and charge its customers premium prices for it. The agreement allows Energy 5.0 to build a 25 megawatt plant next year and sell its electricity exclusively to TECO for a fixed price over the next 25 years. TECO will be allowed to charge its customers an estimated 52 cents a month beginning in 2011 to pay for the solar power,. The cost to customers would drop to 19 cents a month in 2035, and could be lowered...

Florida Power & Light will be required to lower its energy use by 3,082 gigawatt-hours by 2019 -- more than three times the amount the utility had proposed. The Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to require higher goals for all of Florida's major utilities. To achieve those goals, the utilities will have to consider providing discounts for measures such as compact fluorescent light bulbs. Florida utilities have opposed rebates for energy-saving programs that pay for themselves within two years because customers arguably don't need incentives for them.FPL, the state's largest utility, will have to spend more than $15 million...

FOX 13's exclusive Rasmussen polling shows Rubio tied with Crist at 43 percent. Fourteen percent of those polled were uncommitted to either candidate. YouTube - Ma3lst0rm's Channel

* Smaller type Eyewitness News talked to a 62-year-old wheelchair-bound man who shot and killed a man who tried to force his way into his home. Gary Wroblewski says he was watching television in the Silver Springs Shores neighborhood off County Road 464 late Monday night when someone knocked on his door. Wroblewski slightly cracked open the door and found a man claiming he needed help with his broken down car. He says he was immediately suspicious of the man and his story. "So I went and got my gun. I held it behind the door and I opened the...

MARION COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A Marion County man shot at two men, killing one of them, who invaded his home late Monday night. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office says 62-year-old Gary A. Wroblewski, who uses a wheelchair, answered a knock at the door of his home in the Silver Springs Shores area. The man at the door asked for some help with his car and when Wroblewski declined assistance the second suspect came through the door, wearing a mask and attacked him. Wroblewski had a handgun and fired at the men killing the second suspect. The second...

Election 2010: Florida GOP Senate Primary 2010 Florida GOP Senate Primary: Crist 43%, Rubio 43% Tuesday, December 15 Governor Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio are now tied in the 2010 race for the Republican Senate nomination in Florida. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP Primary voters finds Crist and Rubio each with 43% of the vote. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate, and nine percent (9%) are undecided. Crist’s support has fallen from 53% in August to 49% in October. Rasmussen Reports noted at the time, “The fact that Crist has fallen below...

A year after the decimation of 2008, Republicans are newly confident about their election prospects in the Senate. Then again, they have almost nowhere to go but up: The GOP occupies only 40 seats, compared to 58 for the Democrats (plus a pair of “independent” allies, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont). As always, many races are foregone conclusions, such as the special election in Massachusetts next month to choose a successor to the late Ted Kennedy. But at least 20 of the 2010 Senate races are worth watching. Herewith, a state-by-state summary. ARIZONA: Could Republican senator...

Just play the video of congressional candidate Lt. Col. Allen West. You'll be glad you did.

Right away, parents accused her of bruising an infant's brain. Her insurance company paid the medical bill, the parents' lawyer said. This year, police said she hit four children at her Just For Kids day care center. But the cases were weak, and prosecutors dropped them. Once again, Sampson-Monroe can legally care for children. So can thousands of other Floridians with criminal pasts. Since 1985, the Department of Children and Families has cleared 5,803 people to work with kids despite serious records. Their ranks include former cocaine users, prostitutes, spouse abusers, burglars and, in rare instances, kidnappers and killers.

A teen who pleaded guilty and testified against co-defendants in the brutal gang rape of a woman and the beating of her young son was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison. Avion Lawson, 17, had faced up to 11 life sentences, plus 50 years. Three others in the case -- Jakaris Taylor, 17, Nathan Walker, 18, and Tommy Poindexter, 20 -- were sentenced in October to life in prison. Lawson pleaded guilty in August and testified against the others in the 2007 attack. ``Through your testimony, you sealed the case against your co-defendants,'' Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista...

How do you get rid of a Legislature-created body? You ignore it. The nine-member Florida High Speed Rail Authority - actually seven now that two members quit in disgust - has been left to die. The Florida Department of Transportation - you know, the folks who secretly negotiated the purchase of CSX tracks, liability and all - has turned its back on the authority, which was created by the Florida Legislature and has never been decommissioned. First some definitions: The high-speed rail project is designed to connect major cities by rail with trains traveling 180 mph. The SunRail commuter rail...

ST. PETERSBURG -- Starting in January, getting a new driver’s license will become a lot more difficult. Once the new rules go into effect Jan. 1, anyone who wants to update a driver’s license will need to bring four pieces of identification, such as Social Security cards, U.S. passports and certified birth certificates. [...]

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- A Homestead police officer was arrested Friday, accused of falsifying records in order to become a U.S. citizen. Jose Villarreal, 31, faces charges of official misconduct, uttering forged instruments and false official statements. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Villarreal submitted a birth certificate listing a 1978 birth date that listed his aunt as his mother. Investigators said his real birth date was in 1977. The FDLE said investigators believe Villarreal changed the birth year so he could be considered a minor at the time he applied to become a U.S. citizen. Villarreal was taken to...

Three U.S. banks in Florida, Arizona and Kansas failed on Friday, bringing the year's tally to 133 and taking a $250 million bite out of the federal deposit-insurance fund as the credit crunch claims more victims. Miami-based Republic Federal Bank was closed by regulators, and Boca Raton, Fla.-based 1st United Bank agreed to assume its deposits. Republic Federal Bank had $433 million in assets and $352.7 million in deposits as of Sept. 30, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Its failure will cost the deposit-insurance fund $122.6 million. The bank failure is the 13th in the Sunshine State this...

Regulators have shut down banks in Florida, Arizona and Kansas, bringing to 133 the number of U.S. banks that have failed to hold up this year against the struggling economy and a cascade of loan defaults. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday it took over Miami-based Republic Federal Bank, with $433 million in assets and $352.7 million in deposits. A bank based in Boca Raton, Fla., 1st United Bank, agreed to assume all the deposits and $267.1 million of the assets of the failed bank. The FDIC will retain the rest for eventual sale. In addition, the FDIC and...

PALM BAY, Fla. -- Some accused teen burglars are lucky to be alive, police say, after they broke into a Brevard County house whose homeowner had guns. Investigators say they are working to find out if the teenagers are responsible for any of the dozens of home break-ins plaguing Palm Bay in the past few weeks. The homeowner told Eyewitness News the suspects are his son's friends. Officers said the suspects broke into the house on Sanger Street in Palm Bay (see map) with a neighbor sitting right outside watching their every move. Homeowner Rodney Halfhide says he was taking...

An Orange County couple is recovering from a terrifying shoot-out with a robber. The couple was jumped at the gate of their Ocoee subdivision late Tuesday night, not far from the Gas Food and Go convenience store they own on Silver Star Road in Pine Hills. The husband was back at work Wednesday afternoon and he had two wounds on his forehead. His wife was in the hospital recovering after getting shot once in the shoulder. AT THE SCENE: Armed Robber Ambushes Ocoee Couple The couple was heading home after a night of work when they were ambushed. As Phai...

A Miami woman who apparently left a baby in a sweltering vehicle has a date with a judge. A 49-year-old grandmother is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after Miami police believe for some reason after returning home from dropping her daughter off at work, she failed to remove the three-month-old from the back seat. While this was initially thought to be just an accident, Miami Police Officer Kenia Reyes say Miriam Oliveras was not initially cooperating with police by refusing to answer their questions. Firefighters believe during the four hours the infant was locked in the vehicle temperatures...

Man charged with sexually assaulting elderly woman TAMARAC - A South Florida man has been charged with sexually assaulting a 91-year-old woman. Chad Weiner was arrested by Broward County Sheriff's Office detectives after leaving his Tamarac home on Wednesday. Authorities say a DNA analysis and other evidence tie him to the crime. The victim told detectives she was at home sleeping on Nov. 19 when she got up from bed and was attacked by a man who had entered her apartment. She was tied up and sexually battered.

DUNNELLON, Fla. -- A 53-year-old Dunnellon woman has been arrested after alledgedly hitting a man in the head with a raw steak. According to a Marion County Sheriff's Office report, the man told deputies that Elsie Egan repeatedly hit him with the uncooked meat and slapped his face after he refused a piece of sliced bread. The man said he wanted a bread roll. Egan denied hitting the man with the steak but did admit to slapping him, saying she did it "so that he could learn." The man told deputies that Egan was his live-in girlfriend. He declined medical...

For federal prosecutors, Rhonda Bays' case is particularly appalling. For defense attorney Kyle Fletcher, Bays is a sick woman used by her boyfriend for his own "evil exploits." Bays let her boyfriend molest her 4-year-old relative, videotaped the incident at an Orlando hotel and later offered a 2-year-old for potential abuse. Bays, who once ran for mayor of Umatilla, has pleaded guilty in federal court and faces up to 30 years in prison. Her boyfriend, Tanner Stickney, has a plea deal in place with federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., that calls for him to serve 15 years in federal prison....

First off, what kind of "fundamentalist Muslims" would allow their daughter to be an all-American CHEERLEADER and to wear skirts that short to boot? Secondly, I looked up the website of the "Christian group" Rifqa joined and am kind of weary of its overall mission and agenda. "Global Revolution Church?" *I don't want to judge* though. Thirdly, I am worried that this entire ordeal has damaged the Christian witness in this country further by showing 1) Christians looking EAGER to point out and make enemies of the very people we're trying to save 2) Blindly going along with whatever the...

Rep. Grayson tells Cheney to 'STFU' By Eric Zimmermann - 12/09/09 06:02 PM ET Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) has done it again. Appearing on MSNBC's "Hardball" Wednesday night, the Florida Democrats used a colorful acronym to respond to Dick Cheney's criticisms of President Obama. "You know, on the internet there's an acronym that's used to apply to situations like this. It's called 'STFU.' I don't think I can say that on the air, but I think you know what that means," Grayson said. That acronym is short for "Shut the f**k up." Last night, Cheney had lashed out at President...

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., Dec. 9, 2009 – Air Force Col. Michael Stapleton has come a long way since being diagnosed with cancer in 2006 while serving as 43rd Fighter Squadron commander here. Air Force Col. Michael Stapleton, diagnosed with cancer in 2006, is back flying in F-22 Raptors and T-38 Talons at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. U.S. Air Force photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Now the 49th Fighter Wing Operations Group commander at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Stapleton recalled that he didn’t realize at first that his illness was serious. "I had what appeared...

McCain to ACORN/SEIU activists for "comprehensive immigration reform" aka amnesty for illegal aliens, Miami-Dade Comm. College, Miami, Fl., on 20 Feb. 2006: "What makes America special is what's in this room tonight." McCain at ACORN/SEIU rally in South Florida, 2006 20 Feb. 2006 coverage from WFOR-TV CBS Channel 4 Miami, Fl.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A sure sign that an election is a year away: Gov. Charlie Crist is changing again. The populist Republican governor is trying to convince people he's a conservative now that his opponent in the Republican primary for Senate, former House Speaker Marco Rubio, has cut considerably into Crist's lead in the polls with a conservative message. In the most extreme example of Crist reinventing himself, the governor denied endorsing the $787 billion federal stimulus and put out a radio ad in October criticizing President Barack Obama for trying to spend his way to prosperity. Crist clearly...

Zikerria Bellamy, 17, said two managers at an Orlando restaurant wouldn't give her an interview on two separate occasions in July. ... A spokeswoman for the local restaurant, Allison Garrett, said in a statement the employee who left the voice mail "acted outside the scope of his authority and was not responsible for hiring." He no longer works at the restaurant. ... Bellamy is a male who has been living as a female for about the past six years. She said she completed a job application online, then was called to the store for an interview. When one manager refused...

For Ashley Valentín, giving up meat was easy. The hard part: finding something to eat in the school cafeteria. ``At first, there weren't that many options,'' said Ashley, 17, a senior at Miami Sunset High. ``There was always pizza. But eating pizza all the time is unhealthy.'' School cafeterias are taking note. While the Miami-Dade school district has long offered vegetarian items, it debuted three new vegan options this year: faux chicken nuggets, veggie burgers and hummus platters. The Broward school district also added veggie burgers to menus districtwide. And cafeterias are now offering vegetarian and vegan salads daily --...

The current treatment of young-age creationists in the scientific community and society at large is unfair and unwise. Scientists and philosophers of science, including old-age creationists and naturalists, should respect youngage creationists as legitimate contributors to science. Young-age creationists offer to the current origins science establishment a competing rational viewpoint that will augment fruitful scientific investigation through increased accountability for scientists, introduction of original hypotheses and general epistemic improvement...

A bid by Florida cops to probe whether Tiger Woods mixed a powerful potion of painkillers, sleeping pills and booze before he crashed near his home was rejected by a Sunshine State district attorney, according to a newly disclosed document. The report states Woods had access to the sleeping medicine Ambien and the painkiller Vicodin. The state attorney for Orlando, Fla., brushed off a subpoena request by the Florida Highway Patrol to obtain blood tests from Health Central Hospital, where Woods was taken after the Nov. 27 crash, according to the subpoena request obtained by the Herald.

For Republicans, the picture is a political Rorschach test. The photo shows a cluster of Florida Democrats surrounding President Barack Obama this year at a Fort Myers town hall meeting to sell his economic stimulus package. Smack in the middle of the pack: Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist. Though Crist has since distanced himself from the stimulus program and has been tacking to the right in an attempt to shore up support for his bid for the 2010 Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, conservative activists are mobilizing in support of former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio's Senate candidacy. A year...

ST. PETERSBURG — Now that surveillance cameras are watching virtually every store and parking lot, it's increasingly common to see footage of robberies, fights and even shootings. But the disturbing video of a double murder in downtown St. Petersburg is something different. In graphic detail, with eight different cameras and relatively good sound, the video shows the entire August 2008 robbery of Central Food Mart, and the shootings of three men. Even in an era when video has become ubiquitous, prosecutors say this stands out as perhaps the clearest and most complete recording ever of a local murder — and...

A Florida court has agreed to pay $150 a day for a makeup artist to cover up a defendant's offensive tattoos throughout his trial, MyFoxTampaBay.com reported. John Ditullio, 23, faces first degree murder and attempted murder charges. His trial begins on Monday. Ditullio obtained several new tattoos since his arrest in 2006. "They're covering up tattoos on both sides of the neck. They're covering up a barbed wire tattoo across the face," said Bjorn Brunvand, Ditullio's defense attorney, according to MyFoxTampaBay.com. Ditullio has a barbed wire tattoo on his head and an offensive expletive and Neo-Nazi symbol on his neck....

Posted: 5:54 pm EST November 11, 2009 Updated: 6:53 pm EST November 11, 2009 BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- Fishermen say an effort to protect the red snapper could kill Brevard County's fishing industry. They're gathered in Cape Canaveral to fight a ban on "bottom fishing."