Free Republic

ORANGE PARK, Fla. — Investigators have finished interviewing all the registered sex offenders who live near where a slain Florida girl first vanished but don't believe there is a suspect in that group, authorities said Friday. ...

Oct. 25, 2009— The man who made $7 billion in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, Jeffry Picower, was found dead in his Palm Beach, Fla., swimming pool Sunday. The Palm Beach Fire Department told ABC News that Picower had no pulse when fire rescue workers arrived at his oceanfront mansion after his wife called 911. She and his housekeeper pulled his body from the pool shortly after noon. No one benefited more from the Madoff scheme that Picower, according to bankruptcy lawyers who sued him and alleged he had taken out $7 billion more than he had put in. Click...

Republican activist Ed Napolitano has apologized to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, and resigned from all his Republican Party positions, over the actions of a Wasserman Schultz political opponent at an event sponsored by the club Napolitano used to lead. Napolitano’s resignation and apology were prompted by what happened at the Southeast Republican Club on Oct. 6. Instead of the usual community center meeting room, the Napolitano-led club met at a gun range. Among the approximately 40 people at the event was Robert Lowry, a Republican seeking his party’s nomination to run against Wasserman Schultz next year. Lowry shot...

Marco Rubio capitalizes on a photo of Charlie Crist hugging Barack Obama. BY CARLOS MILLER Marco Rubio has less political experience than Charlie Crist. And he hasn’t raised nearly as much money in his run against the governor for U.S. Senate. And he still lags behind the governor in polls leading up the November race. But he hasn’t hugged Barack Obama. And that just may be his ace in the hole. The former republican House Speaker has seized on a February photo that shows Crist hugging Obama as to why he is the better candidate. And it appears to be...

Authorities say he was found at the bottom of his Palm Beach home's pool Sunday afternoon by his wife and could not be revived...

Ghost hunters say Deering Estate is ground zero for lost spirits A Coconut Grove paranormal team says it has found evidence of ghosts at the Deering Estate. Neither the hot film Paranormal Activity nor TV's popular Ghost Hunters can compete with Miami-Dade's historic Deering Estate at Cutler. Ghost trackers investigating paranormal activity on the site say they recently found more than 60 disembodied voices coming from the county-owned estate -- once the home of wealthy industrialist Charles Deering, of International Harvester fame. One voice captured on a digital recorder seems to say, ``We're trapped here.'' Don't believe it? The Deering...

The Tea Party Express II launches at 11:00 am today from San Diego's Tuna Harbor Park, just across from the USS Midway!! Woo hoo!! We'll be there!! The coast to coast Tea Party Express schedule includes San Diego and Los Angeles today, Bakersfield and Fresno tomorrow, and then it's on to Nevada and beyond to Florida!! Conservative groups have joined forces to make this massive national effort possible. Besides the lead sponsor, the Our Country Deserves Better Committee, the Tea Party Express II enjoys support from Grassfire.org, ResistNet, Free Republic, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, National Tax Limitation Committee, Americans for...

The GOP needs to shed its image as the "old white guy party," Jeb Bush said this week. Speaking at George Washington University, Bush said Republicans need to reach out to a more diverse group of voters. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that in order for a political party to be successful it has to reach out to everyone," Bush said, according to the GW Hatchet. "In politics, you never win when you say 'us and them.' We need a more welcoming message."

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Bryce Williams wasn't expecting to walk through a metal detector or have his bags screened for explosives at the Greyhound bus terminal near downtown Orlando. But Williams and 689 other passengers went through tougher-than-normal security procedures Thursday as part of a random check coordinated by the U.S. The idea is to keep off guard terrorists and others who mean harm, thereby improving safety for passengers and workers. There was no specific threat to the bus station on John Young Parkway south of Colonial Drive. Although the TSA is best known for its agents at airports, the agency's Visible Intermodal Prevention...

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a big number that only tells part of the story. The number of banks that have failed so far this year topped 100 on Friday — hitting 106 by the end of the day — the most in nearly two decades. But the trouble in the banking system from bad loans and the recession goes even deeper. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other banks remain open even though they are as weak as many that have been shuttered. Regulators are seizing banks slowly and selectively — partly to avoid inciting panic and partly because buyers for bad...

The Florida solar panel plant cost $150 million to build. A field of orange trees makes more sense. The state of Florida is completing the final touches on a solar panel plant that cost $150 million to build and will only power 3,000 homes. Barack Obama will visit this solar-paneled cash dump next week. The AP reported: The Desoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center will power a small fraction of Florida Power & Light’s 4-million plus customer base; nevertheless, at 25 megawatts, it will generate nearly twice as much energy as the second-largest photovoltaic facility in the U.S. The White...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2009 – The Army Reserve’s top enlisted soldier retires this month from an Army that’s vastly different from the one he was drafted into almost 40 years ago. Then-Army Staff Sgt. Leon E. Caffie points to a hit during Army Reserve training in Florida in the 1970s. Caffie is finishing his military career at the top enlisted soldier in the Army Reserve. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "The Army Reserve has finally arrived," Command Sgt. Maj. Leon E. Caffie said. The Army has learned hard lessons, he added, and the Army Reserve now is...

Pinellas Park, Florida-- A six year old girl sent to live with her grandparents as a baby is now being evicted from her home, for being too young. The grandparents, Jimmy and Judie Stottler, live in a Pinellas Park retirement community that doesn't allow children. The Home Owners Association now wants the child removed. "For some reason, there's a few, just a few who don't want Kimberly. And I just don't get it," said Judie Stottler. The granddaughter was taken from her home at just six months old after the state discovered her mother was abusing drugs. She's lived with...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The group most threatened by swine flu and most in need of the new vaccine, world health authorities say, is that of pregnant women. For example, Aubrey Opdyke. On June 27, Opdyke, a 27-year-old waitress and former high school swimmer who weighed 135 pounds before her pregnancy and had no health risks other than a smoking habit, came down with mild flu symptoms. She just came home from the hospital three weeks ago.

Fred, Yesterday, we received a double dose of encouraging news in our effort to elect Marco Rubio to the U.S. Senate. Early in the morning, we learned about a new Quinnipiac poll showing Marco has cut Charlie Crist's Senate primary lead in half.  What was once a 55-26 margin is now down to 50-35. Late yesterday, a second poll was released by Rasmussen Reports.  While it showed a similar margin (49-35) in the Republican primary, it also showed Marco leading Democrat frontrunner Kendrick Meek by 15 points, 46-31. Thanks to supporters like you, we are making progress – not...

"We'll get you," Diena Thompson said today on "Good Morning America." "And, hopefully, justice will be served."

Based on legislation and case law, the U.S. government's attitude toward increased rights for gun owners has been more favorable in recent years than ever before. In the 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for private use. It was the first Supreme Court case in U.S. history to directly address whether the right to keep and bear arms is a right of individuals in addition to a collective right that applies to state-regulated militias. As a result, additional pleas...

TITUSVILLE -- A mother is facing attempted murder charges after police said she admitted to watching her toddler smother her infant. Christina McIntyre, 23, told authorities that on Oct. 6, she watched her 2-year-old put several blankets and a bean bag chair on the 11-month-old. When the infant stop breathing, McIntyre said she did nothing. She said at the time she thought life would be easier if the baby boy was dead. In a Probable Cause affidavit, McIntyre told police she wanted to go back to work and couldn't afford to put both children in day care. The affidavit shows...

DESTIN — News that a federal agency had slammed the door on this year’s amberjack season without notice didn’t sit well Tuesday with charter fishermen. They believe Big Brother is out to take their livelihood from them. “They’re killing us,” said boat captain Thomas Swanson. “They’re flat killing us.” Read the press release from the NOAA Fisheries Service » A morning announcement that no greater amberjack could be caught after midnight Friday swept across the docks at Destin Harbor. It didn’t take long for an angry group of fishermen to gather to vent. It also didn’t take long for the...

Death of Fla. Girl Found In Landfill A Homicide By BRENT KALLESTAD ORANGE PARK, Fla. – A body found under trash in a landfill is that of 7-year-old Somer Thompson, a north Florida girl who vanished on her walk home from school, authorities said Thursday. Clay County Sheriff's spokeswoman Mary Justino also said the girl's death was a homicide, though she did not elaborate. Justino confirmed the identification hours after Sheriff Rick Breseler said clothing and a birthmark led authorities to believe they had found the missing girl. An autopsy was being performed Thursday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation...

Was our oldest ancestor a proton-powered rock? --snip-- The picture painted by Russell and Martin is striking indeed. The last common ancestor of all life was not a free-living cell at all, but a porous rock riddled with bubbly iron-sulphur membranes that catalysed primordial biochemical reactions...

Both men seeking the Republican nomination to become Florida’s next U.S. senator lead their likely Democratic opponent by double digits. A new Rasmussen Reports survey of Florida voters shows Governor Charlie Crist leading Representative Kendrick Meek by a 46% to 34% margin. In August, Crist led by 19 and in June he was ahead by 21. Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio leads Meek by a similar margin, 46% to 31%. In August, Rubio led by 13 percentage points. Crist currently holds a 49% to 35% lead over Rubio among likely Republican Primary voters.

MARATHON, Fla. -- An 11-year-old boy has been turned over to the Department of Juvenile Justice after authorities charged him with stabbing two 9-year-olds with a hypodermic needle and threatening a third one. The suspect, who was not named by Monroe County Sheriff's officials because he is a minor, was standing in a cafeteria line in school last Thursday. Monroe County Sheriff's deputies said the suspect stabbed two kids in the buttocks with a hypodermic needle. He then chased a third boy, who ran away and hid. The two victims told a teacher, who found the needle hidden in the...

Patricia Sullivan (R), who is challenging Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) in next year's midterm elections, will file a House ethics complaint against the congressman regarding his controversial new website. In a release issued Thursday, Sullivan, who is a 'tea party" activist, said that the website, titled namesofthedead.com, violates a number of House ethics rules, including using personal funds to subsidize official House business and using a floor speech to direct attention to a campaign entity. "As a mom, Patricia has learned to apply swift correction to bad behavior. She will be filing a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics...

Child’s Body Found In Search For Missing Girl Somer Thompson disappeared on way home from school on Monday TODAY staff and wire Authorities say they have not identified a child's body they found Wednesday in a landfill while searching for a missing 7-year-old girl. Family members were hopeful the girl is still alive, though neighbors in the girl's community feared the worst. The partially covered body of the child was found in a Georgia landfill near the Florida state line, after investigators followed garbage trucks leaving from the neighborhood where Somer Thompson disappeared Monday. Sheriff Rick Beseler said investigators searched...

BARTOW, Fla. -- A Central Florida teacher has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with four teenage boys.A Polk County jury in August had found 33-year-old Danielle Jones guilty of five counts of lewd battery and three counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. She was sentenced Tuesday.Prosecutors said the boys were 14 to 16 years old when they had sex with the middle school science teacher. Two of them were her former students.

Here’s a prime reason why Gov. Charlie Crist’s outgoing chief of staff, Eric Eikenberg, is already moving over to manage his Senate campaign – with nearly a year before the primary: Marco Rubio is rapidly catching up with the governor among Republican primary voters. A new Quinnipiac poll shows Rubio making significant gains in the Republican primary, and now only trails Crist 50 to 35 percent despite being less-known than the governor. That’s down from a 24-point Crist lead in August. Among Republicans, Rubio holds an outstanding net favorability rating, with 44 percent of Floridians approving of him with just...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) just took to the House floor to announce his new website, "Names of the Dead". According to the website: Every year, more than 44,000 Americans die simply because have no health insurance. I have created this project in their memory. I hope that honoring them will help us end this senseless loss of American lives. If you have lost a loved one, please share the story of that loved one with us. Help us ensure that their legacy is a more just America, where every life that can be saved will be saved. I'm told this...

Video available at the link. This guy is truly deranged. Of course there will be no feigned indignation from the MSM or the Rat leaders over his ugly demagoguery and post-Rep. Joe Wilson calls for increased civility by the DemoCrites are also null and void. We need an all out effort to send this neanderthal packing. He should be doing Geico commercials, not representing 600,000 Floridians in Congress.

TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) ― Governor Crist may be in for more of a battle in the Republican primary for the soon-to-be vacant Senate seat than he initially thought. According to a new poll from Quinnipiac University, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio has cut Governor Crist's in half. Crist had a lead of 29 points in the Quinnipiac poll for Florida voters in mid-August. In the latest poll, conducted October 12-18, Crist's lead over Rubio had been cut to 15 points. Rubio has hammered Crist over the Governor's support of President Barack Obama's stimulus plan earlier in 2009. Both Crist and...

Sgt. Leonard B. Keller pulled out of the parking lot of a veterans’ association on Sunday in Milton (Fla.), taking a sharp left turn to hit the highway on his Harley. Something went wrong, and the motorcycle overturned. When Sgt. Keller, 62, died later that day, Florida’s loss spoke to the heart of a nation. Keller belonged to one of the most exclusive and distinguished groups in our country—he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Known colloquially as the Congressional Medal of Honor, the award is the highest military award for valor in combat. Sgt. Keller’s citation gives an idea...

Democrat tricks would be comical, if they weren’t so blatantly farcical.At this time in our nation’s history, we need people with ingenuity. So when a congresswoman with little name recognition decides to run for US Senate while simultaneously running for reelection to her House seat, that kind of creative thinking is worth noticing. Sure she dropped out after amassing hundreds of thousands in campaign funds, but you’ve just got to applaud that outside of the box thinking, the kind of thinking that makes sane people pause the nation over. Still, one cannot help but wonder why Corrine Brown has stopped...

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., will stop at Phoebe's Restaurant, Canton, on Saturday in support of Dede Scozzafava, the Republican and Independence parties candidate for the 23rd Congressional District.

Florida officials expanded their search for a 7-year-old girl who vanished while walking home from school Monday afternoon. Somer Thompson was released from Grove Park Elementary School in Grove Park, in northern Florida at 2:50 p.m. She was with her twin brother, her 10-year-old sister and friends when she reportedly ran ahead of them after getting into a fight. Her brother and sister said she was not at home when they arrived at 3:05 p.m. Somer's mother's boyfriend searched up and down the block for her when she didn't come home; her mother called home at 4 p.m. to check...

Florida Authorities Search for Girl, 7, Who Vanished After School [Pic in URL] Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Florida officials have expanded their search for a missing 7-year-old girl who vanished while walking home from school Monday afternoon. Somer Thompson was last seen about 2:45 p.m. while walking home from Grove Park Elementary school in Grove Park, northern Florida. She was with her twin brother, 10-year-old sister and friends and reportedly ran ahead of them after getting into a fight. When her brother and sister returned home, they said she was not there. When Somer did not return home, her mother...

ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A proposed state guideline for dealing with an influenza pandemic is causing quite a stir. The Florida Department of Health is proposing that health care providers, notably hospitals, pull the plug on the most critically-ill patients in order to treat "healthier" patients.

Florida health officials are drawing up guidelines that recommend barring patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple sclerosis and other conditions from being admitted to hospitals if the state is overwhelmed by flu cases.

Have you popped the bubbly to welcome some of the newest Floridians to our shores? Folks like Tom Golisano, the billionaire owner of the Buffalo Sabres. And ex-Californian Jeff Greene, who became a billionaire by shorting the subprime housing market. Florida, hammered by the recession, also saw its overall population shrink for the first time since World War II. But there's at least one subset still eyeing a move to Florida, arguably more so than in years past: the megarich. The uberwealthy have long been drawn to income-tax-free havens like Florida. As some states, New York in particular, sock it...

Last Tuesday there was yet another hearing for Rifqa Bary, the girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled to Florida from her family in Ohio after saying that her father threatened her life. It was agreed that Ohio has jurisdiction in her case. That means Rifqa is ultimately to be returned to Ohio, but not so fast: the Florida court maintains emergency jurisdiction. And Florida Judge Daniel Dawson is firm: Rifqa will not be returned to Ohio until the family’s immigration status is cleared up. That could take awhile. On Wednesday at my Web site AtlasShrugs.com, I broke...

While his party leaders have lined up behind Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida’s Republican Senate primary next year, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) announced Monday that he was endorsing former state Speaker Marco Rubio. “I enthusiastically support Marco Rubio in his campaign for U.S. Senate,” Inhofe said in a statement released Monday afternoon. “Marco is exactly the type of conservative leader Americans need in Washington today fighting for the principles of limited government, individual liberty and personal responsibility.” In his endorsement, Inhofe also appeared to take an indirect shot at the more moderate Crist for backing President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus...

Almost from the moment he announced his bid for Florida’s open Senate seat, GOP Gov. Charlie Crist has been the odds-on favorite to win. He has more than $6 million in his campaign bank account, has the support of the national Republican establishment and leads all challengers in the polls. Nevertheless, a question that once would have been unthinkable is starting to make the rounds — could Charlie Crist lose in the Republican primary? While Crist still has a comfortable lead against his GOP opponent, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, there’s mounting evidence that the contest won’t be the...

Marco Rubio's campaign for U.S. Senate, already picking up speed with fundraising, now has another endorsement to tout. The Buzz is U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Olahoma, will endorse the former Republican House speaker today. Rubio was previously endorsed by South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint.

I heard a Charlie Crist ad on Rush today where he claims to be a fiscal conservative. LOL! He even takes a swipe at Obama. I guess he must be worried about Rubio.

Charlie Crist has begun airing the first radio ads of the U.S. Senate race – blasting President Obama for his freespending of taxpayer money, some of which the governor earlier endorsed. A pair of 60-second spots have begun airing statewide – one sending a “message” to Obama that “enough is enough.” The other claims “Washington is out of control. “Yet the president has the same tired answer for every problem – to spend more of your money,” the spot begins. Crist’s approach to Obama and federal spending is a departure from just months ago. Shortly after joining Obama in Fort...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants these groups to have top priority, as they are at highest risk of spreading or catching the flu: Health care workers; healthy children and young adults age 2 to 24; and healthy adults up to age 49 who are caring for children younger than 6 months.

comprehensive review of the uncounted Florida ballots from last year's presidential election reveals that George W. Bush would have won even if the United States Supreme Court had allowed the statewide manual recount of the votes that the Florida Supreme Court had ordered to go forward. Contrary to what many partisans of former Vice President Al Gore have charged, the United States Supreme Court did not award an election to Mr. Bush that otherwise would have been won by Mr. Gore. A close examination of the ballots found that Mr. Bush would have retained a slender margin over Mr. ...

ST. PETERSBURG — More than 100 protesters marched outside the entrance to the main office of the St. Petersburg Times Saturday morning, accusing the newspaper and the media in general of biased reporting on conservative positions on issues such as health care reform and government spending. Protesters carried signs that read "State Run Media," or "Take the Left From Your Slant" and "Journalism Malpractice — Just Report the Facts." Protesters generally complained about media bias on national issues, accusing the "liberal media" of supporting the Obama administration on a variety of issues and then inaccurately portraying the political right as...

After being knocked halfway to kingdom come, Tim Tebow knew that millions of college football fans would be paying close attention to his eyes the next time he led the Florida Gators into action. Viewers would be looking for signs that the quarterback was OK after a nasty concussion. Many would also want to see which Bible reference would be written in the patches of eye black that would be visible whenever television cameras focused on the face of America's most famous muscular Christian. Tebow was wearing Isaiah 40:31 when he got hurt against Kentucky: "But they that wait upon...

Eight months after he got hit by Channel 7 anchorman Rick Sanchez's Volvo, Jeffrey Smuzinick is doing poorly. His family is just plain doing poor. ...Minutes after midnight on the morning of December 10, 1990, an intoxicated Smuzinick darted out in front of a Volvo on a residential street near Joe Robbie Stadium. The driver of the car, WSVN-TV Channel 7 anchorman Rick Sanchez, became the subject of a subsequent January 16 New Times story that described the odd circumstances of the accident. Sanchez, whom a Metro-Dade police officer said "smelled strongly of alcohol," first stopped his car but then...