State is considered a high-intensity trafficking spot where ‘cocaine sharks’ may be consuming the drugs underwater
Divers in Key West, Florida, have discovered more than a dozen packages of suspected cocaine in the Atlantic Ocean.
On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office in Monroe county announced the discovery, saying that divers found 25kg of individually wrapped packages of suspected cocaine that were located approximately 100ft underwater.
Continue reading...Launch from Cape Canaveral carrying two Nasa astronauts comes seven years after capsule’s original target date
Two Nasa astronauts were on their way to the international space station on Wednesday after Boeing’s pioneering Starliner capsule finally made its much delayed first crewed flight from Cape Canaveral.
The visually stunning liftoff, against a mostly clear and blue Florida sky, came seven years beyond the spacecraft’s original target date, five years after the failure of an uncrewed test flight, and following a more recent series of postponements for technical reasons that saw launch attempts aborted twice.
Continue reading...Eddie Duran shot Roger Fortson within two seconds after the airman opened his door with his legally owned gun pointed down
A Florida sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Black US air force airman in the military member’s own home has been fired from his job, officials said on Friday.
The Okaloosa county sheriff’s office said it dismissed the deputy, Eddie Duran, after investigators found that his “use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy” in the killing of senior airman Roger Fortson on 3 May 2024.
Continue reading...On first day of predicted intense Atlantic hurricane season, Nature Conservancy urges action and warns against misinformation
Misinformation spread by climate deniers such as Florida’s extremist Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, increases the “vulnerability” of communities in the path of severe weather events, scientists are warning.
The message comes on Saturday, the first day of what experts fear could be one of the most intense and dangerous Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, threatening a summer of natural disasters across the US.
Continue reading...Setback for special counsel Jack Smith as Aileen Cannon denies motion filed after Trump falsely claimed FBI was ready to kill him
The judge handling Donald Trump’s classified documents case has rejected a request by prosecutors to impose a gag order on the former president over his false claims that FBI officers were prepared to shoot him when they raided his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The ruling, by Aileen Cannon, Florida federal district judge, is the latest in a series of setbacks for Jack Smith, the special counsel who has spearheaded the prosecution into Trump’s alleged mishandling of documents from his time in the White House.
Continue reading...A three-year study found that the spiny lobsters’ urine scared off predatory worms and snails who snack on the delicate organisms
An unexpected champion has emerged in the increasingly grave battle to save Florida’s imperiled coral reefs: spiny lobsters that urinate in the water and scare off predatory worms and snails seeking to feast on the delicate organisms.
The finding is one of the more bizarre conclusions of a three-year study by scientists from the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC), who are also warning it may already be too late for some species of coral to survive without significant human assistance.
Continue reading...Two were arrested on Thursday after Swat team raided rapper’s rented mansion in suburban Fort Lauderdale
Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother committed more than a million dollars in fraud in recent months, stealing money, jewelry, a Cadillac Escalade and furniture, documents released Friday allege.
Kingston, 34, and his 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, have been charged with conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft and related crimes, according to arrest warrants released by the Broward county, Florida, sheriff’s office.
Continue reading...Steve MacLaughlin of WTVJ in Miami urges viewers to vote – because ‘there are candidates that believe in climate change’
A TV meteorologist condemned the Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s so-called “don’t say climate change” law on air and urged viewers to vote.
Steve MacLaughlin of WTVJ in Miami addressed viewers on Saturday amid rising heat records across the state, saying: “On Thursday, we reported … that the government of Florida was beginning to roll back really important climate-change legislation and really important climate-change language.”
Continue reading...About 53 people were onboard bus heading to local watermelon farm to work for private company when crash occurred
Eight people were killed and dozens injured after a bus carrying migrant workers to a local farm crashed in Florida early Tuesday.
The crash happened around 6.30am in west Marion county, Florida, according to the Florida highway patrol, WCJB reported.
Continue reading...Mystery of Mary Alice Pultz finally resolved when remains of Maryland woman dug up four decades ago identified
Human remains dug up four decades ago on a Florida beach have finally been identified as those of a Maryland woman who went missing in 1968, supposedly disappearing with her then-boyfriend.
The mystery of Mary Alice Pultz was finally resolved last week when a Florida sheriff’s office said that it had identified the remains found in a shallow grave on Crescent Beach, 50 miles south of Jacksonville, in April 1985.
Continue reading...Relatives of Roger Fortson say deputies went to wrong unit and killed Fortson, as sheriff releases body-camera footage
The family of a Black US air force airman who was fatally shot by deputies who burst into his apartment in the Florida Panhandle said Thursday that they want to correct a false narrative put forth by authorities about the encounter that led to his death.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of Senior Airman Roger Fortson, said Fortson had not known it was sheriff’s deputies who were breaking into his apartment – “his castle” – and that he grabbed his “legally owned firearm” to protect himself.
Continue reading...Javier Ortiz, accused of false arrests, harassment and doxxing, is now member of group reportedly becoming combat-ready militia
A former Florida police captain with a long history of civilian complaints, including false arrests and harassment, has joined the state’s state guard under governor Ron DeSantis.
Javier Ortiz, 44, joined the Florida state guard in February, the Miami Herald first reported. Ortiz’s enrollment comes months after being reinstated by the Miami police department, after he was initially dismissed for slew of conduct complaints.
Continue reading...Company, which has been plagued by safety issues in its avionics wing, will send two astronauts to the ISS in its new spacecraft
Boeing has an opportunity on Monday night to restore some luster to its tarnished name, with the scheduled first crewed launch from Florida of Starliner, a pioneering new capsule designed to transform human exploration of space.
Although the company’s space operations are entirely independent of its aviation wing, which has been plagued by a recent series of safety and quality issues, the spacecraft’s pathway to the Cape Canaveral launchpad, and planned 10.34pm ET liftoff, has been similarly bumpy.
Continue reading...The enigmatic former first lady to appear at fundraiser on Saturday, marking a return to her husband’s side as he seeks re-election
Her biggest fashion statement as first lady was a green jacket emblazoned with the words “I really don’t care, do u?” More recently, Melania Trump has given the impression that she doesn’t care whether her husband, Donald, returns to the White House. That is about to change.
On Saturday Melania, 53, will appear at a fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, for the Log Cabin Republicans, the biggest Republican organisation dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives. It will be her first appearance at a political event since Trump, 77, launched his bid to regain the presidency.
Continue reading...Navigation buoy sails 4,000 miles across Atlantic, joining storied history of wrecks upon shores of tiny Scottish island of Eriskay
From Bonnie Prince Charlie’s ill-fated 1745 landing, to the shipwreck of a whisky-laden cargo freighter two centuries later that inspired a bestselling novel and blockbuster movie, the tiny Scottish island of Eriskay has a rich and outsized history of notable maritime events.
Now, the arrival of a visitor from Florida following a 4,000-mile solo voyage across the Atlantic has added another curious chapter. It is a navigation buoy that slipped its mooring in the Florida Keys and rode the Gulf Stream to the British Isles, coming ashore in Eriskay and discovered by one of its 143 residents.
Continue reading...Investigators say two people came forward after death of man who killed Hiram ‘Ross’ Grayam in 1968
More than five decades after a second world war veteran was killed while working as a milkman in Florida, investigators say they have solved the case thanks to two people who came forward after the killer died.
Hiram “Ross” Grayam was delivering milk in April 1968 and failed to return home after work. Deputies later found his body and his milk truck deep in the woods in the Vero Beach area, the Indian River county sheriff’s office said in a news release. He had been shot several times.
Continue reading...Focus on reproductive rights has yielded big wins and Democrats hope threat of more Republican bans will mobilize voters
Kamala Harris’s Friday visit to Arizona was planned before the state’s top court upheld a 160-year-old law that bans almost all abortions. But the news galvanized the vice-president’s message, one that has already yielded stunning victories for liberals since Roe v Wade fell nearly two years ago.
That message is simple: abortion bans happen when Republicans are in charge.
Continue reading...Manuel Rocha, 73, will also pay a $500,000 fine after pleading guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government
A former career US diplomat was sentenced Friday to 15 years in federal prison after admitting he worked for decades as a secret agent for Cuba, in a plea agreement that leaves many unanswered questions about a betrayal that stunned the US foreign service.
Manuel Rocha, 73, will also pay a $500,000 fine and cooperate with authorities after pleading guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed more than a dozen other counts, including wire fraud and making false statements.
Continue reading...Aimee Harris of Florida sold Ashley Biden’s diary to conservative group Project Veritas in actions judge called ‘despicable’
A Florida woman was sentenced Tuesday to a month in prison and three months of home confinement for stealing and selling Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary four years ago to the conservative group Project Veritas.
Aimee Harris was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Laura Taylor Swain, the judge who called the Palm Beach, Florida, woman’s actions “despicable”.
Continue reading...Security guard killed at bar in CityPlace Doral following altercation, with gunman then shot dead by police
Two people have died and seven have been wounded following a shooting at a popular shopping mall in Florida.
A fight broke out at the Martini Bar located in the CityPlace Doral early on Saturday morning, according to Miami-Dade police. The altercation resulted in a security guard, who intervened in the dispute, being shot and killed by the gunman, who was then also killed in a subsequent gun battle with police, according to Alvaro Zabaleta, a Miami-Dade detective.
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