Free Republic

Barney Frank Makes Awkward Trayvon Martin ‘Hoodie’ Joke During Commmencement Barney Frank, the retiring Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, never known to speak anything but his mind, used his address to graduating seniors at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Sunday to make a cringe-inducing joke about hoodies. “I do want to acknowledge a man who has played a major role in diminishing inequality in Massachusetts,” said Frank, referring to the activist Hubie Jones. “He’s a great man and I’ve worked with Hubie for many years. You know he got an honorary degree today. You know when you get an honorary...

UP FOR GRABS (85): Colorado (9) — Long a reliable GOP state, but Colorado's conservative profile is changing. Young professionals and Hispanic voters were central to Obama's victory in 2008, but the sluggish economy has hurt his standing. Female voters in Denver's suburbs could play a big role. Florida (29) — Florida is the prime target for both campaigns. Obama won in 2008, but the housing crisis, high unemployment and gas prices are dogging him. Romney won the primary in January and has picked up the endorsement of GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Obama's organization has a large advantage. Iowa (6)...

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was one of several speakers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth undergraduate commencement that took place this Sunday. Frank was also one of two people that received the Chancellor's Distinguished Service Medal at the event. However, Congressman Frank made a controversial comment about Hubie Jones, a black recipient of an honorary doctorate, that elicited an audible gasp from the audience. In reference to the Trayvon Martin case, Frank said "you now got a hoodie you can wear and no one will shoot at you." After the audience reacted, Frank said, "I think you'll feel, I hope,...

A man was shot to death by Miami police, and another man is fighting for his life after his face was half eaten by a naked man, police said. The horror began about 2 p.m. Saturday when of gunshots were heard on an off-ramp of the MacArthur Causeway. According to police sources, a roadside-assistance truck driver saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loudspeaker for him to back away. A woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer. The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening,...

Here's a great way to reduce overhead and be effective at running a national organization dedicated to infringing on the gun rights of everyday people all at the same time... Have cities hire your people for you so that tax payers cover 1/4 of your people’s salary and benefits, pay for most of their operational costs, and finance all of their other resources! It also embeds your people as leaders in city government so that you don’t have to lobby there! Sounds like another conspiracy theory from the tinfoil hat brigade... Right? Back in March, while researching the repeal of...

WINTER HAVEN -- Twice in three years, William Cornwell has had to draw his gun to ward off strangers who broke into his home. Early Sunday, the U.S. Navy veteran and security guard at Winter Haven Hospital shot and killed Christopher Brian Deese, 40, of 119 Moss Road, Auburndale. Deese broke into Cornwell's home and challenged him to a fight after a night of heavy drinking, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. "You wanna fight?" Deese yelled, yanking off his shirt before charging Cornwell, who shot him once in the chest, according to the sheriff's office. The men had...

The new round of national and state surveys this week generally showing President Obama clinging to a tenuous advantage over Republican Mitt Romney reinforce the conclusion that socially liberal, upscale white women may stand as the president's indispensable line of defense in his struggle for reelection. Both the national ABC/Washington Post survey released earlier this week, and the NBC/Marist Polls released Thursday in the battleground states of Ohio, Virginia and Florida show Obama retaining preponderant support among minority voters who were critical to his 2008 victory. Conversely, in almost all of the surveys, Obama faces a consistent pattern of erosion...

About 250,000 people are in South Beach for Memorial Day weekend and the hip hop festival known as Urban Beach Week. The festival is known for its over the top parties and fashions. Seventy-nine people were arrested Saturday, bringing the total number to 228. That’s compared to 107 people arrested the same Saturday last year.

MANATEE COUNTY -- A man was taken a hospital after being shot Saturday in north Manatee County during an argument. According to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, three men got into an argument about 4 p.m. in front of a home in the 4700 block of Canal Road after drinking most of the afternoon. One of the men, Norberto Cortes, brandished a knife and stabbed Fernando Deleon twice. The third man, Jorge Deleon, produced a gun and warned Cortes to stop. Cortes continue his assault, and Jorge Deleon shot him once in the torso, the report said. Fernando Deleon refused...

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Miami police shot and killed a man on the MacArthur Causeway Saturday afternoon, and police sources told CBS4 they had no choice: the naked man they shot was trying to chew the face off another naked man, and refused to obey police orders to stop his grisly meal. The bizarre shooting happened shortly after 2 p.m., when police responded to a 911 call about two naked men fighting on a bike path along the Causeway, which was packed with traffic on a busy holiday weekend....

FORT PIERCE — Before a crowd of approximately 100 people, Patricia Broussard, an FAMU constitutional law professor, explained that because of the immunity clause of the Stand Your Ground Law that was passed in 2005, the controversial law might violate a person’s right to due process. Since that time, alleged perpetrators have invoked this defense 200 times. In Florida, one in every 17 Floridians has a valid concealed weapons permit, and public records show that police and prosecutors continue to apply the self-defense law unevenly. On May 20, Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church was the setting for an educational forum...

If you want authentic barbecue, it's a good weekend to fire up your backyard pit because barbecue restaurants say some South Florida cities aren't too hot on their traditional slow cookers. The fragrant smoke that attracts 'cue lovers is often a turnoff to neighboring homes, so a growing list of cities are adding restrictions to routine health and fire codes, making it difficult for restaurants to open. "If they knew what they were going to have to go through to open a place, I don't think anybody in their right mind would ever get into this business," said Mark Vasturo,...

A doctor was arrested this week on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs after he nearly sideswiped a Florida Highway Patrol captain's car, banged his head on the inside of a patrol car and spat blood into a sergeant's face, a report shows.

FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) – Graduating seniors at Cypress Bay High School in Weston will make history next month at their graduation. Not only will Vice President Joe Biden deliver the keynote address, but the graduation ceremony will be held in the new Marlins Park, becoming the first school to hold its commencement in the shiny, new stadium.

Florida’s top Congressional Democrats broke with President Barack Obama on Tuesday over his administration’s decision to issue Fidel Castro’s niece a visa to attend a conference this week in San Francisco. The opposition of Sen. Bill Nelson and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz came just hours after Republicans had blasted away at the visa decision —while failing to acknowledge that Republican President George W. Bush’s administration had allowed Mariela Castro to visit the United States three times a decade ago.

ORLANDO, Fla. – George Zimmerman accused the Sanford police department of corruption more than a year before he shot Trayvon Martin, saying at a public forum the agency covered up the beating of a black homeless man by the son of a white officer.

Miami Beach will be flooded with visitors this Memorial Day Weekend as part of the 13th annual Urban Beach Week, which is dubbed the largest Urban festival in the world. Due to the large number of people expected, upwards of 300,000 to 350,000 people, Miami Beach police are implementing some new procedures to ensure the safety of residents and visitors alike.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott decided not to ignore the elephant in the room upon returning Thursday from a weeklong trade mission to Spain. Scott told reporters at Miami International Airport he apologized if he had done anything wrong in Madrid earlier this week while meeting the Spanish King Juan Carlos. During the visit, Scott repeatedly asked the monarch about his recent and controversial elephant hunt in Botswana. The 74-year-old king injured both his hip and his public standing by going on the expensive hunt while his country confronts a deep financial crisis. In videos of the encounter, Scott walks into...

Pressure is mounting to normalize the use of drones in the United States. "Don't drone, me, bro!"—that's one way to sum up Charles Krauthammer's heated reaction to last week's news that the Federal Aviation Administration had loosened restrictions on local police departments' use of surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. "Stop it here, stop it now," Krauthammer exclaimed on Fox News's "Special Report" Monday, "I don't want to see it hovering over anybody's home. ... I'm not encouraging, but I am predicting that the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that's been hovering over his...

Neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman made statements to police that help establish his guilt in the second-degree murder case against him for killing unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, prosecutors said in a court filing on Thursday. The claim came in a motion by prosecutors to keep some of Zimmerman's statements under seal pending his trial in a case that triggered civil rights protests across the United States, while sparking widespread debate over guns, self-defense laws and U.S. race relations. "Defendant (Zimmerman) has provided law enforcement with numerous statements, some of which are contradictory, and are inconsistent with the physical evidence...

<p>A group of Muslims was detained Wednesday at Orlando Sanford International Airport, apparently because of a misunderstanding over an Islamic cleanliness ritual, authorities said.</p> <p>The captain of Allegiant flight No.625 from Allentown, Pa., radioed ahead and asked airport police to meet the plane when it landed about 8:30p.m., said Larry Dale, airport director and commander of its 11-member police force.</p>

A judge in Sanford ruled Tuesday that a Lake Mary man was lawfully exercising his First Amendment rights when he flashed his headlights to warn neighbors that a deputy had set up a speed trap nearby. That decision is another victory for Ryan Kintner, 25, who sued the Seminole County Sheriff's Officelast year, accusing it of misconstruing a state law and violating his civil rights, principally his right to free speech. He was ticketed Aug. 10 by a Seminole County deputy, but Kintner alleges the officer misapplied a state law designed to ban motorists from flashing after-market emergency lights. Circuit...

Leftist Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz says special prosecutor Angela Corey should drop the second-degree murder charge against George Zimmerman, the Hispanic man who shot Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Florida. The evidence that Zimmerman told the truth when he said Martin attacked and tried to kill him, Dershowitz wrote in the New York Daily News, is too much to ignore. And the only right thing for the prosecutor to do, he concluded, is forget about nailing Zimmerman for murder. Dershowitz has been speaking out about the case since the prosecutor released an affidavit that Dershowitz said fell...

The media are determined to make a traditional liberal, anti-gun narrative out of the Trayvon Martin shooting and will cobble together any items necessary to keep the flames fanned. A recent story out of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s Tallahassee bureau combined the Martin shooting with Gov. Rick Scott’s “quick rejection” of the Tampa mayor’s request for a concealed weapons ban near the Republican convention in August. The story quoted, at length, the Washington, D.C.-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the biggest anti-gun group. (The story did not quote the National Rifle Association for the other side of the story.) But...

A majority of Florida voters support the state's "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law that was called into question in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, according to a poll released Thursday. The survey by Quinnipiac University found that 56 percent of registered voters support the law, which allows persons to use deadly force in their own defense. Only 35 percent oppose it. Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman says he shot Martin in self-defense in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26 during a confrontation with the teen. Mr. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder in a case that has attracted national...

President Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney in Florida, Ohio and Virginia, according to new polls of the key 2012 swing states, although Obama's advantage has narrowed in recent months. Obama has inched ahead of Romney 48 percent to 44 percent in both Florida and Virginia, according to three new NBC News/Marist polls. In Ohio, the president has a 6-point advantage over Romney, leading his Republican rival 48 percent to 42 percent among registered voters in the state. (The polls have a plus or minus 3 percent margin of error.)

A reported arrest quota for Memorial Day weekend is causing anger and concern among community activists and union officers in Miami Beach. Rumors of the quota, which allegedly calls for 2,000people to be arrested over the holiday weekend, first came to light in an email complaint from the officers' union. In that email, the union called the quota "aggressive, patently unfair, and unjust." Police Chief Raymond Martinez has denied the reports, saying in an email to Local 10, "I want to be clear, there is no arrest quota for Memorial Day weekend or any other day on Miami Beach."

FORT MYERS, Fla. - A Florida teenager had his diploma withheld and was ordered to clean the school gym as punishment for Tebowing on stage during his graduation ceremony -- and later discovered the punishment was his mother's idea. Chuck Shriner, a 17-year-old football player at the private Fort Myers Catholic school, performed the popular kneeling-in-prayer pose Saturday and said he was shocked at his punishment, Naples News reported Tuesday

Tea Party Express Announces “Reclaiming Our Future” 7th National Bus Tour June 1st – June 11thSacramento, CA – Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest Tea Party political action committee, is launching its “Reclaiming Our Future” national bus tour on June 1st in Wisconsin. Amy Kremer, Chairman of Tea Party Express, said, “This tour kicks-off with a heavy focus in Wisconsin in the days leading up to the critical recall election. There is a stark contrast between what is happening in D.C. under the direction of President Obama and Vice President Biden, and that of Governor Scott Walker and Lieutenant Governor...

A Titusville cab driver won't be charged after fatally shooting a passenger during a gun battle in his vehicle Wednesday morning. The unidentified driver was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries after he was shot in the back of the head before returning fire, killing 19-year-old passenger Marize Simone Brooks. Read the full story at OrlandoSentinel.com .

President Obama's same-sex marriage endorsement makes a full quarter of Florida voters less likely to cast their ballots for him, according to a poll released Monday. Quinnipac's latest poll of the Sunshine State finds that 25 percent of voters say Obama's endorsement of gay marriage makes them less likely to vote for him. On the other hand, 11 percent say that it makes them more likely to vote for him. Among independents, 23 percent say that they're less likely to vote for Obama over same sex marriage. Older voters (55 and older), born-again evangelical Christians, lower income voters and military...

(video)When nearly 100 of Florida’s most involved tea party activists came together Saturday to learn from the experts how to be citizen journalists, the conversation morphed from how to cover the news to how to deal with Republicans. “There wouldn’t be a tea party if the Republican Party did its job,” moderator and Florida State Director of Americans For Prosperity, Slade O’Brien said to a crowd in obvious agreement.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, Sen. Marco Rubio teamed up with a couple of Democratic colleagues to propose a bill on Tuesday to help startup businesses and immigrant entrepreneurs create jobs. The bill would cut taxes and ease regulations. Its most controversial provision would provide visas for high-skilled immigrants to remain in the U.S. It builds on an earlier bill Rubio, a Florida Republican, introduced with Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware.

Evidence released last week in the second-degree-murder case against George Zimmerman shows four key witnesses made major changes in what they say they saw and heard the night he fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford. Three changed their stories in ways that may damage Zimmerman.

Ave Maria University has become the second Catholic college to announce it will discontinue its student health insurance plan due to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate. In a May 21 statement, university president Jim Towey called the mandate “an affront to our core values.” “Ave Maria University will not offer or pay for health insurance plans that violate our deeply-held religious beliefs,” he said. The announcement comes amid continued controversy over a federal insurance mandate that will require employers and colleges to offer health care plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs, even if doing so violates their religious...

Evidence released last week in the second-degree-murder case against George Zimmerman shows four key witnesses made major changes in what they say they saw and heard the night he fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford. Three changed their stories in ways that may damage Zimmerman. A fourth abandoned her initial story, that she saw one person chasing another. Now, she says, she saw a single figure running. They were reinterviewed in mid-March, after Sanford police handed the case off to State Attorney Norm Wolfinger. The case changed hands again when Gov. Rick Scott passed it on to a special...

Mitt Romney now leads President Obama in the race for Florida's 29 electoral votes, a significant reversal from earlier this spring, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released early on Wednesday. Romney leads Obama overall, 47 percent to 41 percent, the poll shows. Two percent of voters prefer another candidate, 7 percent are undecided, and 3 percent said they would not vote. Three weeks ago, in another Quinnipiac poll, the two candidates were statistically tied, with Romney at 44 percent and Obama at 43 percent.

Gov. Mitt Romney holds a 47 - 41 percent lead over President Barack Obama in Florida, where 63 percent of voters say the president's support of same-sex marriage will not affect their vote, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Another 25 - 11 percent of voters, including 23 - 9 percent among independent voters, say Obama's support of gay marriage makes them less likely to support his candidacy. Adding Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to the GOP ticket would give the Republican Romney/Rubio team a 49 - 41 percent lead over President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden....

It was last fall when EW originally broke the news that pop superstar Gloria Estefan would be appearing on "Glee" as Santana's mother, Maribel Lopez. Now, Estefan is finally making her first appearance in the season finale! Sadly, Gleeks, the singer won't be carrying a tune in the episode, fittingly titled "Goodbye," which finds McKinley's seniors graduating...

Volusia County School officials stand by a Deltona High School nurse's decision to refuse a student his inhaler during an asthma attack, citing a lack of a parent's signature on a medical release form. "It's like something out of a horror film. The person just sits there and watches you die," said Michael Rudi, 17. "She sat there, looked at me and she did nothing." He said the school dean found his inhaler during a search of his locker last Friday. The inhaler was still in its original packaging -- complete with his name and directions for its use; however,...

The new evidence released by prosecutors makes clear that if the case even reaches trial, which is highly unlikely, Florida’s Stand Your Ground law means Zimmerman is sure to get acquitted, writes David R. Dow. With last week's release of a trove of information about the Trayvon Martin killing, three things are now apparent. First, special prosecutor Angela Corey's statement last month that public pressure had nothing to do with the decision to bring charges against George Zimmerman is exposed for the bunk that it always was. Two weeks after the shooting, well before the story went national, a principal...

A megachurch in Baltimore, Md., had an emotional service Sunday as Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, hugged each parent whose children had been victims of "senseless violence." At least a dozen women and men stood before the altar after the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant of the Empowerment Temple church asked for anyone whose child had also been the victim of "senseless violence," The Baltimore Sun reported. . . . Bryant introduced Fulton to the congregation as "the mother of the new civil rights movement" and "this generation's Rosa Parks." "It's so easy for me to cry right now, but I...

Former Republican Rep. Dave Weldon on Friday announced his candidacy for Florida Senate, ending rampant speculation about his political future.

MANGONIA PARK, Fla. -- Police report a would-be robber instead was shot and ended up in the hospital Sunday. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reports a robbery in the 400 block of Australian Avenue ended when a passerby fired shots at the suspect. The suspect later showed up at St. Mary's Medical Center with a gunshot wound. Deputies are still looking for more suspects. We'll post more information on this story when we get it. POLICE: Robbery foiled by gun-toting Good Samaritan

The release of evidence in George Zimmerman’s murder trial quickly made a mockery of his second-degree murder charges, and threw a further layer of shame upon media and political opportunists who misrepresented a tragic, but fairly straightforward, case of lethal force employed in self-defense. It is remarkable to take stock of this evidence and realize that it supports every single aspect of Zimmerman’s statement to the police. His injuries are consistent with his account of physical assault by Trayvon Martin. Martin’s gunshot wound occurred at the very short range described by Zimmerman, demolishing fantasies about a racist mall-cop wannabe stalking...

The future of journalism in America lies with the “average Joe,” according to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, the organization determined to help prepare the public for this 21st century job. A panel hosted by the Virginia-based organization offered some insights to the citizen journalists in training assembled in downtown Orlando on Saturday. Participating panelists included Sandi Gehring, a self-described “recovered” liberal media veteran-turned-consultant and author. Gehring offered an insider’s view of the world of mainstream media, having worked for outlets like CNN and The New York Times. Tom Tillison, founder of the tea party-centered online publication,...

The future of journalism in America lies with the “average Joe,” according to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, the organization determined to help prepare the public for this 21st century job. A panel hosted by the Virginia-based organization offered some insights to the citizen journalists in training assembled in downtown Orlando on Saturday. Participating panelists included Sandi Gehring, a self-described “recovered” liberal media veteran-turned-consultant and author. Gehring offered an insider’s view of the world of mainstream media, having worked for outlets like CNN and The New York Times. Tom Tillison, founder of the tea party-centered online publication,...

The release of evidence in George Zimmerman’s murder trial quickly made a mockery of his second-degree murder charges, and threw a further layer of shame upon media and political opportunists who misrepresented a tragic, but fairly straightforward, case of lethal force employed in self-defense. It is remarkable to take stock of this evidence and realize that it supports every single aspect of Zimmerman’s statement to the police. His injuries are consistent with his account of physical assault by Trayvon Martin. Martin’s gunshot wound occurred at the very short range described by Zimmerman, demolishing fantasies about a racist mall-cop wannabe stalking...

What to make of the "ABC World News" report about George Zimmerman's injuries after shooting Trayvon Martin? The TV analysts stepped in Tuesday night after ABC's Matt Gutman reported that Zimmerman's medical report showed the shooter had a broken nose, two black eyes and gashes on his head. Zimmerman had refused to go to the hospital the night of the shooting, and his doctor treated him the next day, Gutman reported in his exclusive. ABC's Dan Abrams said, "There's no question these documented injuries help Zimmerman's case, but the fundamental legal question remains: Who was the aggressor?" Zimmerman is charged...

A possible source of the so-called "birther" issue--or at least a potential cause of the rumors that have dogged President Barack Obama--has been identified. Obama's former literary agency misidentified his birthplace as Kenya while trying to promote the then-Harvard Law grad as an author in 1991. According to a promotional booklet produced by the agency, Acton & Dystel, to showcase its roster of writers, Obama was "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii." Miriam Goderich edited the text of the bio; she is now a partner at the Dystel & Goderich agency, which lists Obama as one of...