Tag: Florida

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel Responds To Marco Rubio’s

Following Sen. Rubio’s dismissal of the Sun-Sentinel’s editorial at this week’s Republican debate, the newspaper’s editorial board responded to Rubio’s comments.

During the debate, when former Gov. Jeb Bush similarly underscored Rubio’s terrible attendance record, the senator said Bush was simply trying to score political points. As for the Sun Sentinel, he said we showed a liberal bias.

For the record, we’d note that we endorsed Rubio for the Senate in 2010, and Mitt Romney for president in 2012, because we were frustrated by the pace of hope and change in Washington, and they both promised to work hard to make a difference.

But ever since he got to Washington, it seems Rubio has been running for higher office.

If Rubio wants to be president, he should go for it, give it all he’s got, full steam ahead. But the demands of the presidential campaign have proven too great for him to do his day job.

(tipped by TRR reader Tony)

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Florida Man Charged With Murdering Girlfriend For Mentioning Ex-Husband’s Name During Sex

Now this is some really crazy stuff.

A man named Fidel Lopez of Sunrise, Florida, has been charged with the first-degree murder of his girlfriend.

Apparently, he became enraged that she said her ex-husband’s name during sex. In a tequila-fueled attack, he apparently beat her and – warning here – disemboweled her.

Via the Sun-Sentinel:

Sunrise police found Lopez crying for help next to Nemeth’s naked body on the floor of the bathroom with blood and body tissue around the apartment that Nemeth, 31, and Lopez, 24, had shared for about one week in the 1600 block of Northwest 128th Drive, the report stated.

The bathroom door was ripped off its hinges and there was blood and tissue in the bathroom, a bedroom closet, and smeared on walls and doors. There were several holes in the walls and a shattered sliding glass door, police said.

Detectives said they found a half empty bottle of 1800 Tequila and cut limes in the kitchen and signs of a physical struggle and foul play. Two people in a neighboring apartment reported hearing a man’s voice yelling and lots of loud noises that lasted for about two hours, police said.

During questioning Sunday morning Lopez initially told investigators that he and Nemeth had been having rough sex and that she went into the bathroom, vomited and collapsed, the arrest report said.

Further questioning revealed a different story. Lopez told detectives he became a “monster” when Nemeth called out her ex-husband’s name two times while they were having sex. He said hearing someone else’s name during sex upset and enraged him, investigators said.

Lopez said he left Nemeth in the closet where they were having sex and started breaking things throughout the apartment, smashing the rear sliding glass door and punching holes in the walls, police said.

He went back to the closet where Nemeth was lying unconscious and he started inserting a beer bottle, a flat iron for hair, and both fists inside of her, investigators said. Lopez said he inserted his arm up to his elbow and ripped out part of her intestines, detectives said. He carried her into the bathroom and tried to put water on Nemeth’s face, but she did not wake up.

Lopez told police he then washed the blood off his hands in the bathroom sink, went out on the porch to smoke a cigarette and then started to panic. After further efforts to clean the apartment, Lopez told police he checked on Nemeth in the bathroom, found that she wasn’t breathing and called 911, according to the arrest report.

Lopez was arrested at 2 p.m. Sunday and charged with first-degree murder, records show. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement shows only one other arrest for disorderly intoxication in 2014 on Lopez’s record.

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Florida State Senate Blocks Passage Of Anti-Gay Adoption Bill

Equality Florida reports that the Florida state Senate has blocked attempts to pass anti-gay adoption legislation:

In a stunning turnaround late this afternoon, the Florida Senate blocked efforts to allow Indiana-style discrimination in adoption. In doing so they derailed an effort that originated in the House of Representatives to reintroduce an anti-gay adoption law in Florida.

Former Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Destin, was an eloquent opponent, stating “We don’t need to turn back the social clock in this state to 1977,” the year Florida banned gay and lesbian people from adopting children.

“We applaud Senator Gaetz for rallying his colleagues to stop this disastrous effort to put discrimination back into Florida law.” said Nadine Smith, CEO of Equality Florida. “Now is not the time for Florida to look back to its ugly past. It is time to secure full equality and chart a fair and inclusive path for our state.”

The bill has one more reading in the state Senate. Having already passed in the state House, it would head to the Governor’s desk if it passes on the next reading.

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Florida: Pastor Baits Bakery With Anti-Gay Cake Order

Anti-gay Pastor Joshua Feuerstein decided to see if he could get an LGBT-friendly bakery (who advertised that they were LGBT-friendly) to make a cake with an anti-gay message: “We Do Not Support Gay Marriage.”

Feuerstein, recording on video, called Cut The Cake Bakery in Florida and proceeded to order his “hate cake.” The bakery owner who answered the phone denied the request, and hung up.

This is where it gets ugly.

Via Mediaite:

Feuerstein encouraged viewers to call the bakery and and help “expose the hypocrisy” they’re supposedly engaging in. Well, in a parallel of what happened to Memories Pizza in Indiana, Cut the Cake ended up receiving quite a lot of angry messages, including death threats.

Sharon Haller, who Feuerstein spoke to on the phone, said, “We started getting some hundreds of phone calls and making very nasty and negative gestures towards our business, towards us.”

Feuerstein took down the video at their request, but Cut the Cake posted it online so people could see it, along with a GoFundMe page that has raised, as of this posting, over $2000.

First of all, Florida has clear laws about recording phone calls. All parties have to be informed the call is being “intercepted” or recorded. Feuerstein did not inform the woman on the other end of the line. So, Feuerstein gets in some serious trouble here. The recording would be inadmissible in court since it was illegally done.

Second, there is a difference between making a cake for a loving celebration and making a cake with negative hate speech. And we all know it.

Third, the woman on the phone didn’t deny his order based on “religious beliefs.” She said she wouldn’t make it, and hung up. If she denies all “hate speech” cake orders, then she isn’t discriminating.

And now the baker is getting DEATH THREATS for not baking a hate speech cake? Seriously?

This is just a stunt. Plain and simple. Colorado just ruled a bakery there was not guilty of anything by denying a similarly negative messaged cake.

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Poll Shows 61% of Floridians Either Support Or Are Neutral On Same-Sex Marriage

A new poll shows that 61% of Floridians either support same-sex marriage or feel neutral on the subject. A minority of 37% feel the legalization of same-sex marriage is a bad thing.

The poll also shows that GOP Gov. Rick Scott’s approval numbers are upside down with 50% disapproving of the job he’s doing compared to 41% approving.

Read more at Sunshine State News.

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Jon Stewart Skewers Florida Same-Sex Marriage Haters

Now that same-sex marriage IS the law of the land in Florida, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show skewers those in the Sunshine State who stood in the way of marriage equality.

For example, regarding the county clerks who decided to cancel ALL courthouse weddings rather that be forced to marry same-sex couples, Stewart says this: “Yes we don’t want to cause ‘discriminations’ against county court employees who don’t feel like following the law. These people didn’t choose to be county clerks. They were born that way.”

As always, Stewart is as funny as he is on point. Check it out below:

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Amazing Night In Florida As Same-Sex Marriage Begins

What a gorgeous night for marriage in Florida last evening as marriage equality finally came to the Sunshine State.

Lots of joy being shared by Equality Florida on Twitter, here’s just a few. Plus, a video from the first ceremonies to take place in Broward County compiled by the Miami Herald.

Big props to Joe Jervis for following the celebrations over JoeMyGod.

Midnight mass marriage ceremony in Palm Beach County
Via Twitter. Click to enlarge.

First same-sex marriages begin in Central Florida
Via Twitter.

And then there was the midnight wedding of Aaron Huntsman & William Lee Jones, who were the plaintiffs in the Monroe County/Key West lawsuit.

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Jeb Bush Shares His Thoughts As Same-Sex Marriage Comes To Florida

While he weigh his options for a 2016 presidential run, former governor of Florida Jeb Bush tells the Miami Herald, on the day that marriage equality comes to the state, that same-sex marriage should have been a “local decision:”

“It ought be a local decision. I mean, a state decision,” the former governor said Sunday in a brief interview. “The state decided. The people of the state decided. But it’s been overturned by the courts, I guess.”

UPDATE: Speaking to the New York Times today, Bush elaborated further regarding his thoughts on same-sex marriage in Florida:

“We live in a democracy, and regardless of our disagreements, we have to respect the rule of law,” he said. “I hope that we can show respect for the good people on all sides of the gay and lesbian marriage issue — including couples making lifetime commitments to each other who are seeking greater legal protections and those of us who believe marriage is a sacrament and want to safeguard religious liberty.”

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First Same-Sex Marriages In Florida!

From the Twitter account of Ari Odzer, reporter for NBC6 in Miami:

(h/t JMG)