Free Republic

A Florida woman was arrested after biting the top of another woman's ear off during a fight over vape pens and alcohol on July 4th, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies responded to an assault and battery call at a home in Callaway, a suburb of Panama City, just after midnight. An investigation revealed the incident had occurred at a house party next door at 6526 Olokee Street that was thrown by unsupervised minors. When a fight kicked off between several men at the house party, 23-year-old Macy Regan attempted to leave and walk to her home next...

The New York Times called it a “mystery,” but the United States executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret—until now The U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center can be found in a location as obscure as its name—down what was once a country lane in rural Panama City, a now-booming resort city in the southwestern panhandle of Florida, 70 miles south of the Alabama border. The center’s complex is as nondescript as its location—a drab concrete post-World War II structure that has the look of a vocational high school on the west side of Chicago. A coin-operated laundromat...

PANAMA CITY, Fla. – A Florida man has been arrested after committing multiple fraudulent transactions while pretending to be an Irish national. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement became aware of a man using the pseudonym “Declan Quinn” to commit fraud in February. Following an investigation, agents found that “Quinn” had won the position of HOA Board of Directors presidents at his Washington County neighborhood. He also used his standing in his community to obtain a $17,000 loan fraudulently. The fake name was even used to sign a notarized promissory note stating he would repay the loan, which he failed...

BAY COUNTY, Fla. -- An investigation is ongoing surrounding a 14-year-old child from Panama City who allegedly has ties to two false bomb threats in the U.S. Alex Solorio, 14, is being charged twice with Principal To Making A False Bomb Threat for threats that occurred at Arnold High School in Panama City and Canon McMillan High School in Pennsylvania. On Sept. 13, Bay County deputies say they secured the school grounds and coordinated an evacuation of Arnold High School after a threatening phone call was made. A release says, North Strabane Township Police Department in Canonsburg, Pa, relayed information...

U.S. prosecutors unsealed Tuesday an indictment against four people affiliated with the Panama City law firm Mossack Fonseca, the first such American charges related to the 2016 Panama Papers leak. The charges, filed in the Southern District of New York, include defrauding the United States, wire fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and making false statements to investigators. An accountant, an investment advisor, and a former client of Mossack Fonseca’s are under arrest while a Mossack Fonseca partner, Ramses Owens, remains on the lam, the Wall Street Journal reports. The American law enforcement action follows a Panama Papers-related raid on Deutsche...

Officials at Tyndall AFB, Fla., on Aug. 5 sent Congress a list of projects the Air Force will tackle to rebuild the Panhandle base destroyed by Hurricane Michael last fall, the 325th Fighter Wing’s commander said Aug. 14. Rebuilding about half of the buildings that were damaged is estimated to cost about $3 billion over five to seven years, the wing’s commander Col. Brian Laidlaw said at a Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing in the Florida Panhandle. Air Force Magazine reported in April that new military construction would cost about $2.5 billion, about half the cost of...

A Florida high school teacher raised eyebrows this week after allegedly writing “WTF is this?” on a student’s homework. Melinda Smith, the student’s mother, told Panama City’s WJHG on Tuesday she was shocked when her son showed her his science homework with the comment: “WTF is this? absolutely no credit” written on top

Prepare yourselves. President Donald Trump will host a rally at the Aaron Bessant Park Amphitheater on Wednesday in Panama City. So what should attendees expect? A #MAGA rally doesn’t hold to the script as tightly as many political events, but you can count on characteristic spectacle. We spoke with some of the political figures planning to attend and here’s what they told us to expect. 1.Major Crowds Packing the house has long been a tradition for Trump, even when polls showed weakening support in 2016. So expect a serious show of strength as the President arrives in Florida’s conservative Panhandle....

GCSO deputies reported a traffic stop at about midnight Wednesday on Brian Setterich Road resulted in the recovery of almost half a million dollars in U.S. currency, more than 34,000 oxycodone pills and a variety of cocaine, heroin and marijuana. WEWAHITCKA — A late night traffic stop ended with Gulf County Sheriff’s Office deputies making a historic drug bust – seizing more than a million dollars in cash and narcotics – that could go toward storm recovery, officials reported. Storm Cinque Sims, 29, of Callaway, was arrested in connection with the incident. GCSO deputies reported a traffic stop at about...

Saturday morning my wife and I took off from Fort Walton Beach on our motorcycles to go to Panama City and check on my sister and her family and my wife's cousin and her family. We had not heard much info from either of them since Wednesday, when Hurricane Michael hit, just that they were 'safe' and everybody was alive, thanks be to God Almighty. On the way, down Highway 98, we saw convoys of people, possibly church groups, in pick-ups full of bottled water and other such necessities. We saw many, many work trucks for tree services from as...

Looting lead to a deadly shooting overnight in Panama City. Witness Landon Swett said a man tried to steal a police car. "He yelled at me a little bit. He said, oh I’m looting and he opened the door to the police officer’s SUV with the lights going, got in it and shut the door,” said Swett. That's when Swett took his family to safety. Moments later, shots were fired.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have defied evacuation orders. At least two deaths were blamed on Michael, the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in over 50 years, and it wasn't done yet: Though reduced to a tropical storm, it brought flash flooding to North Carolina and Virginia, soaking areas still recovering from Hurricane Florence. Under a perfectly clear...

Last year 'Tropical Depression Harvey' rapidly intensified into a Category 1 Hurricane. Current forecasts have the Tropical System becoming a Hurricane and making landfall about 7 PM Wednesday, 10-Oct-2018. Landfall would be near Alligator Point - Baldwin Point State Park - St. Teresa - Port Leon. It is too early to forecast the exact landfall. However, it appears that Gainesville (U of Florida) and Tallahassee (Florida State) may be affected. These locations are inland. Current forecasts are for sustained winds in the neighborhood of 100 mph.

When Jessica and Derek Simmons first saw the beachgoers pausing to stare toward the water, the young couple just assumed someone had spotted a shark. It was the evening of July 8, after all, peak summer season in Panama City Beach for overheated Florida tourists to cross paths with curious marine life. Then they noticed flashing lights by the boardwalk, a police truck on the sand and nearly a dozen bobbing heads about 100 yards beyond the beach, crying desperately for help. Six members of a single family - four adults and two young boys - and four other swimmers...

Tuesday, October 11, 2016: Live streaming coverage of the Donald J. Trump for President rally in Panama City, FL at Aaron Bessant Park. Live coverage begins at 7:30 PM ET. Watch the LIVE stream of the event below: Aaron Bessant Park

Tuesday, October 11, 2016: Live streaming coverage of the Donald J. Trump for President rally in Panama City, FL at Aaron Bessant Park. Live coverage begins at 7:30 PM ET. Watch the LIVE stream of the event below: Aaron Bessant Park

A U.S. Court of Appeals judge has ordered U.S. officials to intercept a mother and her 12-year-old daughter on a plane Friday being deported to Guatemala and immediately return them to the United States. The 34-year-old mother, Ana, and her daughter were woken up at 3 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Friday and pulled from their rooms at a Pennsylvania family detention center, where they had been living for over a year, said her attorney, Bridget Cambria. By 10 a.m., the two were placed on a plane flying to Panama City, where they would catch a second flight to Guatemala...

Not much is known about what happened before gunshots disrupted a Panama City Beach house party, leaving seven people wounded. Even less is known about the alleged shooter, 21-year-old David Jamichael Daniels, or of his motivations. Daniels has been arrested at least six times over the last four years in Mobile County on a number of misdemeanor charges: gambling, drug possession, disorderly conduct and loitering. The seven counts of attempted murder would be the most serious charges he's faced. Daniels was never particularly violent, according to Sharon Daniels, his mother. "I've never known him to be violent towards anybody," she...

Among the countless tragedies that go by in fleeting moments on the streets of the hometowns of the world, Hernan’s is one that stands out unforgettably. In our own villages, towns and cities we all have a Hernan, or someone like him, but in the rush of everyday life, keep passing them by. The blind man with the tin cup, the homeless huddled in raggedy blankets, over city grates, the lost, lonely and the forlorn are sadly only fleeting moments in the lives of the perpetually purposeful and busy. Someone else will try to find out if there is any...

PANAMA CITY — For U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, the federal government shutdown is a fight to hold every American to the same standard under the country’s new health care law. Along with the House Republican majority, Southerland, R-Panama City, has backed resolutions to eliminate Affordable Care Act subsidies for members of Congress and delay the individual mandate for a year to avert a government shutdown. Democrats have said they will not negotiate until the government is reopened and the debt limit raised. Southerland said the Democratic-controlled Senate’s rejection of the proposal and refusal to negotiate is setting a dangerous precedent...