Free Republic

A 60-foot-wide sinkhole formed under a resort in central Florida late Sunday, forcing guests out of their rooms as one three-story building collapsed and another slowly sank. Guests at the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, about 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, called for help before the collapse, saying they heard loud noises and windows cracking. All guests inside the buildings -- an estimated 35 people, authorities said -- were evacuated before the first structure crumbled. A roughly 15-foot-deep crater swallowed much of one building, Lake County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Tony Cuellar said. Aerial video from CNN affiliate WFTV...

CLERMONT, Fla. - A sinkhole has caused a building housing vacationers at a Central Florida resort to collapse. [PHOTOS: Sinkhole swallowing Central Florida resort] Fire officials said that about 50 percent of the three-story villa at the Summer Bay Resort, located about 10 miles west of Disney World, collapsed around 3 a.m. Monday. The building had been evacuated earlier and no injuries have been reported.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) continues its epic struggle to understand the First Amendment. In the latest incident, the Muslim civil liberties group has asked government officials in Brevard County, Florida to deny the use of a county-owned meeting room to a group CAIR has tagged as “an anti-Muslim hate group,” reports the Orlando Sentinel.

A Florida beach safety officer was fired on Friday after he referred to Trayvon Martin as a “thug” on his personal Facebook page. Todd Snipes, a beach officer of 15 years who was stationed about 40 minutes from where Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Fla., was initially suspended for the post he made on Facebook last month. “Another thug gone,” Snipes wrote the night of George Zimmerman’s acquittal. “Pull up your pants and be respectful. Bye bye thug r.i.p.” In his termination letter, Department of Public Protection Director George Recktenwald wrote that Snipes had “engaged in behavior that threatens...

About 40 percent of white Americans and about 25 percent of non-white Americans are surrounded exclusively by friends of their own race, according to an ongoing Reuters/Ipsos poll. The figures highlight how segregated the United States remains in the wake of a debate on race sparked by last month’s acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of unarmed black Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. President Barack Obama weighed in after the verdict, calling for Americans to do some “soul searching” on whether they harbor racial prejudice. There are regions and groups where mixing with people of other races is more common,...

Across the Everglades, all our Western neighbors in Naples are talking about is a purported UFO sighting this week at a condo building pool. Because if advanced life forms traveled from billions of light years away, their first stop would undoubtedly be a condo building pool in Naples. The spotting was made on security camera footage and first reported by security officer Debralee Thomas. She took her story to NBC 2. "It was down on the ground but some of that webbing was longer and it made a funnel down into the pool. Whatever it was doing in the pool,...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A Florida beach safety officer has been fired over comments he is accused of making on Facebook regarding Trayvon Martin. Todd Snipes was fired Friday for unprofessional conduct. County officials say Snipes showed “horrible judgment made worse during a racially charged atmosphere.”