Tag: florida

Sheriff Marceno says he has ‘zero tolerance’ for street racing. Here’s a video of Sheriff Marceno street racing.

Call it a case of highway hypocrisy.

After Lee County deputies arrested an 18-year-old on a street racing charge last week, Sheriff Carmine Marceno put out a press release on social media that included the teen’s mug shot and a statement about the sheriff’s abhorrence for racing cars on public roads. 

“I have zero tolerance for street racing in Lee County,” Marceno said of the first-degree misdemeanor crime punishable by up to a year in jail. “Driving an [sic] excessive speed and putting yourself, your passengers, and others on the road at risk is an incredibly selfish decision. My deputies will continue to patrol the roads of Lee County, ensuring drivers make smart choices or they will face the consequences.” 

It was an unambiguous statement from Marceno, himself a well-known connoisseur of fast cars, but video evidence obtained by the Florida Trident shows his intolerance of street racing doesn’t necessarily extend to his own behavior behind the wheel. 

The video, which can be seen here, shows Marceno driving south on six-lane South Tamiami Trail in a black Lamborghini Huracan convertible with the top down on a sunny day in Estero. Shooting the video is Marceno’s former friend, Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano, who drives in the lane to the right of the sheriff in the same direction. The brief race begins at Romano’s prompting.

“Juice that m—-f—-!” Romano tells Marceno. 

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Scientists issue stark warning after harmful creatures breed to form hybrid species: ‘We have confirmed the presence of hybrid swarms’

Invasive species can wreak havoc on your local ecosystem, but imagine two invasive insects coming to your area and breeding.

That’s exactly what’s happening in Florida.

According to News Channel 8, “The Formosan subterranean termites and Asian subterranean termites” are mating in southern areas of the Sunshine State.

What’s happening?

Associate Professor Thomas Chouvenc from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences had his suspicions about these two species breeding 10 years ago. He noticed both males and females from each species showing courtship behaviors.

A study from the university, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, confirmed that these two invasive creatures have bred to form a hybrid species.

Chouvenc’s team began collecting termite samples “in the Fort Lauderdale area that didn’t match the shape or form of either termite species,” per News Channel 8.

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Florida Invokes Emergency Powers to Build ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis invoked emergency powers on June 24 to clear the way for Alligator Alcatraz, a new illegal immigration detention center deep in the Everglades.

The plans for another complex to hold illegal immigrants apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—and awaiting processing and deportation—were drafted and submitted by the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) to the Department of Homeland Security and received Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s approval on June 23.

“Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed to deliver cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” Noem said on X.

“We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”

She said the facilities would be largely funded by FEMA’s Shelter and Services program, which she noted was used by former President Joe Biden’s administration to house illegal immigrants.

The site chosen was the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

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Florida Police: Christian School Teacher May Have Used Student Images to Create AI Child Porn

A sixth-grade teacher in Central Florida was arrested this week on a host of charges for possessing child pornography, apparently created with online AI technology and possibly using student photos from his Christian school.

State Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office charged David McKeown of Holly Hill with 19 enhanced felony counts of possession of child sexual abuse material and six counts of possession of animal pornography, according to a statement released by the office.

McKeown was arrested Friday by the Holly Hill Police Department at his home in Volusia County. He was a sixth-grade teacher at United Brethren in Christ (UBIC) Academy, a school affiliated with the UBIC church.

Holly Hill Police Department’s investigation alleges that McKeown shared and downloaded pornographic images depicting child porn via Discord, an online chat service, while at school and connected to the school’s Wi-Fi network.

Some 30 images were allegedly shared, including six files depicting McKeown sexually abusing animals, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLA) reported.

Uthmeier said in the statement:

As a teacher, parents trusted Mr. McKeown to impart knowledge to their children. Instead, he spent parts of the school day sending and receiving child sex abuse material and providing other pedophiles with UBIC Academy students’ personal information. What he did is beyond betrayal — it’s devastating and sick.

The investigation was launched early this month after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which tracks the internet for exploitative content involving minors, Orlando’s Fox 35 reported.

The news outlet also reported authorities believe McKeown used AI technology to create the pornographic images and may have used photos of real children, perhaps his own students. The investigation is continuing.

Detectives seized a number of devices from the teacher’s home in Holly Hill and from the school. He was booked into the Volusia County jail and a judge denied him the possibility of bond.

If convicted, he faces up to 315 years in prison, officials said.

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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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