TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge slammed Florida on Thursday for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems, and said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. "We have been the laughing-stock of the world, election after election, and...
Florida Is Again at the Center of an Election Controversy
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida is once again at the center of election controversy, but this year there are no hanging chads or butterfly ballots like in 2000. And no angry mobs in suits — at least not yet. The deeply purple state will learn Saturday whether there will be...
Ballot Measures: Florida OK’s Restoring Felons’ Voting Rights
NEW YORK — Potentially altering the election landscape in a key swing state, Florida voters Tuesday approved a ballot measure that will enable more than 1 million ex-felons to regain their voting rights. Floridians also approved a measure aimed at phasing out greyhound racing in the state, the last stronghold...
Dems Flip 2 GOP Seats in Early Returns for House Battle
WASHINGTON — The Democrats flipped their first two Republican-held House seats Tuesday in Florida and Virginia but fell short in a closely watched race in Kentucky as they worked to wrest control of the chamber from the GOP and confront President Donald Trump. With polls closing across the East, one...
Bomb Suspect Was Cash-Strapped Ex-Stripper Devoted to Trump
WASHINGTON — Cesar Sayoc is an amateur body builder and former stripper, a loner with a long arrest record who showed little interest in politics until Donald Trump came along. On Friday, he was identified by authorities as the Florida man who put pipe bombs in small manila envelopes, affixed...
What Is Known About Mail-Bomb Suspect and Case
WASHINGTON — Federal authorities took a man into custody Friday in Florida in connection with the mail-bomb scare that earlier widened to 12 suspicious packages, the Justice Department said. Law enforcement officers were seen on television examining a white van, its windows covered with an assortment of stickers, in the...
Child of the Storm: Homeless Baby, Family Shelter at Walmart
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Their home full of soggy furniture and mosquitoes, Wilmer Capps was desperate to find shelter for his wife and their son Luke, born just three days after Hurricane Michael ravaged the Florida Panhandle. So Capps, his wife Lorrainda Smith and little Luke settled in for the...
‘Unimaginable Destruction’ as Hurricane Smashes Rows of Houses
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Search-and-rescue teams fanned out across the Florida Panhandle to reach trapped people in the wake of Hurricane Michael Thursday as daylight yielded scenes of rows upon rows of houses smashed to pieces by the third-most powerful hurricane on record to hit the continental U.S. At least...
Supercharged Overnight, Hurricane Michael Menaces Florida
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — Gaining frightening fury overnight, Hurricane Michael closed in Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic winds of 145 mph, the most powerful storm on record ever to menace the stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches. With more than 375,000 people up and...
Ever Bought Groceries Without ID? Trump Says You Can't.
TAMPA, Fla. — President Donald Trump wrongly claimed that shoppers need to show photo identification to buy groceries and accused Democrats of obstructing his agenda and his Supreme Court nominee during a raucous rally aimed at bolstering two Florida Republicans ahead of the state's primary. Trump, addressing thousands of supporters...