Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump hasn't lost his voting rights in Florida. Rights are not removed in Florida where they haven't yet been stripped in the convicting jurisdiction. That said, given the absurd nature of the New York prosecution of Trump, this would be an easy case to qualify for restoration of rights per the Florida Clemency Board, which I chair. The bottom line is that Donald Trump’s vote this November will be one of millions that demonstrate Florida is now a solid Republican state!

A Florida grand jury released its second interim report last week on its investigation into potential “wrongdoing” by Covid shot manufacturers and entities who promoted them. Requested by Gov. Ron DeSantis and authorized by the Florida Supreme Court in December 2022, the grand jury was tasked with determining whether “pharmaceutical manufacturers (and their executive officers) and other medical associations or organizations” participated in “criminal activity or wrongdoing” concerning “their involvement in the development, approval or marketing of COVID-19 vaccines.” The jury released its first interim report in February, in which members confirmed the accuracy of many claims health “experts” and...

As Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed school choice initiatives, leading to a spike in charter and private school enrollments, public schools are shutting down. Across the state, public school enrollment is declining. Duval County Public School District, the sixth-largest school district in Florida and 20th largest in the country, is now considering campus closures due to dramatic dips in their enrollment. Broward County Public Schools, Florida’s second largest school district, has evaluated plans to close up to 42 campuses over the next few years. Miami-Dade county has also experienced a substantial decline in enrollment rates. Of the roughly...

A video of an incident that happened on Monday at a Lakeland apartment complex is going viral... ...officers responded to Caroline Apartments on Griffin Road on Sunday at 5:52 p.m. ...Jahmal Hudson, was not willing to provide me with a valid apartment number within the complex. ...The officer said he gave Hudson several orders to exit the property, or he would be arrested. According to police, Hudson ignored the verbal command and “stuck his hand” in the officer’s face while saying, “I don’t have to talk to you.” “I decided at this time to take Hudson into custody for trespassing....

Video making the rounds on local social media pages shows what appears to be a person hitting a dog in its face aggressively multiple times while on a leash outside of a South Dade home. But a woman who says she’s the mother of the person seen in the video says there’s more than meets the eye.

There’s a large region of the right-wing media ecosystem that is littered with those always-disappointing carbon-snake fireworks. Touch one of them with a spark and it springs to life, pushing out an unbroken chain of detritus. Eventually it dies out, leaving a mess, but there are other sparks and other snakes still to be lit. On Tuesday, filings from Donald Trump’s federal indictment served as a spark. The mess that followed was unusual only in its hyperbole: because the FBI included documentation about how to handle contingencies in its August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, including limiting the use of firearms,...

Pixar Animation Studios is laying off about 14% of its workforce, or around 175 employees. The cuts are part of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s overarching mandate to focus on the quality of its content, not the quantity. Pixar will refocus on theatrical releases and move away from short-form series for Disney+. ... Pixar will lay off about 175 employees, or around 14% of the studio’s workforce ... Layoffs hit other Disney businesses last year, but Pixar’s cuts were delayed because of production schedules ... Iger, who returned to the mantle of CEO in late 2022, has been working to reverse...

ATF agents cut off the electricity to Bryan Malinowski's Little Rock home before executing their search warrant March 19. None of the agents wore body cameras, and they covered Malinowski's doorbell camera with tape to hide their actions. Fifty-seven seconds after kicking down the front door, Malinowski was fatally shot in the head. His wife, Maer Malinowski, was pulled out of her home wearing only bedclothes and forced into the back of a squad car, where she was held against her will for four hours in 34-degree weather, despite her frequent pleas to check on her dying husband. "If that...

The growing Chinese 'gate crashers' trend is sparking espionage concerns The FBI and Department of Defense have reportedly tracked more than 100 incidents of Chinese nationals posing as tourists to attempt to breach U.S. military bases and other federal sites. Those responsible, dubbed "gate crashers," range from Chinese nationals detected crossing into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico, to scuba divers caught swimming in murky waters near a U.S. government rocket launch site in Florida, several U.S. officials recently told The Wall Street Journal. The growing trend represents a potential espionage threat, as authorities believe the Chinese government in...

Might the former President pick the wrong Florida man for his ticket? Florida’s senior Senator may not offer former President Donald Trump as big a boost as some other potential running mates might … including the current Governor of Florida. That’s the takeaway from the new Harvard-Harris Poll, which finds voters want Gov. Ron DeSantis and not Marco Rubio on the ticket. DeSantis leads a host of potential picks with 12% top-choice support among the electorate, including 23% of Republicans, 7% of no-party voters, and 4% of Democrats. Rubio has 4% support but just 3% among Republicans, 4% among no-party...

President Donald Trump thanked Gov. Ron DeSantis for supporting him during a donor event hosted by the governor, raising over $3 million to benefit Trump’s 2024 campaign, Florida’s Voice has learned. The former president called into the Fort Lauderdale event and thanked DeSantis and the couple dozen supporters for their investment into his campaign efforts. The funding is going to Right For America, a super political action committee, a source familiar with the event told Florida’s Voice. A super PAC is technically separate from the campaign, and the organization supports Trump’s bid for presidency this year. Trump emphasized during a...

Basketball icon and Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade appeared in Miami Beach Thursday to accept the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award, honoring his advocacy for the transgender community and his contributions through the Wade Family Foundation. During the ceremony, Wade unveiled a new website for transgender youth in Florida, demonstrating his ongoing commitment

Recent presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has endorsed Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R) as “by far the best choice” to succeed Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), a reflection of the early support Scott’s leadership bid is picking up among prominent conservatives. “Rick Scott is *BY FAR* the best choice among those running for Senate Republican Leader,” Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the White House race earlier this year, said in a post on the social platform X. “He successfully led a big business & a big state, there’s no doubt he can do this job. “He also possesses...

The former Democratic star is running a campaign that few people seem to even know about while soliciting money from grassroots donors and retiring debt. Alan Grayson was once one of the loudest Democrats in Congress. He’s now running for Senate in near silence while retiring years’ worth of campaign debt. Grayson’s campaign eschews in-person events, only rarely appears in local media and attracts so little attention in Florida that at least one local Democratic Party leader didn’t know it existed until this week. It is, however, actively soliciting donations from grassroots Democratic donors across the country — in what...

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Wednesday announced he will join the race to replace retiring Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), throwing a wild card in the race to head a potential new Senate GOP majority in 2025. Scott’s decision to jump into the race gives his Senate Republican colleagues a more conservative alternative to Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), who announced their ambitions to succeed McConnell earlier this year. While Thune and Cornyn are highly respected conservative senators, they haven’t been as willing to challenge McConnell’s leadership as Scott, who has urged Senate Republicans to develop...

Other contenders for the role include Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the former whip Sen. Rick Scott of Florida announced Wednesday that he is jumping into the race to succeed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell after he leaves the post later this year.

Florida has a new heartbeat law that protects babies from abortions starting at 6 weeks when their heartbeat can be detected. However, a new undercover campaign has caught abortion businesses in the state paying women to seek abortions in other states. Recent undercover audio has demonstrated that abortion centers in Florida are not killing babies after a detectable heartbeat (around 6 weeks), but instead are paying women to get out-of-state abortions, as the pro-life group Created Equal informed LifeNews today. According to reports from Florida sidewalk counselors, the volume of women seeking abortions in Florida has not decreased since the...

Amid a record-breaking heat wave, a Miami TV weathercaster had an urgent message for his viewers over the weekend: Go vote if you want to fight climate change. Why it matters: NBC 6 meteorologist Steve MacLaughlin challenged Florida's climate policies and warned viewers about politicians who don't believe in climate change.

Hundreds of nursing homes in Florida have been forced to shut their doors over the past five years because of the soaring cost of commercial property insurance in the state. In the five-year period ending in 2023, an average of 146 nursing homes or assisted-living facilities in Florida have closed each year, according to the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration. During that same five-year period, commercial property insurance premiums rose 125% in Florida. Last year alone, annual premiums rose by around 27% in the state, according to Bloomberg News.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he supported mass deportation of illegal immigrants because the numbers call for something dramatic. Host Kristen Welker said, “If reelected, Donald Trump said he is willing to put migrant detention camps and to deport more than 11 million undocumented immigrants, and it would be the largest deportation plan in American history. Do you support that plan?” Rubio said, “Eleven million, that was the number ten years ago. We’re talking upwards of 25 to 30 million.” He continued, “The answer to your question is yes. We cannot absorb 25,...