Free Republic

As one of the most popular shoes in the world, there are few people who don't own a pair of Converse All-Stars. But Penny Gold loves them more than most. The retired teacher, 63, from Lake Mary, Florida, has just been named a world record holder for her 733-strong collection by the World Records Academy. Mrs Gold, who is now submitting an application to Guinness World Records in the hope that it too will award her a title, told how she started collecting Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars when she was a child living in Brooklyn, New York. She admits...

On August 23, 2011 the FBI arrested Imam Abu Taubah aka Marcus Dwayne Robertson. The charge was possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, Case Number: 6:11-mj-1380 Attached to Imam Abu Robertson’s case is a Notice of Intent To Use Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Information (FISA). The U.S. Government’s intention to use its FISA powers signals probable cause to charge Imam “Taubah” Robertson “the target of such search is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power”. The facts presented in these filed charges leads this reporter to suspect an element of foreign intrigue may be...

The stolen credit-card numbers taken surreptitiously from customers at a Winter Springs gas station and the more than $125,000 in charges racked up to those accounts were just the beginning. Twelve miles away, in an inconspicuous storage yard full of trucks and boats on Forsyth Road, suspected members of Central Florida crime rings were running their own black-market gas station where they sold fuel bought with the stolen credit-card numbers. Those associated with the criminal rings — including co-owners of an Orlando mobile-phone store — were so successful in their illegal endeavors that they got away with millions of dollars...

Herman Cain answers a question regarding his stance on Libya while in Orlando Friday.

An Orlando-area mom reportedly angry that her child was being bullied took matters into her own hands on Tuesday —and was arrested for her trouble. Leslie Ann Thomas, 31, charged into Lockhart Middle School on Doctor Love Road about 9:16 a.m., according to an arrest report.

Former liberal activist/turned tea party conservative Brandon Darby and Sheriff Joe Arpaio were featured speakers at the Choose Liberty 2012 event sponsored by the Eastern Orlando Tea Party. As Sheriff Arpaio took the podium, Darby called security over to point out Occupy Orlando activists were in the audience of the private event preparing to cause a disruption. When the activists tried to interfere with Arpaio's right to speak and the tea party's right to peaceably assemble, Darby and Chad Biddinger of Libertylink.com escorted the trespassers out in an emphatic way. Video at link.

The lucrative abortion industry sure loves to wallow in its hatred of God: Imagine the deal they’ll probably give you if you come in to kill your baby on Christmas morning.

A lawyer linked through the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood has been identified as the driving force behind the Occupy Orlando protests that have been staged in Johnson Park, according to a video report from Tom Trento of the Florida Security Council and The United West. "You're not going to believe ... the evidence ... that links this movement with a key Muslim individual who's associated with CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood," Trento explains on the video. "This individual has assumed a leadership [role] if [he is] not the leader of this movement...

Barack Obama will be in Orlando and nearby Lake Mary on Tuesday, pushing his so-called Jobs Bill and raising money for his reelection. He starts at the Downtown Sheraton, then moves on to the Heathrow/Lake Mary home of Morgan & Morgan partner John Morgan Don't have a scheule yet, but FReepmail me if you are up for a little sign waving. BTW, spread the word. John Morgan, who loves to claim he is a lawyer "For The People," is hosting Obama. Tell anyone you know who is considering using his firm. They might want to know that he is that...

CPAC FL website site showing speaker lineup CSPAN-2 is running segments from earlier today. Schedule of Events

Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared in the Republican presidential debate Thursday night that he had never advocated turning Social Security over to the states. His denial was hard to fathom given his past rhetoric about the program. "Let the states do it," he said last year, for example.

APOPKA, Fla. -- A man attempted to commit suicide at the Shoot Straight gun range in Apopka on Thursday afternoon, Apopka police said. The man survived the self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. The man’s identity was not immediately released. In June, a man walked into the Casselberry Shoot Straight location and took his life, police said. Casselberry police said an Altamonte Springs man walked in and waited until there was only one other customer inside. Tommy McWilliams then sent his mother a goodbye text message and told her he loved her before shooting himself. (Video at link)

ACU Announces Ann Coulter Will Join CPAC FL For Immediate Release: August 3, 2011Contact: Kristy Campbell, (703) 836-8602, KCampbell@conservative.org   ACU Announces Ann Coulter Will Join CPAC FLAll-star Panels to Feature Bill Kristol, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed and Jim Talent ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Conservative Union (ACU) today announced eight-time New York Times’ bestselling author Ann Coulter will be a headliner at CPAC FL – the organization’s first in an inaugural series of regional events expanding on the legacy of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Additionally, ACU announced several national conservative leaders will serve on CPAC FL panels, including the founder...

A man bound for Nigeria with a stomach full of cocaine was intercepted by authorities at an Orlando airport this month, federal authorities say. According to a criminal complaint, 54-year-old Barratt Kalu Eni tried to pass through Orlando International Airport with almost a kilogram of cocaine in his body on July 9. He'd flown from Houston to Orlando and was en-route to London when agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation confronted him.

CASEY ANTHONY: SINGLE MOM OF THE YEAR! July 6, 2011How many months of man-hours did Florida police spend searching for little Caylee Anthony back in 2008, while her mother, Casey Anthony, knew exactly where the child's body was? If you were the victim of a crime in Orlando, Fla., between July and December 2008, you should be enraged that the police couldn't prevent or investigate your crime because they were too busy looking for a missing child whose mother already knew the kid was dead. It's a zero-sum game with police resources. Cops combing through the woods searching for...

Casey Anthony’s six-week murder trial finally rested today as jurors were sent away to decide whether her two-year-old daughter was the victim of an accidental drowning that she covered up out of fear and grief, or was brutally murdered by a 'pathological liar' who wanted to live free and party. Judge Belvin Perry dispatched the jury in Orlando, Florida, to consider their verdict after the state delivered an emotionally stirring rebuttal to the defence’s closing arguments, telling the panel of seven men and five woman that Caylee Anthony died in June 2008 at the hands of 'the most well documented...

The hacktivist group Anonymous may be setting its sights on the city of Orlando, Florida next, if an anonymous press release which has landed in our inbox is to be believed (see bellow). The group is threatening to take down a different city-related website every day, starting with Orlando Florida Guide, which doesn’t even appear to be owned by the city of Orlando (it is registered to an organization called Utopia, administered by a man named Steven Ridenour). So any random website extolling the virtues of Orlando could be targeted. The DDOS attacks are justified in the press release...

Casey Anthony's murder trial was cut short today when she was taken ill after pictures of her dead daughter's skull were shown. Anthony cried and looked away as graphic photos of her two-year-old daughter Caylee's remains were shown to the jury at the trial in Orlando. Judge Belvin Perry had warned anyone who might become queasy to leave the courtroom before the images were displayed. Shortly after the images were shown he sent the jury home for the day, asking them not to speculate about why court was ending early. Earlier in the day Anthony's brother, Lee, testified his sister...

Just a headline so far. This is the third time in two days this has happened.

Actor Jim Caviezel, his voice sometimes cracking with emotion, spoke of being "rejected in my own industry," the problems of his friend Mel Gibson and his son's cancer in an appearance Saturday night at First Baptist Church of Orlando. The star of "The Passion of the Christ," whom First Baptist pastor David Uth described as "more passionate about God" than anyone he's ever met, was in town to give witness to his faith, to urge others to share it and to sell a new all-star audio production of the Bible that he has produced. During a 20-minute talk, Caviezel spoke...