Free Republic

It’s been just over a year since the world was introduced to Rachel Jeantel, the friend of Trayvon Martin’s who testified on behalf of the prosecution in the George Zimmerman murder trial, but may have ended up doing more harm than good. CNN caught up with Jeantel this week, asking her if she blamed herself when Zimmerman went free. “A little bit,” she replied. Asked if she should have said something different or acted differently on the stand, she answered, “Act different.” Jeantel said the jurors in the case didn’t take her seriously as a witness, judging her for...

A 17-year-old boy has been sentenced to 23 years behind bars for fatally shooting a retired police dog during a burglary. Ivins Rosier was convicted in May for breaking into the Florida home of a trooper and shooting the officer's five-year-old German Shepherd two years ago. Drake, a former drug-sniffing dog, was euthanized five days later. Rosier, who was 16 at the time of the incident but tried as an adult, was sentenced on Friday on charges of animal cruelty, armed burglary and shooting into an occupied building.Palm Beach Post reported Circuit Judge Robin Rosenberg said she handed Rosier a...

Last night a circuit court judge in Florida voided the state's congressional map, citing a "secret, organized campaign" by Republican operatives that "made a mockery of the Legislature's transparent and open process of redistricting." The ruling concluded that District 5, held by Democrat Corrine Brown, and District 10, held by Republican Dan Webster, will need to be redrawn. From a purely practical standpoint, this means redrawing any surrounding districts as well, and possibly many of the state's 27 districts overall. "If one or more districts do not meet constitutional muster, then the entire act is unconstitutional," Judge Terry Lewis wrote....

Miami, Florida, residents are being told to buy an attack dog and "some firearms" in light of pending budget cuts slated to reduce the police force by "250 police officers." The cuts are part of a budget proposed by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. According to 7 News WSVN, the budget cuts will eliminate "close to 650 county jobs to fill a $64 million hole in the general fund." While Mayor Gimenez says he wants "the same number of patrol officers on the street... [as] today" once the new budget goes into effect, he also admits it could eliminate the jobs...

An Arab-American visiting the disputed (West Bank) territories is brutalized by the police–yet the Obama administration, the United Nations, and the international community are all silent. Say what? No, we’re not talking about Tariq Abu Khdeir, the 15-year-old from Florida who threw firebombs at Israeli policemen last week and received, in return, a black eye and a fat lip. Tariq’s injuries have of course received enormous international attention, including a huge photo on the front page of The New York Times (top of the fold). The Obama administration has announced that it is “profoundly troubled” that Tariq was roughed up,...

FULL TITLE: The moment two brazen women were caught red-handed trying to steal a beach canopy - then ATTACKED the bemused owner as he politely asked them to stop Two women casually, though clumsily, trying to steal another beachgoer's canopy on a Florida beach were caught red-handed on July 4 by the owner. The bumbling thieves may find it difficult to commit any more thefts since video the canopy's owner took of the bizarre confrontation has gone viral. As Americans celebrated their freedom on the holiday, the two middle-aged women, dressed in swimwear, took their liberty a little too far...

An ongoing lawsuit has pried loose new records linked to a family of Sarasota Saudis who left home in a hurry just before 9/11. It was Halloween night, 2001. The horrors of 9/11 were still fresh on the the minds of Americans. At a time when everyone was on edge, the sight of a man disposing documents in a dumpster behind a Bradenton storage facility aroused suspicion. Summoned to the scene, Manatee County sheriff’s deputies confronted the man, who had a Tunisian passport. According to FBI records, authorities searched the dumpster and found “a self-printed manual on terrorism and Jihad,...

New research takes a look at decades of corruption convictions to find the crookedest states in the union. When we think of government corruption (as one tends to do), our biased minds often gravitate to thoughts of military juntas and third world governments. But, of course, corruption is everywhere, in one form or another. And it’s costing U.S. citizens big time. A new study from researchers at the University of Hong Kong and Indiana University estimates that corruption on the state level is costing Americans in the 10 most corrupt states an average of $1,308 per year, or 5.2% of...

Crist's name was going to appear on Josh Wise's No. 98 car, but the decals were removed Friday because of a complaint by the Republican Party of Florida alleging that the sponsorship violated campaign finance laws.Decals bearing the name of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist have been removed from a car competing in the Coke Zero 400 after Florida Republican officials complained. Crist's name was going to appear on Josh Wise's No. 98 car, but the decals were removed Friday because of a complaint by the Republican Party of Florida alleging that the sponsorship violated campaign finance laws, according to...

Here's a safe prediction: Florida's same-sex marriage ban is going down. The end could come soon if a Miami-Dade County judge sides with six couples who claim that the ban is unconstitutional. On Wednesday their attorney asked Judge Sarah Zabel to award the plaintiffs summary judgment, meaning they would win without a trial because the facts are clear. Zabel will rule in a few weeks. Based on what has happened in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, however, the six couples should be optimistic. Nearly two dozen consecutive judicial rulings have gone...

When Charlie Crist went to Miami's Little Havana recently, the Democratic candidate for governor of Florida stood before a crowd and said what few politicians have in decades of scrounging for votes in the Cuban-American neighborhood: End the trade embargo against Cuba. "If you really care about people on the island, we need to get rid of the embargo and let freedom reign," he said, shouting above a small band of protesters who responded with chants of "Shame on you!" Crist's supporters cheered louder. It was a scene inconceivable just a few years ago, when politicians were careful about what...

After you've been accused of stealing a $1,300 laptop from Best Buy, why not steal a cop car too? Police in Boynton Beach said Candice Kelly, 33, did just that. While being questioned for shoplifting, a handcuffed Kelly managed to get behind the wheel of a police cruiser and take off. Two officers followed her in a second cruiser, and their chase ended with a fender bender between the two cop cars.

The orphaned Florida teen whose impassioned plea for a family to 'love him forever' prompted an outpouring of sympathy from around the country has been removed from his foster home following a physical altercation with another child and the father. After 16 years of floundering in foster care, after taking the pulpit at a St. Petersburg church last September asking someone - anyone - to adopt him, after his story was shared around the world and 10,000 people offered to help or take him home, Davion Only moved to Ohio in March to live with the parents who had promised...

Florida Gators fans who own the football team’s 2014 wall calendar received a surprise Tuesday when they turned the page from June to July. That’s because Aaron Hernandez is Mr. July. So how does an alleged murderer end up gracing the month of July in a football calendar? First of all, the Gators say they weren’t in charge of the calendar’s distribution, as it’s a licensed product from Turner Licensing. They also say the approval process for the calendar was during the spring of 2013 — a few months prior to Hernandez’s June arrest for the alleged murder of Odin...

In an earlier political life, then Republican Charlie Crist made a fuss about being a conservative when that was the label necessary to win Florida primaries and general elections. The most recent example of this being his failed attempt to out-conservative Marco Rubio for a U.S. Senate nomination in 2010. When elections were not imminent, Crist mostly favored the label of “populist.” He even made up and encouraged the saccharin sobriquet of “the people’s governor” when he, to the surprise of many, held that office for four years. Now that he’s an Obama Democrat and all-progressive all the time, we...

Florida sheriff defends acquisition of surplus MRAP Published June 30, 2014 Associated Press DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla. – A decision by one Panhandle sheriff's office to purchase a military surplus MRAP is being criticized by some residents. The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that the Walton County Sheriff's office bought the mine-resistant and ambush-resistant MRAP for just the $2,500 cost of delivery. Sheriff Mike Adkinson says the heavy-duty vehicle will protect his officers in dangerous situations. But some residents told the newspaper that the military vehicle is an unnecessary show of force in their largely rural county.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. —First lady Michelle Obama addressed the American School Counselor Association at the Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotel on Tuesday morning. "Thank you for your passion and your dedication. Thank you for refusing to give up," Obama said. Obama talked about the role school counselors play in getting students and parents the resources they need to pursue higher education. "The national average is one school counselor for every 471 students, and that's outrageous," Obama said. "They can and should use their budget to create progressive budgets for school counselors." Obama said school counselors are the key...

Racist attack on GOP House challenger Glo Smith follows recent pattern of hate toward black Republicans.A Florida Republican congressional candidate’s campaign sign was vandalized with whiteface paint last week in a district with overwhelmingly Democratic voter registration. The attack follows a string of bias incidents against black Republicans. Glo Smith, who reports that she has also had a number of signs stolen, tells National Review Online she became aware of the racist defacement of an eight-foot-by-four-foot sign Tuesday. The sign was situated on private property in view of Interstate 10 in Jacksonville. The vandal sprayed white paint over the face...

She was Miss Florida for just six days. After organizers realized there had been a vote count error with last Saturday’s pageant, Elizabeth Fechtel, a 20-year-old student at the University of Florida, was dethroned on Friday. The ballot counter at the event, which was held in front of 2,000 spectators in St. Petersburg, didn't see that one of the five judges had changed his mind, writing a new line up on the left-hand side of his ballot.