Free Republic

The names of the six-member jury panel that acquitted George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin have been made public for the first time, after a new court order, records show. Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, who had previously ordered the jurors' identifying information be kept confidential, granted access to the names in a ruling March 21.

A recently revealed video shows a Florida woman's bizarre attempts to train a wild alligator she nicknamed Puppy Puppy. Residents of a senior residence community in Port St. Lucie say they would watch in horror as the unnamed neighbor routinely fed the beast from the edge of a backyard lake and flailed wildly when it came too close. While they once watched the woman's strange behavior from afar, neighbors say the situation came to a head when the gator scrambled up to a patio hoping to be fed a steak from the grill. 'She would bring food back and forth...

This happened to me on SR 41 in Tampa on Monday March 24th. This pathetic excuse for a human being tailgated me for about three minutes. After about a minute, and me shaking my head, I pulled out my phone and started recording. I couldn't move over because there were trucks in the right lane, and I sure as heck wasn't going to speed on a rainy day with the roads being as slick as they were. I was turning left in about a half-mile when this happened. Now bear in mind, that this guy had already passed a truck...

A man and animal rescuers saved a coyote that got stuck in high water. Watch the dramatic footage.

A Boca Raton woman caused $1,260 in damage after she destroyed the back of a taxi cab, and then lunged at a police officer who was responding to the incident, according to Delray Beach police. Brenda Haggerty, 51, started kicking the credit card machine in the back of a cab at about 5:20 p.m. Tuesday in the 1000 block of Wallace Drive. When the driver, Destine St. Surin, got out of the car because he was frightened, she moved to the front of the car and started ripping out the car's meter, according to an arrest report.

Witnesses said a woman set a man's car on fire in Jacksonville after he refused to buy her a McFlurry at McDonald's.WFTV obtained video of the incident that happened on Sunday. Witnesses said the woman was angry after she asked for a McFlurry and the man she was with refused to buy her one. They said the woman grabbed the man's keys and headed to his car. One witness said she saw her pour alcohol and gasoline on the man's car, light it on fire, and then run off. People nearby tried to help him put the flames out....

TAMPA -- A family of four was hospitalized after ingesting meat laced with LSD bought from Wal-Mart on Monday, Tampa police said. Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor said during a news conference on Thursday that the family, including a pregnant mother, her two children and her boyfriend, started experiencing hallucinations, dizziness, rapid heart rates and difficulty breathing shortly after dinner. The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office determined the family consumed bottom round steak bought from a Wal-Mart located at 1505 N. Dale Mabry in Tampa, which was contaminated with LSD.

The Lee County deputy approached the parked van and told Torockio he was under arrest, but the upset driver simply said, "I am not! Don't you have anything better to do?" The septuagenarian continued to resist arrest while yelling and screaming, "What are you going to do, beat up a 72-year-old man?" When another officer arrived, Torockio was arrested and charged with resisting an officer without violence, failure to obey police and violation of county park rules. His van was later towed.

Trooper They Needed to "Stick Together" Before DUI Arrest: FHPA Miami-Dade Police officer pleaded with a Florida Highway Patrol trooper that they needed to "stick together" before he was arrested for driving under the influence during a traffic stop in Plantation, authorities said. Officer Albert Steven Coriat, 40, was arrested back on Feb. 16 following the stop on Florida's Turnpike near mile marker 59, according to an FHP report released Monday. According to the report, the trooper spotted a gray vehicle trying to make an illegal U-turn and stopped the car. When the trooper approached the car, he saw the...

The Tampa Bay area seems to be a fertile breeding ground for an exotic lizard that wildlife officials want to keep from becoming the state's next invasive species problem. More than 100 black-and-white tegu lizards have been spotted in Hillsborough County, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The area is now considered home to one of three tegu breeding populations in the state. Wildlife officials have spotted more than 100 of them between Riverview and Gibsonton. The animals, which are native to Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, do not belong in the habitat in southwest Florida, and...

A Lauderhill mother is being charged with five counts of child neglect after police said she gave her children sleeping pills and NyQuil before leaving them home alone to go to [strip at a club].... Police said they found the children were left without power and an investigation revealed they had been left alone several times without access to food or phone.

Do you ever wonder at people's amazing propensity to do totally stupid things when they have had a few too many drinks? This video is a case in point. Released by the Tampa Police Department on Friday on its YouTube channel, the 911 call was made from a Village Inn in Tampa. The emergency: uncooked waffles. The part about the half being just as uncooked as the uncooked one is priceless!

So, I lurk on Free Republic quite a bit. Usually it's to read some of the outrageous comments some post here and some of it is to see what your opinions are on certain articles that also get posted elsewhere. So, a little bit about myself. I'm in my 20s and of Hispanic origin. I was born in New York but moved to Florida when I was three years old. I'm what you guys would consider a "socialist". I don't consider myself a socialist, I'm a supporter of the free market economy except I favor strong government regulations. While on...

A woman who reported being sexually assaulted along Florida's Turnpike by a man who offered to change a flat tire made the story up, deputies said. The woman, identified as Alexandria Westover by deputies, was arrested Thursday after admitting to fabricating the story, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Teri Barbera said. Detectives spent more than 100 hours of manpower investigating after she said she was attacked in the midst of rush hour traffic Tuesday morning.

A Highway Patrol trooper who caught another officer speeding to an off-duty job at 120mph is suing for more than $500,000 - saying his allies harassed her after he was fired. Florida's Donna Jane Watts made national headlines after handcuffing Miami Police Department officer Fausto Lopez, while he was in full uniform and driving a police car. Since the incident in 2011 she claims she has had threatening calls on her cell phone, police cars idling outside her house and fellow officers accessing her private driver's license information. Ms Watts - who is suing more than 25 police agencies -...

[Live Bond Hearing -- continuation from Wednesday]

Sheriff's deputies arrested three people after finding two frozen alligators, an illegal fish and hundreds of grams of methamphetamine inside a central Florida homeSheriff's deputies arrested three people after finding two frozen alligators, an illegal fish and hundreds of grams of methamphetamine inside a central Florida home. The Polk County Sheriff's Office says they found numerous methamphetamine smoking devices and bags of the drug within the reach of twin 10-month-old babies.

Angry that her credit card was taken away, a 41-year-old Boca woman battered and bit her 75-year-old boyfriend, Boca police say. The victim told police the woman, his live-in girlfriend of five years, bit and kicked during an argument that happened at about 6 p.m. Saturday in the 2200 block of West Silver Palm Road, according to a Boca Raton police report.

Am I the only reader who talks to her newspaper? Who chokes on her steaming cup of café con leche and wonders out loud about fundamental issues of decency and fairness? Why, oh, why do we continue reading that Wendy Davis, a state senator who wants to be the first Democratic governor of Texas in 20 years, left her daughters, then 2 and 8, with her then-husband, Jeff Davis, while she pursued a law degree at Harvard University? Given that he is the father of one of those daughters and the stepfather of the other, it would make more sense...

“It is no coincidence that Charlie Crist's law partner and biggest supporter, John Morgan, is financing medical marijuana,” said Gainesville-based GOP consultant Alex Patton. “It's a plan.”