Free Republic

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill into law on May 2 banning “indoctrination” programs for teachers.The measure, HB 1291, prohibits programs, courses, and curricula in teacher training from “distorting” historical events or promoting political ideologies regarding race, sex, and gender.Accredited postsecondary institutions can seek Florida Department of Education approval to create institutes to educate teachers on improving classroom instruction and meeting requirements for certification or recertification.They can also seek approval for instruction on educating existing and potential substitute teachers on how to perform classroom duties and to teach those with baccalaureate degrees how to become certified.However, teacher...

Sane-minded people who felt a sense of despair after seeing how the pro-Hamas college protests were playing out early on at places like Columbia University and UCLA were heartened in late April when the University of Florida issued a no-nonsense response to the "outrage" that ensued from the arrest of some campus agitators.As RedState reported at the time, the statement released by U of F school spokesman Steve Orlando confirmed that they were not a daycare center and that if their rules were not followed, then consequences would follow."This is not complicated: The University of Florida is not a daycare,...

A group of influential Republican senators has sent a letter to International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan, warning him not to issue international arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, and threatening him with “severe sanctions” if he does so. In a terse, one-page letter obtained exclusively by Zeteo, and signed by 12 GOP senators, including Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Florida’s Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz of Texas, Khan is informed that any attempt by the ICC to hold Netanyahu and his colleagues to account for their actions in Gaza will be interpreted...

Florida passed a law requiring hospitals to publicize the costs of unpaid care for migrants, and the reports thus far show that the loss to the state’s hospitals is a massive $566 million just in 2024 — and taxpayers are picking up much of that loss.

State leadership and delegation chairs from several Libertarian Party chapters, including those in Florida, California, Colorado, Tennessee, Minnesota, Vermont, Nebraska, and the District of Columbia, have extended an invitation to independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging him to seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination. The letter, published on Friday by Libertarians for Kennedy and signed by various party leaders, including an alternative region representative on the Libertarian National Committee, urges Kennedy to seek the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party, with the understanding that the undersigned would consider voting for him in the first round if he accepts. Notably, the...

Former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE), now the president of the University of Florida, slammed pro-Hamas demonstrators this week who have created chaos on college campuses across the U.S. and the weak leadership at the universities that has allowed the behavior to happen. Sasse’s remarks come after the school released a statement early in the week revealing that numerous arrests were made on campus because the school would not tolerate disorderly conduct that was in violation of the school’s policies. “Higher education has for years faced a slow-burning crisis of public trust,” he wrote in an op-ed at The Wall...

NYC judge retiring to Florida days after setting free deranged brute who broke mom-of-three’s jaw The turn-em-loose judge who released an alleged predator who randomly sucker-punches people left the bench Friday — just days after the bizarre ruling — and is moving to Florida. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Sciarrino retired with more than a year-and-a-half left on his mayoral appointment, two days after setting free the deranged suspect accused of socking Dulche Pichardo of Crown Heights in the face and breaking the 57-year-old mother-of-three’s jaw.

Former Baltimore DA Marilyn Mosby could be about to lose her Florida vacation condo - the same property she was found to have bought fraudulently, days after revealing she plans to ask for a presidential pardon to avoid a lengthy jail term. Mosby, 44, bought the property in February 2021 for $476,000 but the feds are now looking to seize it and sell the place. If there are profits from the sale, Mosby would get back her original $47,600 down payment, prosecutors have stated. During her trial on perjury and mortgage fraud charges, the court heard how Mosby lied on...

Kyle Tate is charged with grand theft and criminal mischief... A Palm Bay, Florida Homeowners Association board member was arrested last month after allegedly pulling a gun on three kids fishing at a lake in his subdivision, taking their equipment and throwing the rods, reels and tackle into the woods.. Police charged 57-year-old Kyle Patrick Tate with criminal mischief and grand theft as a result of the incident. A court affidavit filed in Brevard County, Florida alleges that on April 14, officers with the Palm Bay Police Department were dispatched to a suspicious incident at Stillwater Lakes, a subdivision owned...

A Florida bill, the Heartbeat Protection Act (HPA), went into effect on Wednesday, which increases protections for the unborn after six-weeks, as opposed to the state’s previous 15-week rule. The HPA initially became law in April 2023 as part of the Florida Supreme Court’s decision that abortion is not a given right under the Constitution. That decision was key in upholding the 15-week law, and only a month later, proved relevant to the six-week law. Several Democrats have made their opposition to the bill known. For instance, Vice President Kamala Harris claimed the law was “extreme,” blaming former President Donald...

Florida's Republican-controlled legislature has passed a measure to replace mentions of “climate change” in many state laws and has sent it to GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis for him to sign into law The bill, which focuses on energy security, removes all explicit mentions of climate change, according to Scripps News, and directs the state only to “promote the cost-effective development and use of a diverse supply of domestic energy resources.” The bill also eliminates guidelines for the government to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions from fossil fuels, and it prohibits new wind energy construction within a mile of Florida’s...

Numerous Florida residents in the Clermont and Groveland areas say they keep seeing monkeys roaming their neighborhoods. Clermont resident Aime Krug told Fox 35 she spotted one of the animals Tuesday on the roof of a house on Minnehaha Avenue and was shocked at the sight of it, the outlet reported Thursday: Possible wild monkeys seen walking around Florida neighborhood https://t.co/yenznMSAVn — FOX 13 Tampa Bay (@FOX13News) May 2, 2024 “This monkey went across the road, and I had to do a double take because I didn’t think that it was actually a monkey,” she recalled, noting that because she...

A Florida man was arrested for a crime that could be mistaken for a headline in the Onion or the Babylon Bee. As the Smoking Gun reported, 20-year-old Khanye Edrayieze Medley was arrested on Monday by Clearwater Police on a domestic battery charge. He allegedly got into a verbal altercation with his sister, who he lives with, that turned physical in a most unusual way. The police affidavit shows that Medley grabbed a bag of chicken from his sister and began hurling pieces at her during an argument on Sunday. One piece of chicken hit her in the back and...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill banning lab-grown meat in his state Wednesday, in what he described as an effort to “save our beef.” “Today, Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals,” DeSantis said in a press release Wednesday. “Our administration will continue to focus on investing in our local farmers and ranchers, and we will save our beef.” The bill, S.B. 1084, makes it “unlawful” for people to “manufacture for sale, sell, hold or offer for...

Vice President Kamala Harris continued her 2024 abortion tour in Jacksonville, Florida, to rail against the state’s six-week abortion restriction that went into effect Wednesday and to cast blame on former President Donald Trump. Harris spoke for about 15 minutes at the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center in Downtown Jacksonville, where she not only slammed the state’s heartbeat bill, but also decried abortion restrictions in other states that have been passed or gone into effect since the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision in June of 2022. The Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade — which had for 50...

America’s academic leaders seem powerless only because they’ve spent decades promoting the ideologies now on such brutal and ugly display.The scenes unfolding at America’s most prestigious colleges are horrific. Antisemitic mobs preaching genocide — at times crossing the line into actual violence — have rendered campuses unsafe for Jews. Faculty members cheer them on, advocating for full-on pogroms.Top administrators flounder. Columbia had protesters arrested and suspended, then stood dumbfounded as a larger, more belligerent wave took their place. Unable to guarantee the physical safety of its students, the school moved all classes online. Copycat mobs on campuses across America formed...

Call it pinko talent development, but we can still learn from it When Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Texas governor Greg Abbot proposed legislation making particular radical tactics crimes — many of them felonies — carrying mandatory jail time, much commentary, positive and negative, focused on DeSantis’ proposal (previously made by other jurisdictions) that a driver fleeing from safety from a mob should not be liable for injury or death caused by hitting someone with his car. That proposal was especially popular with those who, beyond supporting the right to physical safety and self-defense, fantasize about breaking radical Lefty movements...

Law enforcement officials used tear gas on anti-Israel protesters after giving them a several-minute warning to leave the campus of the University of South Florida (USF). Video footage posted to X shows law enforcement officials standing in a line on one side of the university lawn, while a crowd of anti-Israel protesters is informed they have “five minutes to disperse” or they will be tear-gassed.

A law that restricts abortions at six weeks of pregnancy — which is often when a fetal heartbeat can be detected — is set to take effect in Florida on Wednesday. The six-week abortion restriction is going into effect after the Florida Supreme Court issued a ruling on April 1 upholding the state’s 15-week abortion restriction. The court’s decision to allow the 15-week limit to stand cleared the way for the state’s six week abortion limit to take effect. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the six-week Heartbeat Bill in April 2023, which contains exceptions for rape, incest, and the...

Florida lawmakers showed their willingness to crack down on third-party organizations who break the law when registering voters — and in response, the groups have significantly slimmed down their operations in the Sunshine State, according to a report from WUSF. Florida’s legislature passed SB 7050 in 2023. The law increased fines on third-party voter registration groups who deliver a registration application after the deadline, return incorrectly filled out registration forms, alter a voter’s registration form, or deliver applications to the wrong counties. The law also prohibited third-party groups from pre-filling registration forms and harvesting voters’ data from their registration forms....