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More than two weeks after George Zimmerman was acquitted charges for the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, a group of protesters continue to stand their ground in the hallway near Governor Scott’s office in Tallahassee. “We’ve really made ourselves at home here waiting on the governor to show some leadership,” said Philip Agnew, the director of the Dream Defenders, the protesters that remain in Tallahassee. The protesters, after Governor Rick Scott continues to deny their demands to call a special legislative session, have taken matters in their own hands by holding a People’s Session. Rev. Jesse Jackson gave the protesters...

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is asking civil rights leader Jesse Jackson to apologize for “reckless and divisive” comments following the jury verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trial. Jackson on Tuesday called Florida “the Selma of our time.” The remark follows Jackson saying Florida was an “Apartheid State,” after a jury earlier this month found Zimmerman not guilty on all charges in the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin. “Jesse Jackson owes every Floridian an apology for his reckless and divisive comments,” the Republican governor said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that he would come to Florida to...

TALLAHASSEE - Florida Gov. Rick Scott sharply criticized Jesse Jackson on Wednesday over comments he made this week while joining a Capitol protest. Jackson spent time with a group upset with the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. They've refused to leave the Capitol until Scott calls a special session and asks legislators to overhaul the state's "stand your ground" self-defense laws. Scott has refused the request. Jackson, the veteran activist, criticized Florida as the "Selma of our time," referred to it as the "Apartheid State" and made a comparison of Scott to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Selma, Ala.,...

A federal court in Tampa dismissed the claim by civil rights activists Wednesday challenging the controversial 2012 voter purge enacted by Gov. Rick Scott and the state's Division of Elections to rid the rolls of what they believed were scores of fraudulent voter registrations. The action was challenged by the the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on behalf of Mi Familia Vota and two U.S. citizens and alleged it unconstitutionally targeted minority voters. The court on Wednesday cited the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Shelby County v. Holder, which dismantled...

The first wave of Dream Defenders around the Capitol Rotunda.TALLAHASSEE—Day five and they’re not budging or backing down from their cause. Protesters angered by the acquittal of George Zimmerman are inside the Florida Capitol demanding a repeal of the state’s ‘stand your ground’ self-defense law. Police said about 20 protesters remained firmly in place Saturday, the demonstration’s fifth consecutive day. Members of The Dream Defenders say they will not leave until Gov. Rick Scott calls a special session to have legislators repeal the law.....

TALLAHASSEE (CBS Miami) – Following the not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, some Florida students have joined together to call for a “Trayvon Martin Civil Rights Act”. . . The group called Dream Defenders said it will request a special session of the legislature and called for additional students and supporters to join them at the state capitol in Tallahassee.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott held an emergency meeting Thursday night with pro-Trayvon Martin protesters that staged a sit-in outside his office to demand an end to Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Scott, who has been under fire from activists in the wake of George Zimmerman’s acquittal in Martin’s death, met with protesters at the State Capitol and reminded them that he agrees with Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, but that he’s calling for a “statewide day of prayer for unity” to help people of all persuasions move beyond the verdict. Sean Rossman @SeanRossman Dream Defenders meeting with @FLGovScott at the...

VARNEY: Now, back in March of 2012, right after the event, the president made a statement -- went in front of the cameras and made a statement about the Trayvon Martin case -- and right after the verdict was delivered, he made another statement which I will quote from in a moment. But, first, do you think that the president inserted himself into the judicial system? Because that has been the subject of some criticism. SCOTT: Sure. I don't know if he did or didn't. What I just think about is, I think about the family, I think about the...

From Lee Stranahan, Breitbart News: A coalition put together by Dream Defenders took over Florida Gov. Rick Scott's office in Tallahassee on Tuesday to demand a special legislative session that they say will address "the issues at the center of the Trayvon Martin tragedy." The coalition contends that "stand your ground vigilantism, racial profiling and a war on youth that paints us as criminals and funnels us out of schools and funnels us out of schools and into prison" is part of the culture that lead to the tragedy. Governor Scott was out of the office and not expected to...

(Corey and Stooges) The prosecution of George Zimmerman should fill every American with fear and trepidation regardless of their political persuasion. What the prosecution and subsequent trial demonstrated is that a spineless governor and a prosecutor who has set their eyes on higher political office can and will financially ruin you and put your liberty in jeopardy for grins. We have passed into that twilight of the Republic where we are no longer citizens but rather subjects of a bureaucratic juggernaut at the service of mob rule that will cheerfully kill you and impoverish your family if it furthers...

I don’t normally write a complete opinionated commentary on things here at Freedom Outpost, but I really think there are probably some people out there, like myself, that think someone in authority, preferably Florida Governor Rick Scott, should step up and say what needs to be said in the matter involving the George Zimmerman trial. So here goes. I believe the Zimmerman trial should have never come on the national stage. Barack Obama simply used an occasion to stir up the black community. It’s part of the Alinsky tactics. However, from all the evidence we’ve seen and the railroading of...

Gov. Rick Scott is more popular, according to a new poll by Quinnipiac University, but 50 percent of voters say he doesn’t deserve to be re-elected and that he would lose handily to former Gov. Charlie Crist if the 2014 election were today. Scott’s standing with the public has been so persistently grim that any improvement looks like a breakthrough. His approval rating cracked 40 percent for the first time in the latest poll — 43 percent of voters approve of his handling of his job, 44 percent disapprove.

If Charlie Crist runs for governor as a Democrat, he’s going to lose. He’ll either get rubbed out in the Democratic primary, or he’ll lose to Gov. Rick Scott in the general. If Crist runs for governor, rank-and-file Democratic voters will never again trust the party leaders who support Crist. Terence McCoy, of the alternative New Times Broward-Palm Beach, made some excellent points in Five Reasons Charlie Crist Will Not Run For Governor, which I urge everyone to read. McCoy thinks Crist won’t run, but every Democratic leader I know who’s been talking to Crist says he will, and they’re...

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) is looking for a lieutenant governor, and he believes former Congressman Allen West fits the bill. According to Tampa Bay's 970 WFLA, Scott has not determined exactly when he will appoint a replacement for Carroll. He said he plans to wait until the current legislative session is over before taking the matter up. However, he has made clear that West would be a good choice. Said Scott: "[Allen West] is a great American and a great patriot... he'd be a great Lieutenant Governor."

TAMPA (970 WFLA) -- Governor Rick Scott hasn't picked a new Lieutenant Governor, and it's not clear whether he will, but he says at least one Florida politician would make a superb choice. On AM Tampa Bay, the governor responded to a question by saying West "is a great American and a great patriot... he'd be a great Lieutenant Governor." Scott has said he would wait until the end of the session before working on finding someone to replace Jennifer Carroll, who resigned earlier this year after being questioned about an indicted charity that ran internet cafes. Her resignation was...

Shortly after Barack Obama won reelection in November, New Jersey governor Chris Christie pointed out that Republicans’ cloudy political prospects had a bright silver lining. “One of the reasons you have 30 Republican governors in America, and why we’re the only organization to add Republican strength,” Christie said, “is because people see us getting things done.” Christie’s stance countered most of the elite postelection commentary, which gleefully pronounced the Republican Party’s political irrelevance. But the governor was right. Since Obama first took office in 2008, Republicans have picked up a net nine governorships, bringing their total to 30 states,...

I missed this incident of Academia Gone Wild when it happened, as I was in Rome covering the papal conclave, but it has all the hallmarks of cluelessness and faux “tolerance” that we’ve come to expect from higher education. It started with a professor of intercultural communications (no, seriously) at state-run Florida Atlantic University requiring students to write the name Jesus in large block letters on a piece of paper, and then stomp on it. One student — one? — refused to comply and told the professor that he would file a complaint over the assignment, which offended his religious...

A Florida academic institution that had a professor tell his students to write the name Jesus on paper and trample on it has issued a formal apology for the lesson. "This exercise will not be used again. The University holds dear its core values. We sincerely apologize for any offense this caused," said Florida Atlantic University, a multi-campus institution, in a prepared statement posted on its website. "Florida Atlantic University respects all religions and welcomes people of all faiths, backgrounds and beliefs." FAU also stated that "no students were forced to take part in the exercise" and "that no student...

Hall of Fame basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson spoke out on behalf of President Obama’s healthcare law on Monday. “ObamaCare is working. I talk to a lot of CEOs of hospitals. It is working,” he said on MSNBC. Johnson was speaking on "NOW with Alex Wagner" about the NCAA basketball tournament, but he veered into politics at the end of the segment, lauding conservative Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) decision to accept the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. II’m glad that Gov. Scott down in Florida accepted ObamaCare because it will work,” he said.

A stunning announcement out of Florida this week. The state that was exhibit A for economic disaster two years ago is now experiencing a tremendous rebound thanks to Gov. Rick Scott’s pro-growth policies. Washington should take a page – no several pages – out of Scott’s book. Since December 2010, one month before Scott took office, the unemployment rate in Florida has dropped from 11.1 percent to 7.8 percent – that rate is lower than the national average. After two years of Scott’s policies, 282,000 private sector jobs have been created; in the previous four years the state had lost...