President Donald Trump called me and my 221,000 fellow Somali Americans “garbage.” The secretary of defense, who is Minnesota born, eagerly and immediately endorsed the “garbage” remark and Trump’s conclusion that we are unwanted in this country and should be sent away. The secretary of state, the vice president and the rest of the cabinet cheered and banged on the table and applauded this hateful and profoundly ignorant assault on my community.
Rights & Liberties
Doctors Clash with Florida Officials Over Plan to Repeal Meningitis and Chickenpox Vaccine Mandates for Schools
Florida health officials are advancing a proposal to eliminate school entry requirements for vaccines protecting against hepatitis B, chickenpox, and meningitis. While mandates for polio and MMR vaccines remain, officials signaled intent to eventually repeal those laws as well. At a contentious workshop, pediatricians warned the move invites fatal outbreaks and endangers herd immunity, while state officials and supporters defended the rollback as a victory for parental rights and informed consent.
Facing Capital Charges for Raping Stepchild, Henriqson Wants ‘Intact Hymen’ Defense and Secret Recording Admitted
Kristopher Henriqson, representing himself against capital child rape charges, has filed motions requesting a gynecological exam of the victim and a change of venue. Henriqson claims the victim bears no physical signs of assaults and seeks to introduce a secret recording of the girl discussing lying—evidence the state argues is inadmissible wiretapping. Prosecutors also cite privacy laws against the medical exam. A hearing is set for Monday before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols.
Council on American-Islamic Relations Will Sue DeSantis Over ‘Defamatory’ Designation as ‘Terrorist’ Organization
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Tuesday it will go to court to challenge an executive order issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis that designated the group as a “terrorist” organization.
Florida Will Help Homeland Security Obtain Your Driver’s License Records
Florida and three other Republican states have agreed to help the Trump administration gain access to state driver’s license data through a nationwide law enforcement computer network as part of the administration’s hunt for alleged noncitizen voters. The Trump administration said as recently as October that federal officials wanted to obtain driver’s license records through the network.
Unless You’re a Developer, a Lobbyist, or a Fetus, Your Florida Lawmakers Don’t Care for You
Ever get the feeling the Florida Legislature hates you? It does. Unless you’re a developer, a lobbyist, or a fetus. Members are filing hell-born bills for the 2026 session, many apparently designed to torment you, rob your children of their futures, and reduce this state to an ICE-filled, disease ridden, constantly flooding, unaffordable autocracy.
Birthright Citizenship Is Hanging By a Phrase
The Supreme Court on Dec. 5, 2025, agreed to review the long-simmering controversy over birthright citizenship. It will likely hand down a ruling next summer. When the justices weigh the arguments, they will focus on the meaning of the first sentence of the 14th Amendment, known as the citizenship clause. Both sides agree that to be granted birthright citizenship under the Constitution, a child must be born inside U.S. borders and the parents must be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. However, each side will give a very different interpretation of what the second requirement means.
How the Government, and ICE, Are Tracking Your Location
If you use a mobile phone with location services turned on, it is likely that data about where you live and work, where you shop for groceries, where you go to church and see your doctor, and where you traveled to over the holidays is up for sale. And U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is one of the customers.
The Phoenix Declaration’s Serenade of Dog Whistles
The Heritage Foundation’s “Phoenix” doctrine, recently adopted by Florida, is a Christian nationalist manifesto designed to eradicate educational dissent. It prioritizes “parental omnipotence” over children’s intellectual freedom. By diverting public funds to private vouchers and sanitizing history, the doctrine cements a decades-long conservative war against public education and enforces a “pinched, angry” monoculture that suppresses critical thinking in favor of dogmatic, exclusionary patriotism.
Court Invalidates City Ordinance Banning Anti-Abortion Activists from Clinic’s Driveway
Anti-abortion activists have the right to hand leaflets to women in the driveway of a Clearwater abortion clinic, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit tossed a trial judge’s decision preventing the Florida Preborn Rescue organization from entering within five feet of the Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center’s driveway. The clinic’s “buffer zone” was a 38-foot stretch of public sidewalk, 28 feet of which cross the clinic’s driveway.
Citing ‘Age of Darkness and Deceit,’ DeSantis Moves to Curb AI Growth and Data Centers
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday proposed an artificial intelligence “bill of rights” to stymie unfettered AI growth, crack down on sexual AI chatbots, and restrict AI data centers in Florida. Hinted at for months, these legislative proposals come in sharp contrast to pro-tech push marking President Donald Trump’s second term in office. Trump — allied with technology titans like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — toyed with an executive order to thwart state-level AI regulations earlier this month.
DeSantis Makes Dubious Claims About Florida Being ‘Forced’ To Redistrict
Democrats and voting rights advocates this week voiced vehement opposition to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call to redistrict Florida’s congressional map in a special session next year, calling it an “illegal” gerrymander in violation of the Florida Constitution. Not surprisingly, DeSantis disagrees.
Defying Trump Threat of Court Martial, Senator Stands by Call for Military to Refuse Illegal Orders
Arizona Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly said Monday the threat of a court-martial for a video he and other senators released telling military members not to follow illegal orders is an effort to silence the president’s political opponents. Kelly, a retired Navy captain, was one of six Democratic lawmakers with backgrounds in the military or intelligence agencies who appeared in the video that was posted on social media in mid-November. President Donald Trump alleged the lawmakers had committed “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
How DeSantis Demolished Florida’s New College
New College of Florida is on its intellectual deathbed. Once an authority-challenging, free-thinking institution for students passionate about learning, a place where difference was celebrated and creativity encouraged. Now, it is becoming a third-rate jock school with over-paid administrators and under-achieving freshmen, a casualty of Ron DeSantis’ culture wars.
Political Violence: When the 1st and 2nd Amendment Duel
The assassination in September 2025 of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has heightened attention on the relationship between political rhetoric and political violence. But while gun proliferation complicates the problem by making political violence much easier to carry out, suppressing political rhetoric, even through social norms rather than law, undermines the discussion, debate and constructive disagreement essential for a healthy democracy.
DeSantis Signs 19th Death Warrant of the Year, for 1987 Double-Murderer Frank Walls, 58
In what could be Florida’s record 19th execution this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a death warrant for an inmate convicted in the 1987 murders of two people in a home in Okaloosa County. Frank Walls, 58, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 18 in the murders of Edward Alger and Ann Peterson. The warrant came as the state prepares to execute Richard Barry Randolph on Thursday and is slated to execute Mark Allen Geralds on Dec. 9.
Ban on Loudspeaker Prayers at School Games Survives as U.S. Supreme Court Declines Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court will not take up a long-litigated case about the Florida High School Athletic Association’s refusal to let two private religious schools pray over the PA system before a 2015 game. On Monday, the top court denied Cambridge Christian School’s appeal, more than a year after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sided with the association.
For 4th Year, Florida Republicans Try to Ban Pride and Political Flags from Public Buildings
Florida Republicans are trying for the fourth year in a row to ban political flags atop government buildings, including Pride, MAGA, or Black Lives Matter banners.
Federal Judge Denies Reinstatement of FWC Biologist Fired Over Charlie Kirk Post
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s ruling Thursday came in a lawsuit filed by biologist Brittney Brown, who worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, alleging that her Sept. 15 firing — five days after Kirk was shot during an appearance at a Utah university — violated her First Amendment rights. Brown sought a preliminary injunction to require the commission to reinstate her. While Walker’s order sided with state officials in denying a preliminary injunction, he also indicated that a decision about reinstating the fired employee could change if more information is provided to bolster Brown’s arguments.
The U.S. Citizenship Test Shouldn’t Be Like Trivia Night at Tortugas
The new citizenship test “for aspiring Americans” is out. It is supposedly longer and harder than its predecessor. In fact, it’s not a civics test. It’s certainly not a citizenship test. It’s the sort of questions Jay Scherr baritones between nachos at his weekly trivia night at Tortugas, and it is riddled with errors while projecting an unrecognizably chauvinist America.
State Kills Bryan Jennings, 66, For Kidnapping, Rape and Murder of Rebecca Kunash, 6, in 1979
More than 46 years after he kidnapped, raped and murdered a 6-year-old girl in Brevard County, Bryan Frederick Jennings was put to death by lethal injection Thursday evening at Florida State Prison. Jennings was convicted of murdering Rebecca Kunash on May 11, 1979, in Merritt Island. A 1986 sentencing order said Jennings in the early morning hours went to the window of the child’s bedroom and saw her asleep.
Age-Verification Laws Are Threatening Free Speech
In Florida and around the world, large swathes of the open web are being replaced by walled gardens. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Texas’s age restriction law. Twenty-one other states have similar laws in place, and more have been proposed. Australia restricts young people’s access not just to specific websites, but to all social media, and it will soon extend this to search engines.
Florida Board Approves Hard-Right Heritage Foundation’s Sweepingly Ideological Education Manifesto
Florida education leaders on Thursday approved a set of principles that would teach a conservative-backed vision of the United States. The State Board of Education, which also approved social-studies changes intended to highlight ideological evils of communism, signed off on Florida becoming the first state to adopt the Heritage Foundation’s “Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education.”
How Ron DeSantis Made Florida #1 in State-Sponsored Killing
Florida has executed 15 prisoners in 2025 – the most ever in a single year since 1976, when a brief national moratorium on the death penalty was lifted. Two of the five remaining executions scheduled for 2025 are set to happen in Florida. Texas and Alabama are tied for a distant second, with five executions each.
Kansas County Will pay $3 Million Settlement for Raiding Newspaper’s Offices
The county involved in a small-town Kansas newspaper raid in 2023 will pay a cumulative $3 million to three journalists and a city councilor. In two of the four agreements, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office also crafted a statement admitting regret. The agreements coincide with consent judgments expected to be submitted in their federal cases against the county.
Federal Judge Skeptical of Florida Agency’s Case for Firing Biologist Over Charlie Kirk Sarcasm
Attorneys for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the agency fired biologist Brittney Brown to “prevent foreseeable disruption” after Brown reposted a sarcastic social media post about Charlie Kirk’s endorsement of occasional mass shootings if it’s the price of protecting the Second Amendment. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker was skeptical of the state’s defense: “Just because something’s inappropriate or controversial, how is it not covered by the First Amendment?” Walker asked.
‘Ed Boy,’ Target of Murderers in a Trial 9 Months Ago, Is Now a Defendant Facing Up to 30 Years Over a Shove
Edward Gerard Sampson, better known as Ed Boy, shoved a woman and was charged with aggravated battery, a charge that would normally result in a minor penalty, possibly some jail time or probation. But the woman was pregnant, and Sampson is a habitual offender who was released from prison in May. Those factors combined now mean that if the jury convicts him at his trial this week, Sampson could spend the next 30 years in prison for that shove.
Same-Sex Marriage Survives as Supreme Court Declines to Reconsider
The Supreme Court on Monday morning turned down a request from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky, to reconsider its 2015 decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
TDS
In France, a former president just got imprisoned for taking money from an Arab despot. Donald Trump just accepted a $400 million gift from another Arab despot in the shape of a 747. He has raided nearly $1 billion out of the country’s missile defense modernization budget so he can retrofit the plane in gold and gaud. If the secret project is completed before Trump is scheduled to leave office, which is doubtful, the plane will fly at most for a few weeks, then get parked as a re-gift to the Trump library in Miami, on land stolen from the public trust and handed over to Trump at no cost, Qatari style.
Chaining Record, DeSantis Signs Another Death Warrant: Mark Geralds, Who Murdered Tressa Pettibone in 1989
Expanding a modern-era record for executions in a year, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for a man convicted of murdering a Bay County woman in 1989. Mark Allen Geralds is scheduled to be executed Dec. 9 for the murder of Tressa Lynn Pettibone, a 33-year-old Panama City Beach mother who was beaten and stabbed to death in her home. Pettibone’s body was discovered on the kitchen floor by her 8-year-old son, Bart, when he returned from school on Feb. 1, 1989, according to court records. Tressa Lynn Pettibone was stabbed three times in her neck.
Bill Would Require Professors to Sign Oath
State college and university administrators and instructors would have to take an oath to the nation and Florida, under a proposal filed Friday by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville. The measure (SB 430) also calls for public school administrators and instructional personnel, including prekindergarten instructors, to perform a similar oath.
Uthmeier Sues Planned Parenthood Over Abortion Claim
Attorney General James Uthmeier on Thursday filed a lawsuit accusing Planned Parenthood of falsely advertising that abortion medication is “safer than Tylenol.”
Thus Spoke Lazarustra
Reports of Democrats’ death, Samuel Clemens telegraphs in Innocents at Home (his Substack), have been greatly exaggerated. But let’s not turn Tuesday’s Democratic sweep into a greatly exaggerated victory just yet. This was Lexington, not Yorktown. And Zohran Mamdani has a distance to go yet for his Hattin: those Christian nationalists have a stranglehold on this unholied America.
More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by ICE and Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days
Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched. About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones.
State Defends Firing Employee Over Charlie Kirk Social Media Post
Disputing allegations that they violated First Amendment rights, Florida wildlife officials Thursday argued that a federal judge should reject a request to reinstate a biologist who was fired because of a social-media post after the murder of conservative and openly racist, misogynistic and homophobic activist Charlie Kirk.
Overruling Judge, Attorney General Says Prosecutors and Staff May Bring Guns into Courtrooms
In an Oct. 20 letter posted to the attorney general’s website, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told Sarasota’s Republican State Attorney, Ed Brodsky, that he and his staff should be allowed to bring their guns into courtrooms — even though the Chief Judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit decreed otherwise in a September order.
Sen. Tom Leek Again Files Bill to Create Museum of Black History Board in St. Johns, After Setback Earlier This Year
Sen. Tom Leek of Ormond Beach introduced Senate Bill 308, which would create an Administrative Board that must be formed by July 31, 2026. The panel will oversee the museum’s construction, operation, and administration — a key step in fulfilling the vision outlined in legislation authorizing the museum’s development. Leek had filed a similar bill last year. It cleared every committee unanimously. It cleared the House and Senate unanimously, along $750,000 for actual construction. Gov. DeSantis vetoed the funding, and Leek’s bill died.
Palm Coast Woman Who Let Mom Die in ‘Concentration Camp’ Conditions Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison
Kim Zaheer, the now-68-year-old woman accused of letting her mother die of such neglect that neither the medical examiner nor the funeral home personnel who handled the body said they’d seen anything so abject in their careers, was sentenced to six years in prison this afternoon. Frances Hildegard King, 88, was found dead on Dec. 5, 2018, at the house she owned at 20 Rocket Lane in Palm Coast since 2008. With time served and time off for good behavior, Zaheer may be out of prison in a year and two months.
State Kills Norman Grim for 1998 Murder of Cynthia Chapman, Record 15th Execution of the Year
After declining to fight the execution in court, Norman Grim was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison for the 1998 sexual assault and murder of a woman in Santa Rosa County. Grim, 65, was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m., becoming the 15th inmate executed in Florida this year — a modern-era record.
When Florida Sends Goons to Intimidate Government Critics
Retired Florida resident James O’Gara sent a postcard to Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, saying simply, “You lack values.” Soon after the postcard, two guys in armored vests emblazoned “POLICE” showed up at the O’Gara home and asked if James O’Gara had mailed that little missive to Tallahassee. They didn’t identify themselves, but the O’Garas checked with Largo police and found out the men were from the Department of Financial Services’ investigations unit.
Florida Judge Rules Concealed Weapons Ban for Under-21 Unconstitutional
Siding with a 19-year-old man who was spotted with a gun in his waistband, a Broward County circuit judge Friday ruled that a state law barring people under age 21 from carrying concealed weapons violates Second Amendment rights.
DeSantis Signs 17th Death Warrant of the Year, More than 6 States Combined, Including Texas
In what could be Florida’s 17th execution this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a death warrant for Richard Barry Randolph, convicted of raping and murdering Putnam County convenience-store manager Minnie Ruth McCollum in 1988. The 17 death warrants are more than the number of executions in six states combined, including Texas, which has the second-most executions so far this year, with five, and Alabama, third-most with four.
Court Increases Legal Fees Owed ‘Conversion Therapists’ to Nearly $900,000
Palm Beach County and Boca Raton governments are required to pay about $885,000 in attorney fees and other legal costs after a battle about bans on the controversial practice known as “conversion therapy,” a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
Cops Charge Woman Over Inflated Weenie
Jeana Renea Gamble, 61, was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct for wearing an inflatable penis costume at a No Kings demonstration. Video of the arrest posted to Bluesky showed three officers holding her to the ground amid criticism from spectators. The video went viral over the weekend and led to widespread criticism of the officers.
Jermaine Williams Loses Two Dozen Motions Contesting His Death-Penalty Trial for Killing of Wife Yolonda
Jermaine Williams Sr, 53, is to be tried early next year for the stabbing death of his wife Yolonda Williams in the couple’s driveway in Bunnell 14 months ago. The defense team today argued 26 motions, lost 25, many of them arguing the constitutionality of the death penalty or death penalty trial procedures such as victim impact statements, or even whether Williams should wear restraints at his trial. Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols said the challenges were to settled law.
Millions Protest Trump Authoritarianism: A Roundup from Around the Country
Millions of Americans packed streets, parks and town squares across the United States Saturday for No Kings day, according to the organizers of the massive day of demonstrations protesting President Donald Trump’s administration — from his deployment of troops to cities to his targeting of political opponents. They showed up at more than 2,600 events for the second organized No Kings day in America’s largest cities like Atlanta, New York City and Chicago, to smaller metro areas and towns including Greensburg, Pennsylvania; Bismarck, North Dakota; Palm Coast, Florida; and Hammond, Louisiana.
At ‘No Kings’ Protests in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach, Cheer, Energy and Defiance in Throngs, But Effects Elusive
What there was more than anything at today’s trio of “No Kings” demonstrations in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach, where many hundreds gathered and protested as millions did across the country, was cheer and charm as much as challenge and conviction, making you wonder where all that energy was as Trump’s opponents floundered in gloomy defeat a mere 11 months ago. It made you wonder where all that energy is even now, especially now, as his political opposition continues to grope for relevance.
Let Us Now Bow to the Quackery of Conversion Therapy
Conversion therapy is the non-medical and debunked theory that if you hector gays, lesbians and trans long enough, they’ll convert back to heterosexuality. The approach is premised on self-loathing. It’s abusive. It has nothing to do with science. It has everything to do with a perverted interpretation of Christianity’s vilification of anything non-heterodox. yet after hearing the case this week, the U.S. Supreme Court, continuing its upending of First Amendment interpretations, appears inclined to open the door to conversion therapy to those under 18 as a legitimate professional practice.
Florida Prisons Chief Wants ‘Staggering’ Half a Billion Dollars Next Year Just for Operations, Not Salaries
Sounding as desperate as he ever has since being appointed four years ago, Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) Secretary Ricky Dixon asked a panel of state lawmakers Wednesday for more than $512 million for next fiscal year to maintain the prison system. “It is a staggering amount of money that we’re asking for. I’m aware of that,” Dixon told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice. Adding to the scale of the needs, he said that amount did not include funding for salaries of correction officers, which he said rank among the lowest for its size in the country.
Students Protesting Gaza Genocide File Lawsuit Against USF, Alleging Violations of Constitutional Rights
Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society, a group protesting in support of Palestinian rights, filed suit last week against the University of South Florida, claiming the university violated members’ constitutional rights after expelling one student and disciplining others.
