Free Republic

The C.I.A.’s concerns were not unwarranted. In 2019, the Russians undertook an elaborate operation to find Mr. Poteyev, forcing a scientist from Oaxaca, Mexico, to help. The scientist, Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, was an unlikely spy. He studied microbiology in Kazan, Russia, and later earned a doctorate in the subject from the University of Giessen in Germany. He was a source of pride for his family, with a history of charitable work and no criminal past. But the Russians used Mr. Fuentes’s partner as leverage. He had two wives: a Russian living in Germany and another in Mexico. In 2019,...

The Florida Supreme Court has allowed new U.S. House districts drawn by Republicans to be used in the midterm elections, marking another victory for the GOP in a nationwide redistricting effort aimed at helping the party retain its slim House majority. The court on Wednesday refused a request to issue a temporary injunction against the new districts. Attorneys for voters who sued argued that the new House districts violate a state constitutional provision prohibiting partisan gerrymandering, and that the court should order the state to continue using the same districts as in the previous election. Republicans already hold 20 of...

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake off the northwest coast of Cuba led to reports of light shaking in parts of Florida on Monday afternoon, including in South Florida. According to the United States Geological Survey, the magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck about 65 miles to the west-northwest of Mantua, Cuba, which is to the west of Havana. The epicenter was about 376 miles from Miami. "Shaking from the recent M6.1 earthquake offshore of Cuba was felt in Florida, where earthquakes are not commonly felt. Did you feel it? (If you're in the area and did not feel it, that's data too!)," USGS...

... local LGBTQ advocates in Sarasota are focusing on community support and visibility, even as national attitudes and corporate sponsorships appear to be shifting. On Saturday, Project Pride SRQ partnered with Senior Friendship Centers to host Silver Pride, a celebration dedicated to LGBTQ seniors and their allies.... More than 55 vendors participated in the event, offering resources, giveaways, raffles, and information about local services...

Another Black organization is urging U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz not to run in Florida’s 20th Congressional District. In a three-page statement shared with media outlets, the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida urged Wasserman Schultz to stay out of CD 20 and instead run in the newly drawn Florida’s 22nd Congressional District...

A 25-year-old man faces a felony charge after authorities say he managed to bypass airport gate agents and board a full United Airlines flight to Los Angeles using a fake boarding pass, triggering an explosives sweep that forced every passenger off the aircraft. Abdulrahman Oriyomi was arrested Friday morning and charged with felony impairing or interrupting the operation of a critical infrastructure facility. The charges stem from an incident last month at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

A Boeing 727 cargo plane which caused panic among US intelligence agencies after mysteriously disappearing from Angola's main airport turned up last week in Guinea, the Guardian can reveal. The plane, which was feared to be in the hands of international terrorists, was spotted on June 28 in Conakry, Guinea's capital, by Bob Strother, a Canadian pilot. It had been resprayed and given the Guinean registration 3XGOM. But at least the last two letters of its former tail-number, N844AA, were still showing. The plane, which was recently converted into a fuel tanker, was said to be owned by a member...

A screen displaying the band's mascot dressed as Uncle Sam reportedly prompted the crowd chant in Tampa, FloridaSNIP During the band's show in Tampa, Florida, over the weekend, a screen reportedly displayed the Black Crowes' mascot dressed as Uncle Sam, prompting members of the crowd to break into "U.S.A." chants, according to TMZ. Singer Chris Robinson allegedly responded, "Thanks for the geography lesson," before adding, "I don't know what you have to be so proud of right now." The response drew boos from the crowd and prompted some concertgoers to walk out before the show ended. In videos circulating online,...

TALLAHASSEE — In less than 24 hours, Florida lawmakers questioned, debated and added to the November ballot what could become the most sweeping restructuring of the state’s tax system — and city and county governments — in a generation. Now it’s up to voters. Legislators voted largely along party lines Tuesday to approve a constitutional amendment proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that would raise the state’s homestead exemption to $250,000. It will save millions of Floridians thousands of dollars on their property taxes in 2028, if voters approve it in November. Join the conversation

Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a scathing dissent Tuesday as the Supreme Court refused to let Florida sue California and Washington over their lawless practice of handing out commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who cannot read English road signs. The Court denied Florida’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint in the original jurisdiction case, leaving the state with “nowhere else to bring” its claims, Thomas wrote. He was joined by Justice Samuel Alito. This decision comes after the horrific August 12, 2025, crash on the Florida Turnpike. Illegal alien Harjinder Singh, an Indian national who entered the...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has unveiled a legislative proposal to severely cut and eventually eliminate property taxes on primary residences in Florida, calling a special legislative session to address the issue. The move escalates a multi-year effort to reform the state’s tax structure, potentially positioning Florida as the first state in the nation to boast neither a personal income tax nor a property tax on primary, owner-occupied homes. “Today in Tampa, I outlined the Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes plan that will eliminate taxes on homesteads. Property tax revenue collected by local governments has nearly doubled in the...

Charges against former Assistant U.S. Attorney Carmen Mercedes Lineberger carry more than 20 years in prison. Article Dig Deeper In less than a week, the U.S. attorney in Miami supervising the probe of Obama-Biden era government weaponization secured indictments against Cuban communist dictator Raul Castro and an alleged money launderer for Venezuelan strongarm man Nicolas Maduro. But it was Jason Reding Quinones’ indictment against one of his own former federal prosecutors for trying to steal a sealed, classified report from Jack Smith’s investigation of President Donald Trump that may have sent the loudest shockwaves through government. The charges against former...

Progressive nonprofits are having a rough time lately. In April, the Department of Justice alleged that the Southern Poverty Law Center secretly paid leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations—not to dismantle these extremist groups, but, as prosecutors put it, to manufacture “the extremism it purports to oppose.” And a recent City Journal investigation by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo, based on a previous report from the Network Contagion Research Institute and the Intelligent Advocacy Network, as well as their congressional testimony, revealed that the California branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has received more than...

A Chinese brother and sister have been charged over a chilling IED plot targeting a US Air Force base that serves as a nerve center for America's war with Iran. *** Alen Zheng, 20, and Ann Mary Zheng, 27, were charged Wednesday in separate federal indictments after the explosive device was found outside a gate at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa on March 16. The sister is in custody; the brother has fled to China, FBI director Kash Patel said.

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The woman who made headlines earlier this year for allegedly urinating on Pensacola Airbnb furniture is back behind bars on a new, similar charge. Nicolette Keough, 31, was arrested Wednesday on a felony charge of property damage worth over $1,000. She appeared in court Thursday, where a judge issued her a $10,000 bond for the charge. However, she'll remain in Escambia County Jail, as her bond was revoked for violating bail conditions for a battery arrest in mid-March. WEAR News first reported about Keough in March after she was arrested on two counts of felony criminal mischief....

Somewhere, Ron DeSantis has got to be sitting back, booted feet propped on his desk, laughing and smoking a cigar at what has been playing out in Florida's 20th Congressional District. As RedState readers will recall, at the governor's urging, the Sunshine State redrew its congressional map in late April just as the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais was being handed down. Republicans hold 20 of Florida's 28 congressional seats. The new map, if it survives the current court challenges, could potentially net them another four seats in the upcoming midterm elections. One of the districts impacted was...

Two men accused of killing an off-duty Florida firefighter for his Nike sneakers and iPhone boasted about the murder just moments after the heinous act, according to a witness who saw the gunman “smiling about it.” Torrey Holston, 26, and Jose Garcia Romero, 27, allegedly killed Coral Springs-Parkland firefighter Christopher Randazzo, 39, in front of a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea resort when he left his second job as a bartender at Aruba Beach Cafe around 1 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2019. Holston was heard saying, “I can’t believe I just caught a body,” witness Cheyenne Papach testified Tuesday. “And he was smiling about...

Florida homeowners have watched their property tax bills nearly double since 2019 – and they're still waiting for relief. DeSantis just showed up in Brevard County and dared his own party to stop him. He's calling a summer special session to gut Florida property taxes and get it on the November ballot – and he doesn't care who's in his way. The Governor Who Actually Means It For two years, Rick Scott, the House Speaker, and half the Republican establishment have told Floridians that eliminating property taxes sounds great but can't be done. DeSantis walked into a roundtable in Brevard...

Alan Chambers, 54, was arrested Tuesday, May 19, 2026, for solicitation of a minor in an undercover sting in which he believed he was speaking to a 14-year-old boy, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Chambers was president of the anti-LGBTQ group Exodus International before it shuttered in 2013. (Orange County Corrections Department) The former president of a widely-known anti-LGBTQ organization has been arrested for seeking sex from an undercover deputy posing as a 14-year-old boy, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Alan Chambers, 54, of Winter Park was booked in the Orange County Jail Tuesday on charges...

The United States on Wednesday charged former Cuban President Raúl Castro over the 1996 shootdown of two small aircraft, marking the first time a senior figure from the communist regime has been accused before the courts of its neighboring enemy. Castro is accused of murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, and destruction of aircraft in connection with the deaths of four people. The charges represent a new escalation in Washington’s intense pressure campaign against the communist island, which has been under a U.S. embargo since 1962 and is now devastated by a severe economic crisis. Raúl Castro, now 94, was...