Free Republic

Surveillance video from a Miami Gardens, Florida, home shows a home invasion suspect quickly changing his mind upon coming face-to-face on March 4 with a mother holding a shotgun.

Supporters of President Donald Trump outside Mar-a-Lago had a busy day that culminated with a surprise invitation inside the exclusive resort. They followed the president's movements, waving him and Vice President Mike Pence down as they traveled to and from different spots around Palm Beach. When the president drove by on his way back from his golf course, it looked like business as usual. "We waved to him," Valeria Bianco said. "The cars went by really fast, and we were just sitting down talking about the events of the day." But what happened next came as a total surprise. Bianco...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida is among one of the nation’s top states in recovering money from health care providers suspected of Medicaid fraud. Data released earlier this month by the federal government shows that Florida’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit recovered more than $165 million during the 2016 federal fiscal year.

The First Family touched down in West Palm Beach on Friday afternoon for their fifth visit to President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort - this time joined by Melania's mom and dad. Viktor and Amalija Knavs, who now both live in the US but return to their home country of Slovenia every year, were seen departing Air Force One in smart black suits and sunglasses. They joined Donald Trump, Melania and their grandson Barron - who had made his first trip across the White House lawn earlier that day - before they they were whisked to Trump's luxury club - the so-called...

Darren Rainey spent two hours locked in a shower inmates at the Dade Correctional Institute said prison guards left set to scalding hot before dying of the injuries caused by the water. Rainey's skin was peeling off when he was removed from the shower. Inmates say he was screaming to be let out before he died, and that guards regularly used extremely hot and cold showers to punish mentally ill patients. Nearly five years later, in a report released Friday, the state's attorney has ruled that there was no criminal conduct by the guards. In her ruling, Katherine Fernandez Rundle...

One man is dead and a sheriff’s deputy is injured after a standoff that all started with an argument about doughnuts, police said. Pinellas County deputies were called to a home in St. Petersburg on Wednesday after an argument broke out between a Jeffrey Falsey, 24, and his mother, police said. “He went off today over doughnuts, something as silly and stupid as doughnuts,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said, the Tampa Bay Times reported. During a standoff, Falsey fired off at least 30 rounds at deputies, squad cars and neighboring homes, hitting a deputy in the leg, FOX13 reported....

ORLANDO, Fla. - Gov. Rick Scott has reassigned the Markeith Loyd case after State Attorney Aramis Ayala announced Thursday morning that she will not be seeking the death penalty. Scott originally called for Ayala to recuse herself from the case. When she refused, Scott removed her from the case and assigned it to Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Brad King in an executive order issued Thursday afternoon. /snip/ Loyd is accused of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old Sade Dixon, in Pine Hills on Dec. 13 and Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton at an Orlando Walmart on Jan. 9. He was arrested on Jan. 17,...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today Governor Rick Scott released the following statement on State Attorney Aramis Ayala’s decision not to seek the death penalty for Markeith Loyd, who is charged with killing Lt. Debra Clayton of the Orlando Police Department. Governor Scott said, “I want to be very clear, Lt. Debra Clayton was executed while she was laying on the ground fighting for her life. She was killed by an evil murderer who did not think twice about senselessly ending her life. I completely disagree with State Attorney Ayala’s decision and comments and I am asking her to recuse herself immediately...

When Republican congressman and Army veteran Brian Mast saw that a Florida VA hospital didn't have photographs of President Trump and Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin hanging in the lobby, he took action. Mast and a group of local veterans brought portraits of Trump and Shulkin to the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center and demanded they be installed, and the whole thing was caught on camera. They were successful, but within hours management at the hospital took down the pictures. Their reason? They could not authenticate the photos and they have to follow protocol. A VA spokeswoman said...

Had it not been for a scheduling conflict for her normal baby sitter, 2-year-old Aaliyah Lewis might have spent the day with her grandfather. Had she not been potty-trained with repeated lashings from a belt and hanger, the toddler might not have required a trip to the hospital. And had her mother sought help right away when she saw her daughter’s injuries, the young girl might have survived. Instead, Aaliyah was baby-sat April 21, 2016, by her mother’s boyfriend, Jamarius Devonti Graham. Graham acknowledged physically punishing the toddler — spanking her 20 times with a belt and striking her with...

The case dates to January 2014 when Reeves, then 71, confronted a man in a suburban Tampa movie theater about texting during the previews before a showing of "Lone Survivor." The two argued, and then Reeves walked out of the theater to complain to an employee. When Reeves returned, he and the man, Chad Oulson, began arguing again. Oulson threw a bag of popcorn at Reeves, according to a criminal complaint, and Reeves then took out his handgun and fired at Oulson, killing him. Defense attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the murder charge under the "stand your ground" law...

Miami Beach Police are taking a stand against thousands of rowdy college students who flock to South Beach for Spring Break and trash the sandy shores with litter from their epic partying. Across the country, city officials of coastal destinations are bracing for a storm of twenty-somethings to descend upon their beaches for weeks of drinking, dancing and mischief.

AT&T wireless customers throughout large parts of the country and in the state of Florida are unable to call 911 due to a technical problem. The cause of the problem is unknown but officials both locally and throughout the southeast are working to fix the issue with AT&T, which is one of the largest wireless carriers in the nation. Currently, AT&T says the problem is affecting customers in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee, according to the Orange County officials. Each county has set up backup phone numbers so residents can reach first responders. In Orange County, residents needing...

BROOKSVILLE (FOX 13) - Some neighbors in Hernando County have had it with the noise. They say all-night construction on I-75 is keeping them awake, even shaking their homes. It's all related to a 6.5-mile, $95 million FDOT project that started last summer. Crews are currently widening Interstate 75 from four to six lanes, starting south of State Road 50 and finishing at the Hernando/Sumter County line. Lauretta Clemons, who lives on Shadywood Lane in Brooksville, remembers her backyard 30 years ago. "Beautiful," Clemons said. "Trees, ferns, flowers, birds and wild animals." Now, the trees are gone and she and...

It’s no secret that tickets bought by SunRail passengers pay only a tiny fraction of the commuter train’s bills, but less known is that ticket revenue doesn’t even cover the cost of selling tickets. SunRail’s finances would be slightly stronger if riding was free. Put another way, the revenue of $1 to $7.50 per ticket is devoured by ticket machines, employees who support ticket sales and armored cars that collect fares, and does nothing to keep the train running. “If we have to pay more money to collect revenue than we are actually collecting, why does it make sense to...

Christopher Serino, the former Sanford police detective who played a prominent role in the Trayvon Martin case, died suddenly, January 13, 2017. He was 48. I've been unable to find a news story about his death. A relative who started a fundraising page in his honor says only that his death was unexpected. https://www.gofundme.com/chris-serino-memorialhttp://www.tributes.com/obituary/show/Christopher-Francis-Serino-104368081 I just came across this news today, when I happened to think of the Trayvon Martin case and suddenly wondered what had become of some of the people involved in it since a number of years have gone by now. I looked up Serino and was...

Days after he called on Congress to pass a school choice bill, President Donald Trump is set to visit a Catholic school in Orlando Friday, along with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, where hundreds of students attend the school using a voucher from the state's tax credit scholarship program. During his stop at St. Andrew Catholic School, Trump is expected to once again tout the Sunshine State's program, as he did in his recent address to Congress. Under Florida's plan, the state uses public dollars to pay for private K-12 school tuition for low-income students and students with disabilities. The...

MIAMI (CBSMiami) — A Miami-Dade judge ruled Friday that county holds of arrested immigrants for ICE is unconstitutional but the debate is not over. “Yeah, this is a great win. It’s a great win for the Constitution. It’s a great win for individual rights and it’s a judge who’s courageous enough not to be intimidated by the president of the United States,” said attorney Louis Reizenstein. In his order, the judge said the ICE holds on county inmates violate “the separation of powers between the state and federal governments…(and) the Constitution of the United States….The Federal government is without power...

An Orlando judge has overruled the arranged release of Noor Salman, the wife of the Islamic gunman who killed 49 and injured 69 at the Pulse nightclub last year.  On Wednesday, a district judge in California ordered that Salman be released pending trial.  Judge Donna Ryu argued that Salman wasn't a flight risk or a danger to public safety and had no connections to ISIS.Prosecutors in Orlando argued the contrary.  In the court filing, they said Salman has shown little remorse for her husband's actions, calling her a “cold person” who wasn't worried about the victims in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but was mainly concerned with “how...

PDF of the FL Supreme Court https://efactssc-public.flcourts.org/casedocuments/2015/650/2015-650_disposition_138062.pdf