Category Archives: Florida

Frozen iguanas forecast to shower south Florida as temperatures drop

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National Weather Service warned of reptiles falling from trees as iguanas are susceptible to freezing once temperatures fall to 40F

The National Weather Service (NWS) took the unusual step on Tuesday of warning that frozen iguanas are expected to shower south Florida as temperatures drop to unusually low levels for the region overnight.

Iguanas, as it turns out, are susceptible to freezing once temperatures drop to around 40F (4.44C). When frozen, these cold-blooded creatures lose their grip on the cozy trees they call home and slip. But the experts informed the public to be aware that the chilled reptiles may be stiff and appear lifeless – but they are not dead.

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US to expel a dozen Saudi trainees in wake of Florida naval base shooting

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Trainees not involved in attack but reportedly accused of having extremist links or possessing child abuse images

The US will expel at least a dozen Saudi military students accused of extremist links and possessing child sexual abuse images, after an investigation into a shooting rampage by a Saudi officer in Florida, according to media reports.

In December Mohammed Alshamrani, who was in the US as part of a Saudi military training program, opened fire in a classroom at the Pensacola naval air station, killing three sailors and wounding eight other people before being shot dead by police.

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Florida ended a Jim Crow voting law. A year later, people are still fighting for a voice

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Amendment 4 should restore the vote to 1.4 million people. But those affected say the struggle is far from over

One year ago, Florida enacted the biggest expansion of the right to vote in America in a generation.

For 150 years, Florida had upheld a law that banned anyone convicted of a felony from voting, even after they had served the full sentence. The policy, rooted in the Jim Crow south, stood out as a stain on American democracy.

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Rod Stewart charged over alleged altercation at Florida resort

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Police report says singer punched a hotel security guard on New Year’s Eve


Sir Rod Stewart has been charged with battery after an alleged scuffle at the entrance to a private New Year’s Eve party for children at a hotel in Palm Beach, Florida.

The altercation is also believed to have involved Stewart’s 39-year-old son, Sean, who is accused of pushing a security guard.

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‘He was sent to us’: at church rally, evangelicals worship God and Trump

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Friday’s rally recognized Trump’s need to retain the loyalty of the evangelical voting bloc that propelled him to victory in 2016

They came to pray with their president, though in truth many came just to worship him. Donald Trump’s Friday launch of his so-called “coalition of evangelicals”, an attempt to shore up the support of the religious right ahead of November’s election, had the feel of any other campaign rally, except this time with gospel music.

An estimated 7,000 “supporters of faith” packed the King Jesus international ministry megachurch in Miami to hear the word of the president, and decided that it was good. The Maga hat-wearing faithful cheered Trump’s comments on issues calculated to resonate with his churchgoing audience, including abortion, freedoms of speech and religion, and what he claimed was a “crusade” from Democrats against religious tolerance.

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Jeffrey Epstein: woman sues estate alleging encounter when she was 14

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Lawsuit filed in Florida says teen was approached in 2003 when she was ‘a vulnerable child without adequate parental support’

A woman who says she was 14 when she had a sexual encounter with the financier Jeffrey Epstein at his mansion sued his estate in Florida court on Monday for coercion, inflicting emotional distress and battery.

The lawsuit filed in Palm Beach county asks for an undisclosed amount of money. The lawsuit doesn’t give the woman’s name and only refers to her as “JJ Doe”.

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Pentagon suspends military training of Saudi students after Pensacola shooting

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  • Decision grounds more than 300 military aviation students
  • Three US military members were killed in shooting Friday

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday it was halting operational training of all Saudi Arabian military personnel in the United States until further notice in the wake of the deadly shooting by a Saudi air force officer.

The decision will have far-reaching impacts, including grounding more than 300 Saudi Arabian military aviation students.

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Pensacola shooting: FBI working with presumption it was ‘act of terrorism’

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No arrests made, FBI said, while Mark Esper instructed US armed forces to review security at military bases

Three days after a Saudi air force lieutenant shot dead three people at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida, the FBI said it was working “with the presumption that this was an act of terrorism”.

The gunman who struck in a classroom at Naval Air Station Pensacola on Friday morning was killed by sheriff’s deputies, two of whom were among eight people wounded. All were expected to survive.

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Banana artwork that fetched $120,000 is eaten by ‘hungry’ artist

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Performance artist consumes masterpiece in front of crowd at Art Basel in Miami, but ‘the idea’ apparently lives on

An artwork that sold last week for $120,000 and was hailed as “a symbol of global trade” has been eaten, in what might seem a fitting end for something that was an ever-ripening banana duct-taped to a wall.

The piece, titled Comedian, by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was on show at the international gallery Perrotin at Art Basel in Miami when New York performance artist David Datuna ate it, saying he was hungry.

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Pensacola: suspect watched mass shooting videos at dinner party, official says

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  • Three killed before gunman shot at US navy base
  • Student who attended dinner party filmed outside building where shooting took place, official says

The Saudi student suspected of killing three people at a US navy base in Florida hosted a dinner party earlier in the week where he and three others watched videos of mass shootings, a US official told the Associated Press on Saturday.

Related: Pensacola shooting: Saudi student kills three at Florida naval air station, says official

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Saudi student kills three in attack at Florida naval air station, says official

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  • Shooter killed by sheriff’s deputies who responded
  • Saudi government condemns the attack

An aviation student from Saudi Arabia opened fire in a classroom building at the naval air station (Nas) in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday morning, a US official said, an attack the Saudi government quickly condemned and that US officials were investigating for possible links to terrorism.

The assault, which left three dead in addition to the assailant, was the second at a US navy base this week and prompted a massive law enforcement response and a lockdown at the base.

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Man sues Burger King for grilling vegan burger and meat on same grill

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Phillip Williams argues he wouldn’t have bought the burger if he’d known it was ‘covered in meat by-products’

When Burger King announced the Impossible Whopper (a vegan alternative to their bestselling burger), they did so with the tagline: “100% Whopper, 0% Beef.”

Turns out, the statement may have been misleading. At least, that’s what customer Phillip Williams, who is vegan, has claimed in a lawsuit filed against the fast-food giant in south Florida on Monday.

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Alexa, did he do it? Smart device could be witness in suspicious Florida death

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  • Sylvia Galva Crespo killed by spear to chest in own home
  • Amazon Echo may hold evidence as husband charged

Calling the witness – Alexa. Police in Florida are investigating whether they have stumbled on a silent witness to a possible murder and are trying to get the truth from “her”.

Sylvia Galva Crespo, 32, was killed by a spear to the chest at home in Hallandale Beach, Florida, north of Miami, in July, which her husband, Adam Crespo, 43, has portrayed as a mysterious accident.

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Donald Trump changes primary residence from New York to Mar-a-Lago

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Donald and Melania Trump have filed for residency in Palm Beach, according to documents obtained by the New York Times

The lifelong New Yorker has officially become a Florida man. Donald Trump changed his primary residence from Manhattan to Mar-a-Lago – the exclusive golf club that he has referred to as the “winter White House”.

“I cherish New York,” Trump said in a tweet on Thursday. But, he added, “despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state.”

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Donald Trump ditches plan to host G7 at his Doral resort, blaming ‘irrational hostility’

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US president says media and Democrats forced him to scrap plan to award himself the opportunity to host summit

Donald Trump has been forced into a humiliating climbdown over plans to host the G7 meeting at his own luxury resort following a political outcry.

The US president announced in a Saturday night tweet that he had reversed his decision and would seek an alternative venue to host world leaders next June.

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US says man can bring back ‘skin, skull, teeth and claws’ of hunted Tanzania lion

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Environmental organizations say ‘very concerning’ move could open floodgates for importing other endangered species

The Trump administration has authorized a Florida man to bring back the “skin, skull, teeth and claws” of a lion he hunted in Tanzania, granting the first permit to import a lion from that country since the species gained protection under the US Endangered Species Act.

Environmental organizations say the move could open the floodgates for importing other endangered species like lions and rhinos. A freedom of information request made public by the US Fish and Wildlife Services also revealed that the hunter, Carl Atkinson, was represented by lawyer John Jackson III, who is also a member of the Trump administration’s International Wildlife Conservation Council, a controversial advisory board that promotes trophy hunting.

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Police investigate 18th killing of a trans person in the US this year

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Body of 23-year-old African American woman Bee Love Slater was found in a burned-out car in Florida

Florida police are searching for a motive in the death of a 23-year-old transgender African American woman whose body was found in a burned-out car last week.

The body of Bee Love Slater was found on 4 September in Clewiston, 50 miles west of West Palm Beach. Her remains were so badly burned it took investigators several days to identify her by dental records.

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Google Earth reveals remains of man missing for 22 years in Florida lake

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Remains were of William Moldt, who went missing in November 1997 at the age of 40 after leaving a nightclub

It took 22 years, but a missing man’s remains were finally found thanks to someone who zoomed in on his former Florida neighborhood with Google satellite images and noticed a car submerged in a lake, authorities said.

The skeletal remains were of William Moldt, who went missing in 1997 at the age of 40, according to the Palm Beach county sheriff’s office.

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Hundreds of Bahamian evacuees ordered off boat due to lack of US visas

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Crew said people without visas must disembark ferry to Florida because of CBP’s ‘last-minute call’ that they would not be admitted

More than a hundred Bahamian citizens desperate to escape the devastation of Hurricane Dorian were ordered off a ferry to Florida, sparking a dispute between US immigration officials and the operator of the vessel.

Related: Search for survivors of Hurricane Dorian continues in Bahamas

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‘Everything is destroyed’: devastation in Bahamas as Dorian rattles US

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  • Aid groups struggle to deliver basic supplies due to destruction
  • Category 2 storm with winds of 110mph threatens US coastline

After hammering the Bahamas and leaving at least 30 dead, Hurricane Dorian began raking the south-east US seaboard, with the eye hitting the North Carolina coast on Thursday evening.

The threat to the US remains real but in the Bahamas the storm has left such terrible devastation that the authorities were still struggling to get aid to stricken areas and the death toll is expected to rise, perhaps steeply.

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