Free Republic

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) faces accusations of using campaign funds for several lavish expenditures, including Disneyland, Disney World, and the Super Bowl. “Sen. Ruben Gallego repeatedly used campaign cash to fund luxury outings with his wife and to care for his children since launching his campaign for Senate in 2023, including attending the Super Bowl using a joint campaign account with Eric Swalwell,” POLITICO reporter Irie Sentner writes. More from The Daily Beast: The Arizona lawmaker used political action committee funds to pay for trips and more than $18,000 in child care since 2019, Politico reported Sunday. “He just spends...

Carnival Cruise Line has banned 16 people after a massive fight broke out among passengers as they waited in a customs line in Florida. Dramatic footage captured the moment a group of unruly individuals charged at each other at around 8am on Monday after the Carnival Conquest ship docked at Port Miami following a trip to the Bahamas. Two unidentified women kicked off the brawl as one of them, dressed in a black strapless dress, ducked under a line divider and started swinging at a woman in polka dot pajamas. Another woman, who donned a yellow and white maxi-dress, then...

Pickleball was supposed to be for old people who don't move well. It's clear that we're beyond that point. According to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office, Michele Bannister, 47, of St. Augustine, allegedly went full John Wick on another player at a park on May 31 after a disagreement over - and I can't stress this enough - who was supposed to get the ball when it got away. Not a joke. This argument apparently got Michele worked up, because after the match when her opponent was speaking to her son about his playing style she "interjected" by going...

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has announced he is resigning, months after he was placed on administrative leave following an FBI raid at his home and office in February, the district confirmed Sunday. An LAUSD spokesperson said the LAUSD Board of Education “acknowledges receipt of the letter of resignation from Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho, effective June 21, 2026.” “The Board remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring stability, continuity, and continued progress through strong leadership. Our focus remains unchanged: providing every student with a high-quality education, supporting our dedicated workforce, and maintaining the trust of the communities...

U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody leads Democrat Alex Vindman in Florida’s U.S. Senate race, according to a new poll released by the Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) Center for Political Strategy. The survey found Moody, the AIF-endorsed candidate, with 47% support among likely general election voters, compared with 40% for Vindman. Fourteen percent of respondents were undecided. The poll also found Moody’s support to be firmer than Vindman’s. While Vindman drew support from 40% of respondents overall, 29% said they were “definitely” voting for him. By comparison, 35% of voters said they were definitely backing Moody. AIF said Moody leads in...

Some Black Democrats are frustrated with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (D-Fla.) decision to run in a South Florida congressional district home to a large Black voting population, sparking an intraparty clash that is poised to become a defining battle of the campaign season. Wasserman Schultz, a veteran lawmaker who has served in Congress since 2005, is running in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, which had been represented by former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) for four years before she resigned in April. Wasserman Schultz’s bid comes after GOP-led redistricting efforts in the state reshaped her current 25th District, making it far more...

A study found that videos promoting misinformation about sunscreen got more engagement on the platform, despite making up a fraction of the most popular posts on the topic. Sunscreen videos are all over TikTok — but the ones that go the most viral are the ones that are packed with misinformation, a study published Thursday in the journal PLOS Digital Health found. Researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada analyzed TikTok videos with the highest views across the five most popular sunscreen-related hashtags. Although the vast majority — 87% of the nearly 1,000 videos — promoted sunscreen use, the...

For years, a South Florida nursing school operator sold a simple proposition: Skip the schooling, buy the diploma, become a nurse. Nearly 3,000 people took her up on it. On Monday, the scheme caught up with her. Carleen Noreus, 52, of Plantation, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering following a two-week trial in Fort Lauderdale. She had taken her chances before a jury rather than accepting a plea deal, changing her mind mid-trial, a decision prosecutors say will factor in her favor at sentencing. Noreus served as president of Carleen Home Health...

A Florida law disqualifying 18- to 20-year-olds from legal concealed carry violated the Second Amendment, a Florida appeals court ruled Wednesday. “Eighteen- to 20-year-olds can defend the country without restriction but can only utilize their Second Amendment right to self-defense with severe restrictions,” the three-judge panel stated in its opinion. Police arrested 18-year-old Jaylen Tyrus Eubanks in 2024 for carrying a concealed firearm in violation of Florida law that restricts licensing provisions of concealed carry to eligible United States citizens 21 years or older. A trial court denied Eubanks’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit, ruling that “licensing provisions for concealed...

The Florida GOP may just be the most wretched in the nation, and that’s saying quite a bit—Arizona GOP, I’m looking at you. Now admittedly, I don’t live in Florida, but the news coming out of the Sunshine state about how they’re scheming to protect Byron Donalds, an objectively bad candidate (but the preferred pick of the establishment), is really quite disgraceful. (Some rumors suggest Donalds’s protected candidacy has Susie Wiles’s fingerprints on it.) First off, the Florida GOP schemed to exclude major contender James Fishback from a debate with Donalds—they don’t want the voters to know how bad Donalds...

Lynch and DOJ Civil Rights Division head Vanita Gupta have appeared at gala events for an organization called Muslim Advocates. The George Soros-funded charity has badgered the New York City Police Department away from monitoring the most radical mosques in the city.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is investigating what happened to $30 million it sent to a Muslim nonprofit to help resettle Afghan refugees in the US, The Post has learned. The department is the latest to look into the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) amid accusations it has ties to dangerous groups in foreign nations including terror group Hamas. In letters to the governors of California and Washington, where the $30 million was sent, HHS — headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — claims it has received information that “raises concerns about the business practices and...

Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods had zero patience for media games Thursday when a reporter tried to hijack a press conference about a major child predator sting to ask about an unrelated Florida Highway Patrol lawsuit. The press conference was called to announce the results of “Operation Bad Habits,” a six-day undercover operation conducted in early June that resulted in 58 child predators being taken off the streets, the largest such sting in Marion County history. Detectives posed online as children ranging from 7 to 15 years old (and sometimes as parents) to lure sickos looking to meet kids for...

This is the second viral video in as many days of a white person being attacked and falsely accused of being on the Anthony jury. The victim was not, and could not have been, on the jury. The murder trial took place in Collin County, Texas, not Florida. The video was uploaded to Facebook by a woman named Mesha Keaton, of Tampa, who appears to be the attacker. In the footage, Keaton approaches the man, who is sitting outdoors, and demands: “Hey, hey, weren’t you on the motherfucking jury selection?” When he denies it, she insists, “Yes, you was,” before...

In late May, RedState reported on a ruling that was handed down in consolidated lawsuits filed by leftist groups looking to block Florida's new congressional map from taking effect ahead of the 2026 midterms. In that ruling, Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes denied the plaintiffs' temporary injunction request. Hawkes noted in part that ruling against the state at this late date was not a good idea, seeing as how Florida's primary is on August 18th. The judge also had concerns about the state's current 20th Congressional District in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais ruling. "Plaintiffs’ evidence focuses...

What do a plastic surgeon with links to Al Qaeda, an oyster fisherman with a Nazi tattoo, a former bandmate of a child sex offender, and a Lutheran minister who took part in a satanic wedding have in common? They’re all Democrat candidates for Congress in this November’s midterm elections. Undoubtedly the most notorious Democrat this cycle is Graham Platner, the first-time candidate in Maine’s U.S. Senate race who defeated establishment favorite Janet Mills and is set to take on incumbent Republican Susan Collins this November. Platner first made headlines after it was revealed that he had a chest...

As new law looms, allies defend Gov. DeSantis’ CAIR ban before appeals court. The case could test how far states can go in labeling and defunding groups they deem security risks. A conservative legal coalition is urging an appeals court to let Gov. Ron DeSantis bar the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) from receiving Florida contracts, funding and benefits. Their argument: Florida has the power to refuse public support for organizations it says have ties to terrorism. In an amicus brief, Holtzman Vogel lawyers Mark Pinkert and Jason Torchinsky advised the court to rule in favor of DeSantis’ appeal of...

As an Oregon man is set to be arraigned on domestic terrorism charges, KATU has learned more about the alleged motive behind the fires. Ethan Noble Burlingame emailed a "declaration of war" against the U.S. and expressed an intent to "cause suffering, destruction and terror" and "burn down the empire," according to prosecutors. According to the arrest warrant filed by Wheeler County District Attorney Gretchen Ladd, Burlingame emailed his intent to a Florida resident under the username Rottenheart in the early morning hours of June 1. Later that morning, a fire destroyed an unoccupied building in Fossil, near Burlingame's home...

The Florida Supreme Court has allowed new U.S. House districts drawn by Republicans to be used in the midterm elections, marking another victory for the GOP in a nationwide redistricting effort aimed at helping the party retain its slim House majority. The court on Wednesday refused a request to issue a temporary injunction against the new districts. Attorneys for voters who sued argued that the new House districts violate a state constitutional provision prohibiting partisan gerrymandering, and that the court should order the state to continue using the same districts as in the previous election. Republicans already hold 20 of...

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake off the northwest coast of Cuba led to reports of light shaking in parts of Florida on Monday afternoon, including in South Florida. According to the United States Geological Survey, the magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck about 65 miles to the west-northwest of Mantua, Cuba, which is to the west of Havana. The epicenter was about 376 miles from Miami. "Shaking from the recent M6.1 earthquake offshore of Cuba was felt in Florida, where earthquakes are not commonly felt. Did you feel it? (If you're in the area and did not feel it, that's data too!)," USGS...