Free Republic

Officials said William Happ was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke. He was executed by injection. Florida has executed 51-year-old William Happ for the 1986 rape and strangulation of a woman he encountered by chance in a convenience store parking lot. Officials said Happ was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke. He was executed by injection, 24 years after he was sentenced to die following his conviction in the murder of 21-year-old Angie Crowley. In a final statement, Happ expressed remorse for his actions. "To my agonizing shame, I must...

WINTER HAVEN — For more than a year, Rebecca Ann Sedwick's bullies tormented the girl by calling her ugly and urging her drink bleach to die. The harassment didn't stop — even after Rebecca's parents moved the 12-year-old Lakeland girl to a different middle school. The bullies reached her on her smartphone. Rebecca brought it all to an end by jumping to her death from a silo at an abandoned concrete factory Sept. 10. But even after her suicide, the cruelty didn't cease, family members and investigators say. 15 girls identified after cyber-bullied girl jumps to her death in Lakeland...

Women would do a better job than men of solving the current government stalemate, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said on Monday—because “a woman doesn’t want to ruin the person on the other side of the aisle or the table.” … Why not put Sarah Palin in the room, joked Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who was interviewed along with Wasserman Schultz. “You know, I would argue that even if Sarah Palin were in the room, that we could find a way to get to yes, because that’s usually women’s goal,” Wasserman Schultz replied. …

A North Miami-Dade man was justified in fatally shooting a pipe-wielding, drug-addled attacker during a wild confrontation on a sidewalk four years ago, a judge has ruled. The first-degree murder charge against Luis Martinez, 29, was dismissed late last month. It was the fourth Miami-Dade murder case dismissed by a judge since the 2005 passage of Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law. The law eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat before using deadly force to counter a deadly threat. The law also gave judges greater leeway in granting “immunity” to people deemed to have acted in self-defense. The state’s Stand...

Sherree Lewis, who cares for her son's dog, Jack, is crediting the dog with saving the family cat, named "Kitty." Kitty nearly used up all of her nine lives in one fell swoop when two coyotes decided that she looked like their next meal. Lewis described the frightening scene: “ As I was walking to the door, I could see the coyotes over here," “ "One had her by the neck and the other had her by the tail,” Jack, seeing his feline friend in danger, quickly sprang into action, racing out of the house and after the attacking coyotes....

Will the Floridians who have enrolled for Obamacare please stand up? Nearly two weeks after the federal government launched the online Health Insurance Marketplace at HealthCare.gov, individuals who have successfully used the choked-up website to enroll for a subsidized health insurance plan have reached a status akin to urban legend: Everyone has heard of them, but very few people have actually met one. The Miami Herald searched high and low for individuals who completed enrollment for a subsidized health plan through the marketplace, also called an exchange, launched by the federal government on Oct. 1 in 36 states, including Florida....

Abortionist Emil Felski kills babies at the Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando clinic. But Felski also has his own private ob/gyn practice in Casselberry, Florida, where he also covertly commits abortions. Pro-life activists often pray and protest at Felski’s office, to let his patients and the public know about his side job, and to encourage him to stop murdering babies. On October 1, Felski was not happy when spotting two pro-lifers holding signs as he came to work (in what looks like a Corvette). As the video below shows, Felski stopped his car on the main road – a 6-lane...

"If a dry run is occurring, the attack will shortly follow." That's according to Wolf Koch, a Boeing 767 pilot for Delta Airlines and an official at the Air Line Pilots Association International, who was discussing common terrorist tactics in the run-up to devastating attacks like those on 9/11. That is an extremely worrying thought given a memo leaked this week from the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, which warns of "several cases recently…of what appear to be probes, or dry runs" of such attacks.

WHEELING -- The ex-police officer who opened fire on a federal courthouse in West Virginia was a trained shooter who knew how to kill, yet federal officials said Thursday that he waved people away moments before he started spraying bullets into the glass facade and was later shot dead by law enforcement. Neither the FBI nor federal prosecutors would discuss the motive for 55-year-old Thomas J. Piccard's assault. But two possible theories emerged as investigators gathered evidence and neighbors revealed that Piccard had recently told them he was dying of cancer. U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld said the building being the...

The Democratic National Committee is launching Spanish-language online ads and robocalls targeting Republicans on the government shutdown, it announced Thursday. The effort is the third phase of a broader campaign this week that has been hitting Republicans in their home states, including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), as well as early voting states Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The Spanish-language calls and Twitter, Facebook and Google ads launching Thursday will target Latino voters in...

Police say a teen girl set her ex-boyfriend up to be robbed and kidnapped by a group that included her new beau — a 17-year-old who made headlines last year after allegedly shooting at his estranged father during a chance reunion with him. Artavious Malone, released from jail June 25 after a jury found him not guilty of attempted murder in the 2012 shooting, is now locked up again. Also nabbed in connection with the Riviera Beach robbery and kidnapping was 23-year-old Timothy Kyles of Wellington, the teenage girl and her friend. Both 17 at the time of the crime,...

Even though Congress unanimously passed a pre-shutdown bill to keep pay flowing to the military, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) blamed Republicans for a stop in death gratuities to the survivors of service members killed in action. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have come down hard on Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for his “interpretation” of the Pay Our Military Act under which civilians deemed necessary for troop morale still get paid but families of those killed over the past week in Afghanistan are denied the immediate $100,000 payment to help defray expenses. “You know, obviously...

An off-duty federal officer who fired his gun at a car that cut him off has a history of aggressive behavior, according to news reports. Angel Echevarria, an officer with the Department of Homeland Security, was recently arrested and charged with aggressive assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle in Boca Raton, Fla. after opening fire on a red Toyota that had committed a traffic infraction. According to the arrest affidavit, Echevarria claimed he was trying to shoot the tires of the Toyota to prevent it from fleeing the scene. But authorities concluded that too much time has elapsed between...

“As you are well aware,” wrote Retired U.S. Navy Senior Chief Geoff Ross -- in a message posted by Fred Brownbill on Save America Foundation Sunday -- the federal government “has illegally and unconstitutionally closed state fishing and navigational waters within the 12 mile boundary of state waters.” When logging onto the U.S. Department of Interior website, visitors are greeted with this message, posted Oct. 1 by the National Park Service: Because of the federal government shutdown, all national parks are closed and National Park Service webpages are not operating. For more information, go to www.doi.gov. ... I want 1000...

ORLANDO -- Since its launch on Oct. 1, the kinks in the website for people to sign up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act continue to get sorted out. Some are finding out there is information needed on hand before getting insurance. The process can be tougher than signing up for a new credit card. “They knew that I purchased pet insurance? Wow,” said insurance representative Michael Grace as he followed the steps to sign up. Grace has been advising people on new insurance plans available through the Affordable Care Act. The process is becoming clearer now that more...

An active duty combat veteran is dead, a victim of black mob violence. The soldier, who has yet to be identified, had been celebrating his safe return from combat and his imminent release from the military. He was walking to his hotel early Saturday morning near a Seattle area military base where KOMO-TV news picks up the story: A group of men in a car drove by and someone inside shouted a racial comment toward the white soldiers, the Lakewood Police Department said. “One of the soldiers yelled back something about the suspects treating combat soldiers with disrespect,” Lt. Chris...

LAKEWOOD, Wash. - A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier was stabbed to death in a parking lot at the 12500 block of Pacific Highway Southwest around 2:30 a.m., officials say. 20-year-old Tevin Geike was walking with two other soldiers along Pacific Highway SW when a group of men drove by and SHOUTED A RACIAL COMMENT toward the soldiers, the Lakewood Police Department said. "One of the soldiers yelled back something about the suspects treating combat soldiers with disrespect," Lt. Chris Lawler said. . . . ."The initial remark that started the encounter seemed derogatory in nature, said Lakewood police Lt. Chris...

LAKEWOOD, Wash. - A 20-year-old active-duty soldier was stabbed to death in a parking lot at the 12500 block of Pacific Highway Southwest around 2:30 a.m., officials say. Three soldiers were walking from Joint Base Lewis-McChord along Pacific Highway SW when a group of men in a car drove by and someone inside shouted a racial comment toward the white soldiers, the Lakewood Police Department said. "One of the soldiers yelled back something about the suspects treating combat soldiers with disrespect," Lt. Chris Lawler said. The vehicle turned around, and five black males got out of the car and confronted...

1). Don't go to stupid places with stupid people to do stupid things. Simple but often ignored. Listen, we do not live in a fair world where everyone respects everyone else. Nor where everyone gets along. You may in fact be totally color-blind in a socio-ethnic sort of way, but not everyone is. So even if your liberal sociology professor thinks it is a cool thing to take a stroll at midnight through a ethnically homogenous part of town (different ethnicity that you), it is still a stupid idea. 2). Always have a method to defend yourself. Even if it...

The US government shutdown enters its fifth day, a week after the horrific carnage by a mentally ill African-American man in which he kills a dozen people before he is cut down by police. An emotionally unstable African-American woman crashes a security fence near the White House and leads a hair-trigger alert cops on a high-speed car chase before she is mowed down by cops using overwhelming force. On Friday, another man, also African-American, pours gasoline on himself in front of the Capitol sets fire to himself in a rare attempt at self-immolation in the United States. It is not...

PANAMA CITY — For U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, the federal government shutdown is a fight to hold every American to the same standard under the country’s new health care law. Along with the House Republican majority, Southerland, R-Panama City, has backed resolutions to eliminate Affordable Care Act subsidies for members of Congress and delay the individual mandate for a year to avert a government shutdown. Democrats have said they will not negotiate until the government is reopened and the debt limit raised. Southerland said the Democratic-controlled Senate’s rejection of the proposal and refusal to negotiate is setting a dangerous precedent...

Raleigh, N.C., citizens are on alert after two cases of black mob violence in two nights in their downtown. The attacks are the latest in a series of episodes of racial violence in the area. The local ABC affiliate was the only media outlet to report that last Tuesday, a group of at least 15 black people stalked and beat a homeless woman after she saw them coming and tried to get out of their way. In contrast to most cases of black racial violence, local journalist Kelli O’Hara actually identified the mob the way victims and the police did:...

FULL TITLE: Homeless woman charged with disorderly conduct after twerking in front of schoolchildren on a Florida bus A homeless woman has been arrested after twerking in front of a Florida school bus. Valerie Dixon has been charged with disorderly conduct after her 'vulgar' display in front of children on Tuesday. The 27-year-old allegedly bent over and started twerking, with one hand on her ankle and the other on her genitals. Dixon was spotted bent over at the waist by a Lake County deputy who said she was 'dancing in a vulgar manner'.

U.S. Representative Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican, said he would support a broad spending deal that didn’t include changes to the health-care law, becoming the first Tea Party-backed House lawmaker to publicly back off the fight that has shut down the government for five days. Ross, ranked among the House’s most conservative members by both the Club for Growth and the American Conservative Union, said he shifted his position because the shutdown hasn’t resulted in changes to the Affordable Care Act, which started Oct. 1, the same day government funding ran out. The shutdown also could hurt the party, he...

Congress is consumed with the troublesome government shutdown, but House Democrats are trying to kick-start the stalled debate over immigration reform. “The American people have spoken,” Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia of Florida said this week. “They want Congress to take on this issue.” Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said he’s sure there are enough House votes to pass a bill that “fixes our broken immigration system, including provide a path to legal residency and ultimately to citizenship to millions of people who work hard everyday in this country.” …

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Florida) lambasted the Republican Party on Friday night during an appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” accusing the GOP of being divided into three fringe sectors. “There are really 3 Republican parties: there are the corporate shills, there are the religious fanatics and then there are the freedom fiends, the ones who want to make sure you have the right to sleep under a bridge,” Grayson told HBO’s Bill Maher. Maher, an outspoken liberal comedian, appeared to agree and summed up Grayson’s analysis in his own words. “So Jesus freaks, gun nuts, generic obese suburbanites, and...

SoFla bumper stickers pretty much sum up the way many average American citizens are feeling nowadays. “It’s not left vs. right; it’s the STATE vs YOU,” the people’s voice is saying as the word STATE is used in its larger meaning of the government, at all levels, the System that is grinding Man deeper and deeper into the dust. But the Florida Constitution Party aims to give left out voters and constituents real insight into the problems facing the US political scene at their conference this Saturday, October 5.(1) “Americans are learning the nation stands where it does today because...

<p>Lawmakers from both parties in Washington spent their Friday exchanging blame for the government shutdown, even as they were heading home for the weekend with no new negotiations scheduled.</p> <p>Sen. Marco Rubio, (R ) Florida, took to the senate floor to blast the president for his personal exchanges with House Speaker John Boehner.</p>

“You’re seeing the tremor before the tsunami here,” Yoho said. “I’m not going to raise the debt ceiling.” .... Today, Yoho compares his role in the American political system to the role that Fred Flintstone’s feet played, in Fred Flintstone’s car. He is the squealing brake. “I see one side of our government, or two-thirds of it, running 100 miles an hour toward socialism,” Yoho said, meaning Obama and the Democratic-led Senate.

MSNBC’s Al Sharpton got in a heated debate with Rep. John Mica (R-FL) Friday afternoon over who is to blame for the government shutdown. The two men spent most of the interview talking past each other, with Sharpton yelling, “You’re in denial! You shut the government down!” After debating the deficit under President Obama, Sharpton asked Mica, “When in the history of this country have we ever had a shutdown over a law?” The host rejected the idea that this shutdown is similar to the one that occurred in 1995, with Mica fighting back by saying it is similar, but...

It's a small sign with a big message, but Bartow residents are now being ordered to uproot their "God Bless America" yard signs. About 300 of the signs were handed out at First Baptist Church of Bartow following a Fourth of July sermon. But three months later, City of Bartow Code Enforcement says the temporary signs have worn out their welcome. Residents have three days to pack it up or pay a minimum fine of $25 a day. "Being a veteran, I felt like I was just kicked in the gut. I couldn't believe it, that I couldn't display my...

<p>Lawyers for State Attorney Angela Corey say she has “sovereign immunity” and are asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed against her in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case.</p> <p>Ben Kruidbos, her former information technology director, was fired in June after he testified that prosecutors did not turn over all information to Zimmerman’s defense team in the shooting death of the 17-year-old. Kruidbos said he was a whistleblower and under the law cannot be fired.</p>

Two Obamacare Navigator groups went door-to-door in Florida on Tuesday offering to help the uninsured determine the proper insurance plan despite past assurances that going door-to-door would be inappropriate, according to Fox News. Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, testified on Sept. 19 that going door-to-door would be inappropriate. “They are going to be instructed by us, as part of our agreement with them, not to go door-to-door and I am confident, congressman, that they will obey that instruction” Cohen said at the time.

The New York Times surveys the Obamacare roll-out in Florida, home to America’s second-highest uninsured population. This piece is extraordinary: MIAMI — The glitches in the new electronic health care sign-up system began almost immediately at the Jessie Trice Community Health Center, in one of this city’s poorest neighborhoods, and they never let up. With a potential applicant by her side, Linda J. Lott, a certified application counselor, stood at her computer terminal and typed the word “Florida” into the insurance exchange network Web site. “The system is down at the moment,” it read…All day, trained application counselors typed in...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A judge set bail at $1 million Wednesday for a man accused of telling security screeners at the Jacksonville International Airport he had a bomb in his backpack, prompting the evacuation of the airport. Authorities did not find any explosives. Zeljko Causevic, 39, remained silent during his brief hearing before Duval County Court Judge Russell Healey on charges of making a false report about planting a bomb and possessing a hoax bomb. According to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrest report, Causevic, a U.S. citizen who is originally from Bosnia, approached a Transportation Security Administration agent Tuesday, saying...

Allen West, beloved Tea Party candidate, is telling D.C. bloggers he’ll take a run at Marco “Speaks With Forked Tongue” Rubio’s Senate seat in 2016. “If I see people are not taking our country down the right path, God will set my feet on the right path,” said the Colonel. (1) Rubio’s fatal mistake was to coax the Tea Party into backing him–and back him they did, right into the Senate’s front door–and then promptly putting in with old guard, Senate liberals who were playing him for a fool. This mistake just may doom his re-election bid. It’s something you...

A Florida orthodontist sued the Obama administration on Tuesday, insisting that the White House must abandon changes it has made on its own to the Affordable Care Act, instead obeying the letter of the law as Congress passed it. The administration has made several tweaks to the Obamacare law, including a one-year delay of a measure that requires companies with 50 or more employees to offer them health insurance or pay financial penalties. The law specifies an exact date when that feature is to go into effect – January 1, 2014 – but the White House announced in July that...

Warning: Graphic details A teacher at a South Florida high school was shocked when he returned from summer vacation to find a formalin-soaked human fetus placed in a jar inside one of his cabinets. The fetus, a white female, was 16 to 19 weeks old and 8 inches long with its umbilical cord still attached. The fetus' eyes, toes and other features were all well preservedand there appears to be no trauma. The mason jar was found covered in a brown paper bag in Robert Snyder's classroom at Cape Coral High School on Aug. 7.

In a Tuesday interview, Rep. Alan Grayson charged that Republican House members have been literally intoxicated while casting votes on the continuing resolutions that set the stage for today’s government shutdown. Noting “a number of public reports that you can smell alcohol on their breath as they’re voting gleefully to shut down the government and create chaos,” Grayson said that he had personally witnessed GOP colleagues smelling like alcohol. “Many of them seem loaded,” said Grayson. The Florida congressman declined to name names, saying, “it’s the usual suspects,” but that he didn’t “really feel like getting that personal with people.”...

A pretend game of cops and robbers landed a Florida elementary school boy with a very real suspension after he made a pretend gun with his thumb and index finger. The mother of 8-year-old Jordan Bennett said her son was only playing with his friend at Harmony Community School in St. Cloud. She fears his one-day suspension, which was handed down Friday, wrongly labels Jordan as a violent person. “There was nothing in his hand. He used his thumb and index finger,” Bonnie Bennett told WKMG-TV. “It was a game. He made no threatening advances or threats to harm anyone....

The other voices. Members of the Flagler County Democratic Club will gather at noon Tuesday in front of the Flagler County Health Department on Dr. Carter Boulevard in Bunnell to celebrate the first day of the enactment of the Affordable Care Act—and to protest Florida’s many obstructions against the health law known as Obamacare. The health department at 301 Dr. Carter Boulevard is not a visible place: it’s at the end of a little-trafficked side street, and the noon demonstration is scheduled for only an hour. But Democrats chose the health department because state Department of Health ordered all...

Last year, just under 15% of the U.S. population did not have health insurance coverage. But as the different stages of the Affordable Care Act roll out over the next few years — and more Americans become insured — this rate is likely to fall. For now though, health insurance remains out of reach for many Americans. In states like Florida and Alaska, more than one in five residents are without insurance. And an estimated 22.5% of Texans didn’t have health insurance last year. Based on data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10...

"....last night you have Republican tea party extremists actually celebrating on the House Floor, publicly celebrating that they got -- Michele Bachmann said she got everything she wanted." "You have other Republicans who have said they're delighted over shutting the government down. What we need to do is come together. And let me just give you an analogy here. This is -- there's clear evidence that the tail is wagging the dog and you have got Republicans on the other side who are irrational and not playing with a full deck. " "Would you -- if you didn't like the...

WPEC weekend anchor Jenna Caiazzo got robbed at gunpoint on Saturday evening while walking back from dinner she had with a friend at Cityplace in West Palm Beach. Caiazzo says two black men approached her and her friend at the corner of Dixie Highway and Isis Iris street, right next to City Palms condominiums, held a silver handgun to her head,

Overnight my computer blew up with E-mails decrying the destruction and torment done by Homeland Security, Emergency Response Teams and Florida State Police goons, especially from Broward and So Fla, to the once quiet Florida Everglades. So let’s get this dam ( to avoid print style book standards) straight as Rush likes to say. While erstwhile print outlets in our So Fla regions team with the Martin County Rino’s to get our Florida Legislature to give even more land over to the federal government in the form of emergency relief declarations that look to stop estuary blooms by the Army...

When Colin and Joyce Elston bought their Florida dream home in May, they were confident they could afford the three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch with a pool and a backyard overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway. Now they are not so sure. The retirees said they had enough in savings and investments to pay the mortgage and the $1,482 yearly flood insurance on the home, which sits on palm tree-lined Paradise Boulevard on Treasure Island, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. But within two months of moving in, they received a stunning surprise: Due to a recently passed federal law, their flood...

Miami-Dade County is joining Broward County in a move to ignore Governor Rick Scott’s decision to ban healthcare navigators from state health department buildings. Mayor Carlos Gimenez told CBS4 that the county will welcome navigators with open arms as soon as the Affordable Care Act goes into effect. Navigators are people trained by the federal government to help explain the Affordable Care Act to citizens. “We have a disproportionately high number of uninsured people in Miami-Dade County,” said Gimenez. “They’re going to need help navigating this law.” Governor Scott, an opponent of the proposed healthcare overhaul, ordered county health departments...

Miami-Dade County is joining Broward County in a move to ignore Governor Rick Scott’s decision to ban healthcare navigators from state health department buildings. Mayor Carlos Gimenez told CBS4 that the county will welcome navigators with open arms as soon as the Affordable Care Act goes into effect. Navigators are people trained by the federal government to help explain the Affordable Care Act to citizens. “We have a disproportionately high number of uninsured people in Miami-Dade County,” said Gimenez. “They’re going to need help navigating this law.” Governor Scott, an opponent of the proposed healthcare overhaul, ordered county health departments...

The Dream Defenders are taking their message to the floor of the United Nations. The group, which is against Florida’s “stand your ground” law and formed in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death, submitted an eight-page shadow report Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Committee answering questions the committee raised as to whether stand your ground violates the United States’ civil rights obligations. The group has gained momentum since the July acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case. They initiated a 31-day occupation of the Capitol building in Tallahassee to pressure members of the Florida House of Representatives...

These twin brothers must have gone so ape over a pair of monkeys that they're now accused of swiping them from a Nebraska home and bringing them to Florida. On Monday, a woman from Nebraska contacted her local deputies to report that two of her apes were AWOL, reports the Lee County Sheriff's Office. The woman reportedly had an inkling that two 20-year-old twin brothers -- Michael and Jacob Ruehlman -- had something to do with the pilfered primates, a pair of Gibbons monkeys. A two states law investigation traced the abducted apes, along with the twins, to Fort Myers,...