Florida
Judge grants secrecy for some messages gathered in Florida’s ‘ghost’ candidate probe
![Judge grants secrecy for some messages gathered in Florida’s ‘ghost’ candidate probe Judge grants secrecy for some messages gathered in Florida’s ‘ghost’ candidate probe](https://www.tampabay.com/resizer/7w_oDqxRnr6EvjJVlkIzq6sj1Fs=/1200x675/smart/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tbt/DNDBEOHGNQYGSBJ7OQZDMSXVTA.jpg)
ORLANDO — Communications between former Florida state Sen. Frank Artiles and roughly two dozen people and organizations, which have been obtained by Miami prosecutors investigating an alleged vote-siphoning scheme in 2020′s state Senate races, is not going to be launched publicly, a South Florida decide dominated Thursday.
Miami-Dade Circuit Courtroom Choose Ariana Fajardo Orshan can be contemplating withholding from public disclosure a listing of Artiles’ contacts that additionally was seized by prosecutors. Fajardo Orshan stated she anticipated to problem a ruling on that matter inside per week, weighing the privateness rights of Artiles’ private and enterprise contacts with the rights of reporters and others to have entry to the data.
The Miami-Dade State Lawyer’s Workplace has obtained a voluminous cache of data, together with messages and make contact with names, from Artiles’ private laptops, telephones, tablets and different units. These data, which have been supplied to Artiles’ protection attorneys, would usually change into public, as state regulation requires in a legal case.
However on the urging of Artiles’ attorneys, Fajardo Orshan agreed to permit folks whose names, messages and different data have been saved on the previous state senator’s units to object to having these data publicly launched, and roughly two dozen people and entities did.
In exempting from public disclosure the messages from these events, Fajardo Orshan stated they’re “private in nature” and never associated to the case. Prosecutor Tim VanderGiesen stated he doesn’t anticipate utilizing any of these data within the state’s case towards Artiles, who’s scheduled to go to trial in September.
The exception: Communications between Artiles and his buddy Alex Rodriguez, who pleaded responsible in August to taking bribes from Artiles to run in a aggressive South Florida state Senate race, shall be made out there to the general public.
Rodriguez did no campaigning however was championed as a progressive various to the key occasion candidates in an promoting blitz that prosecutors say was supposed to siphon votes away from Democrat Jose Javier Rodríguez, who ultimately misplaced to Republican Ileana Garcia by 32 votes.
Alex Rodriguez, who acquired greater than 6,000 votes within the Miami-area race, agreed to testify within the state’s case towards Artiles.
Attorneys representing a few of Artiles’ unnamed contacts stated throughout Thursday’s listening to they feared publicizing their shoppers’ connections to Artiles would possibly indicate that they have been in some way concerned within the ghost candidate scheme or different wrongdoing.
However attorneys representing the Orlando Sentinel and different information organizations have argued that Artiles’ contacts’ potential embarrassment or concern of unflattering information protection is just not enough motive to protect public data from disclosure.
“The truth that somebody associates with Mr. Artiles is just not a secret, not a factor to be protected,” stated Dana McElroy, who’s representing the Miami Herald and different retailers.
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Artiles, who resigned from the state Senate in 2017 after a racist tirade towards Black colleagues in a Tallahassee bar, now runs a political consulting enterprise and has different ventures.
Fajarado Orshan, who reviewed the data with the intention to make her ruling, stated they confirmed the previous lawmaker is “a go-getter” who “works onerous,” and that ambition is mirrored within the breadth of his contacts listing and communications.
“I hate to make use of the phrase hustler, however he’s on the market, he’s offering for his household,” Fajardo Orshan stated.
The South Florida race through which Artiles is accused of paying practically $45,000 to Alex Rodriguez to run was one among three key state Senate races in 2020 — together with one in Central Florida received by Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur of Sanford — through which candidates filed to run as independents however did no campaigning.
Two political committees that acquired all of their funding from a darkish cash nonprofit known as “Develop United” despatched advertisements selling the unbiased candidates, portraying them as progressives in an obvious try and undermine the Democrats in these races.
One other nonprofit group known as Let’s Protect the American Dream Inc. that has shut ties to big-business lobbying group Related Industries of Florida gave $600,000 to Develop United that was used to pay for the advertisements.
Earlier this month, Fajarado Orshan agreed to publicly launch redacted financial institution data for Let’s Protect the American Dream after the group’s chief resisted their disclosure. The data present massive sums of cash altering fingers between key figures within the ghost candidate scandal in fall 2020, weeks earlier than the election.
For instance, Let’s Protect the American Dream despatched $30,000 to TMP Interactive, a agency run by Jeff Pitts, then the CEO of Matrix LLC. That Alabama-based political consulting agency in 2020 counted amongst its shoppers Florida Energy & Gentle, amongst different main Florida companies and Related Industries contributors.
A spokesperson for Pitts didn’t reply earlier this month to questions concerning the objective of the cost to TMP Interactive.
The cost to Pitts’ agency was dated Sept. 22, 2020. Every week later, Let’s Protect the American Dream despatched $600,000 to Develop United, which Pitts and his colleagues at Matrix LLC managed. That group days later despatched $550,000 to a pair of political committees run by Tallahassee-based operative Alex Alvarado.
Alvarado’s committees, which like Let’s Protect the American Dream have been primarily based at Related Industries of Florida’s headquarters blocks from the Florida governor’s mansion, spent the cash selling Alex Rodriguez and two different low-profile unbiased candidates in essential Senate races.
Late final yr, the Miami-Dade State Lawyer’s Workplace despatched “previous to” letters to Alvarado, Let’s Protect the American Dream, Develop United Chairman Richard Alexander and Dan Newman, a former Democratic fundraiser who raised cash into Develop United and who now works with Pitts and different ex-Matrix operatives at a Florida-based agency, Cover Companions.
These letters notified the recipients in addition they have been targets of the state’s investigation. Nobody besides Artiles and Alex Rodriguez have been charged within the scheme.
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Florida
Florida husband’s cunning trap before shooting dead his estranged wife and wounding their dog two weeks after separating – as his chilling texts emerge
![Florida husband’s cunning trap before shooting dead his estranged wife and wounding their dog two weeks after separating – as his chilling texts emerge Florida husband’s cunning trap before shooting dead his estranged wife and wounding their dog two weeks after separating – as his chilling texts emerge](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/27/23/87849511-13679811-Florida_man_Timothy_Kramer_51_is_accused_of_fatally_shooting_his-a-2_1722119562580.jpg)
A Florida man who allegedly fatally shot his estranged wife and wounded their dog set a cunning trap to snare her.
Timothy Kramer, 51, was lying in wait inside the couple’s Pensacola home when his wife Rosa, 47, came to collect her belongings, police said.
Authorities believe the gunman deliberately parked his pick up truck in the backyard so it would not be seen before opening fire, the Pensacola News Journal reports.
‘It is reasonable to believe that Timothy Kramer attempted to conceal his vehicle behind the privacy fence in an effort to avoid Rosa Kramer from knowing he was present at the residence,’ a police report by Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said.
Once inside, Kramer allegedly shot Rosa in the head and injured their seven-year-old dog Cody who was rushed to the veterinary hospital, but managed to survive.
Florida man Timothy Kramer, 51, is accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife Rosa after lying in wait for her at their Pensacola home
He has been charged with first degree murder and aggravated animal abuse.
‘In the bedroom, I noticed a significant amount of blood on the flooring and surrounding areas, along with smeared blood and what appeared to be bloody footprints leading from the bedroom to the hallway,’ the police report said.
The couple had been separated for just two weeks when the incident occurred on Tuesday.
The alarm was raised after Rosa could not be reached by phone. Once they arrived at the scene on Hillcrest Drive, deputies discovered her body.
Kramer was picked up by Milton police in Santa Rosa County and was with an unidentified woman.
The woman told police that Kramer said he had shot his wife in self defense.
![Rosa, 47, was found with a bullet wound in her head on Tuesday after she had gone back to the property to collect her things](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/27/23/87849507-13679811-Rosa_47_was_found_with_a_bullet_wound_in_her_head_on_Tuesday_aft-a-20_1722120188414.jpg)
Rosa, 47, was found with a bullet wound in her head on Tuesday after she had gone back to the property to collect her things
![Police said the couple had been separated for two weeks when the incident occurred. Kramer is said to have parked his truck around back to be able to sneak up on his wife](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/27/23/87849509-13679811-Police_said_the_couple_had_been_separated_for_two_weeks_when_the-a-3_1722119562580.jpg)
Police said the couple had been separated for two weeks when the incident occurred. Kramer is said to have parked his truck around back to be able to sneak up on his wife
![Kramer is also accused of shooting their dog Cody, 7, who survived the ordeal](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/27/23/87849823-13679811-Kramer_is_also_accused_of_shooting_their_dog_Cody_7_who_survived-a-21_1722120188440.jpg)
Kramer is also accused of shooting their dog Cody, 7, who survived the ordeal
‘She advised that Timothy Kramer called her at approximately 6 a.m. and confessed that he had shot Rosa Kramer and claimed it was in self-defense,’ the police report said.
‘(Redacted) said she urged Timothy Kramer to contact law enforcement and explain the situation to avoid getting into trouble.’
However, police determined that Kramer, ‘provided a fictitious story’ which ‘lead her to believe he was not in any trouble regarding the incident.’
Text messages between the accused and the unidentified woman state, ‘It is all good I did this it is on me.’
A man reportedly told police he was concerned about Rosa being around her ex ever since she left him because ‘he began calling her and threatening to shoot himself if she didn’t come back,’ according to the report.
Florida
Virginia boy charged with making swatting calls to Florida schools
![Virginia boy charged with making swatting calls to Florida schools Virginia boy charged with making swatting calls to Florida schools](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2023/05/12/eb3046d8-ea20-4c77-8309-3c5a737d47ab/thumbnail/1200x630/2b74a63547c55893dab4e6dc31a92f8d/south-broward-high-school.jpg?v=5501038cbc281520ff9fdc308faab7dc)
An 11-year-Virginia boy has been charged in Florida with calling in more than 20 bomb or shooting threats to schools and other places, authorities said Thursday.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said that authorities worked hard to find the caller before the school year resumes.
“This kid’s behavior was escalating and becoming more dangerous,” Staly said. “I’m glad we got him before he escalated out of control and hurt someone.”
Swatting is slang for making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to send a SWAT team or other armed police officers to a particular place.
Flagler County emergency services initially received a bomb threat at Buddy Taylor Middle School on May 14, officials said. Additional threats were made between then and May 22.
Investigators tracked the calls to a home in Henrico County, Virginia, just outside Richmond. Local deputies searched the home this month, and the 11-year-old boy who lived there admitted to placing the Florida swatting calls, as well as a threat made to the Maryland State House, authorities said. Investigators later determined that the boy also made swatting calls in Nebraska, Kansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Alaska.
The boy faces 29 felony counts and 14 misdemeanors, officials said. He’s being held in a Virginia juvenile detention facility while Florida officials arrange for his extradition. Investigators didn’t immediately say whether the boy had a connection to Florida.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested in Florida in May, several days after the initial call, for making a copycat threat to Buddy Taylor Middle School.
Florida
Is there a sunken nuclear bomb near Florida? Here’s what to know
![Is there a sunken nuclear bomb near Florida? Here’s what to know Is there a sunken nuclear bomb near Florida? Here’s what to know](https://res.cloudinary.com/graham-media-group/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/c_thumb,w_700/v1/media/gmg/W6DCEII3XJBRTEXKRZYYCQLLWQ.jpg?_a=DATAdtfiZAA0)
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. – Off the coast of Georgia, a massive bomb potentially sits in the water after having been flown out from Florida decades prior.
According to NPR, the whole incident began in 1958 when a B-47 bomber plane took off from Homestead AFB in Florida with the 7,600-pound nuclear bomb in tow, heading out to meet up with another bomber for a training exercise.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
The plan was to reportedly simulate an attack on the Soviet Union as part of the exercise, and everything was going well — until another training mission mistakenly crashed into the B-47 carrying the bomb.
As a result, the pilot chose to let loose the bomb over the water off Tybee Island in Georgia before making an emergency landing in a nearby swamp.
The bomb didn’t go off even after dropping into the ocean below, though that could be because the nuclear material needed to set such bombs off was typically kept separate from the weapon until it was needed, the BBC reports.
DID THEY FIND IT?
Federal officials spent over two weeks searching for the bomb in the aftermath, but it was ultimately determined to be irretrievable.
While a receipt written by the pilot shows that the necessary capsule wasn’t added to the bomb before the training exercise — meaning it wouldn’t be at a huge risk of detonation — other federal officials have claimed otherwise, such as a former Assistant Secretary of Defense W.J. Howard, who claimed that the bomb was “complete.”
“He concluded that despite our best efforts, the possibility of an accidental nuclear explosion still existed,” a declassified report reads.
Nowadays, the bomb is thought to be covered by several feet of silt on the seabed, but if the explosives within are still intact, it could pose a major hazard to the environment. As such, federal officials have determined that it should be left undisturbed — even by further recovery attempts.
CAN AN ATOMIC BOMB GO OFF UNDERWATER?
If it’s actually off the coast of Tybee Island, then yes: the bomb can still detonate, even underwater.
In 1946, the U.S. tested an atomic bomb at the Bikini Atoll — in the Pacific Ocean far southwest of Hawaii — by suspending it below several ships filled with pigs and rats.
After it was set off underwater, nearly all of the animals died, either thanks to the initial explosion or from the radiation poisoning afterward. And the area is still irradiated to this day.
WHAT HAPPENS IF IT DETONATES?
For starters: it doesn’t appear as likely that the bomb will explode.
While Howard initially claimed the bomb was complete, a military spokesman told The Atlantic in 2001 that they’d spoken with him, and “he agreed that his memo was in error.”
But if the bomb did manage to get outfitted with a plutonium trigger and detonated, it would erupt into an explosion with a mile-wide radius — and thermal radiation reaching 10 times that distance, according to the Savannah Morning News.
That would no doubt cause havoc within the immediate proximity, but on the bright side, Tybee Island is well over 100 miles (roughly a two-hour drive) from Florida’s border. This means Florida residents have little to fear from the direct impacts of such an explosion.
So you can sleep tight knowing you’re not likely to find yourself on the worse end of a nuclear weapon.
That being said, there are still plenty of other scary things in Florida to keep you up at night.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily:
Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.
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