Free Republic

Pastors and activists Andy Oliver and Benedict Atherton-Zeman were arrested Friday night during the state's removal of St. Petersburg's "Black History Matters" mural. Crews from the Florida Department of Transportation arrived around 8 p.m. to paint over the mural outside the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, according to a spokesman for the St. Petersburg Police Department. That's when Oliver and Atherton walked past police, then sat and knelt down to pray in the road and refused to move "in an attempt to block the FDOT machinery." They were both charged with misdemeanor obstruction and "Pedestrian obstructing or hindering...

Over 100 people showed up for Miami Beach’s rainbow crosswalks that are currently in the political crosshairs across the state of Florida. “Our rights are on shaky ground everywhere, but especially here in Florida,” said activist Paul Thomas. Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Transportation has ordered communities across the state to remove colorful crosswalks

The three victims of the Indian immigrant truck driver who made an illegal U-turn across a Florida highway earlier this month have been identified as Haitian immigrants, according to officials. The driver Herby Dufresne, 30, and passengers Faniola Joseph, 27, and Rodrigue Dor, 53, all Haitian immigrants, were in their minivan when it plowed into the side of an 18-wheeler driven by Harjinder Singh, an immigrant from India, on Aug. 12, the Miami Herald reported. Dufresne arrived in Miami in December 2023 from Port-au-Prince and was given a two-year permit to live and work in the US after obtaining a...

The Duval County Sheriff's Office, Jacksonville, Florida, busted five people who cheated on their commercial driver's license exams using hidden cameras and earpieces.

A veteran truck driver says the deadly turnpike crash that killed three people never should have happened — and it’s just the latest example of unsafe shortcuts he sees every day on America’s highways. Bernie Mahoney, a longtime CDL driver and owner-operator, told WPBF 25 News Investigative Reporter Terri Parker that from his first day in truck school, one rule was drilled in: never make a U-turn in a semi. "Never do a U-turn. Never. If I miss a turn, I find a big parking lot — a Lowe’s or Home Depot — away from the public to turn a...

The mother of Minneapolis shooter Robin Westman appeared in a movie about her reunion with a daughter she put up for adoption as a child, the Daily Mail can reveal.Years after giving up her baby, Mary Grace Westman, now 67, went on to became a devout Catholic and anti-abortion activist who once held a crucifix in protest outside a Planned Parenthood clinic.Mary Grace has so far refused to cooperate with police seeking information about her son.She flew to Minnesota on Wednesday afternoon, within hours of the shocking attack at the Church of the Annunciation Catholic School that left two children...

A Florida man convicted of killing his girlfriend, her mother and a man he said owed him money more than 30 years ago was put to death on Thursday, extending the record number of executions carried out in the Sunshine State to 11 so far this year. Curtis Windom, 59, died by lethal injection at 6:17 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke on Thursday, according to The Associated Press. He was convicted in the Nov. 7, 1992, killings of his girlfriend Valerie Davis, her mother Mary Lubin and Johnnie Lee, who he claimed owed him $2,000. Windom's face was...

A federal judge has denied the federal government’s request to delay the significant dismantling of the South Florida detention facility—also known as Alligator Alcatraz—at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. In a previous order, the judge had halted the transfer of detainees to the center, stopped new construction, and ordered the removal of some aspects of the facility. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida released her decision on Aug. 27, after attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security and the Florida Division of Emergency Management submitted a motion to stay her...

Federal agents were seen descending on a Florida apartment in the hunt for Minnesota mass shooter Robin Westman’s mom, who has retained a powerful attorney while refusing to talk to cops. Several agents were first filmed arriving at Mary Grace Westman’s apartment in East Naples on Wednesday, hours after her son shot up the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring 18 others during the first Mass of their school year. Casually dressed and wearing sunglasses and holding binders, they were filmed by WINK NEWS as they walked up and banged on the mom’s front door, calling...

Last week a judge in Miami ordered the shut down of the detention site known as Alligator Alcatraz. U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams entered a preliminary injunction to prevent the installation of any additional industrial-style lighting and any site expansion. Her ruling further prevents “bringing any additional persons ... who were not already being detained at the site at the time of this order.”...Within 60 days, “and once the population attrition allows for safe implementation of this Order,” the facility must also remove “all generators, gas, sewage, and other waste and waste receptacles that were installed to support this...

– Harjinder Singh, in St. Lucie County Jail and facing three charges each of vehicular homicide and manslaughter, is due back in a Florida courtroom Wednesday. On Aug. 12, he tried with an 18-wheeler to make a U-turn on the Florida Turnpike through a point in the divided highway marked “official use only,” leading to the deaths of three people in a minivan. Singh had correct responses to two of 12 verbal questions on an English language proficiency assessment and correctly identified only one of four highway traffic signs during an interview with the Federal Motor Carrier Administration. At 10...

Despite a looming thunderstorm, a large crowd formed in Wilton Manors on the Wilton Bridge in response to the state’s recent order to remove painted crosswalks. It was the second of two demonstrations Monday evening with a simple message: they will not erase us. Around 50 people were seen chanting together along Sebastian Street in Fort Lauderdale Beach for the first gathering. Miss Bouvee, a local drag artist...

The U.S. Coast Guard achieved a milestone with the offload of a record 76,140 pounds of illicit narcotics, valued at $473 million, at Port Everglades on Monday. This marks the largest quantity of drugs offloaded in Coast Guard history. Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton’s crew offloaded approximately 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana, preventing an estimated 23 million potential lethal doses from reaching the United States.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that the state will take action to crack down on “illegal aliens who may be operating large trucks using out-of-state driver’s licenses.” On Monday, August 25, 2025, Uthmeier announced a series of actions targeting the commercial trucking industry and commercial driver’s licensing (CDL) standards amid ongoing public scrutiny of an August 12 triple fatality crash on the Florida Turnpike allegedly caused by an illegal U-turn taken by Harjinder Singh. Ag Enforcement Officers To Man CMV Interdiction Stations Under ICE Direction Uthmeier and other law enforcement agencies announced that Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer...

On August 12, 2025, tragedy struck on Florida’s Turnpike near the St. Lucie County border when a semi tractor-trailer attempted a U-turn in an “official use only” area, leading to a catastrophic collision with a minivan. According to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), three South Florida residents, a 30-year-old man from Florida City, a 37-year-old woman from Pompano Beach, and a 54-year-old man from Miami, lost their lives. While the official crash investigation is ongoing, the details already released point to a dangerous maneuver by a commercial truck driver that raises serious legal questions about liability, safety regulations, and the...

He is only 28', 'it was his bad luck' - the family and the entire village of Indian-origin trucker Harjinder Singh, who is staring at a potential 45-year jail sentence for allegedly causing a deadly crash in the US, is rallying behind him, calling for a lenient punishment. A campaign has also been started online to generate support for the 28-year-old driver from Rataul village in Punjab's Tarn Taran district. Harjinder (28) is facing charges of vehicular homicide in the US for allegedly causing a crash resulting in the death of three people on a Florida highway on August 12,...

Protesters repainted the rainbow crosswalk at the Pulse Memorial in Orlando after state crews painted over it, reigniting tensions over LGBTQ+ visibility. The crosswalk, installed in 2017 after the nightclub massacre, had been removed citing updated state

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) this week responded to leftists raging about the removal of a rainbow LGBT crosswalk outside of Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, explaining that state roads will no longer be “commandeered for political purposes.” The crosswalk outside of Pulse nightclub, where 49 people were murdered in 2016, has been painted over by Florida’s department of transportation. This follows action taken by DeSantis and Republicans over the summer to keep roads distraction-free. ===== Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer also weighed in on the removal of the rainbow-themed crosswalk, stating he was “devastated” and that the crosswalk actually enhanced...

An Obama judge issued an injunction on Thursday ordering Florida not only to halt the arrival of new detainees to Alligator Alcatraz but to begin dismantling the facility. The Sunshine State isn't rolling over, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' office indicated that President Donald Trump's deportation campaign will continue as planned. Quick background After DeSantis tasked state leaders with identifying places for a new detention facility to temporarily house outbound criminal noncitizens, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier made a public pitch in favor of "Alligator Alcatraz" — "an old, virtually abandoned airport facility" in the Everglades that could serve as...

FL State Senator Carlos Smith (D) has a meltdown over the FL Dept of Transportation painting over a rainbow crosswalk. He claims they “illegally vandalized city property” and the rainbow crosswalk is needed to make people feel safe