Reptiles often become immobile in chilly weather and can plummet from trees though they are still alive
With unexpectedly cold weather forecast and pandemic-related curfews in some places, Florida is about to have a Christmas unlike any other – and it may involve falling iguanas.
Related: 'I took a trip to the North Pole': Anthony Fauci tells children he vaccinated Santa
Continue reading...President signed 1993 agreement with town that says he cannot live at the club for more than three nonconsecutive weeks in a year
Neighbors of Donald Trump’s infamous Mar-a-Lago golf club in Palm Beach, Florida are warning the president that he cannot live at the club after he leaves the White House, following an agreement he made with the town in 1993.
In a letter to the town of Palm Beach and the US Secret Service sent this week, a lawyer representing a family that lives next to Mar-a-Lago reiterated that “Mar-a-Lago is a social club, and no one may reside on the property.”
Continue reading...Daniel Uhlfelder sprung to fame earlier this year as he stalked Florida beaches in hood-and-scythe to warn about coronavirus
“This is not about me,” the Grim Reaper said on Tuesday, about his decision to take Florida governor and “mini-Trump” Ron DeSantis to court over the state’s coronavirus response. “It’s about citizens having the right to challenge government when they’re not doing the right thing.”
Related: Armed police raid home of Florida scientist fired over Covid-19 data
Continue reading...Rebekah Jones claims Governor Ron DeSantis, with whom she has clashed repeatedly since her dismissal in May, was involved
Rebekah Jones, the Florida data scientist embroiled in a dispute with the state’s Republican governor over the handling of coronavirus figures, had her home raided on Monday by armed police who confiscated her computers.
In a stream of posts on Twitter, Jones posted a video of the raid that showed state police carrying handguns escorting her out of her Tallahassee home. She can be heard saying: “He just pointed a gun at my children,” with her husband and two children apparently upstairs at the time.
Continue reading...A female volunteer who regularly feeds big cats was bitten and seriously injured by a tiger Thursday morning at Carole Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue sanctuary in Florida, which was made famous by the Netflix series Tiger King, officials said.
Hillsborough county fire rescue received a trauma alert call about 8.30am Thursday from the sanctuary, agency spokesman Eric Seidel told the Associated Press.
Continue reading...A man in Florida rescued his puppy from the jaws of an alligator, diving under the water and wrestling the reptile all without dropping the cigar from his mouth.
Richard Wilbanks, 74, was walking his Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Gunner, around the pond near his retirement home when the alligator raced up from the water and grabbed the dog. Cameras set up by the Florida Wildlife Federation and the fStop Foundation captured the encounter.
Gunner suffered a small puncture wound to his stomach, while Wilbanks told CNN that his hands were 'chewed up'. He doesn’t want the alligator removed, he said. 'They’re part of nature and part of our lives'
Continue reading...Hurricane and storm surge warnings have been declared for the keys with the storm expected to hit Sunday night or early Monday
A strengthening Tropical storm Eta sliced across Cuba on Sunday and was aimed at the tip of Florida, where officials braced for a storm that could hit at hurricane force after leaving scores dead and over 100 missing in Mexico and Central America.
The US National Hurricane Center in Miami declared hurricane and storm surge warnings for the keys from Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas, including Florida Bay, with the storm expected to reach that area by Sunday night or early Monday.
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The AP has confirmed that Senator John Cornyn has won another Senate term in Texas, defeating Democratic candidate MJ Hegar.
BREAKING: Republican John Cornyn wins reelection to U.S. Senate from Texas. #APracecall at 9:06 p.m. CST. #Election2020 #TXelection https://t.co/lGfinjTqT4
Donald Trump has won Kansas and its 6 electoral votes, the AP just announced.
BREAKING: Donald Trump wins Kansas. #APracecall at 9:00 p.m. CST. #Election2020
Continue reading...At least three senior Colombian lawmakers have been accused of acting as surrogates for Donald Trump in Florida
The American embassy in Bogotá has warned Colombian politicians to “avoid getting involved” in the US election, amid a growing row over allegations that far-right lawmakers from the South American country are campaigning in support of Donald Trump.
At least three senior Colombian politicians have been accused of acting as Trump surrogates in Florida, a pivotal battleground state which has been flooded with political advertising and fake news aimed at Latino voters.
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It’s been a lively day on the election trail. We’re closing this blog now but will be back with all the developments in US political news, as it happens, tomorrow.
Here are the main events of the day:
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris is calling for an administration that is frank about racist police brutality in America.
“There isn’t a Black man I know, be it a relative or friend, who has not had some sort of experience with police that’s been about an unreasonable stop, some sort of profiling or excessive force,” she said.
We can’t just speak the truth about police brutality in our nation—we must act to change our systems of justice and demand accountability. pic.twitter.com/arSdFLi7Wj
Continue reading...President addresses mostly maskless crowd in key swing state of Florida: ‘I feel so powerful’
Keen to appear lively and well after his recent hospitalization for Covid-19, Donald Trump held his first rally since being diagnosed, addressing a packed, largely maskless crowd in Florida – a state he desperately needs to win.
Related: California investigates unauthorized ballot boxes installed by Republicans
Continue reading...Covid-19 cases are again climbing in the United States, with the highest daily rates of new infections since August, when major states such as Florida became hotspots, new data from Johns Hopkins University’s Covid-19 tracker shows.
Now, several midwestern states are posting steep increases in Covid-19 cases, with at least one setting up a field hospital to cope with the flood of patients. Cases are also ticking up in the north-east, where tight restrictions had the virus under control for most of the summer.
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s election campaign in 2016 targeted nearly 3.5 million Black Americans to deter them from voting, and the battle for the right to vote is just as important in 2020. Kenya Evelyn travels to Florida where it's the Democrats' most loyal bloc, Black women, who are also bearing the brunt of the coronavirus outbreak, with its impact accelerating the fight for voting rights. From mail-in ballots and early voting, to felon disenfranchisement, Black voters are wielding their power to demand more from Democrats ahead of November
The supreme court ruled in favor of Florida Republicans trying to take away the voting rights of people with felony convictions. We will continue to fight this
This month, the supreme court ruled in favor of Florida Republicans in their quest to take away the voting rights of people with felony convictions – people like me.
Related: San Francisco could soon allow 16-year-olds to vote. The country should follow | Isabel Hope
Continue reading...A Key West team is expected to enforce a new mandate allowing people to go maskless outdoors if they are 6ft apart – an impossible task among partygoers
Key West code enforcement officer Paul Navarro was halfway through his shift and beginning to see signs of trouble. The crowds on lower Duval Street swelled just after 9pm, and social distancing quickly became impossible on the sidewalks.
Navarro is the last line of defense against the high-risk behaviors which spread Covid-19 and is one of the principal enforcers of the Florida city’s mask mandate – an effort to protect public health and the local economy. Until 16 September part of that balancing act had included a strict mask mandate, now that rule has been loosened.
Continue reading...Hurricane Sally, a huge grade two storm with 100mph winds and torrential rain, has hit the US’s Gulf coast, reaching Florida and Alabama with fears of ‘life-threatening flooding’.
The storm was moving at only 2mph before dawn on Tuesday, centered about 115 miles south-south-east of Biloxi, Mississippi, and 60 miles east-south-east of the mouth of the Mississippi river
Torrential rain battering Alabama and Florida is forecast to continue for up to 12 more hours, with wind gusts over 80mph
Hurricane Sally made landfall on the US Gulf coast early on Wednesday morning, with pounding rain and winds whipping above 100mph but with the huge category 2 storm system grinding along at just 2 mph – a turtle’s walking pace – increasing the danger of flooding.
The slow-motion storm exhausted residents in Alabama who listened through the night to tornado-warning sirens, phone alerts and howling winds, many frightened, sheltering but also sweltering indoors after power failures, as the storm approached.
Continue reading...DNA evidence proved Robert DuBoise, who was released from prison last month, did not commit 1983 crime
After 37 years behind bars, a Florida man was formally cleared on Monday of a 1983 rape and murder which DNA evidence proved he did not commit.
Related: Pennsylvania man who wrongly spent 23 years on death row is freed
Continue reading...Donald Trump repeats claims he earlier made online, boasting of winning the 'Bay of Pigs Award' – an honour that doesn't exist. Trump twice visited a Bay of Pigs museum in Miami in 2016, where he received 'a hand-painted Brigade 2506 shield', which his campaign insisted was the award in question. Trump made the claims while courting Latino voters in Nevada, a state where he trails rival Joe Biden in polls, and one where the president failed to overcome Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign
Continue reading...Attacking Joe Biden and seeking to exploit reports that his rival is struggling with Latino voters, Donald Trump boasted on Sunday of receiving “the highly honoured Bay of Pigs Award” from Cuban Americans in the battleground state of Florida.
Perhaps inevitably, and to the glee of the internet, no such award exists.
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