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MARIANNA, FL 2/10/2012 -- "It's a blessing to be here. I thank the Lord that I'm here every day," said store clerk Troy Groth. One look at the Big Star Liquors store surveillance video from January 18th and you can see why Groth is happy to be alive. "I'm grateful to the Lord," said Groth. Groth was working that night when two men tried to rob the store. Marianna Police said Hakhelius Moore, 18 years old, walked inside and immediately pulled out a gun. Groth instantly reacted with his own weapon and the two men exchanged fire. "Whenever I sit...

TAMPA -- Following complaints by a gun rights group, and a law passed by the Florida Legislature last year, you can now carry your gun at the Florida State Fair. "We have changed the policy to comply with the state law – it allows a person with a concealed weapon permit to come in with a firearm," said Charles Pesano, executive director of the State Fair Authority. "We've changed some signs to reflect that." Instead of "No Weapons," the signs now say, "No Unlawful Weapons." The policy changed Sunday, after Florida Carry Inc. and Marion Hammer of the Florida NRA...

Miami police say one man is dead after a confrontation near a popular nightclub in the Allapattah neighborhood. Michael Anthony Lawrence, 39, died of gunshot wounds Monday, shortly after he was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami police Sgt. Freddie Cruz said. His shooter, identified as 28-year-old Wilmen Diaz, was questioned but not arrested. “The state attorney’s office is reviewing the case with our homicide unit,” Cruz said. “He has not been formally charged with anything.” Authorities say Diaz was leaving the Club Típico Dominicano, 1344 NW 36th St., with a woman about 12:17 a.m. Moments later, the couple was...

An altercation between two neighbors over a noisy dog resulted in one man being shot to death Saturday morning, police said. The second man was recovering from minor injuries, according to Ocala police. The shooting occurred at the intersection of Northeast Seventh Terrace and Northeast Fourth Street. Police identified the man who was shot and killed as 53-year-old Willie Chester. The Ocala Police Department received a call at 10:13 a.m. regarding shots fired. Arriving at the scene, officers found the two men injured and on the street, according to OPD officials. The men were taken by ambulance to Munroe Regional...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The Brevard County State Attorney's Office has dropped a felony charge this week against gun conversion manufacturer Jonathan A. Ciener. The Brevard County Sheriff's Office raided Jonathan Arthur Ciener, Inc. located at 8700 Commerce Street in Cape Canaveral last November and charged Ciener with one count of scheme to defraud in an amount less than $20,000. (Image above) Jonathan Arthur Ciener, Inc., is a company that sells gun conversion kits nationwide and advertises its kits on www.22lrconversions.com. Ciener's attorney, Greg Eisenmenger of the Viera law firm Eisenmenger, Berry & Peters, P.A., told Brevard Times that the...

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, in tandem with Seminole County Sheriff’s deputies, conducted a full-force raid on the Lake Mary, Florida residence of a family accused of association with the “Sovereign Citizens” tax-protest movement, reports Orlando NBC affiliate WESH-TV. Neighbor Evelyn Briggs told WESH that the raiding party “even had robots out there, almost like a movie.” Evelyn’s husband Robert told the local Fox affiliate that the strike force consisted of “about a dozen FBI agents and SWAT people.” “It’s not something you see here in Lake Mary on an everyday basis,” agreed fellow neighbor Jim Famiglietti,” who appeared...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Police say a gold shop clerk held up in an alley behind his store fired on his two masked robbers, hitting one of them in the shoulder as they fled Tuesday. The person police say was the getaway driver is a Broward College volleyball player with a history of athletic success at Hollywood Hills High School. Fort Lauderdale police report that at 6:20 p.m., two masked, armed men approached Oleg Flyaster in an alleyway behind the Gold Buyers business at 5130 N. Federal Highway, demanding his wallet and pointing a gun at his face. Flyaster reached...

The Senate has confirmed our fears and on Thursday they will be proposing a new tax on Internet purchases. During a full-fledged recession, leave it to the Florida Legislature to propose a new tax - and one that they have questionable constitutional authority to enact.On Thursday morning the Senate Subcommittee on Finance and Tax, chaired by Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, will propose SB 7206 for consideration. This bill would institute a new sales tax on Internet purchases if the retailer uses affiliates or referrals in the state. This bill aims to tax transactions by companies like Amazon, and has been proposed...

COMMENTARY | Former House Speaker and presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich isn't conceding anything. Despite that, according to Fox News, Mitt Romney routed Gingrich in Tuesday's Florida Republican primary election, Gingrich isn't conceding the race. "We are going to contest every place, and we are going to win, and we will be in Tampa as the nominee in August," Gingrich said. Not only was the former Speaker not congratulatory in his speech following the polls closing in Florida, but according to CNN, he also didn't phone Romney to concede and congratulate him on his win, a long-standing tradition among rival candidates....

Today, Patrick Murphy, the underdog in the Democratic primary for Congressional District 22, called incumbent U.S. Rep. Allen West -- a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and a combat veteran, mind you -- "a coward." Responding to West’s decision to run in a newly drawn district further north, Murphy posted the following statement on his website: Allen West went from talking tough this weekend and telling progressives to "get the hell out of this country" to abandoning the people who elected him. There is no other way to interpret this: Allen West is a coward. The truth is...

Former Florida House Majority Leader and now former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Adam Hasner will announce that he is running for Congress in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, currently held by Congressman Allen West, who just announced yesterday that he will be running for re-election in congressman Tom Rooney’s congressional district, according to a close West source.

Instead of appealing to voters to vote for him based upon x,y and z, he panders for votes by trying to increase his opponents negatives (as in FL) above his own by massively outspending them on negative ads. This approach has led to his negatives skyrocketing and his positives declining among independents and moderates. Fivethirtyeight and others have been monitoring this, and it isn't pretty. With each battle won (temporarily in Iowa and now Florida), he is headed to surpassing Obama's negatives or having lower positives (some show he already has) and he will ultimately lose against Obama if he...

TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney rolled to victory in the Florida primary on Tuesday evening, according to early returns and exit polls, dispatching an insurgent threat from Newt Gingrich and reclaiming his dominant position in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Chuck Norris isn’t “missing in action” in Florida, one day out from the state’s pivotal GOP presidential primary. The tough-guy Hollywood star — perhaps best known for his role in “Delta Force” and TV series “Walker, Texas Ranger” — endorsed Newt Gingrich more than a week ago and on Monday the former House speaker’s campaign pointed to his words as evidence that the “mainstream media” and “Washington elite” are out of touch with the everyday voters.

For the first time, scientists have put numbers to the toll Burmese pythons have had on native wildlife in the Everglades. But one word can sum it up: carnage. In the decade since the giant constrictors started showing up in significant numbers, mammals once among the most common in Everglades National Park have declined dramatically, according to a study published online Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.The study, based on night field surveys conducted over 10 years, found three animals had all but disappeared. Opossum sightings fell 98.9 percent. Raccoons — once so abundant park managers warned...

The final charge against a man who shot an attacker in self-defense five years ago in Key Largo was dismissed Thursday. Jorge Correa, 44, walked away from the Plantation Key Courthouse a free man after Monroe County Circuit Judge Luis Garcia granted a direct acquittal. "We're relieved that after five years, we finally have our lives back," said Dora Sanchez, Correa's wife. Counts of attempted murder and discharging a firearm that were filed after the 2007 incident at the Key Largo Ocean Resort, a gated RV park near mile marker 95, were dropped in April 2011 under Florida's so-called Stand...

Unbeknownst to the press, President Obama met this evening with former president George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida governor Jeb Bush in the Oval Office. White House officials did not list the meeting on the president's schedule but released a photo through Flickr and Twitter. According to the date and time stamp on the photo, it was taken shortly after 5 p.m. That's about the time Obama returned to the White House from a fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. White House officials did not immediately respond to questions about the subject of the meeting and its exclusion...

"Romney slumps to 24%, his lowest level since before Iowa caucuses" PRINCETON, NJ -- Republican registered voters nationally continue to prefer Newt Gingrich over Mitt Romney for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, with no sign in Gallup Daily tracking from Jan. 22-26 that Gingrich is giving back any of his recent gains. The 32% of Republican voters now choosing Gingrich as the candidate they are most likely to support for the nomination is his highest level of support since the 2012 primary voting began in early January. The 24% supporting Romney is his lowest. Despite the heavy media focus on...

Newt Gingrich stirred a huge tea party crowd in this central Florida town Thursday by accusing Mitt Romney and the Republican establishment of slinging “mud” and “junk” because “they’re against change in Washington.” Using the word “stupid” at least a dozen times to describe how Romney views voters, Gingrich said his rival’s negative ads about Gingrich’s consulting work for the mortgage giant Freddie Mac are dishonest and hypocritical — and represent a desperate attempt by the establishment to block Gingrich’s campaign. “Well, I’m here as a citizen, and I frankly don’t care what the Washington establishment thinks of me because...

Yesterday evening, Suffolk University released a poll of likely voters in Florida — but not for the Republican primary. Instead, they surveyed 600 likely Florida voters in the general election, and found some interesting dynamics in a state that will be crucial to the strategies of both parties in the Electoral College fight: Despite Newt Gingrich’s momentum within the Republican Party, he would be a weaker contender than Mitt Romney in a general election contest against President Barack Obama, according to a Suffolk University/7NEWS (WSVN-Miami) poll of likely voters in Florida.Romney led Obama by 47 percent to 42 percent in...

Could the new Marlins ballpark or the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field serve as a homeless shelter for the 270 or so nights a year that they're not used for baseball? If two Florida lawmakers have their way, they might. As reported by the Miami Herald, state legislators have unearthed an obscure law that has not been enforced since it was adopted in 1988. It states that any ballpark or stadium that receives taxpayer money shall serve as a homeless shelter on the dates that it is not in use.

Florida’s decision to buck the national Republican Party and move up its primary to Jan. 31 will cost it half its delegates at the GOP nominating convention in Tampa, but the sacrifice will be worth it. As a bellwether state and the largest swing state, Florida deserves to be near the front of the pack in the process of picking the president. As many people live in Palm Beach and Broward Counties as in all of Iowa, and nearly as many reside within the city limits of Fort Lauderdale as voted in the Iowa Caucuses. Palm Beach County’s population alone...

Attribution is to Enrique Flor, El Nuevo Herald “Every Wednesday for five months Jessica Perez has been attending an indoor firing range in Hialeah to practice with her Sig Sauer 22 caliber Mosquito. “These are difficult times and I want to be prepared if I have a problem”, says Perez, a 26-year old medical assistant who lives in Little Havana. “God knows I don’t want to have to use it, but I would prefer to be prepared”. Like Perez more and more women in Miami-Dade County have decided to buy a firearm and practice shooting as a means of protection...

Theatrical indignation aside, Hernando commissioners missed an opportunity Tuesday to affirm their own home-rule authority over an intrusive Legislature. After a two-hour hearing, the commission, with only Jim Adkins correctly dissenting, approved an earlier decision from its Planning and Zoning Commission allowing retail gun sales in a residential neighborhood. Both Commissioners David Russell and Wayne Dukes lamented an inability to do otherwise because of a 2011 state law that prohibits local governments from enforcing firearm regulations. Except that is just what the commission did. In approving the prior ruling, the commission established regulations governing the number of customers that can...

I've made a couple of comments on Marco's Facebook page recently and they vanished almost instantly.I have a definite feeling that discussion is not permitted there.I've been an enthusiastic Rubio supporter from the git go but I'm really pissed off right now.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Matt Martin, CEO of Matt Martin Real Estate Management, is eagerly awaiting the introduction of a program that the Obama administration hopes will transform foreclosed properties into rehabilitated rental units and kick-start the economy. He says he’s not alone. “There is a large chunk of capital, billions of dollars, sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what kind of program the government comes up with,” Martin said. At issue is a Federal Housing Finance Agency push to develop a program that is expected to use government financing or guarantees to attract investors to buy up big regional...

Candidate Gingrich: it's obvious that Mitt Romney (and his arrogant, and furious advisors) have had a conversation and listened to the polling which say (Rightly may I add) that you are both considered more conservative-the conservative by the electorate, as well as "More electable", and that Mr. Romney (is rightly-I will also claim) a "wimp". WELL it is obvious that he (Governor Romney is ~trying~ to do the same thing to you that he did in IOWA). YOU NEED TO FIGHT BACK- (and not just dwell on your success in SC, and the two debates). Mitt Romney is trying define...

The story is shocking enough, even without bringing race into it: on the way to school in Ocala, FA, a thirteen-year-old girl was beaten unconscious and reportedly went into a seizure after being attacked on the school bus by a group of fellow students. The girl reportedly was riding the bus for the first time. Someone threw a shoe at her, and she threw it back, hitting a student. That's when the beating began. At least seven students surrounded the girl, punched her, held her head to the floor by her hair, and kicked her. The bus driver pulled the...

Newt Gingrich's supporters are celebrating his stunning win in South Carolina, but Mitt Romney has a big jump in the next battleground state thanks to millions of dollars his backers have already poured into the Florida contest for the Republican presidential nomination. Restore Our Future has spent $5 million in Florida for Romney since mid-December. That was when the political action committee launched get-out-the-vote efforts aimed at hundreds of thousands who have sought to vote by mail or at early-voting centers well before primary on Jan. 31. The PAC's outlay is more than 20 times the amount spent in Florida...

Dan Balz Florida Will Show Which GOP Candidate Has Momentum By Dan Balz, Published: January 21 Columbia, S.C. — Just a week ago, what was most striking about the Republican presidential race was the possibility that the party’s least-dominant front-runner in many years — Mitt Romney — could effectively wrap up the GOP nomination faster than anyone in his party ever had. That came crashing down Saturday night. Newt Gingrich’s stunning victory in South Carolina, which came after he finished fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire, respectively, rewrites in dramatic fashion the latest story line of the Republican...

But Gingrich has hired his former campaign manager Jose Mallea as his new state director. The Miami based campaign strategist helped steer Rubio's come from behind victory in the 2010 Senate race fueling speculation that the hire ...

TAMPA -- If you want a front-row ticket to the Republican National Convention , you'd better not be a delegate from Florida. Florida is set to host this year's GOP convention and the state's delegates could be getting the worst seats in the house. At the national party's winter meeting Friday, Florida GOP officials tried and failed to restore the full voting power of our republican delegation. The party's national committee voted to cut the state's delegation in half from 99 people to 50. Those delegates that get to go will be seated in the back of the arena. The...

They called it "Flagler's Folly," the wondrous work of concrete, steel and wood stretching 128 miles from the Florida mainland to Key West, in a place where nature never intended for a railroad to run. But exactly 100 years ago Sunday at 10:43 a.m., a 110-ton Schenectady-built locomotive, powered by steam heated by oil, rolled over the last length of track on a dusty and stark Key West, bearing the ailing man dubbed the island's savior, oil baron Henry Flagler. He was greeted by applause, cheers, band music and choirs of schoolchildren, this man whose final dream was realized by...

However WE must REMIND everyone that it is Romney who is the DEMOCRAT in this race: He was (or may still be) pro-abortion, He still is a pro homosexual agenda (though he claims to be for traditional marriage) candidate, He was anti-gun, He was a big spending taxer, AND WE ARE TO BELIEVE what he says?? No, Mr. Romney-per your concession speech: the PEOPLE chose; and you are NOT that true contrast with President Obama!

In an age when politicians mourn the fact that they only have two sides of their mouth from which to speak, Rick Santorum is unabashedly pro-life, pro-family and pro-traditional marriage. He doesn’t waffle; he doesn’t back-step; he doesn’t sashay. Rick made this clear as far back as the Clinton administration. When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was first lady, she published a book titled, “It Takes a Village,” which was premised on the notion that it takes the work of the entire community to properly raise a child. Santorum immediately shot back with his own book, “It Takes a Family.”...

The clerk at Big Star Liquors in Marianna was seriously injured Wednesday night during an attempted armed robbery, The Marianna Police Department wrote in a news release. The incident happened at about 7:20 p.m. According to the news release two men entered the store and one of them, Hakhelius Jaquarious Moore, 18, had a gun. During the attempted robbery Moore and the clerk exchanged gunfire, officials said. The clerk, whose name has not yet been released, recieved several gunshot wounds. He was transported to a medical facility and was listed in stable condition early Thursday morning. During the night officials...

Sen. Marco Rubio said this morning that he is dropping support for a controversial Internet piracy bill, contending it is being rushed through the legislative process and could have "unintended consequences." His retreat comes on the day of a national protest (see above). Rubio wrote on Facebook: "In recent weeks, we’ve heard from many Floridians about the anti-Internet piracy bills making their way through Congress. On the Senate side, I have been a co-sponsor of the PROTECT IP Act because I believe it’s important to protect American ingenuity, ideas and jobs from being stolen through Internet piracy, much of it...

President Barack Obama is scheduled to unveil a new policy to boost tourism on Thursday and he's using a fairy-tale setting to do it -- the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World with the resort's iconic Cinderella Castle as a backdrop. And if some of the Disney magic rubs off on his re-election bid too, then so be it. The event, details of which were made public Tuesday, is the first of what is sure to be many election-year visits by the president to Florida.

As a West Palm Beach home­owner confronted two intruders in March, the encounter turned deadly. One intruder was shot and killed. Weeks later, two men were fatally shot in a dispute aboard a boat near Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach. Initially charged with murder, the boat's owner, 65-year-old Michael Monahan, was later set free after a judge cited the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground" statute. And in July, 19-year-old James Fritz was killed after he allegedly broke into a Green­acres home and charged at the homeowner with knives. Though Palm Beach County's overall homicide rate continued to decline in...

The Obama administration took steps Tuesday to stop the spread of non-native snakes like pythons and anacondas throughout the Florida Everglades.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Police said an intruder was shot and killed after trying to break into a 82-year-old man's home early Thursday. According to police, the homeowner, Charles Robbins, 82, awoke around 6 a.m. to find a man trying to enter his home, near Woodland Avenue and A1A. Robbins said the intruder was wearing a ski mask, and had a hammer and a screwdriver. So he grabbed his World War II Russian handgun and shot the man through his door, and then called 911. When police arrived, they said they found the suspect, 24-year-old Tyler Orshoski, dead in the front...

Gov. Rick Scott will not respond to a request from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin that he promptly explain how his administration will ensure "that all Floridians who wish to do so can cast their votes during the early voting period" under the new voting law. Why not? He's tied up with session, and he didn't write the law. "Governor Scott won’t be responding to the senator’s letter. He’s focused on passing meaningful jobs legislation, education and PIP reform and respectfully declines to further explain a law he didn’t write," spokesman Lane Wright said in an email. The same goes for...

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Police said an elderly Daytona Beach widower was "well within his rights" to shoot and kill a burglar who tried to force his way into his beachside home Thursday morning. Police Chief Mike Chitwood said 82-year-old Charles Robbins was awakened by the noise of someone trying to break in at about 6:15 a.m., armed himself and shot through the door in the 300 block of Woodland Avenue, killing 24-year-old Tyler Orshoski. "We're thankful he did something the criminal justice system couldn't do and he put this guy out of business this morning," he said. Chitwood said the homeowner's wife died...

Even though Florida's GOP presidential primary Election Day isn't until Jan. 31, more than 86,000 voters have cast their ballot in the race, according to state Republican officials. They are also expecting that by next week, the early votes by Sunshine State residents will exceed those cast in Iowa. "All those early voting opportunities are opportunities for the voter to be swayed by what's happening ahead of Florida and at the same time, there's television starting here, there's organizational pushes, there's mail," says Brian Hughes, spokesman for the Republican Party of Florida.

While South Carolina looks like a toss-up, according to the latest Insider Advantage poll, Florida looks like it could become a rout.  The latest Rasmussen poll shows Mitt Romney with a bigger lead than he had in New Hampshire, beating Newt Gingrich by 22 points in a state that could spell the effective end of the primary: Mitt Romney is now running away with the race in the latest Rasmussen Reports’ survey of the end-of-the-month Florida Republican Primary. Coming off his decisive win in Tuesday’s New Hampshire Primary, Romney earns 41% support with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich a distant...

This is a video story that tells of a homeowner who fought off a home invader who attempted to fight his way into the house with a knife.

BELLE GLADE, Fla. -- Police are asking for the public's help to find three armed men who stormed into a jewelry store heavily armed. At 11:20 a.m. Tuesday, three suspects entered Osvilda’s Jewelry, 16 SW Avenue B, armed with an AR-15 rifle and handguns and robbed the business. Some jewelry was taken before the three became startled and fled in a stolen Dodge Caravan, which was later recovered. Surveillance video shows a store clerk firing shots at the suspects as they fled. One of the suspects dove for cover out the door. The entire robbery lasted less than 30 seconds....

When former Broward Sheriff's Office deputy Maury Hernandez pumped several shots into an unarmed homeless man during a confrontation in an ice cream shop, he decisively ended what he saw as a threat to himself and his family. But that Saturday shooting also served to revive a debate over the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law. Bradford Cohen, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer, said the Hernandez shooting was a perfect example of the law's utility. "Before, you had to explore other options, which is ridiculous," he said. "If you feel your life is threatened, and you have to use deadly force,...