Free Republic

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration this week released its most detailed explanation to date on its legal reasoning behind diverting $10 million in Medicaid settlement money to the Hope Florida Foundation. In short, only $57 million of a $67 million legal settlement Florida made with the Medicaid contractor Centene was considered “potential Medicaid-related damages to the State,” Agency for Health Care Administration General Counsel Andrew Sheeran wrote to lawmakers on Tuesday. That meant that Centene could be directed to divert the remaining $10 million to the Hope Florida charity, Sheeran wrote. The charity was created by DeSantis’ administration to support the...

An illegal alien from Mexico released into the interior of the United States by Joe Biden was arrested for raping a 13-year-old boy. The Charlotte County, Florida, Sheriff on Thursday announced 20-year-old Samuel Cobos-Carmona was arrested and charged with committing sexual battery on a child. Sheriff Bill Prummell said Cobos-Carmona illegally entered the US for the first time in 2021 on Joe Biden’s open borders invitation. He was deported but made his way back over the US border in 2022. Cobos-Carmona fled from Texas authorities and ended up in Florida. He was caught by law enforcement in Sarasota in the...

Florida authorities said they were ready to “act on” any UK extradition order for Andrew Tate in a letter The Times has decided to publish after a woman he allegedly went on to assault questioned why the Home Office did not take action. The email was sent on March 7 from the office of James Uthmeier, the attorney-general of Florida, to Matthew Jury, a lawyer for four of Tate’s British victims, stating its willingness to arrest and extradite Tate if Britain made a formal request. Jury, a lawyer at McCue Jury & Partners, handed a physical copy of the letter...

Far-left Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., broke his silence on Tuesday after an unearthed social media post of rap lyrics set off a firestorm of controversy. Frost, who recently made headlines for flying to El Salvador to visit deported illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was heavily criticized on social media after a seemingly cryptic tweet from 2016 resurfaced reading "f----- wit my gang gon get u spilled." The post was in response to tweets including one by an account named "Hits LeBlunt." The line is from the song "Gang" by rapper "Max P." The post generated...

The 20-year-old who allegedly opened fire on the Florida State University (FSU) campus had been prescribed medication for “emotional dysregulation”; it is unclear whether he had stopped taking medication at the time of the shooting. CNN reported that he “suffered from emotional dysregulation,” but noted that family members indicated “he had stopped taking some of the prescribed medication.” The Cleveland Clinic says: Emotional dysregulation isa brain-related symptom that means you have trouble managing your feelings and emotions. It’s often a sign of conditions that affect your brain or differences in how your brain developed or works today. It’s usually not...

Florida is a state known for sunny beaches and red state politics. I've actually heard a state lawmaker describe it as the freest state in the nation. Of course, this was at a Second Amendment gathering where people know how restrictive the state can be on guns. They're not anti-gun, but not the most pro-gun, either. But they're good enough that people can defend themselves if need be. However, that doesn't mean someone won't make you move. It seems a Florida woman defended herself from a home invader. She shot the intruder and killed him. But rather than just be...

Two people were killed an six more were injured during the mass shooting that took place Thursday at Florida State University. As I described here, the shooter was stopped in the act and sent to the hospital by police. It sounds like he's going to survive. He was later identified as Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old student at FSU. His mother was also identified as a local sheriff's deputy. Ikner used one of her handguns in the attack. However, today we've got a lot more information about Ikner and his history and what it shows is a lot of family problems,...

See ya later, alligator. Many Floridians have had bizarre encounters with alligators — but this one might take the cake. A Sunshine State resident took to Reddit to share their frightening experience with two creepy reptiles that came up to their home’s front door, which was all captured on the family’s Ring camera. The footage shows two enormous alligators dilly-dallying around the home’s front porch. When one of the alligators saw that no one was coming to the door to welcome them into their home, they lingered a little bit longer before growing impatient. The video then showed one of...

A Florida gun nut has been indicted in New Jersey for allegedly boarding an Amtrak train with a “small arsenal of weapons,” including a slew of ammunition, handguns, and a booby-trapped rifle, authorities said. Jeffrey O. Kennerk of Fort Lauderdale was caught on a Virginia-bound Amtrak train with a slew of assault weapons, large-capacity ammunition magazines, handguns, and silencers, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office announced. “This defendant allegedly hauled a small arsenal of deadly weapons and ammunition through busy transit stations, and on a train filled with passengers,” Platkin said in a Wednesday statement. Transit police in Newark-Penn...

Eriksen, lives in Tallahassee and is a Norwegian-American dual citizen, revealed she lost contact with Ikner following the bitter custody battle she had with her son’s father, Christopher Ikner. The messy legal struggle culminated when Eriksen kidnapped Phoenix Ikner, who was born Christian Gunnar Eriksen, and flew him to Europe in March 2015. Eriksen claimed she was taking her son to South Florida for spring break, but instead, the mother-son duo travelled to Norway Phoenix Ikner is accused of using a handgun that belonged to his stepmother during the shooting. Hours after the shooting, before Ikner was identified as the...

MIAMI — After Florida International University’s police department entered into an agreement with the federal government to carry out immigration enforcement on campus, some students say they are terrified. “It’s scary and nerve-racking,” said an undergraduate at the university. The student, who's not being identified because he lacks legal immigration status, told NBC News he came to the U.S. when he was 5 with his family after they were threatened by gangs in their native El Salvador. FIU is one of a number of universities in Florida that have signed agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the 287(g)...

A Florida man has been indicted in Trenton, New Jersey, after allegedly boarding an Amtrak train with what authorities described as a “small arsenal” of weapons. Jeffrey O. Kennerk, 34, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was caught on a train on Jan. 3 with assault weapons, large-capacity ammunition magazines, handguns, silencers, and a booby-trapped rifle that fired during his arrest at the Trenton Transit Center, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office said on April 16. “This defendant allegedly hauled a small arsenal of deadly weapons and ammunition through busy transit stations, and on a train filled with passengers,” Platkin said...

People on social media are outraged over a video reportedly taken at the scene of a fatal mass shooting at Florida State University in Tallahassee, on Thursday, April 17. But it's not just over the alleged shooter, identified by Tallahassee police as 20-year-old FSU student Phoenix Ikner. It's over video that was seemingly shot by someone walking past a wounded, bleeding woman lying face down on the grass. Rather than stopping to help or even running away from an active shooter, as what sounds like two shots are fired in the background, the person walks by while sipping from a...

A U.S.-born American citizen was being detained at the request of immigration authorities Thursday despite an advocate showing his U.S. birth certificate in court and a county judge finding no reason for him to be considered an “illegal alien” who illegally entered Florida. Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, was arrested Thursday evening by Florida Highway Patrol and charged under a state immigration law that has been temporarily blocked since early this month. Details of Gomez-Lopez’s arrest and detention were first reported by the Florida Phoenix news site. After inspecting his birth certificate, Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans said during the hearing...

FSU shooter’s biological mom kidnapped him and fled to Norway amid bitter custody battle decade before deadly rampage The biological mother of accused Florida State University shooter, Phoenix Ikner, kidnapped him and fled to Norway amid a bitter custody battle a decade before the deadly shooting, court documents reveal. Eriksen and Phoenix Ikner — who at the time went by his birth name Christian Gunnar Eriksen — both have American and Norwegian citizenship. “Instead of staying in South Florida, the defendant allegedly fled the country with him in violation of their custody agreement,” the affidavit stated. Christopher Ikner only discovered...

In the wake of the deadly shooting at Florida State University on Thursday, a portrait of the alleged gunman -- the son of a local sheriff's deputy -- has emerged. At least two people were killed and six others were injured when shots rang out near the Tallahassee institution's Student Union, officials said during a press conference.

President Donald Trump entered UFC 314 on Saturday night in Miami on Saturday night. President Trump walked out flanked by his two grandchildren at his side. He was followed by Dana White, Elon Musk, gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, and several more. Before President Trump reached his seats he greeted DNI Tulsi Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr….. But NOT his wife Cheryl Hines who he skipped over. Ouch!

Congress has seen plenty of firebrands and confrontational lawmakers — especially from Florida. But Washington still might be in for a shock when it comes to Randy Fine. Over his nine years in the Florida Legislature, he gained a reputation for his bare-knuckle style of politics and spats with local officials. Now the former gambling executive will be going national with last week’s special election win in a deep-red district on Florida’s northeast coast. Three years ago, Fine called a school-board member a “whore” in a text. During Covid, he got sanctioned by Facebook after he wrote a post alerting...

A Florida high school teacher has been fired for calling a student an alternative name without getting parental permission, making her the first educator to be fired under a state law passed last year. Melissa Calhoun, a teacher at Satellite High School in Brevard County, will not have her contract renewed next school year after using a preferred name without obtaining a parental consent form, Florida Today reported Thursday. “BPS supports parents’ rights to be the primary decision-makers in their children’s lives, and Florida law affirms their right to be informed,” Brevard County Public Schools spokesperson Janet Murnaghan told the...

A Venezuelan criminal gang that for the past few years has been extending its operations and causing havoc throughout Latin America has made an appearance in South Florida, police say, claiming that at least one of its members was involved in a recent Miami murder. José Luis Sánchez Valera, a 43-year-old retired Venezuelan police officer who lived in Doral, was lured by women into a hotel room in Miami in late November and killed after he was abducted in the parking lot. Yurwin Salazar, 23, a Venezuelan immigrant who lives in South Florida, has been charged with the murder. According...