Wrapped in bald eagle packaging, 21kg of cocaine was found off the Florida Keys coast
Boaters have discovered $1m worth of cocaine off the coast of the Florida Keys, authorities announced.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, the Monroe county sheriff’s department announced that recreational boaters discovered a package containing approximately 21kg (61lbs) of packaged cocaine around seven miles (11km) off Islamorada, a village of islands in the Florida Keys.
Continue reading...Emergency services conduct at least 40 rescues and schools, courts and railways closed in some counties
Significant amounts of rain in the past two days have led the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, to declare a state of emergency for the counties of Broward, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade and Sarasota, while the mayors of Miami-Dade, Miami and Fort Lauderdale also declared a state of emergency.
This has resulted in a number of closures for public schools, courts and Dania Beach’s city hall, where there were at least 40 rescues by emergency services. Rail routes across Miami and the surrounding area were also suspended. The flooding occurred after more than 380mm (15in) of rain fell on several southern Florida cities in just two days.
Continue reading...Group, known as Florida Freedom Fund, launched in May and will also be involved in school board races
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has launched a political action committee that is targeting popular ballot amendments on abortion access and marijuana legalization that will be voted on in November.
The group, known as the Florida Freedom Fund, launched in May, Politico first reported. The committee is chaired by James Uthmeier, DeSantis’s chief of staff who was previously the Republican’s campaign manager during his unsuccessful presidential primary run.
Continue reading...Landmark verdict against Chiquita marks first time major US company held liable for funding human rights abuses abroad
A Florida court has ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay $38m to the families of eight Colombian men murdered by a paramilitary death squad, after the US banana giant was shown to have financed the terrorist organisation from 1997 to 2004.
The landmark ruling late on Monday came after 17 years of legal efforts and is the first time that the fruit multinational has paid out compensation to Colombian victims, opening the way for thousands of others to seek restitution.
Continue reading...Second world war veteran Harold Terens and Jeanne Swerlin enjoy wedding party – with Macron and Biden
Together, the collective age of the bride and groom was nearly 200. But second world war veteran Harold Terens and his sweetheart, Jeanne Swerlin, proved that love is eternal as they tied the knot Saturday inland of the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France.
Their respective ages – he’s 100, she’s 96 – made their nuptials an almost double-century celebration.
Continue reading...Woman, 45, sustains ‘significant trauma’ and has part of arm amputated, as two teens injured in second attack
Two separate shark attacks at Florida beaches wounded three swimmers, including two teenagers, prompting some popular vacation spots to temporarily close, according to authorities.
A shark bit a 45-year-old woman at about 1.20pm on Friday while she swam at Watersound beach, along the coast of Walton county, Florida, in the eastern part of the state.
Continue reading...Patrol boat off Venezuelan coast shoots and sinks vessel suspected of carrying drugs as three people go overboard
A high-seas shootout pitting drug runners against the law ended with the smugglers’ boat at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea and the US Coast Guard seizing $63m worth of cocaine, authorities in Florida said on Friday.
The dramatic encounter took place on Tuesday about 25 miles (40km) north of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, when the coast guard cutter Resolute – patrolling with the Dutch navy ship Groningen – identified a vessel in international waters suspected of carrying narcotics, according to a press release from the USCG south-east region.
Continue reading...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.
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