Free Republic

CARACAS, Venezuela - U.S. missionaries accused by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of espionage have been forced from their remote outposts among jungle tribes by a government order, the final pair leaving Thursday after years of evangelical work. The New Tribes Mission flew those two out of the rain forest to regroup with other missionaries in the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz. There they will decide what to do next: leave the country or continue with a legal battle seeking to overturn the government's order to expel them from indigenous areas by Sunday. Most of the group's missionaries are Americans. Since...

A family of seven who tucked into an expensive feast brazenly left an Orlando restaurant without paying, it has been claimed. The group were caught on surveillance footage consuming a spread worth $300 before leaving @ The Diner, apparently without settling their hefty tab on Sunday. The Florida restaurant is now seeking to identify the alleged dine-and-dashers, who are said to have taken off during its busiest shift of the day. It wrote on Instagram that the family ordered multiple dishes and appeared to enjoy a leisurely meal before carrying out their premeditated escape in stages. The restaurant, which shared...

The attorney for an imprisoned Navy admiral told Military.com that efforts are underway to either get his conviction reversed, or to receive a pardon from President Donald Trump. Retired four-star Navy Adm. Robert P. Burke, 63, of Coconut Creek, Fla., once the second-highest uniformed Navy officer who formerly commanded forces in Africa, Europe and Russia, was found guilty in May 2025 of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts from the United States following a five-day trial. He was sentenced in September to six years in prison. His case received revived...

A top Missouri prosecutor was booted for having an affair with an illegal migrant her office was probing for sex assault — and because she slept with two other men in glaring conflicts of interest, too, court papers allege. Disgraced Ray County Prosecutor Camille Johnston was yanked from her position Thursday when a judge signed off on Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s petition laying out a slew of misconduct allegations against her during her three and a half years in office, Hanaway announced. Johnston — an elected official who took office Jan. 1, 2023 — compromised the integrity of her...

Missouri Prosecutor Camille Johnston is in MAJOR trouble. Allegedly: • Had an intimate relationship with an undocumented immigrant whose sexual assault case her office was prosecuting. • Helped him evade arrest by driving him to Mississippi in 2023, gave him her car + title, and vacationed with him in Florida. • Never disclosed the relationship, never recused herself, and allegedly slow-walked the charges. PLUS: • Accused of a relationship with a criminal defense attorney whose clients she was prosecuting. • Accused of a relationship with a married domestic violence suspect (C.W.) — and firing an employee who confronted her about...

Former Marine and congressional candidate William Upham faces a federal charge for allegedly threatening to kill President Trump.William Lintag Upham, a former Marine officer and qualified congressional write-in candidate, was arrested and charged on July 16 with threatening to kill President Donald Trump.The charges announced by the Justice Department came after federal agents reviewed social media videos in which Upham allegedly called for the administration’s violent overthrow. Upham, 35, appeared in federal court in Jacksonville, Fla., and a judge ordered him detained. He faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted. He is presumed innocent as prosecutors have...

A 25-year-old man faces a felony charge after authorities say he managed to bypass airport gate agents and board a full United Airlines flight to Los Angeles using a fake boarding pass, triggering an explosives sweep that forced every passenger off the aircraft. Abdulrahman Oriyomi was arrested Friday morning and charged with felony impairing or interrupting the operation of a critical infrastructure facility. The charges stem from an incident last month at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The things a mother will go through for her child. A woman named Melissa Sotomayor was shocked at how United Airlines treated her disabled son on a recent flight home from Tampa, Florida to New Jersey. Sotomayor took to TikTok — in a now viral video with over 1 million views — to share her very sad experience. She began the video explaining her son’s condition: “My son is dependent upon a trach, short for tracheostomy, and ventilator. He has vision and hearing problems.” The mother went on to explain that in order to fly safely, she made sure to...

United Airlines is preparing for customers who may object to flying into an airport named for President Donald Trump, and reservation agents have been authorized to move those passengers to Fort Lauderdale or Miami without charging more. United Will Let Customers Avoid “DJT” Airport And Fly To Miami Or Fort Lauderdale Instead United Airlines is giving reservation agents unusual flexibility to accommodate customers who no longer want to fly to West Palm Beach after the airport was renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport. According to an internal memo shared with Live And Let’s Fly, United is the process of...

Florida’s next governor needs a stress test, not a coronation. A few days ago, I posited that St. Pete Beach in Florida is showing signs of strain, hinting at a lack of the resilience that was once part of its fabric. Given that hurricanes are inevitable, I worried that its general inability to cope with even minimal pressure put it at risk of collapse in the event of another natural disaster. Some commenters thought I was exaggerating a bad restaurant experience and overextending it. It’s worth taking that criticism seriously because the objection shows that I failed to make myself...

Two death row inmates are scheduled to be put to death on the same day in Florida — the first double execution in the Sunshine State in over six decades. Governor Ron DeSantis rescheduled the execution of former police officer and convicted child murderer James Duckett for 12 p.m. on July 28, exactly six hours before Dominick Anthony Occhicone Jr. is also set to be put to death, USA Today reported. The 68-year-old former cop was set to be executed in March for murdering an 11-year-old girl in 1987, but he received a rare and temporary reprieve from the Florida...

Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao took to social media to report no one from the U.S. Navy’s elite Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron will be reprimanded after a low-altitude pass went viral in Florida on Wednesday. “Flight debrief complete. No reprimands. No firings. No problem. That’s the sound of Freedom! Semper fi and Hooyah,” Cao said in a social media post that included a brief video clip of the jet zooming over the beach. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is encouraging low-altitude military flyovers. The video shows the Blue Angels flying so low over a crowded beach in Pensacola...

Congressman Greg Steube @RepGregSteube·20h BREAKING: My amendment to withhold 100% of U.S. aid to Nigeria until its government stops the slaughter of Christians has PASSED. American taxpayers should NEVER bankroll governments that turn a blind eye while Christians are abducted, tortured, and murdered. No more wasteful foreign aid! July 15, 2026

The Marine Corps has denounced comments made by a Marine veteran running for Congress who posted a video of himself in uniform and made threatening comments directed at President Donald Trump. William Upham made the comments in a roughly 6-minute video that was posted on his social media accounts earlier this week. Upham is running for Florida's 5th Congressional District in November as a write-in candidate. In the video, Upham accused Trump of being the "antichrist" and "the enemy of God." Upham also claimed the president is "your enemy and he must be killed." The Marine Corps issued a statement...

A South Florida woman was surprised to receive a new license plate with her vehicle registration renewal that she feels carries an inappropriate message. Pompano Beach resident Nancy Dello Stritto, who is almost 77 years old, opened her mail to find a license plate reading "SQZ A55." She told CBS News Miami that the plate, which can be interpreted to spell out a crude phrase, caused her to go "ballistic." The plate has become a topic of conversation at her retirement community, where opinions are split. While Dello Stritto is unhappy with the configuration, she noted that others, including her...

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The Department of Homeland Security shared a brief update Wednesday morning after an operation in St. Johns County turned deadly on Tuesday. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a 28-year-old man who ran from ICE agents around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday crossed into the path of a tractor-trailer on State Road 16 and was killed. A DHS spokesperson released this statement about the incident on Wednesday morning: On July 14, DHS law enforcement conducted an operation near St. Johns, Florida. Florida Highway Patrol and HSI are investigating an incident resulting in the death of a Mexican...

Two dim-witted wannabe influencers are being investigated after going wildly viral for filming themselves stroking alligators in Florida — just days after a swimmer was killed by one. “Come with us to pet alligators,” TikTokker Kileigh Rose wrote of the death-defying foolishness her and a friend reckoned would be part of a fun “Steve Irwin summer.” One clip shows the young women paddling on Silver Springs State Park in a small, clear canoe when one of them puts her hand in the water, rubbing her hand along the alligator’s back, the Orlando Sentinel reported of the footage that was deleted...

A federal judge on Monday nullified an agreement the government reached with Donald Trump and his sons over the leak of his tax returns. The judge lambasted the government and president’s lawyers for using the judicial process to try to concoct a beneficial arrangement for the president. The ruling from US district judge Kathleen Williams in the southern district of Florida blocks a widely criticized arrangement the government and the president’s attorneys reached earlier this year to resolve a $10bn lawsuit by Trump and his sons over the leak of the president’s tax returns. The government never responded to the...

A criminal who hijacked a plane from Cuba to Florida in 2003 and served 20 years in prison had been in ICE custody awaiting deportation — till a Dem-appointed judge dumped him back on the street last week. Cuban national Miakel Guerra Morales — who assaulted crew members during his terrifying midair hijacking — was detained by ICE in December, then ordered freed July 8 by Florida Judge John E. Steele, who said he’d been in custody too long. The Department of Homeland Security on Monday railed against the Bill Clinton-nominated federal judge’s decision to release Guerra Morales. “This activist...

Polk County deputies arrested a 62-year-old man who they say exposed himself to a 5-year-old child inside a Mulberry Walmart after a Crime Stoppers tip ended a two-day search. Walmart incident What we know: According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, a mother and her 5-year-old daughter were grocery shopping during the day at a Walmart in Mulberry when a man followed them. Sheriff Grady Judd stated, "This is a sick guy and he's dangerous." Judd noted that surveillance footage captured the man tracking the family through the business. "On Monday afternoon, past, he is a sexual predator in a...