Free Republic

Newly uncovered photos and online accounts purportedly associated with the Wisconsin teen school shooter suggest a deeply disturbing obsession with other school shooters such as Columbine killer Eric Harris — and even show her wearing a t-shirt of his favorite band. A now-eerie snapshot of Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, 15, was posted on her father’s Facebook page and shows her aiming a rifle at a shooting range wearing a shirt from the German industrial rock band KMFDM. Harris was seen in photos also wearing one of the band’s T-shirts before he and Dylan Klebold went on to murder 13 people in...

President Donald Trump issued the first vetoes of his second term Tuesday, blocking two bipartisan, infrastructure-related bills. The president argued that blocking both measures was necessary to save taxpayer dollars. “Enough is enough. My Administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies. Ending the massive cost of taxpayer handouts and restoring fiscal sanity is vital to economic growth and the fiscal health of the Nation,” Trump said in a message to Congress, explaining his veto of one of the bills, H.R. 131, which aims to lower the payments certain communities in Colorado make for the...

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem got her groove on to Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” during Wednesday night’s New Year’s Eve bash at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. In a video posted by Katie Miller, wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the cabinet official — mocked by her critics as “ICE Barbie” — clapped her hands and danced to the Miami-based rapper’s signature 1990 hit. “ICE ICE Baby,” Katie Miller captioned the clip, which also included her husband stiffly bouncing along to the beat.

Saudi-based Arbah Capital announces the signing of a joint venture agreement in the growing sector of Senior Care facilities in the United States, with a leading Real Estate Developer, Madison Marquette, and a top 20 Senior Care Operator, Meridian Senior Living, both of whom will also co-invest into the portfolio. The first development is of $35m and is a premier Class A Senior Living community with 136 units/144-beds of Assisted Living and Memory Care, located 12 miles to the east of downtown Tampa, in Brandon, Florida. The Investment Strategy is to exploit the opportunity to develop and provide the best...

Sitting underneath Ayyash’s menu with its hot, very hot and “pepper x” levels of spiciness, a slim, 30-something Palestinian American named Zyad is snacking on some of Ayyash’s specially seasoned french fries. This, he says, is one of his favorite options in Temple Terrace, a city on the northeast side of Tampa Bay and epicenter of its robust halal food scene. “There’s a Yemeni place down the road, several shawarma options, an Arab grocery store, a Turkish grocery store, bakeries, clothing stores, restaurants, food trucks. The list goes on,” he told New Lines. “Tampa,” Zyad said, “is like the new...

The New York Times rolled out another installment of its favorite genre — Ron DeSantis, Destroyer of All That Is Good™ — this time lamenting that New College of Florida, long a leftist sandbox where grades were optional, and gender theory reigned, has been rudely interrupted by a governor who thinks college should actually teach … well … college. “At the state school, gender studies is out. ‘The Odyssey’ is required reading. A Charlie Kirk statue is coming. Has one ideological bubble replaced another?” the Times hyperventilated. The Times paints the picture with a heavy brush: gender studies out, Homer’s...

“The U.S. has no obligation to host foreigners, like Sami Hamdi, who support terrorism and actively undermine the safety of Americans,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wrote. Jessica Russak-Hoffman. (Oct. 28, 2025 / JNS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained British commentator Sami Hamdi at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated. Hamdi, who also serves as managing director of International Interest, a London-based political advisory group, was attempting to fly to Tampa to speak at the annual gala of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) said that she hopes extremists will be deterred by the strikes in Nigeria, “But if they don’t, I do think that Congress needs to take the step of declaring, or at least taking the vote to declare, because we don’t want to see more unilateral action out of the administration, whether it’s Republican or Democrat.”Host Cheryl Casone asked, “Congresswoman, your reaction to these new strikes in Nigeria. The president had warned the Nigerian government ahead of time, and, apparently, that government agreed that these strikes...

A former Bank of America employee in southwest Miami-Dade was arrested after being accused of stealing $500,000 from a disabled victim, authorities said. Mario Martinez, 40, is facing several charges, including exploitation of the elderly, organized fraud and first-degree grand theft. According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office, deputies began investigating the case on Jan. 16 after they received a call from the Bank of America branch in southwest Miami-Dade, where a supervisor reported a scheme involving one of his employees. An arrest affidavit said the employee was taking money from a client at the bank, and that he had a...

A 65-year-old woman was fatally stabbed at a Barnes & Noble store in Florida, authorities said. A suspect is in custody, according to police. The incident occurred shortly before 8 p.m. on Monday at a Barnes & Noble in Palm Beach Gardens, according to police. Officers responding to the stabbing found the victim -- identified by police as Rita Loncharich -- inside the store and "immediately rendered aid," the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said. She was transported to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries, police said.

More than three dozen missing children were rescued from sex traffickers in North Florida after a massive sting. The rescue effort, named Operation Northern Lights, found 43 missing children across 14 counties with more children found in other states, the US Marshals Service announced Thursday. Federal authorities said the youngest victims were one-year-olds and that one of the young victims had been abducted from Florida and located in Louisiana. Nine people were arrested after the staggering operation, which law enforcement said took two weeks to conduct. Additional charges could include human trafficking, child endangerment and custodial interference. The sting turned...

BRADENTON, Fla. (WWSB) - A Citrus County woman accused of killing both of her ex-husbands in separate shootings on the same day is now at the center of coordinated homicide investigations in two Florida counties. Investigators say 48-year-old Susan Erica Avalon shot and killed an ex-husband in Manatee County Wednesday afternoon, then another ex-husband in Tampa. The Manatee County shooting happened around 3 p.m. in a residential neighborhood. Detectives say Avalon used stolen food from a Panera Bread restaurant as a ruse to get the victim to open his front door.“When this victim opens the door, suspect starts to fire...

A cold-blooded serial killer who slaughtered five people was executed by lethal injection Thursday night in Florida — becoming the Sunshine State’s 19th death row inmate to die this year. Frank Athen Walls, 58, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after being injected with a three-drug cocktail while strapped to a gurney as a Catholic priest prayed by his feet inside the death chamber at Florida State Prison in Raiford. For his last words, the convicted killer apologized for the pain he’s caused his victims’ families.

Republicans on Capitol Hill who have championed the tech industry’s race to dominate artificial intelligence are confronting a growing political obstacle: voters angry over the soaring energy demands and utility costs tied to the data centers. The politics of data centers are still very much in flux, but GOP politicians may be particularly vulnerable to a voter backlash because of their pro-development views and President Donald Trump’s all-in support for AI — including blocking states from setting their own rules. Some are starting to seek distance from the White House. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis floated new limits on data...

Florida and Texas have filed a lawsuit challenging more than two decades of federal government decisions that cleared the way for the use of abortion drugs — and said the availability of the drugs through the mail has interfered with state laws designed to prevent abortions. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas, by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges that decisions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration dating back to 2000 were "arbitrary, capricious" and an "abuse of discretion" and should be rejected. "The United States Food and...

Miami Beach police arrested a homeless man on Wednesday after accusing him of committing an antisemitic attack against a Jewish day school teacher... ... the victim was wearing a Star of David necklace... when Slemons Graves, 33, snatched her phone, hit her and spat on her.

45-year-old Nubia Torres, a jewelry store employee in Miami, is accused of stealing numerous items over several months, selling them at local pawn shops. The store owner discovered the thefts in early September, leading to Torres arrest and charges of grand theft and dealing with stolen property. She remains in custody due to an immigration hold.

A South Florida Uber driver was arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching a teen passenger, authorities said. Jose Miguel Perez-Molina, 39, of North Miami Beach, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16...

Following her historic win in Tuesday night's Miami mayoral runoff election, Eileen Higgins outlined her agenda. “It feels heavy," Higgins said. "I know that people are expecting a lot from the City of Miami... On the issue of immigration, the city has previously signed the controversial 287g agreement with immigration officials Higgins gave her thoughts on that agreement. “The city should never entered into that agreement,” she said. “There is no reason in the city of Miami that...

Miami’s mayoral election has been framed as a political earthquake, but those sweeping claims don’t hold water. They do, however, evince the ignorance of all too many, across party lines, about the actual power structure in the city, Miami-Dade County, and Florida. What happened in the mayoral runoff deserves attention, but it is hardly the warning siren some Democrat operatives want it to be, nor is it a reason for Republicans to panic. Miami politics simply don’t function the way national narratives assume. Let’s start with what this race actually was. The “nonpartisan” mayor of Miami holds a largely ceremonial...