Southeast
DAVID MARCUS: The 'experts' at FEMA have failed. Time to put locals in charge
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In Western North Carolina, the frustration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has grown to a fever pitch, with locals left in desperate, dire straits, and they aren’t the only ones complaining about it.
President Donald Trump has called out the agency’s leadership and even gone so far as suggesting that it ought to no longer exist, presumably meaning it should be replaced with some kind of direct federal government aid.
Sunday, on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Vice President JD Vance told host Margaret Brennan, when asked about the need for FEMA’s expertise, that it “has often been a disaster” adding that the agency doesn’t work “well enough with state and local officials to get resources to the people who need it.”
This was the major complaint I got from almost everyone in the Asheville area, as Michael, in his 60s who lives just outside of town, put it, “they just can’t get what we need, where we need it.”
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The whole situation is reminiscent of a World War II saying: some generals know how to read the map, and others know how to read the ground. Those are two very different sets of skills.
When the map readers at HQ like Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery looked at their giant, flat display of France after D-Day, they saw a straight-line east to Germany. But when the guys on the ground, like Gen. Maurice Rose got there, thousands of hedgerows that weren’t on the map stood in the way, even of most tanks.
President Donald Trump, with First Lady Melania Trump (L), visits a neighborhood affected by Hurricane Helene in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on January 24, 2025. (Mandel NGAN / AFP)
Rose and others in the tank corps had to use reconnaissance to find new roads and paths. Often this required relying on the local expertise of those they had just liberated from the Nazis.
Thankfully, these men on the ground were given a lot of latitude in finding a way for American Sherman and Stuart tanks to storm to the Rhine.
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Something similar happened in North Carolina, where FEMA seemed completely incapable of dealing with the unique and dangerous mountainous terrain that many local officials know like the back of their hand. Ignoring the locals led to frequent delays and foul-ups.
Likewise, in Florida we saw the horrible situation in which FEMA was accused of skipping houses with Trump signs owing to absurd and bigoted guidance from “experts” in Washington, D.C.
In those situations, one phone call to a local sheriff or police chief and the agency could have known that, unless it was some kind of militia compound, the federal officers had nothing to fear from the locals.
Back in North Carolina, where FEMA has struggled to provide housing, while kicking people out of hotels in the middle of the winter, it is often the locals who are doing the heavy lifting, including on important efforts to winterize campers.
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Incredibly, in her interview with Vance, Brennan insisted that FEMA had special expertise — much like Monty, I suppose — asking, a bit derisively, if “the Mississippis, The Kentuckys, the Alamabas would be able to do this for themselves without federal help.”
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I don’t know if host Margaret Brennan has ever been to the south, but along with the charming accents, they’ve got a lot a trucks down there, and guys who know how to build things, even if they don’t have a Ph.D. in emergency management from The New School, or wherever.
FEMA is a quintessential example of exactly what President Donald Trump was elected to do, to take power out of the hands of federal bureaucrats who know nothing of life outside of a 25-mile radius of the Washington Monument and give it back to “We thePeople.”
From COVID, to inflation, to the border and now to FEMA, the expert class in D.C., born of once fine institutions that are all now captured by progressive ideology, have failed the American people again, and again, and again.
Major General Dwight Eisenhower (1890 – 1969), commander of the American Forces in the European theatre of war, at the time of his promotion, by President Roosevelt, to Lieutenant General on July 9, 1942. (Getty Images)
We all know how WWII ended, and it ended that way in large part owing to the fact that while Adolf Hitler stared at a map and demanded his generals do impossible things, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower allowed his generals like Rose, and George Patton, to lead from the ground.
This might all just come down to a fundamental difference in how liberals and conservatives view the American people, the former almost as children who must have constant guidance, and the latter as fully functioning adults, who just need some help.
For now, and for the foreseeable future, the good people of North Carolina will suffer the consequences of FEMA’s top-down dysfunctionality, but Donald Trump and JD Vance have an opportunity to ensure that the next time this happens, it is the people on the ground, not the experts reading maps, who are in charge.
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Two teen boys in Florida are accused of fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl and setting her on fire along a wooded walking trail last week in what authorities are calling a “horrific” killing.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson told reporters Thursday that the body has been identified as Danika Troy. He said Danika’s mother reported her as a runaway on Monday.
“Unbeknownst to the mother, Danika was murdered the previous night,” Johnson said.
A passerby discovered Danika’s body along a wooded area off Kimberly Road in Pace, a town about 16 miles northeast of Pensacola, and called 911, Johnson said.
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Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson told reporters that the suspects were supposedly friends with the victim from school. He said investigators were still working to determine a motive. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Investigators quickly identified the suspects as 14-year-old Kimahri Blevins and 16-year-old Gabriel Williams and took them into custody.
“This is where it gets really horrific,” Johnson said.
Kimahri Blevins, 14, is facing premeditated first-degree murder charges. Authorities are seeking to charge him as an adult. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Williams allegedly stole his mother’s handgun and shot Danika.
“It’s bad enough you kill a 14-year-old. You’re 14. You’re 16,” Johnson said. “Shoot her multiple times, and then they set her on fire.”
Gabriel Williams, 16, is facing premeditated first-degree murder charges. Authorities are seeking to charge him as an adult. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Johnson said investigators are still working to determine a motive.
“They have been interviewed, but the motive that they’re giving doesn’t fit the forensics or any facts of the case, so we don’t have a legit motive,” he told reporters.
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Blevins and Williams supposedly knew the victim from school, according to Johnson. He believed the two teens have had previous “run-ins” with law enforcement, though he could not immediately say if they had earlier arrests.
Blevins and Williams are being held at the Department of Juvenile Justice on premeditated first-degree murder charges.
“You don’t want to go out and see a burnt child with bullet holes,” Johnson said. “That’s not something you sign up for.”
Johnson said no parents have been charged at this time, though investigators are “looking into it.”
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The sheriff’s office is working with the State Attorney to charge both teens as adults.
“If you do an adult crime, you gotta do adult time,” Johnson said.
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Southeast
Florida college student who allegedly shipped 1,500 rounds of ammo to dorm had AR-15 under bed
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A Florida college student who allegedly ordered 1,500 rounds of ammunition to his dorm room also had a semi-automatic rifle under his bed, according to authorities.
Constantine Demetriades, a 21-year-old senior at Rollins College, was arrested by Winter Park police on Wednesday and charged with possession of a weapon on school property after the ammunition order was reported to police by the school’s assistant campus safety director, according to an arrest affidavit, WKMG reported.
After the purchase was flagged, the assistant safety director searched Demetriades’ dorm and allegedly discovered an unloaded AR-15 under his bed inside an unsecured black carrying case with one loaded magazine and five empty magazines, as well as a tactical vest, knives, a black security vest and ear protection.
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Constantine Demetriades, 21, was charged with possession of a weapon on school property. (Winter Park Police Department)
Demetriades, who said he likes to shoot as a hobby, told police he had the rifle on school property because he had recently returned from a Thanksgiving trip to New Jersey, where he said the guns were purchased and registered legally, according to the affidavit.
He said he did not have ill intentions and that he usually stores the firearm at a friend’s home off school property, the affidavit stated. He also said he only brought the gun to campus on one other occasion.
Constantine Demetriades said he did not have ill intentions. (Getty Images)
While Florida allows open carry, Rollins College bans all weapons on campus. Demetriades allegedly said he is aware that weapons are not allowed on campus and that his New Jersey concealed carry permit does not apply in Florida.
The college said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital that he is banned from campus until the situation is resolved, adding that an internal investigation has been opened.
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While Florida allows open carry, Rollins College bans all weapons on campus. (Getty Images)
“On Wednesday, the College received a report indicating a violation of our weapons policy,” Rollins College said in a statement. “After receiving this information, we immediately initiated an investigation.”
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“We quickly identified and contacted the student, who cooperated fully with College officials and local law enforcement as we investigated the matter further,” the statement continued. “The student was arrested and is not permitted to be on campus while the College proceeds with the student conduct process.”
The school said Demetriades was additionally charged with a violation of the college’s weapons policy, and will go through the on-campus conduct process.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., briefly sparred with “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl over what she claimed was “accusatory” behavior from the journalist.
Greene gave her first sit-down interview with Stahl since announcing her resignation from Congress last month. During the segment, Stahl and Greene spoke about the Georgia lawmaker’s apology for taking part in “toxic politics.”
“I would like to say humbly, I‘m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics,” Greene told CNN in November. “It’s very bad for our country, and it’s been something I’ve thought about a lot, especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated, is that we, I’m only responsible for myself and my own words and actions, and I am committed, and I’ve been working on this a lot lately to put down the knives in politics.”
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., gave her first sit-down interview with “60 Minutes” since announcing her resignation. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“But you contributed to that,” Stahl asked Greene Sunday. “You. You, you were out there pounding, insulting people.”
Greene pushed back, claiming that Stahl had contributed to toxic politics herself.
“You’re accusatory, just like you did just then,” Greene said.
“I know you’re accusing me, but I’m smiling,” Stahl responded.
“You’re accusing me,” Greene said. “But we don’t have to accuse one another.”
The two continued to go back and forth, with Greene repeatedly insisting that Stahl should also acknowledge her own contribution to toxic politics.
“I don’t insult people,” Stahl said.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., previously apologized for her role in “toxic” politics. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
“You just, you do in the way you question,” Greene said. “And you are, you’re accusing me right now.”
Fox News Digital reached out to CBS News for comment.
Greene previously sat down with Stahl in April 2023, when the two had a fiery exchange over the congresswoman’s claim that Democrats are the “party of pedophiles.”
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“They are not pedophiles. Why would you say that?” Stahl exclaimed.
“Democrats support — even Joe Biden, the president himself — supports children being sexualized and having transgender surgeries. Sexualizing children is what pedophiles do to children,” Greene said.
“Wow,” Stahl reacted.
“60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl had a tense exchange with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., over her claim that Democrats were the “party of pedophiles” during an April 2023 interview. (Screenshots/CBS News)
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Greene shocked the political landscape last month when she revealed she would leave Congress Jan. 5. Many believe her abrupt exit was the result of her soured relationship with President Donald Trump.
Fox News’ Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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