Free Republic

A former deputy Palm Beach County sheriff who fled to Moscow and became one of the Kremlin’s most prolific propagandists is working directly with Russian military intelligence to pump out deepfakes and circulate misinformation that targets Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, according to Russian documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post. The documents show that John Mark Dougan, who also served in the U.S. Marines and has long claimed to be working independently of the Russian government, was provided funding by an officer from the GRU, the country’s military intelligence service. Some of the...

Sam Stern, the Republican candidate for state attorney in Palm Beach County, has just pulled off the unimaginable-he’s raised $1.1 million in thirty days, while his Democrat opponent, Alexcia Cox, has raised only about a hundred thousand. Additionally, Stern has pulled off another eyebrow-raising coup, an endorsement from the two Democrats that ran against Cox in the primary. In the last lap of this election, Stern seems to be steamrolling over Cox for a potential victory. If Stern wins, it will shock the many in this county who think this is a slam dunk for candidate Cox, who many see...

One of the worst things about politicians like Public Defender Carey Haughwout is that when they age out of office, they think they can control who takes their place and what happens once they’re off playing shuffleboard at Del Boca Vista. Haughwout is retiring as Palm Beach County Public Defender after 24 years on the job, and it’s a two-man race to replace her between Adam Frankel and Dan Eisinger. They’re both Democrats, so Republicans have to choose one to vote for, but God forbid either one of them actually asks Republicans for their vote the way Frankel has. Haughwout...

Joseph Abruzzo promised to release the Jeffrey Epstein records, and he has. Clerk Abruzzo Announces Release of Jeffrey Epstein Grand Jury Records When I became Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, I promised that I would leave no stone unturned to ensure the release of the Jeffrey Epstein grand jury records. Today, in our role as Clerk to the 15th Judicial Circuit, we are making these important documents available to the public to ensure transparency to the people of Palm Beach County that we serve every day and to the international community that has closely followed the Epstein case....

Palm Beach County, Florida School Superintendent Mike Burke has placed pro-Palestinian teacher Layann Alhunaidi on administrative leave pending the completion of an investigation into her social media posts advocating for the elimination of the State of Israel. "The School District is looking into this matter thoroughly to determine if any rule, law, or policy violations occurred. Ms. Alhunaidai has been placed on administrative leave pending the completion of the investigative process. ~Michael J. Burke"

A group of parents and school police officers from Palm Beach County sent a letter to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis detailing a list of severe and long-standing problems with policing in The School District of Palm Beach County. When the letter was submitted to the DeSantis administration, the group asked for whistleblower status, so I won’t reveal any individuals involved in writing or sending the letter. Still, I’ve spoken to some of them, I know who they are, and I can confirm that it is a “group.” I’ve been told it’s “hundreds and hundreds” of police and parents, but I...

Dorcas Hernández escaped death at the hands of Peru’s vicious Shining Path, who wanted to assassinate her father. Hernandez was twelve years old at the time. Now she’s an American citizen who loves her country and wants to represent Fl. House District 92. While Hernandez may be running for office in Florida, like many Floridians, it isn’t where she’s from originally. Hernandez was born in La Oroya, Peru, in the Andes mountains. Her parents were both pastors in the Christian missionary Alliance Church. Hernandez told the Florida Jolt that “I grew up in a home where faith and values were...

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – A South Florida man was arrested Monday after he attacked his mother who refused to dress his mannequin, beating her with a kitchen stool and shoving dumplings into her mouth, deputies said. Mikkel Dankner, 40, of Boynton Beach, faces charges of aggravated battery on a victim 65 or older and domestic battery by strangulation. According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office probable cause affidavit, Dankner and his mother were in their backyard when he asked her to dress his mannequin. After she refused to do so, Dankner stood in the doorway, blocking her from getting...

Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay is so arrogant that she presumes to lecture others about the danger of threats when her nineteen-year-old daughter called for the assassination of Governor Ron DeSantis on Twitter. I can’t even get my mind around the level of hypocrisy, entitlement, self-importance, and arrogance it takes to send an email as McKinlay sent me. From a .gov address, no less. McKinlay emailed me over my post about the PBA revoking its endorsement of Angelique Contreras for the school board. Around a year ago, an elected official had the police visit, Contreras, in her home because...

Yesterday, the Palm Beach County PBA withdrew its endorsement of Angelique Contreras, a Palm Beach School Board, District 4 candidate. Monday, I was sent the following graphic taken from the PBC PBA website. The PBA revoked its endorsement by noon the next day because Contreras used a single word in headlining a video a year ago. In a Facebook discussion, Contreras was joking around with some friends when someone said people should dump garbage on a county commissioner’s lawn. Contreras said something like, maybe it should be the masks.

The Palm Beach County School Board meetings are a dysfunctional mess, and school police are putting the school system on notice that, despite the best efforts of police, our children are not safe. Many school police are in constant contact with parent groups seeking change. A School Board District 6 candidate, Amanda Silvestri, read sample comments from a school police survey. The officers take the survey and pass it around to fellow officers. You can read the survey questions here:

Frank Barbieri, Jr., Board Chair of the Palm Beach County school board, cursed school police out after a contentious school board meeting Wednesday night. The understaffed, underpaid school police allegedly signed an email to Governor Ron DeSantis requesting a merger between the School Police and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

As “cancel culture” has swept through this country, our leaders, government officials, teachers, college professors, and even reporters are jumping on the bandwagon by tempering their words to avoid conflict. Op-ed writer Alan Bergstein, whose words can be harsh, really harsh, is not drinking the ‘Cancel Culture Kool-Aid.’ His brutal honesty is necessary for today’s political climate and crucial for us to survive as a free people. In his own words: “Let’s get right to the point: The two top elected leaders of this country constitute a clear and present danger to our survival.”

With the stroke of a pen from the unelected County Administrator Verdenia Baker and Palm Beach County still at a “high” transmission rate for COVID-19, the “Mask Requirement” policy was repealed on Friday, February 11, 2022, with an effective date beginning February 14, 2022. This latest “Mask Requirement” policy has been in effect for 42 days and has applied to “employees and the public while in all county-owned and leased buildings.” With the latest trend of Democrat-run jurisdictions across the nation repealing their mask mandates in the last week, one has to wonder what influence that has had on the...

Angelique Contreras dared to exercise her rights as a free American by running for the local school board and protesting peacefully at our nation’s capital. Leftist thugs on Twitter were outraged, so the hate began. Anonymous leftist losers on Twitter started circulating a photo of Contreras at the nation’s capital on Jan. 6. In the photo, Contreras is pretty far away from the capital. Contreras did not break any laws and left as the violence was beginning.

The high of victimhood and the power it bestows is just too much for Palm Beach County School Board members to resist. They fear for their lives over threats that don’t seem to have happened. Like many school boards around the country, the PBC School Board has abused its power since COVID began. When a group of people with a bit of power treat the public like dirt, the people usually respond in kind. Threats of violence are wrong and shouldn’t be tolerated, but calling elected officials names, even vulgar ones, is a time-honored way to deal with politicians.

An eight-year-old Florida girl is making the system bend to her will as she defies the Palm Beach County School Board's mask mandate. So far, she has been suspended 38 times for failing to do as the adults tell her. “I was really shocked by it,” said Bailey Lashell, Fiona’s mother, according to WTEN-TV. “I couldn’t believe it was all over not complying with the mask mandate.” “It is not fair that I'm getting punished because you guys, the school board, are not following the law,” she said. “I’m still going to stand up for what I believe in.” “I...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is waging a battle with various county school boards over a law that empowers parents to decide whether their children should be masked up at school. One of those boards is in Palm Beach County, one of the most heavily Democratic strongholds in the state. And one of the main cheerleaders for mandatory masking is board member Alexandria Ayala. Except, of course, when she’s the one who may have to wear a mask. Over the weekend, the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County held its black-tie annual gala at the upscale Breakers resort, and Ayala...

Harassed, forced to eat lunch alone and silently in the hallway, multiple suspensions, removal from class, and escalating threats, all used, not against a drug-dealing delinquent, but a seven-year-old girl who won’t wear a mask. Fiona Lashalls is a precocious second-grader attending Discovery Key Elementary in Lake Worth, Florida, and is defying the mask mandate imposed by the Palm Beach County School District. Fiona is supported in this by both of her parents.

In the middle of a firestorm over Critical Race Theory, the general counsel’s office for the Palm Beach County School board, in an unprecedented move, emailed pro-Black Lives Matter talking points to school board members. Critics questioned the ethics of the decision, noting that the purpose of the board’s general counsel is to provide legal advice and defend its actions, not offer political or policy guidance on issues to elected officials. The document from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, “Talking Points on Anti-Semitism and Black Lives Matter,” contains several statements suggesting that the BLM organization as a whole is...