Florida
‘It’s Not Fair’: Florida Vocal Coach Turned Capitol Rioter Gets 6 Years
A U.S. Capitol rioter who spoke up in court to verbally attack federal prosecutors and the entire federal government was sentenced to six years behind bars on Friday for physically attacking police on Jan. 6, 2021.
The woman, Audrey Ann Southard-Rumsey, 54, appeared to deliver her rambling 15-minute diatribe off the cuff, according to CBS News.
“My whole dream of my life has been taken because people have different politics than mine,” Southard-Rumsey said, the outlet reported.
Sitting before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, she added, per CBS: “I have grievances since they don’t listen to us at the polling place. They don’t listen to us little people in the regular world.”
Southard-Rumsey reportedly urged Mehta to think about “what I now have to give up” and concluded by saying, “It’s not fair.”
She had been found guilty on seven felony charges, including three counts of assaulting or resisting law enforcement and three counts of civil disorder.
Mehta reportedly called her a “one-person wrecking crew.” The judge added an optional terrorism enhancement to meet prosecutors’ requested sentence of 72 months, despite generally handing out sentences to Jan. 6 defendants that are shorter than recommended by the government.
The Spring Hill, Florida, resident worked as a vocal coach until her arrest in June 2021.
Prosecutors say she used a flagpole to push against law enforcement trying to defend the Capitol, causing one officer to hit his head on the base of a marble statue.
Southard-Rumsey was also captured on video yelling at Capitol Police, “Tell Pelosi we are coming for that bitch,” referring to the then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“There’s a hundred thousand of us! What’s it going to be?” Southard-Rumsey was heard saying on the video.
Prosecutors noted her threatening social media posts in the wake of the 2020 election, which included “HANG the TRAITORS!” and a message to “go to their work and home, pull them out by their teeth and hang them for treason!”
Florida
Gunster law firm hires tax specialist Andrew Nerney to join roster of attorneys
Law firm with offices across Florida signs up Andrew Nerney to expand personal wealth offerings.
A prominent Florida law firm is expanding its offerings in the private wealth services sector with the addition of a new hire in that area of expertise.
Officials with Gunster law firm, which has several offices across Florida, say they’re beefing up their wealth services sector by hiring attorney Andrew Nerney. He’ll be working out of the Boca Raton office for Gunster.
Nerney has more than a decade of legal work. His areas of focus include estate, tax business succession and asset protection planning. He’s overseen work that includes drafting estate planning. He’s also well versed in handling tax-exempt organizations and trusts. He has additional experience in various other tax issues and has served as an advisor on estate and trust administration along with charitable giving and domicile planning.
Gunster has been expanding its private wealth services after the firm received high rankings in the Chambers and Partners High Net Worth Guide. The firm also has the most representations among Florida law firms in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a national legal organization for wills, trust, estate planning and tax laws.
Nerney achieved a master’s of law degree focusing on taxation from Georgetown University Law Center and he earned his law degree from Quinnipiac University School of Law. He obtained his bachelor of arts degree from University of South Florida in the Tampa area.
Gunster was founded in 1925 and has grown to 12 offices across Florida. The firm has more than 300 attorneys on its staff and other 290 professional staff members. The firm is ranked in the top 500 largest law firms in the county by the National Law Journal and is also noted in the Top 100 Diverse Law Firms by Law360.
While the firm has offices throughout Florida, it’s still headquartered in West Palm Beach.
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Florida
Florida bill would provide standardized tests in multiple languages
ORLANDO, Fla. — In an effort to help even the playing field, a bill filed in mid January hopes to help English language learners when it comes to standardized testing.
House Bill 159 and the similar Senate Bill 260, would give students still learning English a chance to take standardized tests in their first language to ensure they’re placed in the right classes.
The two bills are set to be considered for the next Florida Legislative Session in March, and were filed by Democratic State Rep. Rita Harris and Democratic State Sen. Kristin Arrington respectively, after hearing from teachers.
“During the course of the last year there were conversations about concern of you know kids who are ELL’s, or English Language Learners, being placed in the right classes,” said Harris. “And so, I worked with some stakeholders and thought this would be a great bill to file to ensure equity in learning.”
The bills look to ensure students are accurately assessed and if passed, the bills would call for the Department of Education to develop a version of each statewide standardized test in the three most prevalent languages represented in the ELL population.
It’s a piece of legislation that former Florida ELL student Richell De Jesus says would have benefited her when she moved to the U.S.
“A bill like this can help students be placed in the correct place where they need to be in school and give them the opportunity to be advanced and ahead if that’s what they need and not be sitting in a classroom where they know half of the material and they’re only there because they don’t know the actual language,” De Jesus explained.
De Jesus says she received all As and Bs while in the Dominican Republic. She says she was still proficient in subjects like math and science, but she struggled early on when it came to classes and standardized tests involving reading and writing in English.
“I feel like I wasn’t excelling at my full potential,” said De Jesus. “I couldn’t reach my full potential because of the language barrier.”
While De Jesus has been able to have a successful educational career and is currently a student at FAMU’s College of Law, the results from those first few standardized tests weighed on her confidence.
“So, I think it just affected my scores and my average performances and how I thought of myself because I wasn’t excelling like how I used to be back in the Dominican Republic,” she shared. “It was simply because I didn’t understand what I was reading and the materials.”
Harris says she has gotten great feedback from teachers as they feel this will help their students; while also giving families a say to choose what language they want their child to take standardized tests in.
It ensures that all students can properly showcase their capabilities.
“Here in Florida, it’s not just a bunch of Hispanic people, there is a lot of Hispanic people, but there’s also a lot of other minorities that speak Creole and other languages,” De Jesus said. “So, if they were to put the top three languages spoken other than English, then it would definitely benefit a lot more families and hopefully other states can implement things like this.”
Harris says she has yet to hear any negative feedback from the other side of the aisle on the proposed bills.
If passed, these changes could be seen in the 2027-28 school year.
Florida
How to watch #5 Florida vs. #8 Tennessee basketball: Time, TV channel, FREE live streams
The 5th-ranked Florida Gators make the trek to Knoxville on Saturday for an afternoon top-10 matchup with the No. 8 Tennessee Volunteers. The game is scheduled to start at noon ET with TV coverage on ESPN and streaming on-demand.
#5 Florida Gators (18-2) at #8 Tennessee Volunteers (17-4)
NCAA men’s basketball matchup at a glance
When: Saturday, Feb. 1 at noon ET
Where: Food City Center, Knoxville, Tenn.
TV channel: ESPN
Live streams: FuboTV (free trial) | SlingTV (low intro rate) | DirecTV Stream (free trial)
The Gators kick off a rugged stretch of games with four straight against top-25 competition that includes a Feb. 4 home game against No. 24 Vanderbilt and road trips to face No. 1 Auburn (Feb. 8) and No. 14 Mississippi State (Feb. 11). Florida enters Saturday’s matchup with Tennessee sitting two games back of SEC leader Auburn as one of the league’s 10 ranked teams.
Tennessee is in the midst of its own schedule challenges and a stretch of five straight ranked matchups. The Vols are 1-2 through three games of it, most recently falling to No. 1 Auburn (53-51) and No. 12 Kentucky (78-73).
Florida Gators vs. Tennessee Vols: Know your live streaming options
- FuboTV (free trial) – excellent viewer experience with a huge library of live sports content; free trial lengths vary.
- SlingTV (low intro rate) – discounted first month is best if you’ve run out of free trials or you’re in the market for 1+ month of TV
- DirecTV Stream (free trial) – not the same level of viewer experience as FuboTV, but the 7-day free trial is still the longest in streaming.
The Gators and Vols are set for a noon ET start on ESPN. Live streams are available from FuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial) and SlingTV (low intro rate).
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