Florida

USA: Trump valet charged in classified documents case set again for arraignment after earlier delays

MIAMI (AP) — A valet for Donald Trump accused of helping the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities is due back in a Florida court on Thursday after an earlier appearance was postponed because of a canceled flight.

Walt Nauta, who was charged alongside Trump in June in a 38-count indictment alleging the mishandling of classified documents, is set to be arraigned before a federal magistrate in Miami. That was to have happened twice before already, but he has struggled to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida to represent him.

European telescope launched to hunt for clues to universe’s darkest secrets

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A European space telescope blasted off Saturday on a quest to explore the mysterious and invisible realm known as the dark universe.

SpaceX launched the European Space Agency’s Euclid observatory toward its ultimate destination 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away, the Webb Space Telescope’s neighborhood. It will take a month to get there and another two months before it starts its ambitious six-year survey this fall.

USA: Saturn’s rings are glowing in Webb Space Telescope’s latest cosmic shot

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Saturn has a fresh new look thanks to NASA’s Webb Space Telescope.

The gas giant is dark in the latest photo by Webb, released Friday, but its icy rings are glowing.

Webb snapped the picture in the infrared last weekend. At this wavelength, the planet appears dark because sunlight is absorbed by methane in the atmosphere. But the icy rings remain bright.

Three of Saturn’s many moons also got caught on camera.

USA: DeSantis proposes Disney trial schedule that puts start date in 2025, after elections

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis have asked that a trial involving Disney be postponed until the middle of 2025, well after the GOP presidential nomination race wraps up and voters have picked a winner in the November 2024 general election.

In a Tallahassee federal court filing Tuesday, attorneys for the Florida governor, who is seeking the Republican nomination, and his appointees to a board that governs Disney World outlined a proposed schedule that requests an Aug. 4, 2025, trial date.

USA: Closing arguments set in trial of Florida deputy accused of failing to stop Parkland school shooter

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Closing arguments are scheduled Monday in the trial of a former Florida sheriff’s deputy accused of failing to confront the shooter who murdered 14 students and three staff members at a Parkland high school five years ago.

Prosecutors and the attorney for Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson spent his trial contesting what he heard, saw and knew during the six-minute attack inside a three-story classroom building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.

Heat wave has US South sweltering, from tornado-ravaged West Texas town to Florida beaches

(AP) --- Communities from Houston to New Orleans opened cooling centers to bring relief as steamy hot temperatures settled across a broad swath of the U.S. South on Saturday, and beachgoers fled a water spout that swept ashore on a Florida beach.

Trump will face judge in historic court appearance over charges he hoarded secret documents

MIAMI (AP) — Donald Trump was set to make his first court appearance Tuesday in a historic criminal case accusing the former president of hoarding top secret government documents, boastfully displaying them to visitors and trying to hide them from investigators who demanded them back.

USA: Indictment takeaways: Trump’s alleged schemes and lies to keep secret papers

MIAMI (AP) — The federal indictment against Donald Trump accuses the former president of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate after leaving the White House in 2021, and then scheming and lying to thwart government efforts to recover them.

Justice Department prosecutors brought 37 felony counts against Trump in the indictment, relying upon photographs from Mar-a-Lago, surveillance video, text messages between staffers, Trump’s own words, those of his lawyers, and other evidence.

USA Prosecutor: Deputy could have stopped Parkland school shooting but chose to take cover

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff’s deputy at the scene of the Parkland school shooting is on trial over whether he failed to take action and prevent the deaths of six of the 17 people killed in the 2018 massacre.

In opening statements Wednesday, a prosecutor told the jury that Scot Peterson, a former Broward County Deputy, took cover instead of charging inside a building to confront shooter Nikolas Cruz as he carried out his six-minute attack.

USA: White woman who fatally shot Black neighbor is arrested in Florida

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her neighbor last week in the violent culmination of what the sheriff described as a 2½-year feud was arrested Tuesday, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.

Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, who is white, was arrested on charges of manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault in the death of Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four, Sheriff Billy Woods said in a statement.

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