Florida
Florida man allegedly dumped mother-of-four’s cremated remains alongside 500 pounds of trash on roadside
A Florida man allegedly dumped a mother-of-four’s cremated remains and 500 pounds of trash on the side of a road late last month, according to reports.
Daniel Rolando, 26, was arrested and charged with one felony count for littering over 500 pounds of commercial or hazardous waste after Charlotte County Sheriff deputies discovered a massive pile of trash in Punta Gorda on Oct. 30, ABC7 reported.
Among the heap of waste was a labeled bag with human ashes, according to the outlet.
The cremated remains belong to 39-year-old Nina Monica Brown, who died of sickle cell disease in 2024, Gulf Coast News Now reported.
“It was a straight box and plastic bag from the funeral home, like you would pick her up. It wasn’t even an urn, nothing,” resident Heather Lemcool told the outlet.
“Her name, day to day, date of birth, and date of death, and the funeral home was all on this, ID card attached to the ashes,” she said.
After sifting through the 120 cubic foot pile of trash, police found mail belonging to a woman in Sarasota and contacted her, the outlet said.
She positively identified 80% of the discarded items as hers and told deputies that she had recently had two of her units at a local storage facility auctioned off after defaulting on her contract, the outlet reported.
But the woman was dumbfounded as to how her mail and trash ended up on the side of the road and had no clue how the cremated remains wound up in the pile, according to the publication.
Employees at the storage unit then confirmed to police that Rolando had purchased the two units at the auction.
He was arrested after returning to the trash pile to clean up with a friend, the outlet reported.
Rolando later confessed to purchasing the goods and dumping the ones he didn’t want, according to the report.
Precious Tunstall, a friend of Brown, described the woman whose ashes were carelessly dumped as a “walking miracle” who battled sickle cell disease far longer than doctors predicted.
“As growing up, they didn’t expect her to live past the age of 21. She wasn’t supposed to,” Tunstall told Wink News.
“They told her that she would never bear children. She had four beautiful children, two girls, two boys, and she did everything that she had to do to provide for those babies,” she said.
She is currently working with the police to retrieve Brown’s remains and return them to her children.
“It was very inconsiderate of him to just dump her on the side of the road,” Tunstall said.
“I would like to have her ashes back, her remains back, so her children can have her remains.”
Rolando was released from jail on Thursday on $2,500 bond, the Venice Gondolier reported.
The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son, married socialite Bettina Anderson on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to Palm Beach County records.
A private wedding celebration is expected to take place Saturday in the Bahamas, Page Six reported. President Donald Trump indicated Thursday that he will not be in attendance, saying the date “was not good timing for me,” citing the ongoing war in Iran and other presidential matters. The president was initially scheduled to be in Bedminster, New Jersey, this weekend but is now expected to be at the White House.
Still, he offered his congratulations to the couple in a post on Truth Social Friday.
“While I very much wanted to be with my son, Don Jr., and the newest member of the Trump Family, his soon to be wife, Bettina, circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so,” Trump wrote, adding that he felt it was important for him to remain in Washington, D.C., “during this important time.”
On Thursday, President Trump said that he had known Anderson “for a very long time, and hopefully they are going to have a great marriage.”
Anderson comes from a prominent Palm Beach family. Her father is Harry Loy Anderson Jr., a banker and philanthropist.
Trump Jr. announced his engagement to Anderson in December during a White House holiday party.
This is the second marriage for Trump Jr., 48, who has five children with his first wife, Vanessa Trump. The pair were married at Mar-a-Lago in 2005 and divorced in 2018. He was later engaged to Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who is now U.S. ambassador to Greece.
Trump Jr. operates the Trump Organization with his brother, Eric Trump, and has been a fixture alongside his father at political events. Anderson is a committee member at the Project Paradise Film Fund, which is focused on protecting Florida’s environment.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Military service members can get free admission to The Florida Aquarium over Memorial Day weekend.
Active-duty military, veterans, retired military personnel, drilling reservists, National Guardsmen, and honorably or medically discharged service members will receive free general admission from Saturday, May 23, to Monday, May 25.
Military service members will need to show a valid U.S. Military ID or DD Form 214 to get a free ticket at the ticket window.
“In honor of the courage, commitment, and sacrifice of our nation’s military service members, The Florida Aquarium will once again offer complimentary general admission during Memorial Day weekend as a heartfelt thank-you to those who serve and have served our country,” the aquarium said.
The aquarium said it will offer extended hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. throughout the three-day weekend.
To learn more about the aquarium, visit its website.
Florida
Florida officials to pay $485,000 settlement to fired FWC biologist over Charlie Kirk post after his death
Florida officials will pay nearly half a million dollars to a biologist who was fired by a state agency for criticizing conservative activist Charlie Kirk on social media after his death.
The state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission fired biologist Brittney Brown in September after she reposted a meme on her personal Instagram account that claimed Kirk wouldn’t care about children being shot in their classrooms. She filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement, saying she struggled to find other work because the state agency is the regulatory body for her research specialization in bird conservation.
Brown on Thursday signed a $485,000 settlement agreement with agency directors that covers back pay, damages and attorney costs. She agreed as part of the deal to not seek future employment at the agency.
Fish and Wildlife officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other workers also filed pending lawsuits over being fired over comments about Kirk’s assassination
Brown was among a wave of workers in both the public and private sector who lost their jobs over comments about Kirk’s assassination on a Utah university campus. Lawsuits are pending over many of those firings.
Before his death, Kirk and the organization he founded, Turning Point USA, galvanized the conservative youth vote to help President Donald Trump win a second term.
Kirk’s supporters combed social media after the Sept. 10 shooting for posts they viewed as celebrating his death. Influencers like Laura Loomer pledged to ruin the careers of people who made light of the killing, and the conservative social media account Libs of TikTok shared the identities and workplaces of many who posted with its audience of millions.
Libs of TikTok posted about Brown, and she was fired the next day, according to her lawsuit. Brown said someone then alerted Libs of TikTok about her termination only about 10 minutes after it happened and before it was made public.
In a rare instance in Tennessee, a retired police officer was jailed for 37 days over a Facebook post joking about Kirk’s assassination. Tennessee officials agreed Wednesday to pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the man, Larry Bushart. While behind bars, Bushart lost his postretirement job and missed the birth of his granddaughter before authorities eventually dropped a felony charge against him, he said in the lawsuit.
Before her termination, Brown worked for Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for about seven years and studied shorebirds and seabirds on the panhandle, according to court documents.
Carrie McNamara, an attorney with the ACLU of Florida, called Brown’s settlement deal “a hard-won vindication” that sends a message to Florida officials that they cannot punish speech they dislike.
“The First Amendment does not disappear when someone accepts a government job,” McNamara said.
Brown’s former supervisor at the agency, Habitat and Species Conservation Director Melissa Tucker, had claimed that Brown’s post generated hundreds of formal complaints and caused significant disruption. Discovery in the case later revealed that the agency only received about 50 complaints.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker imposed sanctions against Tucker last week for exaggerating the amount and then not correcting the record.
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