Free Republic

Tony Wells Jr., 32, said the alligator had already been in his house when he moved in, Indian River County Sheriff's Office said.A Florida man was arrested after he illegally kept an alligator in his outdoor hot tub and fed it chicken for over a year, authorities said. Tony Wells Jr., 32, said the alligator had already been in his Vero Beach house when he moved in, the Indian River County Sheriff's Office said. After moving into the home, Wells said he “was just feeding the alligator,” his arrest report said. When deputies asked what he was feeding the alligator,...

Nothing says “patriot” like waving around the Battle Flag of the Confederacy in front of the White House.I’m still trying to wrap my head around this scene: Yesterday, in Washington, a group of angry white people—it was billed as the “Million Vet March” but numbered in the hundreds, maybe the thousands, and who knows how many were actual veterans—led by Tea Party-aligned Texas senator Ted Cruz and former half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin, marched on the Lincoln and World War II memorials, tearing down the barricades and demanding that President Obama reopen these sites, which, of course, are closed because...

Kaitlyn Hunt will stay in jail until mid-December.A Florida teen accused of having sex with her underage girlfriend accepted a plea deal Thursday that her attorney says is in her best interest. Kaitlyn Hunt, 19, pleaded no contest to battery, interference with child custody and contributing to the dependency of a child. Hunt was charged in February with having sex with a 14-year-old female schoolmate. Hunt was 18 at the time. A previous plea deal was withdrawn in August following allegations that Hunt exchanged thousands of texts with the girl and sent her nude photos. A judge revoked her bond,...

Jimmie Singleton's act of chivalry aboard a Broward County Transit bus cost him three broken ribs, a busted nose and a partially collapsed lung.

These twin brothers must have gone so ape over a pair of monkeys that they're now accused of swiping them from a Nebraska home and bringing them to Florida. On Monday, a woman from Nebraska contacted her local deputies to report that two of her apes were AWOL, reports the Lee County Sheriff's Office. The woman reportedly had an inkling that two 20-year-old twin brothers -- Michael and Jacob Ruehlman -- had something to do with the pilfered primates, a pair of Gibbons monkeys. A two states law investigation traced the abducted apes, along with the twins, to Fort Myers,...

Congressman Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) — who once said in an elaborate presentation that the Republican healthcare plan is for the sick to “die quickly” — praised the creation of “stealth socialism” in America in a recent interview with David Dayen at Salon. Speaking about the Federal Reserve’s rapidly-growing balance sheet, Grayson remarked: We’ve had a government takeover of the bond market. Stealth socialism’s been created. Government simply ends up owning more and more and more. If government had taken over the steel industry, maybe it would have been more noticeable. They’ve taken over the financing of housing industry as well,...

UPDATE 1:38 PM EST, 9/14/13: In response to our inquiry, Alternet reporter Rod Bastanmehr apologized for the “potential inaccuracy” in his report which alleged that Dr. Shiping Bao claimed George Zimmerman shot Trayvon in the back. —————————————– Dr. Shiping Bao, the recently fired Florida medical examiner who performed Trayvon Martin‘s autopsy, is allegedly claiming that George Zimmerman shot Martin through the back, reports Alternet’s Rod Bastanmehr. “According to the former assistant coroner, the results of Martin’s autopsy clearly showed that, despite Zimmerman’s statements regarding their altercation, there was no feasible way for Martin to have been on top of Zimmerman...

Beware of the monkeys! Hundreds of rare wild monkeys — some carrying herpes — are on the loose in Florida after a tour guide brought the spunky critters to the state long ago. Wildlife officials said that three pairs of Rhesus monkeys were transported to a park near Ocala in the 1930s by tour operator Colonel Tooey after a “Tarzan” flick sparked a fascination with the creature. But the breed has since boomed and more than 1,000 of the monkeys now live in the state, wildlife officials say. State officials have caught more than 700 of the monkeys in the...

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A robber who was running away with his hands full of loot from a Florida church was caught when his baggy pants started slipping off, a sheriff's spokeswoman said. She said the man, Anthony Jason Garcia, 31, had been praying in the sanctuary of a large Catholic Church near Walt Disney World on Wednesday when he arose, went into the gift shop, grabbed the cash drawer and ran toward the courtyard with church maintenance director Joe Larkin in pursuit. As they ran, Garcia's baggy pants began to fall down, said Orange County Sheriff's spokeswoman Jane Watrel....

A 25-year-old woman faces child neglect charges after posting a photo on social media that showed her dangling her baby over an apartment balcony, 12 feet off the ground. Friends of Aisha Jean Clark called Tampa police on Tuesday after spotting the photo on Instagram. Police said when they arrived at her apartment on Nuccio Parkway, they asked Clark if she knew why they were there. They said she laughed and went inside the apartment to get her iPad, pulled up her Instagram account, and showed them the picture. Police then arrested Clark and she allegedly told them, “I was...

A little thin-skinned, aren't we? One thing the press can't stand is criticism. And sometimes the reaction of members of the press to criticism goes so over the top that the results are absolutely hilarious. Such was the case of Marci Shatzman, a reporter for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel Forum Publishing Group who was covering a routine meeting of the West Boca Community Council in Florida. What set Marci off to act completely unprofessional at the 43 second mark of this video was guest speaker Andre Fladell daring to criticize  members of the press for acting...unprofessional.

September 11, 2013Florida Man, 51, Arrested For Chicken Wing Assault On Wife Meet Patrick Arthur.The Florida man, 51, was arrested last night for battering his wife with a bowl of chicken wings, police report.Cops were summoned to the Myakka City home Arthur shares with his wife Darlene. The couple, who have been married three years, had been fighting, Darlene’s daughter told a 911 operator.After a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived at the Wingate Road residence, Patrick--who appeared to be enjoying a glass of wine--explained that he was “tired of the marriage and all the fighting so he tried to...

Freshmen students at the University of Rochester may have had a terrifying start to their college career, courtesy of a prankster posing as their professor. The video has quickly gone viral, approaching seven million views in just four days. The prankster -- a member of the "Chamber Boys" radio program at the university -- showed up a few minutes early with a briefcase. He erases the chalkboard, writes the name of the real professor and addresses the class. "I'm Dr. Hafensteiner and I'll be your professor for Chemistry 131," he tells the class. The fake professor -- whose real name...

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — At Florin High School, every student gets a free lunch, even if they can afford to pay for it, and CBS13 has discovered that a lot of that free food ends up in the trash. Throwing away food is just the beginning of a drain on your taxpayer dollars. Last year, 14 percent of students paid for their own meals because they didn’t qualify for free lunch. “The federal government [now] allows, if 80 percent or more of the school is eligible for free lunch, the paid students, we would feed them for free,” said Michelle Drake...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) said Monday that the administration's argument that letting Syria's use of sarin gas last month go unchecked would hurt U.S. security was "not logical" and did not "make any sense." Administration officials have argued that the U.S. should respond to the attack because the failure to do so would send a message to other regimes — and terror groups — that the use of chemical weapons was acceptable. But in an interview with CNN's "New Day," Grayson said that too few countries had chemical weapons for that to be a concern. "There's only four countries in...

Forty-one days after legendary Motown singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder vowed to boycott Florida, Miami Beach’s sultry sultry summer evenings called out to him and he couldn’t resist. Jose’ Lambeit’s Gossip Extra broke the story Tuesday that the legendary recording artist spent the weekend in South Florida’s legendary South Beach before jetting off to Los Angeles. During a Canadian performance on July 14, Wonder told the audience he would boycott Florida, saying, “for those of you who’ve lost in the battle for justice.. we can’t bring them back. What we can do is we can let our voices be heard.” He made...

A mix up over an order of iced coffee ended with a Dunkin' Donuts worker being pistol whipped in a vicious brawl, police say. The wife of the alleged attacker screamed 'shoot him, shoot him' as diners looked on at the terrifying incident, which was caught on CCTV. It began after Jeffrey Wright, 27, and his wife Alexis Longo, 22, went through the drive-thru section of the Dunkin' Donuts branch in Lauderhill, Florida. After discovering they had vanilla in an iced coffee and not caramel they parked up and went into the restaurant. Police said they wanted to complain to...

FULL TITLE: Lesbian high school cheerleader offered plea deal on her 19th birthday to avoid jail for having sex with classmate, 14, after thousands sign petition to support her A high school cheerleader arrested on felony sexual assault charges for her relationship with a 14-year-old female classmate has been offered a plea deal on her 19th birthday. Kaitlyn Hunt is being urged to accept the new deal which would keep her out of jail and prevent her from being registered as a sex offender - if she pleads no contest to two misdemeanor battery counts and one felony count for...

‘I have an opportunity to explain firsthand what racism means and what injustice means,’ said the Miami artist, who plans to respond to each piece of hate mail on her website. Huong reveals George Zimmerman lookalike in painting is really her assistant. She unveiled the mural at Florida state capitol and plans to take it on the road. The Miami artist behind the controversial “We Are All Trayvon Martin” mural says she won’t back down despite threats and volumes of hate mail. “This is not new to me,” Huong told the Daily News. Huong’s mural shows a George Zimmerman look-alike...

<p>A Christian children's entertainer who allegedly plotted to kidnap, cook and eat a child has been jailed for 20 years.</p> <p>Ronald William Brown, from Largo, Florida, was handed the sentence for possession of child pornography.</p> <p>This was despite him regularly warning children about the sin of pornography on his long-running Christian Television Network show.</p>