Tag: florida

Florida AG Subpoenas Medical Firms Over ‘Backdoor’ on China-Made Devices

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has subpoenaed two medical companies selling Chinese-made patient monitors over concerns that the devices could send patient data to China.

Uthmeier’s office stated in a press release that they had taken legal action against Contec Medical Systems, a China-based company known for making patient monitors, and Epsimed, a Miami-based company that resells Contec-made monitors under its own brand name.

The office alleged that Contec “concealed serious security problems” in its products, including a built-in “backdoor” that could “allow bad actors to manipulate data” on the devices without knowledge of either the patient or the provider, and programming that automatically sends patient information to an IP address that belongs to a university in China.

“Some of the most private, personal information” is going to China “without the consent, and in most cases, the awareness of the patient,” Uthmeier told The Epoch Times. “I think there’s a major consumer protection issue for Floridians, for Americans as a whole, and we’re not going to stand for it.”

Uthmeier’s office alleged that Contec and Epsimed may have violated a state law, the Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, in their assurances on product quality when the products appear to fall far short of standards given their security vulnerabilities. He threatened to pursue damages, civil penalties, and injunctive relief to protect consumers.

Contec Medical Systems is headquartered in Qinhuangdao, a port city located in northern China’s Hebei Province. It has an affiliate called Contec Medical Systems USA Inc. in Illinois to handle the U.S. market.

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Florida Officials Gave Commercial Driver’s Licenses to Illegals; Arrests Made

Call them 18-wheeler and dealers — or just call them criminal and dangerous. But if you’re wondering why some semi-truck drivers today don’t seem very skilled and may not even speak English, wonder no more. Because, it has been revealed, some Florida officials were giving illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses in exchange for bribes. This means, of course, that these migrants were circumventing the testing process and have no proven qualifications.

What’s more, the uncovered scheme centered around just one Sunshine State county. Similar scams are presumably operative in additional counties and other states — especially “blue” states with high illegal-alien populations.

Not Quite Maximum Overdrive, but Maximal Corruption

The Panama City News Herald reported on the story last Friday, writing:

Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford on June 12 announced the arrest of eight people in connection to a local scandal involving driver’s licenses being fraudulently issued.

According to a BCSO [Bay County Sheriff’s Office] news release, the investigation began May 20 after “suspicious driver’s license transactions” were discovered. It found that two employees of the Bay County Tax Collector’s office were being bribed to provide licenses to people who did not meet the requirements to obtain them.

“The investigation substantiated that two public employees were issuing licenses to aliens with varying legal statuses without providing the required testing,” Ford said during a news conference.

“These weren’t minor shortcuts,” Ford said. “These were intentional acts of corruption where individuals paid bribes in exchange for skipping critical safety evaluations. … Putting untested, unqualified drivers, especially those with commercial licenses, on our roads is an unacceptable risk to every family in this state.”

The local DMV employees arrested were Bancelie Velazco, 37, and Demetrius Smith, 30. Both are Panama City residents.

“Investigators learned (Velazco and Smith) were indeed issuing an unusually large number of driver’s licenses and, when in-house video at the DMV was reviewed, investigators confirmed the individuals receiving the licenses were bypassing the required tests necessary to lawfully receive a license,” the release reads. “These individuals were coming from across the state of Florida to Bay County to receive the driver’s licenses.”

In fact, a “large number” of licenses is an understatement because, apparently, the two officials really jumped the corruption shark. For example, as American Thinker’s Wendi Strauch Mahoney tells us:

Smith reportedly administered 295 driving tests in a single month — far above the average of about 20 to 25.

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No Charges for Cops Who Executed Innocent Grandpa on His Own Property—With a Bullet in His Back

Another day, another state-sanctioned killing swept under the rug. This time, it’s the story of Osvaldo Cueli, a 59-year-old grandfather who was shot and killed by two plainclothes Miami-Dade police detectives on his own land. There were no body cams, no warning, and no charges.

According to a closeout memo from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, detectives Mario Fernandez and Jorge Sanchez won’t face any consequences for killing Cueli. The memo claims there wasn’t enough “competent evidence” to determine whether the shooting was justified. That’s always the excuse, isn’t it?

Despite the nine bullet holes in the windshield of the officers’ unmarked truck, originally spun as proof Cueli had fired on them, it turns out those shots were fired from inside the truck. The cops fired through their own windshield. They were in unmarked vehicles with tinted windows and, according to the family, never announced themselves.

Cueli had walked out to the edge of his property with a firearm holstered at his waist. He thought he saw trespassers. His daughter said he rarely carried a gun but had grown concerned about safety. That day, two black trucks pulled up to the gate. According to his son, they blocked the entrance and opened fire without warning. His father never raised his weapon. They didn’t identify themselves. They didn’t turn on any lights. They just started shooting.

“They both came really close to the trees, and they blocked us in,” Osvaldo, Cueli’s son, told New Times. “They started shooting from inside the car, and they didn’t have any lights on. They didn’t announce themselves. They didn’t put down the windows, and the windows were blacked out.”

Cueli was shot in the back. The autopsy confirmed it. The bullet passed through his aorta and lung before lodging in his arm. The cops say they found a pistol two feet from his body. But the family says there was no gun near him in the video footage. Their attorney is calling out the memo for its omissions and contradictions.

As Cueli lay bleeding on the ground, one of the officers casually stepped over his body and said, “We identified ourselves.” His daughter captured the moment on video.

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Watch Rachel Maddow LIE to Her Audience About the Florida Sheriff Who Warned Would-Be Rioters Ahead of ‘No Kings’ Protests

Ahead of the ‘No Kings’ protests by the left last weekend, a sheriff in Brevard County in Florida issued a stern warning to potential rioters that if they threw explosives at a law enforcement officer or pointed a gun at one of them, that they would be killed.

It was a harsh, but very fair and direct warning, and it worked. There were no riots in Florida during the protests.

On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow flat-out LIED to her audience this week, while talking about the sheriff. She said that he would kill people for protesting and then acted like she and the left were rubbing it in his face by protesting anyway.

It was a complete misrepresentation of the sheriff’s warning and Rachel knows this.

Transcript via NewsBusters:

RACHEL MADDOW: You might have seen headlines last week about the Brevard County, Florida, sheriff last week who called a press conference to threaten that he would sic dogs on people and his officers would not just put people in jail, they would put people in the hospital.

He literally got up at a press conference and said, “We will kill you”, talking about violence he expected at any anti-Trump protests in Brevard county, Florida. After that bizarre show of intimidation from that sheriff in Brevard County, Florida, turns out people in Brevard County, Florida were not at all intimidated by what he said.

As you can see from local headlines like this one, quote: “‘ No Kings’ anti-Trump protests draw thousands”, in Brevard County and Cocoa and Palm Bay. I mean, the sheriff gets out there and says, we will kill you and Brevard County, Florida is like, “You know what? We’ve got a right to protest. We have a right to make protest signs of any kind, including ones that show Donald Trump in a big wig made up like Marie Antoinette, saying, let them eat cake and you are not going to stop us from doing it. We are Americans, we have the right to do this, we will protest.”

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Florida Lawmakers Pass Bill To Revoke Medical Marijuana Cards From People With Drug Convictions, Sending It To DeSantis’s Desk

Lawmakers in Florida are sending legislation to the governor’s desk that would revoke state medical marijuana registrations of people convicted of certain drug crimes.

On Monday, both the House and Senate signed off on a compromise version of SB 2514, a broad bill that touches on cancer, dentistry and other health-related matters. It also contains a provision that would force the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they’re convicted or plead either guilty or no contest to criminal drug charges.

On Monday, both legislative chambers approved a compromise committee’s revised version of the bill and sent the measure to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Language in the latest version is slightly different than what the Senate approved earlier this year. It says that a patient or caregiver would have their registration immediately suspended upon being charged with a state drug crime. The suspension would remain in place until the criminal case reaches a final disposition.

DOH officials would have authority to reinstate the registration, revoke it entirely or extend the suspension if needed.

Authorities would be required to revoke a person’s registration if the patient or caregiver “was convicted of, or pled guilty or nolo contendre to, regardless of adjudication, a violation [of state drug law] if such violation was for trafficking in, the sale, manufacture, or delivery of, or possession with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver a controlled substance.”

The revised language appears to eliminate an earlier restriction that would have also revoked registrations for people who merely purchased illegal drugs, including more than 10 grams of marijuana for their own use. The new version focuses more specifically on production and distribution.

It also clarifies that patients and caregivers would have a process to request their registrations be reinstated. That would involve submitting a new application “accompanied by a notarized attestation by the applicant that he or she has completed all the terms of incarceration, probation, community control, or supervision related to the offense.”

It’s not clear from the plain language of the revised bill whether it would impact only future criminal cases involving medical marijuana patients and caregivers or whether DOH would need to review the records of existing program registrants and revoke registrations of an untold number of Floridians with past drug convictions.

Notably, lawmakers defeated several proposals to expand the medical cannabis program during this year’s regular legislation session—including by allowing home cultivation, adding new qualifying conditions, protecting employment and parental rights of patients and letting military veterans register for free.

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Florida TSA agent arrested for allegedly attacking 79-year-old passenger at airport

A Transportation Security Administration agent was arrested for allegedly assaulting a 79-year-old passenger at Fort Lauderdale’s airport, with police saying she was “forcefully pushing her,” a report said. 

Janiyah Wilson-Robinson, 21, of Margate, was taken into custody Wednesday following the incident at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, according to WPLG. 

The station, citing a Broward Sheriff’s Office arrest report, said Wilson-Robinson attacked the woman from Palm Beach Gardens by “forcefully pushing her,” causing her to fall to the ground and hit her forehead. 

The passenger, who was at the airport that day traveling on a JetBlue flight, suffered “minor bruising,” deputies reportedly added. 

It wasn’t clear what led to the alleged confrontation. 

The Broward Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond Saturday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

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‘That’s their fault’: Florida drivers have right to hit protesters if they fear for their safety, DeSantis says

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told drivers in his state that they would not be held responsible if they hit demonstrators during protests so long as it’s because they fear for their lives.

“If you are driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety,” DeSantis said on an episode of “The Rubin Report” podcast that was released Wednesday night. “And so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that’s their fault for impinging on you.”

“You have a right to defend yourself in Florida,” the governor added.

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Protests referred to as “No Kings” are planned across the United States on Saturday, including several in Florida, where one sheriff declared protesters would be killed “graveyard dead” if they get violent or threaten law enforcement.

The most significant protests, which are mostly in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests, have taken place in Los Angeles, California. The demonstrations, which have at times become violent, prompted President Donald Trump to call in the National Guard last week, an action to which California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, have expressed their fierce opposition.

The protests in the southern California city have caused road closures and traffic jams, which can constitute safety concerns. However, there have been numerous examples in recent years, including at the recent protests, of people using their vehicles to ram into crowds, causing injuries and even deaths.

DeSantis, like other Republican leaders, has been strongly opposed to heated protests, including those in 2020 following the death of George Floyd. His recent comments suggest his stance has not changed.

“You have no right to commandeer streets,” the governor, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said. “First of all, it’s just wrong; second of all, that has huge impacts on people’s quality of life.”

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Florida sheriff warns anti-ICE protesters ‘we will kill you’ if you so much as ‘throw a brick’

A Florida Sheriff delivered a stern warning to anyone planning protests against ICE or President Trump — threatening to respond to violence with deadly force.

“If you throw a brick, a firebomb, or point a gun at one of our deputies, we will be notifying your family where to collect your remains because we will kill you, graveyard dead. We’re not going to play,” Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said Thursday.

“If you try to mob rule a car in Brevard County, gathering around it, refusing to let the driver leave in our county, you’re most likely going to get run over and dragged across the street,” the Republican sheriff said during the immigration news conference.

“If you spit on us, you’re going to the hospital, then jail. If you hit one of us, you’re going to the hospital, jail, and most likely get bitten by one of our big, beautiful dogs we have here,” Ivey warned.

The sheriff’s deadly declaration comes as a slew of anti-Trump and anti-ICE protests are expected to continue across the nation this weekend.

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Florida Sheriff Backs Down From Threat To Not Enforce Immigration Laws After Rebuke From AG

A Florida county sheriff who had refused to enforce immigration laws yielded after state Attorney General James Uthmeier warned he could be removed from office. The move from Uthmeier comes as sheriff’s departments in places like Los Angeles refuse to help federal immigration officials and even fail to shut down pro-illegal immigration riots.

Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida partnered its law enforcement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Despite this, Broward County’s sheriff, Dr. Gregory Tony, initially made it clear he would not assist the federal government in its enforcement of immigration law.

In the letter sent on Monday, Uthmeier sought “clarity on several problematic remarks” that Tony made during a June 3 budget meeting. He noted how Tony claimed “arresting illegal immigrants is ‘not within [the] purview’” of his office. 

“I would hope your statements were mere political posturing, but if not, your expressed position would constitute a failure of your statutory obligation to utilize ‘best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law,’” Uthmeier wrote. If Tony did not uphold the law he swore an oath to enforce, he could be removed from office, the letter stated.

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Disney Refuses To Say If Man Who Posted Photos Of Women In Park Bathroom Will Be Banned

Aman dressed as a woman paraded photos of himself in 10 women’s bathrooms in Florida’s Disney World in a Tuesday Instagram post. The photos posted showed him ranking the different bathrooms on a scale of one to 10 and included other women in the background of the photos.

The man, going by the name Lilly Contino, thanked Disney for allowing him to use the women’s bathrooms, saying in his post, “Shoutout to @disneyparks for creating a safe space in the hellscape that is Florida.”

Despite the concern on the post’s comment section and on X, Disney has not taken any action to keep Contino out of the parks. When The Federalist reached out to Disney for comment, they did not respond. 

Under Florida Statute title XLVI Chapter 810 section 145, “for the amusement, entertainment…” it is a felony for anyone who “intentionally uses or intentionally installs an imaging device to secretly view, broadcast, or record a person without that person’s knowledge and consent who is dressing, undressing, or privately exposing the body, at a place and time when that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.” 

Although Contino did not seemingly take photos of any private parts, he did take photos for entertainment reasons with women using the restroom in the background who would reasonably expect some privacy at Disney World. 

This isn’t the first time Contino has shared what some people would deem as private information to the public. The 32-year-old man posts content on Instagram about being a “trans girl on a mission”. His mission includes educating viewers on his transition process like Facial Feminization Surgery (FFS), a surgery that alters a face through sawing down the jaw bone, cutting the scalp to move the hairline lower, shaving the bone above the eye socket, and shaving down the Adam’s apple. His mission also includes taking photos in women’s bathrooms.

Despite Disney having “gender-neutral restrooms” called “companion restrooms,” Contino went into the women’s restrooms. Contino also said in a post documenting the experience that he “peed standing up,” an obvious sign that he’s probably in the wrong restroom. 

He continued to post about his “trans girl mission” in a video of him being “misgendered” at a Disney restaurant. He told the server he didn’t want the food he ordered anymore because the server said “yes sir” to him. 

Despite the server’s apology, Contino said “I don’t feel safe anymore.”

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