Free Republic

JANET PROTASIEWICZ: 548,650 votes (57.9%) DANIEL KELLY: 399,014 votes (42.1%) PERCENTAGE OF VOTES IN: 56%

LAKE BUENA VISTA — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handpicked board overseeing Disney World’s government services is gearing up for a potential legal battle over a 30-year development agreement they say effectively renders them powerless to manage the entertainment giant’s future growth in Central Florida. Ahead of an expected state takeover, the Walt Disney Co. quietly pushed through the pact and restrictive covenants that would tie the hands of future board members for decades, according to a legal presentation by the district’s lawyers on Wednesday. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s new Board of Supervisors voted to bring in outside legal firepower...

A Maricopa County judge may soon allow Kari Lake to attempt to prove one of the most far-fetched claims she made in her lawsuit challenging her November loss against Gov. Katie Hobbs: That bad actors forged signatures on tens of thousands of mail-in ballot envelopes, and the county failed to follow state law when approving them.Lake’s claim, which the Arizona Supreme Court remanded to the trial court last week, is the losing GOP gubernatorial candidate’s last chance to prove her election should be overturned. She has spent the last several months on a money-making media tour based on the false...

The federal judge presiding over E. Jean Carroll's civil rape and defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump ruled Thursday he'll use an anonymous jury in the case, noting Trump's inflammatory rhetoric about the justice system. "It bears mention that Mr. Trump repeatedly has attacked courts, judges, various law enforcement officials and other public officials, and even individual jurors in other matters,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of New York said in his decision. He also said he'll refuse to allow jurors' names to become public, adding, "If jurors’ identities were disclosed, there would be a strong likelihood of unwanted...

ORLANDO, Fla. – Joseph Harding, the former Florida representative who resigned in December after he was indicted on federal fraud charges, has taken a plea deal from the U.S. Justice Department. On Tuesday, Harding, who represented part of Marion County in the Florida House of Representatives, entered guilty pleas to one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering and one count of making false statements. The rest of the counts against him will be dropped. Harding was indicted by a federal grand jury in December for using two inactive companies to apply for COVID-19 relief loans from the...

Fox News sued one of its senior producers Monday over the $1.6 billion defamation claim it is fighting concerning allegedly knowingly broadcasting disinformation regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election. Fox News's lawsuit came the same day that the producer, Abby Grossberg, who has worked with hosts Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo, filed lawsuits against the company, accusing Fox lawyers of attempting to coerce her into lying to investigators to protect top executives and slamming the television network for being misogynistic. According to Fox's lawsuit, Grossberg told the network last month that she intended to sue it for discrimination....

A judge on Monday ordered sanctions against Republican Mark Finchem, the losing candidate in Arizona’s secretary of state race who challenged the election results in court. In granting the sanctions, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian said Finchem and his attorney, Daniel McCauley III, filed their lawsuit “without substantial justification.” Finchem lost the election to Democrat Adrian Fontes by 120,208 votes. Julian in December dismissed Finchem's lawsuit, which requested a new election, alleged that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs had engaged in misconduct and claimed that illegal votes were cast because of errors in the laboratory testing of...

Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a civil case filed by the Justice Department over undeclared foreign bank accounts. When the civil case was filed in April 2022, prosecutors alleged that Manafort had failed to disclose more than 20 offshore bank accounts he ordered opened in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The government sought an order for Manafort to pay fines, penalties and interest, alleging he'd failed to file federal tax documents detailing the accounts and failed to disclose the money on his...

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has released three separate documents related to the investigation into the 2020 General Election. In a news release issued Wednesday morning, the AG’s office said that agents and staff spent 10,000 hours looking at any possible irregularities and pieces of evidence of voter fraud but lacked to find any. “In each instance and in each matter, the aforementioned parties did not provide any evidence to support their allegations. The information that was provided was speculative in many instances and when investigated by our agents and support staff, was found to be...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia voters on Tuesday elected Democrat Jennifer McClellan, a veteran state legislator from Richmond, to fill an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she will make history as the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress. “We will make this commonwealth and this country a better place for everyone,” McClellan said in a victory speech at a party with supporters in Richmond. “I am ready to get to work.” McClellan, 50, prevailed over right-wing Republican nominee Leon Benjamin in the special election for the blue-leaning 4th District, which has its population...