Free Republic

Troopers said Ronnie Jackson, 67, had failed to lower the truck’s bed after leaving a construction zone. A dump truck driver was cited for careless driving Wednesday after he failed to lower the bed of his truck and it hit an overpass on Interstate 75 in Gainesville. Ronnie Jackson, 67, of Lake City, was cited after the accident, which occurred at 12:45 a.m. in the northbound lanes around Mile Marker 385, according to a Florida Highway Patrol media release. The truck overturned and the bed came off after hitting the Southwest 20th Avenue bridge. Troopers said Jackson had failed to...

ORLANDO, Fla. - A time capsule that was found hidden in the base of a Confederate statue that stood in Lake Eola Park for nearly 100 years contained the remains of what appeared to be a flag, money, newspapers and more. City officials found the 3-pound metal box in the top base of the statue, dubbed Johnny Reb, in June while they were relocating the 300-pound monument to Greenwood Cemetery. The statue was moved after critics argued that it was a symbol of slavery and shouldn't be displayed at a city park. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said the city opened...

Back in job market again after end of my current contract. I updated my listings (as a UNIX/LINUX C and C++ expert) on Dice and Monster the other day, and the phone began ringing off the hook. Well, one recruiter wants to know if I am interested in full time work, direct hire, in Detroit, for the process control of a steel mill whose business is reportedly burgeoning. This looks like a MAGA move to me, and the recruiter points out that it isn't all decay, there is rebuilding going on too. My rhetorical question: how crazy does a high...

Undocumented immigrants and elected officials gathered at a local church to discuss threatening immigration policies and how to deal with them Thursday night. In a meeting that frequently switched between English and Spanish at Westminster Presbyterian Church, located at 1521 NW 34th St., about 40 undocumented immigrants listened to guidelines set forth by the American Civil Liberties Union on how to defend themselves against President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation agenda. The event was led by local grassroots group Madres Sin Fronteras, which translates to Mothers Without Borders. The group, led in part by UF alumnus Beto Soto, was created to preserve...

It starts like a joke — Gov. Rick Scott walks into a Gainesville Starbucks — but one patron wasn’t laughing. Scott stopped in at the coffee chain for a cup Tuesday after touring the recently opened factory and headquarters for biopharmaceutical company Nanotherapeutics. Cara Jennings, a former Lake Worth city commissioner, saw Scott in the downtown store and ripped into him, from her seat, over health insurance and cuts to women’s health services, and calling him an expletive

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson used a Sunday campaign stop in Georgia to accuse politicians of using poverty to bolster their voting constituencies. In his eyes, open-ended welfare has not only perpetuated poverty, its sustained a loyal voting bloc for certain politicians.“False compassion is patting them on the head and saying, ‘You can’t take care of yourself and I’m going to give you food stamps, a housing subsidy and free health care,'” Carson said according to the Gainesville Times. “And all the things you need so you can stay dependent and vote for me.’”His criticism of welfare is not new....

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — A Navy recruiter is recovering after he accidentally shot himself in the leg at the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Gainesville. ... "We're not certain why this member of armed forces brought this gun to the office. We are currently looking into that with the armed forces," Holbrook said. "That's part of the investigation."

<p>But they also say young people were told to chant against an anti-Islam film as a cover for the assault.</p> <p>TRIPOLI, Libya - It began around nightfall on Sept. 11 with about 150 bearded gunmen, some wearing the Afghan-style tunics favored by Islamic militants, sealing off the streets leading to the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. They set up roadblocks with pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, according to witnesses.</p>

Police put up a sign in south Gainesville Thursday afternoon to let drivers know there was a checkpoint ahead, but what was really going on was a ruse. There was no checkpoint, just several Gainesville Police Department officers watching for drivers who saw the sign and then turned around or who appeared to throw something out of their vehicles. Those vehicles were pulled over. Police spent nearly eight hours on the detail near the intersection of South Main Street and 16th Avenue. “This was a ruse detail,” said Lt. David Rowe. “Officers stopped 58 vehicles and most of the 22...

Fight with former boyfriend scatters dear old mom into the windJust when we were getting used to angry women in Florida setting their boyfriends' crotches on fire to get even, a woman in Gainesville has devised a new method of revenge: desecrating the dead. Ashley Renee Oxendine, 22, was arrested Monday after police say she hit her ex-boyfriend and threw his dead mother's ashes out the window. Gainesville police say Oxendine was retrieving her belongings from the home she used to share with her ex when things turned violent. After the two began bickering, Oxendine allegedly scratched the unidentified former...

'Seven people were shot -- two of whom have died -- in an apparent random shooting spree that began about 4 p.m. Monday in southeast Gainesville. The suspect, identified by relatives as Clifford L. Miller Jr., 24, was found in a truck at 2306 S.E. 46th Terrace dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and relatives. Sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of shots heard and found the suspect dead in a red Chevrolet pickup. Miller had a police record and a history of mental illness, according to Alachua County court records. “We believe...

Security for last Saturday's canceled Quran burning cost about $200,000, and city officials said they expect the church that organized the controversial event to pay. Police Maj. Rick Hanna said more than 200 officers were on duty last weekend patrolling the Dove World Outreach Center, where the burning was to take place, as well as a University of Florida football game and "soft targets" such as a mall. Another 160 sheriff's deputies were also working because of planned protests at the church. Gainesville City Manager Russ Blackburn said he doesn't know whether the city has legal authority to compel the...

GAINESVILLE, Florida — The small Florida church that has sparked global outrage with its plan to hold a Koran-burning event had its website pulled from the Internet on Thursday by its host. Dan Goodgame, a spokesman for the San Antonio, Texas-based web hosting firm Rackspace, told AFP the evangelical Dove World Outreach Center church had, "violated the Offensive Content section of its Acceptable Use policy." The policy forbids content or links to material that is "excessively violent, incites violence, threatens violence, or contains harassing content or hate speech; and creates a risk to a person's safety or health, creates a...

Friends, The time has come in our current debates regarding Islam and the Qur’an burning to unleash our most fearsome weapon here at Higgins: the Official Press Release. We here at the Home Office recognize that radical Love is the order of the day, but when it comes to the dangerous militants at the 50 strong church in Florida threatening disunity with our Muslim brothers and sisters in Christ, we shall wage war using the fiercest of social statements! It is far too dangerous to ignore such silly Islamophobia because between the loud voice of Pastor Wayne and friends and...

<p>On Sunday April 18, Westboro Baptist Church came to Gainesville. One of their stops was a liberal "Open doors, open hearts, open minds," church near us, so we took part of our Sunday Service time and went as a church to stand with them.</p>

‘Burn the Quran Day’ Plan Prompts Warnings of Anger, Unrest Wednesday, August 25, 2010 By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has joined the growing condemnation of plans by a Florida church to burn copies of the Quran on the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. A spokesman for the Jeddah-based bloc of Islamic states expressed concern Tuesday that the planned action by the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville would stir up “anger across the Muslim world and provoke unrest.” The OIC said it hoped the U.S. government would “take...

A Gainesville church plans to go ahead with the burning of the Muslim holy book on Sept. 11, despite threats of bombings and the lack of a permit. According to the Wall Street Journal, Terry Jones, pastor at the Dove World Outreach Center will call for Sept. 11 to be an "International Burn a Koran Day." One jihadist website vowed to conduct suicide bombings in Florida to avenge the Koran burning, while others predicted an increase in terrorist recruits as a result of such actions. "By Allah, the wars are heated and you Americans are the ones who...enflamed it," says...

It wasn't your usual Saturday afternoon lunch at the Jack in the Box on North Grand Avenue on Saturday. Upon learning of his termination with the restaurant, a Jack in the Box employee went on a tirade, destroying two cash registers, a breakfast menu board, a drive thru headset, a milkshake mixer--- even two customer's meals. The 20-year-old employee was charged with criminal mischief greater than $1,500, which is a state jail felony. No one was injured in the employee's ‘rampage.’

A self-described aspiring rapper confessed to robbing a convenience store Friday night and shooting a clerk in the temple with a BB gun in a misguided effort to gain "street credibility" for his career in Gainesville hip-hop, according to police. Steven Gilmore Jr., 21, was arrested in his Gainesville Place Apartment, at 2800 S.W. 35th Place, after a tip led police to his home. Gilmore confessed to the Friday night robbery and to a robbery last week of Hungry Howie's restaurant, police said. Police also arrested Gilmore's accomplice, a 16-year-old who police said served as a lookout for the Friday...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- A car found in a Gainesville neighborhood with a dead body in the back seat had been ticketed seven times by city parking enforcement. Police found the body when a resident called authorities Monday afternoon to report the car, which had been parked on the street for days. A preliminary autopsy helped police identify the body as 42-year-old John Waldo, who had been missing since Feb. 11. Police say the autopsy revealed no obvious cause of death. Investigators are awaiting toxicology results, which may take up to six weeks. City records show the first ticket was...