Florida
Hurricane Helene leaves manatees stranded in Florida
Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said its teams are responding to reports of stranded manatees after Hurricane Helene ripped through the state last week.
Helene made landfall in Florida’s panhandle as a Category 4 storm last Tuesday night, bringing with it heavy rainfall, high winds and flooding that also struck other Southeastern states. As of Tuesday, the death toll from Helene had reached 159, the Associated Press reported, as search and rescue operations continue throughout hard-hit states.
The storm has also wreaked havoc on the wildlife caught in its path. The FWC said in a post to its social media accounts on Monday that its biologists were working to rescue manatees—a protected animal under Florida state law—that were beached.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
“Manatees can become stranded during rough weather conditions, such as a hurricane or tropical storm,” the FWC said Monday in a post on its Facebook page.
It added in its post, “While our top priority has been to help residents and visitors of Florida recover from the impacts of Helene, we are also working swiftly to rehabilitate and conserve these gentle giants.”
Images of rescued manatees were shared by the FWC on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday afternoon.
Manatees are native to Florida and inhabit rivers, springs and coastal areas throughout the state. The nonprofit Save the Manatee Club, based in Florida, said in a release to its website last week that it was working with its partners, including the FWC, to “actively” monitor the aftermath of Helene and its impact on the manatee population.
“As Florida natives, manatees are well-adapted to the extreme weather events in our state,” the release read in part. “However, they do face significant risk during powerful storms. Storm surges can cause manatees to go far inland to areas they would not normally inhabit, where they can become trapped when the water recedes.”
The FWC urged the public to not attempt to handle any stranded manatees and instead call the state’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-392 to alert officials of the animals’ location.
It added that “manatees stranded by storms may need immediate medical attention from wildlife experts.” Residents can report incidents of other injured wildlife to the Wildlife Alert Hotline or submit a report online through this link.
Newsweek reached out to the FWC for additional information via email on Tuesday.
The FWC was deployed over the weekend as part of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Operation Blue Ridge, a multistate agency effort to assist recovery efforts in North Carolina and Tennessee, according to a release from the governor’s office Sunday.
The FWC wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday that Operation Blue Ridge “also aims to help Floridians needing rescue in Western North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Tennessee Valley.”
“FWC stands ready to continue assisting our neighbors as they recover from Hurricane Helene’s effects,” the post added.
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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