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Florida has hired Louisiana Tech coach Michael White to replace recently departed Billy Donovan. The university announced the hiring Thursday evening . MORE: Top UF recruit to ask for release | Florida to play Michigan State | Highest-paid coaches “I have an incredible amount of respect for the University of Florida, and I am so excited to be a Gator,” White said in a statement. “Not only is Florida home for me, but the tradition and success that the Gators have built make this an incredible opportunity....

The Removing Memorializations of the Confederate States of America bill was written by Democratic state Senator Lauren Book and was officially introduced to the Senate earlier this month. The bill proposes the removal of three days formally recognized by the state legislature as holidays. Two of these holidays are birthdays, Robert E. Lee Day on January 19 and Jefferson Davis Day on June 3. The other day that the bill aims to remove is Confederate Memorial Day on April 26....

Supporters and sponsors said the bill is written to stop teachers from teaching kindergarteners through third graders about sexual orientation or gender identity. However, it has gained national attention for its broad language that critics said could lead to students being punished for mentioning anything related to those topics in class, even if it’s not related to what is being taught. The bill passed the state House last month and saw over a dozen amendments fail to be added during its time in the Legislature, with some designed to lessen the impact of the bill and some to make the rules stricter....

Glenn Antonietti, 57, and his niece, Lisa Antonietti, 33, of Hudson, Florida, have been arrested following an incident on Ridge Road in Port Richey on August 19. According to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, after the pair had stopped to check on the driver, Lisa Antonietti allegedly picked up the victim’s bag containing about 60 Xanax pills and started to walk away, reports Patch. When the driver confronted her, she allegedly choked him from behind....

Crawford Lee Croxton, 36, was arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday by deputies from the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office after allegedly hiding a phone with the camera activated “beneath and behind” the toilet around August 2, according to a release posted online this week. Investigators said they were alerted to the covert device after it was found by a store employee. Footage on the phone showed the suspect positioning the camera several times and moving items around the restroom in an attempt to conceal the camera....

Warren Brown, 57, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of 43 year old Sophie Solis, the St. Petersburg Police Department said. Brown was arrested on Saturday after concerned friends found Solis’s body in the trunk of Brown’s car in the driveway of their home in Organdy Drive in St. Petersburg, Florida. Police said she had been stabbed and that detectives also found photos of the couple as well as bloody clothing in the trunk....

“The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office Vice and Narcotics Unit was notified of a possible narcotics dealer who was selling large amounts of fentanyl within Hernando County,” the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post on Monday. According to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, the suspect was identified as 49-year-old Jacob Spinoza, who lived at 6099 Patricia Place in Spring Hill. The sheriff’s office said that he was found to be in possession of 1....

Martinez was allegedly captured on surveillance footage spray-painting swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti on the buildings of Temple Emanu-El and Temple Sinai. Authorities also obtained security camera footage of Martinez at an automated teller machine wearing the same clothing seen in the footage from the synagogues. “The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office takes hate crimes such as these very seriously,” said Colonel Kurt A. Hoffman in a Friday statement. “Our detectives worked tirelessly with help from the community to bring this case to a successful conclusion....

The brief video shows the man withstanding the powerful gales during the hurricane while someone records him. Most prominently, the flag says “F*** Biden” but beneath it, it also reads “and F*** you for voting for him,” in reference to President Joe Biden’s election win. The video, posted on Wednesday by the Twitter page RedHat Pitbull 3, has so far been viewed more than 1.8 million times. The page creator also claimed to be the individual in the video and added in the comments: “I already know I’m an idiot but just felt the need....

Mike St. Lawrence, who spearheads The Saint Lawrence Agency in Altamonte Springs, says that the operation has existed since 1987—charging $19.95 for a digital lifetime plan and $24.95 for a paper version. Thanks to a recent social media sensation, business is on the up. A line of text on St. Lawrence’s retro website references the “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” campaign on Facebook, which spawned a new meme and forced a response from the U....

Joseph Max Fucheck, 58, was arrested last week in Miami and is awaiting arraignment on charges of aggravated assault with a firearm with prejudice and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. On June 14, Fucheck is said to have dropped a flyer for his real estate business into the mailbox of Dwayne Wynn, who had been speaking with a neighbor outside his home. When Wynn retrieved the flyer moments later, Fucheck returned in his SUV and launched into a profanity-laced tirade, insisting that Wynn did not own his home and accusing him of stealing his property by taking the flyer....

Mike Kimmel, who goes by the social media handle Trapper Mike, shared the moment to his TikTok account earlier this week, with the caption: “Thanksgiving in Florida.” In the video, which has racked up more than 2.6 million views in four days, Kimmel’s mother is seen using her whole body weight to pull the giant snake out from the back of the parked car. Kimmel comes to her aid by threading the snake, whose head is poking out of one of the rear wheels, back through the wheel....

A joint task force of the FBI, the Southern District of Florida’s U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday that the call-girl website had been taken out of the hands of a South Florida man. The website’s intent wasn’t just geared for those wishing to buy, rent or even casually view women, but it was also a way for escort agencies to advertise themselves and their clients....

The state reported 8,935 new cases and 120 new deaths overnight, along with 409 new hospitalizations, according to WSVN 7 News reporter Brian Entin. The state’s coronavirus website says there are now 232,718 confirmed cases of the virus and 4,009 deaths attributed to its disease, COVID-19. Newsweek reached out to the Florida Department of Health for comment but did not hear back in time for publication. Governor Ron DeSantis is scheduled to give an update on the state’s outbreak at 2:30 p....

Jay Ketcik, Joan Halstead and John Rider, residents of The Villages, Florida, face one count each of voting multiple times in the 2020 general election, WKMG-TV in Orlando reported. This type of voter fraud is classified as a third-degree felony and is punishable by up to five years in prison. Ketcik, 63, allegedly voted by mail in Florida last October and attempted to cast an absentee ballot in his home state of Michigan, according to the court records....

“If you want to come to our state and enjoy freedom, go to a restaurant, go to the beach, go fishing, get a little weird (not too weird…) Then as we say in the deep south, y’all come! But if you’re coming to cause damage and harm, you’ll be held accountable,” he said on Fox News in an interview with Sean Hannity. When asked by Hannity to elaborate on “getting a little weird,” Gaetz said: “Maybe a bit of body paint here and there, maybe throw some beads but don’t hurt anybody....

Officials say the proof was a photo they found in which men working for the firm were meeting with Colombian Americans suspected of being involved in the assassination. The Associated Press reported that 26 Colombians have been named suspects in the assassination, and Colombia’s national police chief, Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas, told reporters in Bogota that three Colombians were killed and 18 so far arrested. Antonio “Tony” Intriago, the owner of Miami-based CTU Security, was accused on Wednesday of traveling to Haiti multiple times, hiring more than 20 former Colombian soldiers for the job, and signing a contract of some kind, although further evidence and details are unknown....

A student at Highlands Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida caused the school’s gymnasium to be evacuated after dispersing the spray last week, according to a Friday report in The Gainesville Sun. The boy had taken the pepper spray from the belongings of another student before deciding to help himself to a generous spritz. “Thinking it was body spray, the student who took the canister actually sprayed himself as if he were applying a body fragrance product,” Principal Evan Daniels said to parents in a pre-recorded phone message, according to the outlet....

The state identified over 2 million potentially eligible but unregistered voters, but the Electronics Registration Information Center (ERIC) used did not exclude the thousands of voters whose information is shielded under Florida law, according to Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews. The public records exemption request provided by the Florida Department of State allows those holding certain government jobs classified as “high-risk professional class,” as well as their spouses and family members, to protect their personal information....

Democratic Florida Representative Carlos G. Smith made the remark as part of response slamming a Tuesday Twitter post from Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) indicating that the senator had contacted the administration to request a “swift emergency declaration so that federal assistance can move quickly.” “So that federal assistance can MOVE QUICKLY, Senator @marcorubio??? Puerto Rico still hasn’t received the billions of dollars Congress approved over 700 days ago because of Trump’s hatred for the island,” replied Smith....