Free Republic

The second 65-foot funnel was removed last Friday from the historic ocean liner in Mobile, Alabama.The aft funnel aboard the SS United States was removed last Friday in Mobile, Alabama, as another major step in preparing the vessel to become the world’s largest artificial reef, according to Okaloosa County.• The towering funnels, each standing 65 feet tall and as tall as a six-story building, were removed last week. The remaining propeller was also removed last Friday and loaded on the same barge as the aft funnel. These items are among many others being preserved to be incorporated in the SS...

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — A Florida Chick-fil-A employee is being hailed as a hero after deputies said he stopped a carjacking outside the fast food restaurant. Okaloosa County deputies said the young employee rushed outside the Fort Walton Beach area restaurant to help a screaming woman holding a baby after a man grabbed her keys and tried to take her car. Investigators said the woman was getting the baby out of her car when a man identified as William Branch walked up to her wielding a stick and demanded her keys. Branch then grabbed the car keys from the...

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (WEAR) — A Honduras citizen is being held in the Okaloosa County jail after being accused of cutting a child's throat with a knife. The incident happened on Monday on Tyner Street in Fort Walton Beach. The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office arrest report says the 13-year-old victim said 34-year-old Armando Moreno was upset because of some text messages. That's when he grabbed the child by her hair, pressed a knife to her throat and slapped her on the face, the report states. The knife was pressed against her throat so hard that it caused a two...

Tying himself to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s coattails, state Rep. Matt Gaetz announced his candidacy Monday for an open Panhandle congressional seat with an announcement blasting illegal immigrants, Muslim terrorists and the national debt. Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican elected to the state House in 2010, had been in a heated contest for a state Senate seat held by his father, Don, a former Senate president forced out of office this fall due to term limits. “Washington’s failures have left the American people with trillions in debt, illegal immigrants sucking us dry, and attacks from Muslim terrorists rising....

ulian Bond, a civil rights leader and former board chairman of the NAACP, has died. He was 75. Bond died Saturday night after a brief illness in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which he served as founding president in the 1970s.

Video at the link. On May 12th, 2015 I was invited to speak alongside Governor Rick Perry at a Lincoln Dinner organized by Okaloosa Republican Executive Committee in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. I was supposed to warm up the crowd for the Honorable Rick Perry, but the order of appearances was switched at the last moment; Perry gave his keynote speech first, and then I stepped in, thanking the Governor for warming up the crowd for me. I titled my speech What surprised me in America: an immigrant's account of the good, the bad, and the ugly. There was no...

Fort Walton Beach - Authorities believe that between 30 and 40 illegal aliens were employed in the construction of the 7th Special Forces Complex, but by the time the very thorough 3-month investigation was wrapped up, so was most of the work, and the great majority of the workers were unaccounted for. Fort Walton Beach - Authorities believe that between 30 and 40 illegal aliens were employed in the construction of the 7th Special Forces Complex, but by the time the very thorough 3-month investigation was wrapped up, so was most of the work, and the great majority of the...