Florida
Police are questioning Florida voters about signing an abortion rights ballot petition
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — State police are showing up at Florida voters’ homes to question them about signing a petition to get an abortion rights amendment on the ballot in November, and a state health care agency has launched a website targeting the ballot initiative with politically charged language.
Critics say they’re the latest efforts by Florida’s Republican elected officials to leverage state resources to try to block the abortion rights measure, moves which some Democratic officials argue could violate state laws against voter intimidation.
“Ron (DeSantis) has repeatedly used state power to interfere with a citizen-led process to get reproductive freedom on the ballot,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried told reporters on Monday. “This is their latest desperate attempt before Election Day.”
The ballot initiative known as Amendment 4 would enshrine abortion rights in Florida law. If approved by 60% of voters, the procedure would remain legal until the fetus is viable, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.
Isaac Menasche, one of nearly a million people who signed the petition to get the measure on the ballot, said a law enforcement officer knocked on his door last week in Lee County in southwest Florida to ask him about signing it.
The officer said the questioning was part of an investigation into alleged petition fraud, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“I’m not a person who is going out there protesting for abortion,” Menasche told the newspaper. “I just felt strongly, and I took the opportunity when the person asked me to say, ‘Yeah, I’ll sign that petition.’”
Critics say the investigation is a brazen attempt to intimidate voters in the country’s third-largest state from protecting access to abortion — and the latest in a series of efforts by the governor’s administration to target Amendment 4.
“Amendment 4 was placed on the ballot by nearly one million Floridians around the state and across party lines who believe that people, not politicians, deserve the freedom to make their own health care decisions,” Lauren Brenzel, the director of the Yes on 4 campaign, said in an email. “But the State will stop at nothing to keep in place their near-total abortion ban.”
Florida law currently bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant.
Speaking at a press event Monday in South Florida, DeSantis defended police visiting the homes of petition signers, and a separate move by a state health care agency to create a website targeting the ballot amendment, saying both are aimed at making sure November’s vote is fair.
DeSantis signed a law in 2022 creating a state police force dedicated to investigating voter fraud and elections crimes. Voter fraud is rare, typically occurs in isolated instances and is generally detected.
He said elections police are going to the homes of people who signed the petitions that got Amendment 4 on the ballot not to intimidate them, but because questions have been raised about the legitimacy of the signatures. He said the police have found evidence that some of the supposed signatures were from dead people.
“Anyone who submitted a petition that is a valid voter, that is totally within their rights to do it,” DeSantis said. “We are not investigating that. What they are investigating is fraudulent petitions. We know that this group did submit on behalf of dead people.”
A deadline in state law to challenge the validity of the signatures has long passed, but county-level election administrators across Florida say they have been receiving requests from state officials to turn over verified petition signatures as part of a state probe.
Mary Jane Arrington, a Democrat who has served as the Supervisor of Elections in Osceola County in central Florida for 16 years, told The Associated Press she had never received a request like this one before.
Arrington said she didn’t know what to make of the state’s request to review signatures her office had already verified.
“These are ones that we deemed the petition valid, both in completeness and in their signature matching what we had on file for the voter,” Arrington said. “They said they were investigating … signature petition fraud.”
The state’s elections crime unit has opened more than 40 investigations into paid petition gathers working for the Amendment 4 campaign, according to a letter that Deputy Secretary of State Brad McVay sent to the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections that was shared with the AP.
Judges have tossed out previous criminal cases brought by the controversial Office of Election Crimes and Security.
Meanwhile, a state health care agency launched a new website last week targeting Amendment 4, with a landing page proclaiming that “Florida is Protecting Life” and warning “Don’t let the fearmongers lie to you.”
DeSantis said the page created by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration is being paid through a budget the department has to do public service announcements. He said the page is not political but is giving Floridians “factual information” about the amendment.
“Everything that is put out is factual. It is not electioneering,” DeSantis said at the news conference, adding, “I am glad they are doing it.”
Florida is one of nine states where measures to protect abortion access have qualified to go before voters in 2024.
Florida Republicans have been using various other strategies to thwart the state abortion ballot measure. Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody attempted to use the state Supreme Court to keep abortion off the ballot. Later, abortion rights advocates criticized a financial impact statement meant to be placed on the ballot beside the proposed amendment as an attempt to mislead voters. The state Supreme Court ruled in August to allow the language to remain on the ballot.
Meanwhile, anti-abortion groups and GOP allies across the country are using an array of strategies to counter proposed ballot initiatives aiming to protect reproductive rights. These tactics have included legislative pushes for competing ballot measures that could confuse voters and monthslong delays caused by lawsuits over ballot initiative language.
Nebraskans, for example, are awaiting rulings from the state Supreme Court on three lawsuits aimed at keeping abortion off the ballot. And the Missouri Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Tuesday in an appeal of a lower court ruling that an abortion rights campaign did not meet legal requirements to qualify for the November ballot.
___
Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia, and Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale contributed to this report.
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Florida
Body found floating near Florida bridge ID’ed as Virginia man 3 decades later

“We are happy that we are able to provide the family some answers and some closure as to what happened with their loved one,” Michael Walek, deputy chief for Clearwater police, said in a statement.
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Here’s how to take action when a person goes missing.
After being called “Pinellas County John Doe 1993” for the past 31 years, a man whose body was found floating near a bridge in Florida has been identified, police said.
The Clearwater Police Department announced on Monday, June 2, that the deceased man who was discovered near the Clearwater Pass bridge on Nov. 29, 1993, is Edman Eric Gleed, who was 84 at the time of his death and reported missing by his son in Fairfax County, Virginia.
When Gleed’s body was initially found near the east side of the bridge leading to Sand Key, a neatly folded pile of clothing was discovered on the shoreline near a lifeguard stand on Clearwater Beach, police said, adding that an ID was not found on the clothing or with the body.
At the time, an autopsy of Gleed’s body was inconclusive; thus, the manner and cause of death weren’t determined, but foul play was not suspected, police said. The medical examiner’s office did find that the victim was a white male between the ages of 60 and 80, 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed 118 pounds, with short gray hair and blue eyes, according to the department.
How was Edman Gleed identified?
To identify the remains, more than three decades later, Clearwater police detectives worked with the medical examiner’s office and Moxxy Forensic Investigations, a nonprofit that provides investigative genetic genealogy services to law enforcement. Additional samples of Gleed’s DNA were submitted for testing in concert with investigative genetic genealogy, police said.
Kaycee Connelly, the Moxxy team lead for the case, said they found DNA matches that were “either living in or recent immigrants from England, which was quite unexpected for a person found in Pinellas County, Florida.”
“Our team of volunteer genealogists uncovered numerous ancestors from various parts of England, stretching back to the mid-1700s, to connect the DNA matches with one another,” Connelly said. “Because of recent immigration and the estimated age range of the man at the time of his death, we were looking for very distant connections.”
The Moxxy team did eventually find a possible identity for the man, but to confirm, they found his next of kin, who happened to be his son, and collected a buccal swab, police said. The swab was compared to the profile of the unidentified man, which determined the two had a parent-child relationship, according to the department.
‘We are happy that we are able to provide the family some answers’
Once the relationship was established, police officially identified the body as belonging to Gleed. Police spoke with the man’s son, who is 94 and lives in North Carolina, on Monday, June 2.
“We are happy that we are able to provide the family some answers and some closure as to what happened with their loved one,” Michael Walek, deputy chief for Clearwater police, said in a statement.
Ed Adams, the Moxxy team assistant for the case, said this situation has “been close to the hearts of everyone on the team.”
“We are all honored to have played a part in returning Edman Gleed to his family,” Adams added.
Florida
Widespread steady rain to dominate morning commute in South Florida

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Conditions are favorable for flooding to occur until 8 a.m., on Wednesday in South Florida.
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Widespread steady rain is possible during the morning commute in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
“When it is raining really hard, and it is like pouring, we have to be stuck in the rain waiting for the bus,” Sarah Paguada, of Miami, said.
The rain will gradually diminish due to a plume of Saharan Dust that will be filtering in from the south.
The highs will moderately warm into the mid-80s on Wednesday and the 90s are set to return Friday.
CLICK HERE for the latest updates from Local 10’s Weather Authority.
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Florida
Florida Gators baseball coach, AD issue apology after getting called out

The NCAA Baseball Tournament got underway this past weekend with regional play, including the Florida Gators playing in the Conway Regional at Coastal Carolina University.
Tempers were flaring at Coastal Carolina on Sunday after Florida’s game against East Carolina was delayed in order to get the field ready. Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan was caught on camera yelling profanities at tournament officials and members of Coastal Carolina’s staff.
Needless to say, Coastal Carolina coach Kevin Schnall did not appreciate the outburst by O’Sullivan.
“I believe in standing up for what’s right, and what transpired this morning, on our field, another coach disrespected our Associate AD, who works as hard as anybody in our entire program. He disrespected our field crew, who are the salt of the Earth. These guys would do anything for our program,” Schnall said.
“It’s not OK. And this needs to be brought up. Absolutely disrespectful. As a coach it’s our job to mentor young kids. And the way he treated the two site reps, the way he treated our Associate AD, the way he treated our field crew, was absolutely unacceptable.”
As you can see, Kevin Schnall was not happy with what transpired, and he didn’t stop there.
“This is a national champion coach who thinks he can come in here and try to bully people around. Disappointed,” Schnall said. “Disappointed in somebody that a lot of coaches look up to.
“For him to act that way, really disappointed. He disrespected a Hall of Fame coach who’s the site rep here.”
The comments from Schnall came after his Coastal Carolina team beat ECU in the regional final to advance to the super regionals this coming weekend.
The Chanticleers will face Auburn in a best-of-three series this weekend, with the winner advancing to the College World Series.
As for Kevin O’Sullivan, he did issue an apology for his actions on Monday.
“Prior to yesterday’s NCAA Tournament game against East Carolina, I let my emotions get the best of me and channeled that energy in a way I should not have. I want to sincerely apologize for my actions and behavior to the entire NCAA Regional field of Coastal Carolina, East Carolina and Fairfield — the NCAA, including site representatives Rick French and Mark Scalf — as well as all of Gator Nation,” O’Sullivan said.
“I did not represent the University of Florida to the appropriate standard yesterday and take full responsibility for that, and promise to learn from this experience and be better moving forward.
“I appreciate all of the tireless efforts on behalf of Coastal Carolina, their tournament director Bryan Stiles, and the NCAA over the course of NCAA Regionals, and am sorry for allowing this instance to get in the way of an otherwise great weekend of postseason baseball.”
Florida Athletics Director Scott Stricklin also issued a statement about the incident.
“This afternoon I met with Kevin O’Sullivan and told him that his actions prior to yesterday’s NCAA Tournament game fell well short of expectations of how Gators treat people,” Stricklin said. “One of our department’s core values is respect, and coach O’Sullivan’s unacceptable actions failed to demonstrate that.
“On behalf of Florida Athletics, I want to personally apologize to everyone impacted — including NCAA representatives, Coastal Carolina and their staff, East Carolina and their team — as well as to Gator Nation.”
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