Category Archives: Florida

‘No community should suffer this’: Florida’s toxic breach was decades in the making

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A leak at an abandoned fertilizer plant is just the latest development at a site that has polluted the area since it was built

It’s been a week since a significant leak at a long-abandoned fertilizer plant in the Tampa Bay area threatened the surrounding groundwater, soil, and local water supplies.

Last weekend, officials ordered more than 300 families living near the 676-acre Piney Point plant site in Manatee county to evacuate. The sheriff even emptied out his jail’s first floor of inmates in case a “20-foot wall of water” came rolling their way.

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Florida faces ‘imminent’ pollution catastrophe from phosphate mine pond

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  • Millions of gallons of toxic wastewater pumped into Tampa Bay
  • Governor DeSantis at scene as ‘20ft wall of water’ is feared

Work crews were pumping millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater into an ecologically sensitive Florida bay on Sunday, as they tried to prevent the “imminent” collapse of a storage reservoir at an old phosphate mine.

Officials in Manatee county extended an evacuation zone overnight and warned that up to 340m gallons could engulf the area in “a 20ft wall of water” if they could not repair the breach at the Piney Point reservoir in the Tampa Bay area, north of Bradenton.

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Endangered North Atlantic right whales produce most calves since 2015

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  • Scientists caution high death rate is outpacing births
  • Population of whales estimated at around 360

North Atlantic right whales gave birth over the winter in greater numbers than scientists have seen since 2015, an encouraging sign for researchers who became alarmed three years ago when the critically endangered species produced no known offspring at all.

Related: The new humpback? Calf sighting sparks hope for imperilled right whale

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DoJ reportedly investigating whether Matt Gaetz paid women for sex

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Republican congressman reportedly under investigation over alleged cash and gifts given to women contacted online

One of Donald Trump’s loudest cheerleaders in the US Congress is under federal investigation over allegations that he paid for sex with women recruited online, according to a media report.

Matt Gaetz, a Republican congressman from Florida, is one of the former president’s most ardent supporters and frequently appeared on TV to promote his lies about a stolen election.

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More than 1,000 arrests as Miami Beach pushes spring-break curfew into April

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  • Police condemned for use of ‘pepper balls’ to break up crowds
  • Spring-break curfew in place between Thursdays and Sundays

Miami Beach officials have extended a curfew and state of emergency into April, in response to large spring-break crowds of partygoers who have celebrated in the area’s bars and beaches despite the coronavirus.

Related: Relaxing US Covid rules could cause 'another avoidable surge', warns CDC director – live

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Miami Beach spring break chaos: more than 1,000 arrests as Covid curfew extended

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Miami Beach officials have warned that the unruly spring break crowd gathering by the thousands, fighting in the streets, destroying restaurant property and refusing to wear masks has become a serious threat to public safety, after 1,000 arrests were made.

At a last-minute meeting, city officials voted to extend a highly unusual 8pm curfew for another week along famed South Beach, with the possibility of extending it well into April if needed, and stressed this wasn’t the typical spring break crowd. They said it’s not college students, but adults looking to let loose in one of the few states fully open during the pandemic.

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Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort partially closed by Covid-19 outbreak

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  • Receptionist says club closed until further notice
  • Trump moved to Florida property after leaving White House

Donald Trump’s Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, has been partially closed because of a Covid outbreak.

Several people familiar with the situation, including a club member who received a phone call about the closure on Friday, confirmed the partial closure to the Associated Press.

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Spring breakers flock to Covid hotspot Florida to party like it’s 2019

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A combination of students who feel they are at little risk and a governor who has lifted restrictions has experts worried, leading some schools to cancel spring break altogether

Covid-19 and spring break have never mixed well. Last March one young, shirtless man in Miami wearing a backwards-facing green cap went “viral” in the pre-pandemic sense when he told a reporter: “If I get corona, I get corona,” he said. “I’m not going to let it stop me from partying.”

A year later, even after Covid has killed over 500,000 Americans, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended against all travel, similar pictures and videos of spring breakers – no masks or social distancing in sight – are being seen again this year.

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CPAC: Trump teases 2024 run and denounces Biden at rightwing summit

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Ex-president repeats false claims that he won 2020 election and floats possible run in 2024 in speech

Donald Trump on Sunday launched his attempted political comeback, teasing a possible run for the presidency in 2024 and denouncing Joe Biden for “the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history”.

The former president made his first speech since leaving the White House at the rightwing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, to an effusive reception.

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Donald Trump to address CPAC on future of Republican party

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Former president Donald Trump will address the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Florida next week, about the future of the Republican party and the conservative movement, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Saturday.

Related: Trump ally Nunes sees CNN Ukraine lawsuit thrown out by New York judge

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Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s plan to honour Rush Limbaugh raises hackles

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  • Democratic leader angry at honour for deeply divisive figure
  • Flags to fly at half-staff for late hard-right talk radio host

Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has said flags in the state will fly at half-staff for Rush Limbaugh, the hard-right talk radio host who died this week aged 70.

Related: Florida's Republican governor accused of ‘playing politics’ with Covid vaccine

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Hundreds of Florida manatees filmed basking alongside dolphins – video

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Almost 200 threatened Florida manatees have been filmed together basking in shallow waters off the state’s west coast. The remarkable drone footage also shows a pod of playful dolphins swimming through the group. The video of the manatees and dolphins at play, taken by See Through Canoe, is unusual in that it captures the species together in such high numbers. The Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission estimates that only about 7,500 manatees exist in the wild in the south-eastern US.

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US Coast Guard rescues three Cubans stranded on desert island for 33 days

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  • Two men and a woman swam to Anguilla Cay after boat capsized
  • Unclear if Cubans were trying to reach United States

The US Coast Guard rescued three Cuban nationals stranded on a desert island for roughly five weeks, after officers saw the group waving a makeshift flag to gain their attention.

The group, including two men and a woman, had been living on an uninhabited Bahamian island, Anguilla Cay, for 33 days after their boat capsized.

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Home free: Florida town lets Donald Trump keep living at Mar-a-Lago

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Palm Beach town council gave short shrift to a request from neighbors to ban the former president from residing at his resort

His impeachment trial was happening a thousand miles away but the “mayor of Mar-a-Lago” was also facing another inquisition.

Is Donald Trump allowed to reside at his private resort in Florida, where he flew off to from the White House on 20 January, on Air Force One without even attending Joe Biden’s inauguration?

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Melania Trump leaves Donald Trump alone in front of the cameras – video

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The former first lady Melania Trump apparently spurned the conventions of her role by leaving Donald Trump alone in front of the cameras at Palm Beach airport after the couple left the White House for the final time ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration. 

Trump himself paused to wave at photographers, but his wife continued walking until she was firmly offscreen, leaving her husband alone and triggering speculation about the state of her marriage to the now former president

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Trump heads for new life in Florida, marking end of an era in New York

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The born-and-raised New Yorker seems ready to leave the city in which he made his name – and few will mourn his departure

When Donald Trump leaves the White House on 20 January, reports indicate that he will not return to his home town of New York City but rather, reside at his Mar-a-Lago home in south Florida. Indeed, Trump formally changed his residency to the so-called Sunshine State in fall 2019.

Related: Washington and state capitols brace for violence from armed Trump supporters

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Footage shows Florida manatee with word ‘Trump’ etched into back – video

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Federal wildlife officials in Florida are seeking information about attack on a manatee, which is said to have had the word 'Trump' carved into its back.

The diver Hailey Warrington said she filmed the animal on Sunday during a manatee swim tour in shallow water in Homosassa Springs.

Large, gray and docile, manatees are popular attractions in Florida, though their numbers are at risk due to habitat loss and the danger of boat strikes

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Case of manatee with ‘Trump’ etched into back under investigation

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  • Mutilated aquatic mammal spotted at spring in Florida
  • US Fish and Wildlife Service appeals for public’s help

Federal wildlife officials in Florida are reportedly seeking information on the perpetrators of an attack on a manatee, which apparently had the word “Trump” scraped into its back.

Related: Florida manatee deaths up 20% as Covid-19 threatens recovery

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