Free Republic

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local neighborhood is wondering how this decades-old military weapon ended up in someone’s backyard. Mathew Sims says when he picked up the military munition, he quickly realized what it was that he was holding in his hands and slowly put it back where it was. Homeowner Mathew Sims said, “Okay is this live? You panic, then you drop.” That’s what was going through Sims’s mind when he found this, an unexploded military weapon in his backyard Wednesday located at 15th Street E. Sims told us he didn’t want to be on camera but says he was...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Amit Patel, the former Jacksonville Jaguars employee who deposited $22 million stolen from the team primarily at FanDuel and DraftKings, spent $5 million on a "life of luxury," including Tiger Woods' 1996 putter and $78,800 in private jets, federal prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday. Patel also spent $275,000 to retain his attorney, Alex King, according to the filing. In the filing, prosecutors rebutted King's assertion that his client's behavior was fueled by gambling addiction and that "99% of the misappropriated funds" were used to pay back gambling losses. Instead, authorities say, $5 million went to...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (WJW) — A Florida man is reportedly healing after a horrific amount of bugs were pulled from his nasal and sinus passages earlier this month. “Over a couple hours my face just started swelling, my lips swelled, I could hardly talk,” the patient told WTLV in Florida. “My whole face felt like it was on fire.” The patient, who was not identified, went to a nearby hospital for constant nose bleeds and pain, according to the TV station. What the ear nose and throat doctor on call found by looking inside the man’s nose, was like something out...

The newly elected Democrat mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, celebrated the removal of a Confederate statue in the city, which was officially gone before noon Wednesday. Democrat Mayor Donna Deegan, who won her mayoral bid in May, celebrated the removal of the statue in Springfield Park, formally known as Confederate Park. The monument in question, “In Memory of Our Women of the Southland,” depicts a mother with her two children at her side, looking down at a book upon her lap. It was erected in October 1915. The Democrat mayor, who said during her time on the campaign trail that she...

Man, this is rough … I totally feel for this kid. Baltimore Ravens fans were feeling good during “Sunday Night Football.” Not only were they headed towards a 23-7 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, but they also got one hell of an upgrade on offense … until they lost it on the same night, and in horrific fashion. Ravens rookie running back Keaton Mitchell was an outright rising star during his brilliant showing against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but his pretty stat line got thrown out the window after he suffered a wicked knee injury at the beginning of the fourth...

Jacksonville, Florida, Mayor Donna Deegan (D) is facing questions after she awarded a no-bid contract worth $300,000 to a firm whose president not only donated to her campaign, but hosted an event for her at his home this year. The Democrat mayor’s deal was exposed in a Wednesday Florida Times-Union report, revealing that the city’s Professional Services Evaluation Committee recommended Deegan approve a year-long contract with Langton Consulting without seeking proposals from any other firms, despite the city typically requiring “competitive bidding.”

In the aftermath of the racially-motivated shooting in Jacksonville the media has disgustingly attempted to tie Gov. Ron DeSantis to the shooting that left three black people dead.

The shooter who killed three black people at a Dollar General in Jacksonville, Florida, Saturday once worked at a discount retailer — and stopped at a Family Dollar, where a security guard’s presence caused him to leave just before he carried out what police say was a racially motivated attack. Ryan Palmeter, 21, who is white, had worked at a Dollar Tree from October 2021 to July 2022, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said Monday. “Based off what we saw: him stopping off at the Family Dollar and working at a Dollar Tree previously and then him going to Dollar General,...

Florida State Representative Rep. Angie Nixon (D) said Sunday on MSNBC’s “Yasmin Vossoughian Reports” that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has “blood on his hands” after a shooting in a Jacksonville Dollar General store on Saturday left three people dead. DeSantis said, “Florida, the state, and its people condemned the horrific racially-motivated murders, perpetrated by a deranged scumbag in Jacksonville at the Dollar General Store. Perpetrating violence of this kind is unacceptable. And targeting people due to their race has no place in the state of Florida.” Nixon said, “This is a governor who has done nothing but fan these types...

Vice President Kamala Harris reacted to Saturday’s shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, by pushing gun control that would not have prevented the attack. Harris released a statement Sunday noting the shooting was racially motivated and will be investigated “as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism.” She closed her statement by saying, “Every person in every community in America should have the freedom to live safe from gun violence. And Congress must help secure that freedom by banning assault weapons and passing other commonsense gun safety legislation.”

The man who killed three people in a racist shooting in a Jacksonville Dollar General store had legally purchased the guns despite previously being involuntarily institutionalized for mental health issues, the sheriff said. Sheriff T.K. Waters called Ryan Christopher Palmeter, 21, a “maniac” but there was nothing that could have stopped him from owning firearms. “There was no flag that could have come up to stop him from purchasing those guns,” Waters said at a Sunday news conference. “They were 100% legal.”….

Multiple people have been shot dead at a Florida Dollar General store in Northwest Jacksonville after an armed suspect barricaded himself inside the store. Emergency services, including a SWAT team, rushed to the scene on Kings Road, Northwest Jacksonville, at around 1pm on Saturday. Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan confirmed there are 'a number of fatalities' following the incident, which saw the shooter barricade himself inside. It is believed the shooter is now dead, although it's unclear if he was taken out by police, or killed himself.

The ex-wife of a Florida Microsoft executive who was gunned down in front of his 2-year-old daughter last year has been arrested in Washington state and charged in connection with the killing — and prosecutors said they plan to seek the death penalty in the case. Long a suspect in father-of-four Jared Bridegan’s brutal Jacksonville Beach slaying, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez was collared after a grand jury handed down a first-degree murder indictment Thursday morning. “Shanna Gardner’s indictment acknowledges her central and key role in the cold, calculated and premeditated murder of Jared Bridegan,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson said at a press...

Self-proclaimed “Demon Buster” Florida Rep. Kimberly Daniels, D-Jacksonville, made controversial statements in the past that are now coming back to haunt her. Daniels, now a member of the African American History Task Force, is in the hot seat, along with the rest of the task force this week, regarding newly adopted standards for Black History education that some partisan politicians believe downplay the horrors of slavery. Daniels has tried to distance herself from the controversy and the DeSantis administration on the heels of Vice President Kamala Harris’s loud and inaccurate criticism. Still, past comments she’s made thanking God for slavery,...

The newly-elected mayor of Jacksonville has allocated $500,000 in the Florida city’s budget to remove a monument dedicated to women who lost loved ones serving in the Confederate army. Donna Deegan — a progressive Democrat who toppled her Republican opponent in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ backyard — had pledged to topple the monument and lined up the dollars to do so. “We are looking at all potential options and Mayor Deegan remains committed to removing the Springfield Park monument,” her spokesperson, Philip Perry, tweeted. Erected in 1915, the monument is one of the last Confederate memorials remaining in Jacksonville, the...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has abandoned his home state in recent months, gallivanting around the country and the world as part of his inevitable 2024 presidential bid.The result of DeSantis’ self-serving behavior is disaster in the city of Jacksonville where an underfunded upstart Democrat candidate beat their Republican challenger earlier this week. This means Jacksonville, which was previously the largest city in the country under Republican rule, has fallen to the Democrats. It is a massive stain on the record of DeSantis, who has been puffing his chest out about what a “winner” he is for months now.On Tuesday, Democrat...

'Ron’s magic is GONE!' Former President Donald Trump is weighing in on the Jacksonville mayoral race, which saw a Democrat win just months after Republicans carried the state handily. On Truth Social, Trump said Republican Daniel Davis’ “shocker” loss to Democrat Donna Deegan came down to Team Davis courting Ron DeSantis’ endorsement instead of that of the former President. “In a big upset, the DeSanctimonious backed Republican candidate for Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, LOST. This is a shocker. If they would have asked me to Endorse, he would have won, easily. Too proud to do so,” Trump said. “Fools! This...

School board chair Dr. Kelly Coker said Greene told her as early as April 17 that she was considering retirement. That conversation came about a month after the Duval County School Police Department arrested a longtime music teacher at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts accused of lewd conduct involving a student and removed three other DA teachers from classrooms as part of a probe at the school into claims that abuse had been tolerated for years.

Confederate monuments and others would be protected from removal, defacement and historical contextualization. Legislation in the House and the Senate would protect monuments of war from not just defacement and removal, but attempts to offer historical context. The “Historical Monuments and Memorials Protection Act” (HB 1607) was filed in the House by Rep. Dean Black, a Jacksonville Republican. It is the House companion to SB 1096, filed last month by Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Republican from Fort Myers. “We must defend and learn from our history,” Black told Florida Politics Tuesday. This includes protecting historic monuments across the state of...

A man is back in jail, charged with committing several armed robberies in three days. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said 33-year-old Branon Purcell was targeting convenience stores all across the city. JSO said Purcell faces 11 counts of armed robbery at 10 different businesses. “Purcell is no stranger to criminal activity as he had just been released from Florida State prison 21 days, 21 days before this arrest.” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said. Action News Jax told you back in 2016 when Purcell admitted to 10 armed robberies in Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Neptune Beach, according to officers. He served...