Free Republic

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...

Pieces of the tail of the Learjet that crashed in Florida have been found miles away from the crash site, which suggests that part of the aircraft broke off before it hit the ground, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Federal investigators found three pieces of the jet's left elevator between 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the impact site in Palm Beach County, Florida, NTSB member Thomas Champman said Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The plane's elevator controls the aircraft's pitch up or down, and without it, an aircraft cannot recover from a nose dive. Chapman said that...

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,...

Despite a huge media campaign against the passing of this Amendment, it passed with 62% of the public approving. The Amendment will raise the Homestead Exemption from $50,000 now to $150,000 next year and $250,000 the following year and index to inflation after that. It will cap non-homestead property at 5% instead of the 10% now. Public education property taxes are unaffected by this amendment. It requires that police, fire and public safety services be funded first. Every other Statewide Race in Florida was extremely close; this Amendment was supported by voters across both political parties. What has happened here...

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...

I almost feel bad for Angie Nixon. Sometime tonight, after the Panhandle brings it home, she’s going to find out that millions of Floridians don’t want her representing them in the United States Senate, and she’ll have to confront the possibility that the problem might actually be Angie Nixon. Just kidding. We all know that’s not happening. She’s already figured out who to blame. Florida is racist. The voters are racist. Apparently even the Democrat donors think so. Talking with Politico’s Dasha Burns last month, she complained that national Democrats were staying out of her race because “they think that...

Florida woman was arrested on a DUI charge after allegedly trying to pay for food with tampons at a Taco Bell drive-through, where an employee reported that she appeared intoxicated and confused. The encounter took an unusual turn when Roshelle Anderson, 37, struggled to explain where she was going, at one point telling police her mother lived "two stones" away. Boca Raton police arrived at the restaurant on West Palmetto Park Road around 9:08 p.m. on October 25 and saw Anderson get out of the driver's seat of her car.

You may be used to seeing police cars cruising through your neighborhood or helicopters flying overhead. But what if an officer could respond to an emergency in a small electric aircraft that looks like a giant drone? That idea is getting closer to reality in Florida. The Florida Polytechnic University Police Department in Lakeland has introduced a flying patrol vehicle that the university has nicknamed Astro. Jetson, the company behind the Jetson ONE personal flying machine, built the single-seat aircraft. According to the university, it’s the first U.S. law enforcement agency to add this type of piloted electric aircraft to...

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 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...

Chilling audio captured the moments before a Learjet crashed into a huge fireball in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday. A Learjet that departed Austin, Texas, en route to the Bahamas plunged at a high rate of speed and nosedived into a mobile home part nine miles from Mar-a-Lago. The doomed plane erupted into a giant fireball and left a massive crater in the road. All nine people aboard the doomed aircraft are dead. The victims have not been identified. Here is the Learjet crashing on Palm Beach. Frame by frame https://t.co/nCoRIIDXGP — Jon Nicosia (@NewsPolitics) November 1, 2026 The...

FYI go find the videos, crazy stuff, the conspiracy theorys are on it.... WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A business jet carrying nine people nose-dived into a South Florida neighborhood Sunday and erupted into a giant fireball that appeared to just miss homes before crashing near a busy roadway. All passengers on board were killed, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sai

“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...

Irene Miller, 50, of Kissimmee, was arrested the moment she got off her flight from Las Vegas on Friday, Oct. 23. Deputies say her four children had been home alone. The case began on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Just after 8:30 p.m., a child called 911 from a Kissimmee home. Her 9-year-old brother had been hit on the head by a falling dumbbell. Deputies raced to the house and found no adults inside. Four children, ages 14, 12, 11 and 9, were alone. Fire Rescue took the injured boy to Celebration Hospital, where he was treated and released. Deputies reached the...

It doesn't get much more Polk County than this... 3:00 Video at link...............

King Tides are a seasonal recurrence. Also seasonal in recent years are the attempts to explain the flooding caused by those tides as being due to rising sea levels. Among the media outlets at the forefront this year with the rising sea levels shtick is USA Today as you can see in this Monday story by their Climate & Environment correspondent Dinah Voyles Pulver, "Record high tides slam US coasts. Here’s what’s driving them."Most of what Pulver says is "driving" the high tides makes sense:

CLEARWATER, Fla. – A woman wearing a full black burqa approached the podium during public comment at a Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners meeting Tuesday and played a recording of the Islamic call to prayer without first making a statement, prompting board Chairman Dave Eggers to try to stop the recording and have her removed from the podium. As the recording played, a board member reminded the woman that public comment was intended for members of the public to address commissioners, not to play recordings.

David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who is now running as a Democrat against U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds to replace Ron DeSantis as Florida governor, is raising eyebrows in the Sunshine State with his suggestion that boys have a constitutional right to play on girls’ sports teams. His comments came during the “To the Contrary” podcast Charlie Sykes last year, and were unearthed Wednesday by Libs of TikTok. Florida Gov candidate David Jolly (D) suggests boys have a constitutional right to play on girl’s sports teams: “Their constitutional rights… It’s pretty disgusting what we’ve seen from Republicans on this..” “Be...

The defeated presidential candidate faces criminal investigations in his home country, which had canceled his passports SÃO PAULO—Just days after losing Brazil’s presidential election, Flávio Bolsonaro arrived in Miami Wednesday after fleeing his home country, where he faces mounting legal pressure from a Supreme Court that has already sent his father to prison.The 45-year-old senator, son of former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, crossed into Argentina late Tuesday before boarding a private jet that took his family to the U.S. via Ecuador, defying a Supreme Court order barring him from leaving Brazil.Bolsonaro faces criminal investigations into alleged financial crimes, which he...