Free Republic

The Sunshine State is now welcoming chaplains into public schools, but Satanists need not apply. On Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a bill into law allowing chaplains to volunteer to offer counseling at public and charter schools. However, the Catholic governor warned that Satanists would not be accepted into the program, as some Christian and conservative groups had feared. “Now some have said if you do a school chaplain program that somehow you’re going to have Satanists running around in all our schools,” DeSantis said in a press conference. “We’re not playing those games in Florida. That...

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) abruptly announced on Friday that he will not seek reelection, after initially planning to run for another term. Posey’s announcement — if made earlier — could have easily attracted a spirited Republican primary, with politicians from the state’s Space Coast region already eyeing the seat once Posey retired. Florida’s 8th congressional district is a solid Republican seat. Instead the 76-year-old incumbent’s announcement came shortly after qualifying officially ended and after his hand-picked replacement — former state Senate President Mike Haridopolos — had already quietly jumped into the race. In a statement posted online,...

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) daughter criticized Democrat judges for giving out harsh sentences to January 6 defendants. Alexandra Pelosi was caught slamming the “liberal” judges who are “out for blood” as they hand out lengthy prison sentences while other J6 protestors get hit with just a fine or probation. “I think I learned in kindergarten that justice is supposed to be fair. A judge is supposed to be the same, and they’re not supposed to be political,” Alexandra said. “And now it’s like one judge you get really makes a difference because some judges are giving probation and...

An Orlando man, who built a life for himself in Florida, is now stuck in Haiti. Gerson Joseph was on the deportation flight last week that went from Louisiana to Miami to Haiti. Joseph had no idea he was being sent out of the country. “I have no idea what I’m going to do,” he said on a phone call with NBC6 from Haiti. “I barely sleep man, I am not going to lie to you, I barely sleep, I am moving from place to place.” Joseph was one of about 50 people sent back to Haiti last week, on...

A man was arrested, accused of brutally beating a [man who pretended to be a woman] to death on the steps of the Miami City Ballet, police said. The Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) said the [man] — now identified as 37-year-old Andrea Doria Dos Passos — was found on the front steps of the Miami City Ballet on Tuesday morning by a security guard who thought she was just sleeping. Police said she was partially clothed and wearing a blood-soaked blanket.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday blasted House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP lawmakers in Congress for handing President Joe Biden a win on foreign aid, especially in Ukraine, without wringing any new concessions from Democrats to secure America’s border. Last weekend’s move by Johnson, said DeSantis, “was a real, real failure" that grossly betrayed GOP voters. Many conservatives have leveled Johnson in recent days for going along with the $95 billion package that funded Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan — just as Biden and congressional Democrats wanted. DeSantis ripped Johnson for forgetting the people who placed their faith in...

President Joe Biden suffered another gaffe during a speaking event as he tried to paint his opponent, former President Donald Trump, as untrustworthy. Biden, at 81 years old, the oldest president in American history, appeared before supporters at a community college in Tampa, one week before Florida bans abortions past six weeks. He called out Trump, his 2024 general election opponent, as the sole person responsible for the 'cruelty and chaos' that's occurred after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. However, when he did so, he accidentally asked: 'How many times does he have to prove we can't be trusted?'...

Lady Lake police say man was in next-door businessPolice in Lady Lake need help identifying a person who tried to break into a Best Buy using a sledgehammer. The incident happened early Sunday at the Best Buy at 552 N. U.S. Highway 27/441. Lady Lake police said the man broke into a vacant party store next to the Best Buy and used a sledgehammer to create a hole through an adjoining wall. However, he was never actually able to get into the Best Buy, and nothing was stolen, police said. The man is believed to be white or Hispanic with...

President Joe Biden will pound Donald Trump on the abortion issue in a rare visit to the former president's home state of Florida on Tuesday. Biden will be in Tampa one week before Florida's abortion ban goes into effect. Trump will be in New York for the second day of opening arguments in the hush money case against him. The president's campaign argues that once Florida's law goes into place – it bans abortions after six-weeks, which is before many women know they are pregnant – there will effectively be an abortion ban across the entire Southeast part of the...

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an “obstacle” in a two-state solution between Israel and Gaza and said he should resign. In an interview with RTÉ’s Six One News during a visit to Ireland, Pelosi spoke about the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Netanyahu’s deadly counteroffensive that has left more than 34,000 Palestinians dead, according to local health officials. “We recognize Israel’s right to protect itself. We reject the policy and the practice of Netanyahu,” she said. “Terrible. What could be worse than what he has done in response?” “He should...

The Tampa Police Department took five suspects into custody after officers were shot at while attempting a traffic stop, leading to a brief pursuit on Monday night.

A recent video shows a disabled girl confined to a wheelchair being bullied at her middle school. She’s taunted, struck, and tossed around. Those watching and videotaping giggle hysterically. It’s horrible. It also shows sociopathic behavior that is increasingly normalized in America, especially among blacks. This isn’t because blacks are inherently sociopaths. It’s because the Democrat party has deliberately stolen from them the societal institutions that create decency.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law this week that ends teachers’ ability to abuse a book challenge law that was implemented to protect children from pornographic materials in school. The law now significantly limits the ability of Florida residents who do not have children in the state’s education system to be able to challenge book titles. “The idea that someone can use the parents rights and the curriculum transparency to start objecting to every single book to try to make a mockery of this is just wrong,” DeSantis said the day before the bill signing. “That’s performative. That’s political.”...

In a stunning interview Sunday morning on CNN, Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican congressman from Texas, accused fellow Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of having sex with underaged girls. "It's my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags," he said. "Look, Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties." This comes just a few weeks after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy said something similar at an event at Georgetown Univeristy. "I'll give you the truth why I'm not speaker," McCarthy said. "It's because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me...

Representative Tony Gonzales (R-TX) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that his Republican colleagues Reps Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Bob Good (R-VA) were “real scumbags.” Host Dana Bash said, “So, you voted yes on the foreign aid package,” Bash addressed Gonzales. “Do you have confidence that at this point, given that it is still possible that Marjorie Taylor Greene will push to vacate, to kick out of the Speaker’s chair, that he can survive?”

Max Azzarello is the name given by the man who set himself on fire outside the Trump trial in New York after leaving behind a “rambling” manifesto and social media accounts in which he sang about starting a “revolution.” “Start a “f****** revolution,” he sang over and over again on Instagram in January. “You’ve got nothing to lose.” Another Instagram post showed him posing as an Uncle Sam-like figure, pointing at the camera. It read, “I want you to tear down a haunted carnival.” Heavy has located the manifesto, on which he writes, “My name is Max Azzarello, and I...

HIALEAH GARDENS, FL—On the 63rd anniversary of the tragic Bay of Pigs invasion, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law requiring school instruction on the history and evils of communism beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. "We're gonna tell the truth about communism in the state of Florida. We're gonna tell the truth about the evils of communism," DeSantis said at a Wednesday morning press conference. "We're gonna tell the truth about the unprecedented death toll of the 20th century at the hands of communist tyranny—100 million killed at the hands of communist regimes spreading from China to the...

NASA confirmed an object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home was indeed garbage jettisoned from the International Space Station. The cylindrical object crashed through Alejandro Otero's roof in Naples, Fla., on March 8, and the sound of the crash was recorded by the homeowner's Ring camera. The object was taken by NASA to be examined, and the space agency has now confirmed it was indeed the remains of a 5,800-pound cargo pallet of depleted nickel hydride batteries that was jettisoned from the ISS in March 2021. "The hardware was expected to fully burn up during entry through...

Red Lobster is reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy to relieve financial pressures that have weighed on the company. According to a report by Bloomberg citing people familiar with the discussions, Red Lobster is weighing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to renegotiate burdensome leases and address other long-term contracts as well as rising labor costs. The outlet reported that the seafood restaurant chain is being advised by law firm King & Spalding on the subject, and that while discussions about restructuring are ongoing and that no final decisions have been made about a bankruptcy filing. By filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,...

A mother’s three-year battle to jail the man who systematically enticed her son to make a sex video and perform lewd acts resulted in the first “unlawful grooming and solicitation of a minor” conviction in 2014, and led to a series of laws just passed in Florida. (Thankfully, the man was caught before he was able to make physical contact.) Until now, there have been only two anti-grooming laws on the books: one in Illinois, and one at the federal level. The excuses in other states have been, “grooming is very hard to prove,” “children would be emotionally harmed by...