Free Republic

Officials in Florida's Manatee County School District are scrambling to comply with the state's recently implemented law demanding transparency in school libraries. Teams of volunteers have been combing through and cataloging the books in the county's roughly 60 schools. They flag any questionable books for review by certified specialists. Some teachers have covered up their classroom libraries out of fear they could face felony charges under the law that was enacted last year. "We've got to go classroom by classroom and start to catalog all the books in these classrooms to make sure that they're in our system if they're...

More than half of LGBTQ parents in Florida are considering moving their families to another state over concerns that a new Florida education law – known to its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law – stigmatizes LGBTQ identities and creates a hostile learning environment for LGBTQ children or students with LGBTQ family members. In a report issued Tuesday by the Williams Institute, a public policy research institute based at the UCLA of Law, and Clark University in Massachusetts, 56 percent of LGBTQ parents surveyed said they were considering leaving Florida over concerns about how the new law may impact...

ORLANDO, Fla. – An Orlando woman was arrested Wednesday, accused of a romance scam that drained an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor of his life savings, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Prosecutors and the FBI say Peaches Stergo, 36, of Championsgate met the victim on a dating website six or seven years ago, and in 2017 asked to borrow money to pay a lawyer who was refusing to release funds from an injury settlement. According to the federal indictment, over the next few years, Stergo repeatedly demanded the victim deposit money into her bank accounts, saying if he didn’t they would...

CLEVELAND – A Parkland, Florida, man pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, to devising a scheme that defrauded several companies involved in the sale of polymers, including one business in Northeast Ohio, and multiple logistic companies, causing losses of more than $4.1 million. According to court documents, from July 2013 to January 2020, Terrence Anderson, 66, devised a scheme to steal shipments of polymers from businesses involved in the sale of the chemicals. The scheme was achieved, in part, by fraudulently obtaining services from logistic companies involved in processing rail shipments. Court documents show that Anderson owned and operated...

Dozens of people gathered outside of The Union League of Philadelphia's headquarters on Broad Street to protest the arrival of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He's being honored with the league's top award. It appears his first stop was grabbing a cheesesteak at Delassandro's in Roxborough. Black community leaders came out Tuesday in objection to the award because they say the award known as the Gold Medal of Honor sends the wrong message. Which some argue is divisive and detrimental to Black and brown communities. The ceremony is a members-only ticketed event and is said to be sold out. The Union...

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is expected to announce his intent to file a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis Wednesday for rejecting an Advanced Placement African American Studies pilot program. According to a media release, Crump and attorney Craig Whisenhunt will join students and elected officials at the Florida capitol building to make the announcement.

National outrage ensued after the state rejected an AP African American Studies course, but a copy of the syllabus obtained by The Florida Standard shows the course sought to teach progressive doctrines such as intersectionality and Critical Race Theory.TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) once again made national headlines on Wednesday after the state rejected an Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies course. The Florida Standard obtained a copy of the course syllabus and reviewed the proposed material. Topics include “Black Queer Studies” and “Postracial Racism and Colorblindness.” On January 12, the FDOE’s...

A Florida man angry with his homeowners association set his unit on fire, causing an explosion that damaged other units and shot himself afterwards, authorities said. Marc Hermann, 53, was arrested Monday and is being held in the Seminole County jail on four arson charges. The fire broke out on Jan. 14 in a small apartment community in the Orlando suburb of Longwood, according to a police affidavit. A responding deputy found Hermann sitting on the ground draped in towels and bleeding, the documents said. When asked about his injuries, Hermann allegedly told authorities they were caused by a gun....

The Supreme Court called upon the Biden administration to weigh in on cases involving Florida and Texas laws aimed at limiting what sort of content social media platforms can censor. Litigation over Florida's SB 7072 and Texas's HB 20 pit the states' goal of maintaining the free expression of ideas online – amid concern that social media giants unfairly censor conservative ideas – and social media companies' own free speech interests in being able to keep and remove content on their own sites. "The Solicitor General is invited to file briefs in these cases expressing the views of the United...

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a proposal for a ‘Teacher’s Bill of Rights’ on Monday, which includes provisions to increase teacher pay, alter school board member term limits, and impose new school union regulations. Speaking at a press conference in Jacksonville, DeSantis detailed his proposal to lawmakers that would allocate $1 billion to increase pay for teachers across the state. If adopted, the proposition would increase funding for teacher salaries by $200 million dollar compared to the year prior. The proposal package also takes a swipe at teacher unions, outlining a series of regulations that would prohibit unions from deducting dues...

Gianno Caldwell is one of the bravest people in America. How do I know that? Because he’s an openly conservative Black man, a Fox news political analyst and political podcaster, an enemy of PC culture, and the author of a book advising Republicans how to bring disenchanted Black Democrats back to the Republican party. Those views saw him kicked out of a North Miami bakery. For those unfamiliar with Caldwell, who grew up on Chicago’s southside, once Barack Obama’s political stomping grounds, here’s the key paragraph from Caldwell’s website bio:Gianno’s first book, TAKEN FOR GRANTED: How Conservatism Can Win Back...

The man charged with having a deceased female body in his vehicle after leading police on a 37-mile pursuit along Interstate 75 is now set for a preliminary hearing. David Maurice Reed, 54, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was arraigned Friday in Laurel District Court on charges of murder - domestic violence, tampering with physical evidence, first-degree fleeing and evading police in a motor vehicle, second-degree criminal abuse, second-degree wanton endangerment with police officer as victim, careless driving, resisting arrest, and no operator's/moped license. Reed was spotted in Madison County on Wednesday, Jan. 18, weaving in traffic along I-75. The vehicle's...

Gianno Caldwell is a Fox News contributor, author and activist. Raised on the south side of Chicago, Caldwell often credits his upbringing with helping him to be resilient and driven. When his teenage brother was murdered by random gunfire on a Chicago street corner one Friday morning last summer, Caldwell became a passionate spokesperson for justice. In particular, Caldwell has railed against the lax crime policies of liberal legislators and prosecutors in cities across the nation. He even testified in front of Congress recently, as someone who has been directly affected by the unchecked violence plaguing American cities. Caldwell...

Florida librarians are now required to take an annual training on which books and instructional materials, specifically ones containing pornography and Critical Race Theory (CRT), are allowed within schools, according to the Florida Department of Education. The Florida Department of Education approved a rule Wednesday that mandates librarians be trained to keep material that is sexually explicit and “harmful to minors” out of schools. The training requires librarians to include parents in “all aspects” of choosing materials that enter the school libraries.

A Florida woman who was allegedly shooting at random vehicles driving past her in Orange County earlier this month, resulting in the death of a 27-year-old wife and mother, has been arrested. The Orange County Sheriff's Office announced Friday Angila Baxter, 56, was arrested by homicide detectives for the Jan. 12 death of Nekaybaw Collier. She is charged with second-degree murder with a firearm. The sheriff's office said Baxter claimed she was being followed by multiple people when she recklessly began firing shots at a handful of vehicles and people, striking Collier and killing her. "We extend our deepest condolences...

A 39-year-old Florida man now faces criminal charges in connection with a physical confrontation on a Park City chairlift that was posted on TikTok and garnered millions of views. The man, from Lutz, Florida, was charged Wednesday in Summit County Justice Court with assault, a class B misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor. Police say the assault occurred on Dec. 26 while two men and a woman were riding a chairlift at Park City Mountain Resort. The Park City-based news website Town Lift reports that the victim is a 52-year-old man who is also from Florida. The confrontation...

'Where woke goes to die' is more than a slogan in Ron DeSantis's state of Florida. Need some good news? Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, has a way of always delivering good news. On the culture wars front, he's gotten the steamroller out, flattening wokester investing in public pensions on what's known as the ESG model. According to the Daily Wire: (Daily Wire excerpt in Post #1) SNIP The good news doesn't stop there, though. In a move that brought unusually loud screams from the left, DeSantis junked another problem besetting Florida and the rest of the country -- woke...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis approved Florida’s $101.5 billion budget, which includes a large chunk of Covid-19 federal relief funds from the American Relief Plan, which DeSantis once described as “Washington at its worst.”Most of the approximately $9 billion federal relief funds will go to police, teachers and first responders, including $1,000 bonus checks for teachers, principals and first responders. Florida was able to increase its budget from last year by more than $9 billion, in large part due to the federal funds, combined with additional revenue the state generated beyond what state economists had predicted. Before the federal funds were...

Blue New York lost tens of thousands of residents to Florida in 2022, reaching historic figures, according to data from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. According to the data, 64,577 New Yorkers made history, making the official switch to the Sunshine State in 2022 by changing over their licenses last year. That’s up from the 61,728 who fled the Empire State for Florida the year prior, in 2021.

The Florida Supreme Court has upheld a law that forbids local governments from restricting sales of guns and ammunition beyond state law. In a 4-1 ruling, the court said local officials could face stiff penalties if they try to enforce the restrictions that go beyond the Florida law. Florida passed a law in 1987 the stated local cities and counties could not have restrictions on guns that were more restrictive than the state's, law. "It is not a core municipal function to occupy an area that the Legislature has preempted, and local governments have no lawful discretion or authority to...