Free Republic

A city in Florida has canceled an annual pride event and its annual St. Patrick's Day parade after a new law in the state has banned government-funded "DEI" initiatives. Residents in the city have said that it is "ridiculous."Delray Beach officials said that the legislation, SB 1134, will restrict the city from holding its annual St. Patrick's Day parade. The law takes effect on January 1.The law prohibits any county or municipal government in the state from “funding or promoting or taking official action as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The law also blocks celebrations that honor heritage...

Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) announced Thursday that he is running for House Republican Conference chair, arguing that the party’s election losses stemmed from broken promises and leadership’s unwillingness to pursue conservative policies. “Republicans didn’t lose because we were too conservative. We lost because we failed to deliver on the conservative policies we promised,” Steube wrote in his announcement. “I’m not interested in preserving the status quo. I’m stepping forward to give Members a conservative choice and take our Conference in a new direction.” Steube joins a contest that includes incumbent Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-MI) and Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN),...

Call it a tale of two states. Both Republican-run. Both prosperous. Both heavily populated states that influence the rest of the nation. Yet in the blue tsunami, the results in Texas and Florida were very different. “In January … of the 10 largest states in this union, only one state will have Republican control of their state, the state of Florida,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday. “Last night we witnessed—to call it a wave, I don’t think would be fully accurate—it’s the political equivalent of a meteor strike that went all around the United States. Blue states, red states, everything...

Gov. Ron DeSantis is preparing to run for the GOP’s 2028 presidential nomination, according to three people briefed on his plans, after his home state of Florida was one of the few conservative bastions to survive the Democrats’ sweeping midterm victory. “Florida’s walls not being breached by the blue wave gives DeSantis more credibility than nearly anyone in the opening days of the 2028 primary,” said Dan Eberhart, a longtime Republican donor and energy executive, who served as a surrogate for DeSantis’s unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign. Already, DeSantis has reached out to at least one national political consultant about working...

Eight people have been arrested in connection with a large-scale check fraud scheme involving fraudulent activity at least 17 churches in Manatee County between September 2025 and May 2026. The Manatee County Sheriff's Office launched an investigation in December 2025 after a pastor at Harvest United Methodist Church in Lakewood Ranch reported a significant decrease in mail. Parishioners had begun questioning whether their monthly tithe checks had arrived and several later discovered their checks had been stolen and deposited into other individuals' bank accounts. What began as one church's report grew into a multi-month investigation that identified more than 20...

Republican voters in search of silver linings need look no further than the collective fate of their party's own amnesty-mongers. Tuesday's midterm tsunami, which wiped out GOP control of Congress, also washed away a group of Republican legislators best known for having betrayed the party's base by co-sponsoring the DIGNIDAD Act of 2025, an amnesty bill masquerading as immigration reform. As of Thursday afternoon, eight of those co-sponsors had lost their bids for re-election to the House of Representatives. Moreover, the full statistical picture looks even worse for those amnesty-loving Republicans. More on that in a moment. As for the...

Republicans were eviscerated in an election President Donald Trump and his opponents saw as a referendum on his second term. The outcome bodes ill for the GOP, which now faces strong Democratic majorities in Congress and the prospect of endless investigations and legislative stonewalling. One prominent Republican with an eye for 2028 decided to attack the president’s record just before the midterms. In an interview with Stephen A. Smith, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lambasted the Iran War and other failures of the administration. “We just got to be honest. Gas is higher. It hurts people, working-class people, and it’s higher...

A Florida Marine veteran was credited Thursday as a hero for fatally shooting a gunman who drove onto a Citibank Center campus and began hunting down workers in anger over a delinquent $2,500 credit card bill, officials said. During a press briefing detailing the tragedy, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister identified the security officer as John Fraley, who confronted 35-year-old Jacob Pearson inside the corporate setting just after he shot and killed a female Citibank employee. "He is an individual that's afforded an opportunity to carry a firearm because the ones who were either previous law enforcement or military and...

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Council on American-Islamic Relations will shut down operations in Florida after a federal court rejected its request to reverse its designation as a terrorist group Wednesday night. The ruling came after the State of Florida designated the Muslim civil rights group as a terrorist organization under a new Florida law that gave the state the ability to pull funding from institutions. The designation took effect Thursday, forcing CAIR and CAIR-Florida to shut down operations in the state. CAIR announced Thursday plans to appeal the decision, calling the claims baseless and saying the new law violates...

US President Donald Trump has been consulting with advisers on whether to keep US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in his current role following the Republicans' losses in Tuesday's election, CBS News reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources. [cut] DeSantis floated as possible replacement One name being floated as a possible replacement for Hegseth is GOP Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, one source told CBS. DeSantis could potentially go through Senate confirmation in the lame-duck period and then take the post when his term expires on January 5.

Outgoing Florida Governor and former 2024 presidential contender Ron DeSantis has taken a swipe at Donald Trump after the Republican defeat in the midterm elections. DeSantis called it 'close to an extinction-level event for Republicans in many parts of the country' and singled out the Democratic wins in the Texas governor and Senate races in what he called 'the crown jewel of Republican politics.' 'Let's just be clear, that is going to hurt, not just for the next two years, that's something that can reverberate for the next decade or more,' he said at a press conference in Tallahassee on...

Republican U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds defeated Democrat David Jolly in Florida’s gubernatorial election Tuesday, securing the governorship for the GOP and preserving the state’s pro-life policies. With more than 97 percent of the vote counted, Donalds led with roughly 50 percent to Jolly’s 48.7 percent, according to state tallies. Early returns had favored Jolly before Election Day ballots from Republican strongholds, particularly the Panhandle, narrowed and then reversed the margin. Donalds, who is pro-life and represents Florida’s 19th Congressional District, will succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis and become Florida’s first Black governor. His running mate, former state Sen. Bryan Avila,...

Republican Sen. Ashley Moody defeated Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon in Florida’s special U.S. Senate election Tuesday, Decision Desk HQ projected shortly after the final polls closed. With more than 90 percent of votes counted, Moody led with roughly 50.2 percent to Nixon’s 48.7 percent, a margin of about 115,000 votes, according to multiple tallies. Independent candidate Neil Gillespie received about 1 percent. The result keeps the seat in Republican hands through early 2029, the remainder of the term Marco Rubio vacated to become secretary of state. Moody, appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2025 after serving two terms...

A deadly Learjet crash in South Florida has taken an even more troubling turn. Federal investigators now say evidence at the scene indicates pieces of the aircraft separated before the jet slammed into a mobile home community near Greenacres on Sunday. Nine people aboard the plane were killed. The finding does not establish why the aircraft went down. It gives the National Transportation Safety Board a critical new trail to follow as investigators reconstruct the jet’s final moments. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy summarized the first confirmed facts after the crash: Today's plane crash in Palm Beach County, Florida is a...

LAKELAND, Fla. (WFOR) -- There were 17 Disney World and Universal Studios employees among 281 suspects arrested during a human trafficking and child sexual predators enforcement operation, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said Friday. Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press conference Friday that the joint operation, which took place over seven days, focused on nabbing predators who prey upon and travel to meet children for unlawful sexual activity and human trafficking. He said 31 of the suspects traveled to the county to attempt to have sex with a child. Judd said during the press conference that 13 of the...

The doomed Learjet co-pilot heard pleading for help in harrowing air traffic control audio before the fiery Florida crash has been identified as Nathalia Gadelha – a 20-year-old who got her pilot license while still in high school... The young aviator, who grew up in Palm Beach County, was previously featured in local media when she got her private pilot’s license at just 17 back in October 2023 — before she even had her driver’s license. “I definitely do brag because people say, ‘Oh, you can’t drive,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I can fly,'” she told CBS12 in an...

The harrowing final moments inside the Learjet 60 private jet that crashed to the ground in Florida on Sunday have been revealed in newly released cockpit audio. The plane was carrying nine people when it plummeted out of the sky in poor weather conditions, just eight miles from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, erupting into a colossal fire on impact near West Palm Beach. Air traffic control audio revealed the female pilot relaying pivotal information to an operator just seconds before it abruptly plunged thousands of feet in a minute. The controllers are describing 'moderate turbulence' before the pilot's tone swiftly...

“A private jet carrying nine people has crashed just eight miles from Mar-a-Lago in Florida, erupting into a colossal fire and sending a boom echoing for miles. The FAA confirmed that a $2 million Learjet 60 plummeted from the air, falling 32,000ft in a minute, causing a roaring amber blaze and plumes of smoke to billow from the scorched roadside in Greenacres, Palm Beach County. A large crater was seen as a result of the impact with debris scattered around it. Flight data showed that the flight was traveling from Austin, Texas, to North Eleuthera in the Bahamas before its...

A $2 million private jet crashed into a South Florida mobile home park — apparently demolishing at least one trailer in a massive fireball. Authorities say there are “multiple fatalities,” but it’s not clear yet how many people were on board the chartered plane, or whether anyone on the ground was killed in injured. The plane, which had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, took a sharp right turn before nosediving from 8,000 feet into the ground, BocaNewsNow reported. The plane, believed to be a Learjet 60 worth $2 million, clipped a tree and brought down power lines in a...

POLK COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) — A weeklong undercover operation called “Polk Around & Find Out II” led to 281 arrests in Polk County, including 17 people who worked at theme parks, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office said Friday. The operation targeted child predators and human trafficking and resulted in 488 new charges, including 198 felonies. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office ran two stings at the same time: one targeting adults seeking sex with children and another focused on human trafficking. Sheriff Grady Judd called it the largest undercover operation his office has conducted. At the news conference, Judd said...