A traffic stop by Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies in Polk City resulted in the recovery of two missing and endangered children from St. Petersburg on Saturday, February 1. Deputies conducted the stop at 5:20 p.m. on a red 2003 Mercury Mountaineer at 1060 Commonwealth Avenue. The driver was identifiedContinue Reading
Southwest Airlines will introduce a new nonstop route between Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) on October 2, 2025. The service will operate six days a week, excluding Saturdays. The outbound flight will depart Jacksonville at 11:55 a.m., arriving in Austin at 12:35 p.m. The return flightContinue Reading
Governor Ron DeSantis has announced the 2025-26 Focus on Fiscal Responsibility Budget, a $14.8 billion investment aimed at improving Florida’s highways, bridges, spaceports, seaports, and aviation infrastructure. The budget includes a $1.7 billion acceleration of congestion relief projects on Interstate-4 and a commitment to reducing federal oversight in state-led infrastructureContinue Reading
A federal judge has sentenced Frank Anthony Acanda, 27, of Jacksonville, to one year and one day in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Acanda was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims he and his co-defendant, Jonathan Benavide Hidalgo, 27, defrauded. According to court documents, Acanda, Hidalgo,Continue Reading
A South Florida federal judge sentenced Sutanga Rex Cypress, 43, a member of the Miccosukee Tribe, to nearly 17 years in federal prison for shooting and seriously injuring an unarmed man on the reservation. During a heated argument, Cypress pulled out a Sig Sauer firearm and threatened the victim, whoContinue Reading
The Justice Department announced on February 6 that authorities in the Dominican Republic seized a Dassault Falcon 2000EX aircraft used by Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), the sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. The seizure was carried out at the request of the U.S. government for violations ofContinue Reading
A West Palm Beach federal judge has sentenced 38-year-old Texas man James William Latta to 20 years in prison followed by 25 years supervised release for advertising and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) through social media. During the summer of 2024, Latta used a social networking application to communicateContinue Reading
United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg has announced the filing of a criminal complaint against 51-year-old Maria Lopez-Vega, a Mexican national, for allegedly being paid to transport undocumented aliens across the United States. If convicted, Lopez-Vega faces up to 10 years in federal prison. The complaint details that on FebruaryContinue Reading
A joint investigation between the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office (SJSO) and Flagler County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) has led to the arrest of James Shepard, 50, in connection with a series of home appliance thefts from construction sites in St. Johns and Flagler counties. On January 20, 2025, SJSO PropertyContinue Reading
The Daytona Beach Police Department is offering a $1,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of suspects involved in an armed robbery at the Bethune Village Market on January 29, 2025. The robbery occurred at the store located at 835 Mary McLeod Bethune Blvd. The suspects areContinue Reading