Free Republic

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters was joined by Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier to announce five recent arrests of students for threats made to schools, reminding parents and students that making such threats can have life-changing consequences. All three were arrested Tuesday. Waters said the threats were made electronically and gave the following details: On Aug. 22, an 11-year-old boy made a threat to River City Science Academy in a group chat thread. Waters said that the threat read, “Hello fellow citizens. Don’t worry, just don’t just don’t come to school tomorrow unless you want...

For the third year in a row, the Miami-Dade County school board voted against a proposal to recognize October as LGBTQ+ History Month. The 5-3 vote on Wednesday came hours after the school board heard a mix of passionate opinions

body camera video of Tyreek Hill’s traffic stop that was released on Monday is now making national headlines. Police have now publicly identified one of the officers involved. The shocking video has gone viral

Special Counsel Jack Smith has filed superseding indictments against former President Donald Trump, despite a federal judge previously ruling Smith was unlawfully appointed to pursue. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding to know who authorized this new indictment. In July, Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Smith was unlawfully appointed to his prosecution of Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 Election. As Fox News described, the prosecutor filed a new, amended indictment into a separate probe, which Rep. Gaetz suggests has even less legal validity in his letter. "It is unclear what...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is plowing ahead with his plan to avert a government shutdown despite GOP opposition that is large enough to tank the effort, setting the stage for a potentially embarrassing vote on the House floor that will foil the Speaker’s funding strategy. At least six Republicans, including hard-line conservatives and defense hawks, have said they will vote against Johnson’s government funding gambit, which pairs a six-month continuing resolution (CR) with a Trump-backed bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Republicans can only afford to lose four of their members if all Democrats vote “no” and there is...

On May 3, 2024, a Florida Okaloosa County Sheriff Deputy shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson. The deputy, Eddie Duran, was responding to a false, anonymous tip about supposed domestic violence in an apartment complex.Fortson was playing with his dog and on the phone with his girlfriend. When Roger Fortson realized someone was insistently knocking on the door and demanding entry, he accessed his legally owned pistol, and with the pistol held by his side, pointed at the floor, opened the door.The deputy immediately shot Fortson several times, then demanded Fortson “drop the gun”. Fortson’s pistol was already on...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis addressed a brewing scandal in the sunshine state as law enforcement officials are going to thousands of people’s homes to see if they signed petitions to support putting a radical abortion amendment on the ballot. Amendment 4 is so extreme and dangerous that the state of Florida has deployed resources to warn voters how the amendment actually puts women’s health and safety at risk. DeSantis said at a press conference on Monday that law enforcement has launched an investigation after receiving a wide range of complaints about the group that submitted the petition for the amendment...

The Sunshine State’s housing market is caught in a perfect storm that could soon drive condo owners to flee in droves. Experts are predicting that the skyrocketing costs of condo ownership — driven by massive increases in homeowner association (HOA) fees and a slew of new safety regulations — are poised to spark a fire sale that could send shockwaves through Florida. Steven Kupchan, a real estate agent with One Sotheby’s International Realty, paints a grim picture.

Police have just released footage from Sunday's traffic stop involving Tyreek Hill ... and in the body-worn camera video, you can see cops yanked the Dolphins star out of his sportscar and threw him onto the ground following a dispute over his window. The incident happened right outside of Hard Rock Stadium ... just hours before Hill was slated to play in Miami's season-opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

A high school football player from the Florida panhandle died after collapsing during an away game on Friday, school officials said. Chance Gainer, a senior at Port St. Joe High School, fell to the ground just before halftime during a game at Liberty County High School in Bristol, Fla., Port St. Joe principal Sissy Godwin confirmed to NPR on Saturday. Gainer was pronounced dead shortly after he was taken to an area hospital, she said. He’d just celebrated his 18th birthday last month. Gulf District Schools Superintendent Jim Norton said in a statement that Gainer’s death was a “tragic loss.”...

Massachusetts welfare recipients have been using their EBT cards while on tropical vacations to Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and other trips thousands of miles away from their home state, an investigation by the Boston Herald revealed. Public records obtained by the outlet showed dozens of EBT card expenditures at several popular vacation destinations, including California, Florida, and Alaska, as well numerous holiday islands. While the federal and state governments spent $3 billion on the taxpayer-funded EBT cards in Massachusetts during Fiscal Year 2024, 32 charges were made in Hawaii — with the largest expenditure being $378 on the...

24-117 Detectives Conduct Shooting Investigation in Unincorporated St. Petersburg Shooting InvestigationPinellas County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Operations Bureau Investigative Operations Bureau -Robbery/Homicide Unit Support Services Bureau -Forensic Science DivisionMatthew Weisner (Injured) DOB: 07/23/1985 Address: 2572 Ryland Falls Drive, LakelandAustin McMann DOB: 02/03/1994 Address: 5352 79th Street North, Unincorporated St. PetersburgMichael McMann DOB: 12/16/1987 Address: 5352 79th Street North, Unincorporated St. PetersburgAmber Souza DOB: 1/26/1986 Address: 4180 72nd Avenue North, Pinellas ParkPINELLAS COUNTY – Detectives assigned to the Robbery/Homicide Unit are conducting a shooting investigation in unincorporated St. Petersburg.According to detectives, on September 4, 2024, at approximately 8:37 p.m., deputies responded to...

Starliner has finally come home, more than three months after it launched on a planned 10-day mission.. Starliner's long space odyssey is over. The Boeing capsule, named Calypso, returned to Earth early this morning (Sept. 7), touching down in the New Mexico desert at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT; 11:01 p.m. local time on Sept. 6). "Great landing of Calyspo!" NASA astronaut Suni Williams said on the agency's webcast. "I don't think that could have gone better." The landing was long-delayed, coming more than three months into an orbital mission originally expected to last about 10 days. And, while Starliner...

Former President Donald Trump will attend a fundraiser in the Bay Area next week during his second trip to the region in roughly three months. Presidential candidates coming to the wealthy nine-county area isn’t abnormal. What is abnormal, though, is that the billionaire hosting the event at his Woodside home on Sept. 13 is related to Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The tickets for next week’s fundraiser, hosted by Tom and Stacey Siebel, are going for as much as $500,000 per couple, according to the Los Angeles Times. Tom, a software developer, is a second...

(LifeSiteNews) — A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has reversed a judge who blocked Florida’s law banning “gender transition” procedures on minors, allowing it to be enforced while the legal battle over its constitutionality proceeds. In June, Democrat-appointed U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle struck down SB 254, Florida’s ban on transgender drugs and surgeries for minors enacted in 2023, declaring it an “unconstitutional” prohibition of “proper treatment” for gender-confused minors. The office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly denounced the ruling and confirmed it would appeal. Days later, DeSantis doubled down that “it’s...

Florida and Texas are within the margin of error in the presidential race between former President Trump and Vice President Harris, according to a poll released Friday. The survey from Emerson College Polling/The Hill showed Trump leading Harris in Florida by 5 points, 50 percent to 45 percent, and in Texas by 4 points, 50 percent to 46 percent. The results are a bit closer than what some other polling has found on the races but not completely out of sync with recent polls that have shown a tighter race in those states. *** The forecast model from The Hill/Decision...

New Emerson College Polling/The Hill statewide polls find Donald Trump leading Kamala Harris by ten in Ohio, 53% to 43%, five in Florida, 50% to 45%, four in Texas, 50% to 46%, while Harris leads Trump in California 60% to 36%. Races in Florida and Texas are within the polls’ margin of error, while California and Ohio fall outside the polls’ margin of error.

New details have been released amid the investigation into an attempted kidnapping that happened Monday in the parking lot of a Walmart in Orlando. Juan Perez was arrested and charged with armed robbery with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, battery, and attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict harm after the incident that unfolded at the Walmart on South Goldenrod Road on Monday afternoon, according to the Orlando Police Department. The 54-year-old man was caught on surveillance footage pacing around the parking lot before approaching the victim, police said. Perez allegedly demanded the woman's purse at knifepoint...

The Secret Service failed to protect former President Donald Trump and the embattled agency will be taxed to the limit by the peak of presidential-campaign season. But it will be well-represented at an LGBTQ summit at Disney World. Reporter Susan Crabtree of RealClear Politics posted Wednesday on social media an agency-wide email from the Service’s DEI office that solicited people to attend the “Out and Equal” Workplace Summit at the Orlando, Florida, theme park.

It’s every tomophobians’ worst nightmare. According to multiple reports, an alleged interstate case of a medical procedure going horrifically wrong has the family of the deceased accusing the doctor of gross malpractice. William Bryan, a resident of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.. reportedly died after a Florida surgeon removed the wrong organ during an operation. ... Bryan was taken to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Walton County, Florida, on Aug. 18. What happened next was, as the Bryan family’s attorney, Joe Zarzaur, put it, “one of the most egregious cases of medical malpractice that I’ve ever been involved with.” .......