Jacksonville's Morning News Friday, April 18: Sorrow at FSU
LISTEN: Alexus Cleavenger reports from the FSU campus, where a memorial is growing.
Three Big Things to Know:
Investigators say the son of a sheriff's deputy opened fire with his mother's former service weapon. Officers who arrived almost immediately shot and wounded the shooter who is believed to be a Florida State student.
Hope Florida is making changes to restore confidence in the agency. That's what Hope Florida Foundation President Joshua Hay said yesterday after what he called an eventful week. Lawmakers have criticized the organization for its lack of transparency. Hay says lessons were learned, and it's time we turned things around at the foundation.
A federal appeals court says it is 'shocking' that The Trump administration claims it can't do anything to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison and return him to the U.S. A three-judge panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday unanimously refused to suspend a judge's decision to order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her instruction to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return.
SEMINOLE STRONG: Campus community rallies following deadly shooting.
Posted by Rich Jones on Friday, April 18, 2025
Former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry's son is a sophomore at FSU, and was on campus at the time of the shooting. Curry says Boyd is safe, and planning to come home to Jacksonville for Easter weekend.
LISTEN: Former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry
First Coast Crime Stoppers is hosting a digital news conference on Saturday, May 3, to draw attention to a cold case. Julia Vegas was killed in Springfield in 1999, and her daughters, who now live in Chicago, are seeking closure. Crime Stoppers has a reward of up to $3,000 for information that leads to an arrest.
LISTEN: Chase Robinson, First Coast Crime Stoppers Executive Director
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Miami Herald
15 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Buffalo Wild Wings worker made high schooler ‘prove' she's a girl, activists say
An 18-year-old high schooler was forced by a Buffalo Wild Wings worker to 'prove' she is a girl inside the women's restroom of the Minnesota restaurant, according to a non-profit. Gender Justice, a nonprofit organization that focuses on gender equity law, has now filed a discrimination charge with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights on behalf of Gerika Mudra. 'What happened to Gerika Mudra was not just wrong, it was unlawful,' Sara Jan Baldwin, senior staff attorney at Gender Justice, said in a statement. Mudra was at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Owatonna on Easter when she was followed into the restroom by a server, according to Gender Justice. The employee banged on her stall door and told Mudra she had to 'prove' she was a girl. The nonprofit said the worker blocked the exit and made Mudra unzip her hoodie to show she had breasts. Mudra complied in an encounter that left her mortified. Mudra is not transgender but said the incident is not the first encounter she has had over her gender. This one, however, was the worst, she said. 'She made me feel very uncomfortable,' Mudra said. 'After that, I just don't like going in public bathrooms. I just hold it in.' McClatchy News reached out to Buffalo Wild Wings on Aug. 13 and was awaiting a response. Shauna Otterness, Mudra's stepmother, said in a news release she believes her stepdaughter was 'targeted because of how she looks.' But in Minnesota, it is illegal for public accomodations to discriminate on the basis of 'gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, sex, or race.' Megan Peterson, executive director at Gender Justice, said the incident involving Mudra is 'nothing new.' 'And yet, in our current climate we have to ask: What if Gerika had been a trans person?' Peterson said. 'Would this story have ended differently? That's the terrifying reality too many trans people live with every day.' Gender Justice said Mudra's experience from Buffalo Wild Wings is one that transgender and gender-nonconforming people deal with often. 'I want people to know they're not alone. They're not the only people this happens to,' Mudra said. 'It's OK to stick up for yourselves and be who you are.
Business Insider
a day ago
- Business Insider
Ukraine studied drug cartels to learn how to sneak drones into Russia for its 'Operation Spiderweb' attack
The architects behind Ukraine's audacious "Operation Spiderweb" attack studied drug cartels to plan how to smuggle drones into Russia, Kyiv's security service chief said. Vasyl Malyuk, head of Ukraine's internal security service and widely hailed as a driving force in the June attack, said in an interview aired on Tuesday that his team leveraged its experience battling international crime for the complex strike. "Operation Spiderweb" involved Ukraine sneaking hundreds of military quadcopters deep behind Russian lines, transporting the drones via wooden house-like structures mounted on trucks. These trucks were brought to four airbases, where the drones were then launched to wreak destruction on strategic bombers and early warning and control planes there. "Speaking of logistics," Malyuk told Ukrainian TV channel My-Ukrainia, "I should note that we drew on our experience in fighting transnational crime, when we studied in detail how international drug cartels secretly deliver various prohibited substances to different corners of the world without detection by customs and border authorities." The security service head alluded to an earlier covert attack that Ukraine carried out in October 2022, when its forces severely damaged a Russian-controlled bridge in Crimea with a truck filled with explosives. "If you read between the lines and look at it professionally, I think many have noticed certain parallels between the first strike on the Crimea bridge," Malyuk said. He said that in both situations, Ukraine didn't employ smugglers but relied on customs officials in Russia. "Who are, by their nature, very corrupt," Malyuk said. "At a certain stage, they actually played to our advantage in delivering the cabins I mentioned." A fake company with drivers in the dark Malyuk said that Ukraine, through its agents in Russia, created a logistics company that purchased five vehicles and rented warehouse space for the operation. One of these warehouses was even in the same city block as Russia's Federal Security Service headquarters in the Chelyabinsk region, the security service chief said. Malyuk added that the shell logistics company hired Russian citizens as truck drivers, sending them on multiple regular delivery jobs to avoid suspicion before springing the attack. The security service chief said these drivers were only told to deliver the cabins near the airbases, whereupon a customer was meant to arrive and pay for them. The drivers themselves were left in the dark, Malyuk added. The security chief said that when one of the drivers inadvertently saw the drones inside one cabin, Ukrainian agents told him the systems were hunting tools for observing animals. "In reality, they committed no illegal acts, and there was no intent in their actions," Malyuk said. The SBU chief also said that his team wanted to launch the attack in May but hit several delays, including the drivers getting drunk during the Easter holiday season. According to Malyuk, each truck-mounted cabin included solar panels and a battery to keep the drones charged and ready for deployment in cold weather; the quadcopters were launched in temperatures as low as 104 degrees Fahrenheit. "But at the same time, it created additional difficulties in bringing these cabins into the territory of the Russian Federation, because these types of goods simply can't be taken there, since Russia is under sanctions," Malyuk. The security service chief declined to share further details about the smuggling process, but said his team went "through seven circles of hell." He added that Ukraine had designed attack drones specifically for "Operation Spiderweb" and that each could carry a payload of 1.6 kg. Ukrainian officials have said that the attack hit about a third of Russia's strategic bomber capacity, inflicting damage on roughly $7 billion worth of equipment. Since the attack, satellite images show that Russia has begun constructing hardened shelters for its bombers. Ukraine has, in recent months, simultaneously stepped up long-range drone assaults via fixed-wing uncrewed systems.
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Yahoo
FSU grad student employee faces misdemeanor battery charge after 'antisemitic harassment'
A case of "antisemitic harassment" at Florida State University – which made it all the way to the U.S. attorney general's office – has resulted in a misdemeanor battery charge. The short video that went viral on social media captured an altercation between a woman, who is an FSU employee and graduate student, and a Jewish student. The woman is seen flipping off and yelling at a man sitting inside the Leach Student Recreation Center before apparently shoving the man. According to recently released court records, a misdemeanor battery charge was brought against the employee Aug. 4. The Tallahassee Democrat does not typically name individuals charged with misdemeanors. An advocacy group, Stop Anti-Semitism, started ciruclating the video and flagged FSU President Richard McCullough on the social media post saying the "assault warrants immediate expulsion." The university immediately responded to the post, condemning the act and assuring the public that the incident would be investigated. As the video spread on social media, FSU released another statement saying that the woman shown in the video "has been prohibited from returning to campus" and that charges may be forthcoming. Under the university's protocol, the altercation will be investigated by law enforcement first, then the university will take disciplinary action. The woman will be prohibited from campus until both investigations and disciplinary proceedings are complete, FSU spokesperson Amy Farnum Patronis said. Potential discipline could range from a writen reprimand to expulsion. Court records detail the encounter between the two, offering insight from each of their perspectives. 'She definitely just hate crimed me' The FSU student told police that he had just finished working out and bought a drink from the gym's in-house juice bar when out of nowhere the woman approached him and started tellling him that he was "part of a mass genocide" and "killing people," according to court records. "I was in shock," the student told police. "I didn't understand what she was saying." As he tried to ignore her, he said the woman continued to tell him he was killing people and his "family needs to die" because he was wearing an Israel Defense Forces shirt. He said that she tried grabbing his drink and sort of shoved him after she made the comment that she would pour his drink on his head if they weren't inside the on-campus gym. "But I kind of just pushed her hand away," he said. "She definitely just hate crimed me." The student said she "started screaming, '[expletive] you, the whole gym, you need to go to hell, I hope your whole family dies" as she left the gym, which is depicted in the viral video. In the 8-second clip, the woman is seen approaching and yelling at the student "Expletive] Israel, free Palestine," the woman says as she appears to bump the man or bat the phone away. "Put it on [expletive] Barstool FSU, I really don't give a [expletive]. You're an ignorant [expletive] son of a [expletive]." 'I'm very offended by it' The woman was on a spin bike, which has a view of the gym, when she spotted the man's shirt that she said she found to be "very offensive," according to court records. "I just got very upset and went down and expressed my First Amendment rights, freedom of speech, and talked to them," she told investigators. She said that she told the student he "should be ashamed" to support an army "committing severe human rights violations," as she sees photos every day of starving people and Palestinians, and "I'm very offended by it." The student, she said, began recording her as he was telling her she was "uneducated" and didn't know what she was talking about. At this point during the altercation, the woman admitted to cursing at him as seen in the video. The woman "advised she understands that she should not have handled this incident in the manner she did, and she is very embarassed," court records say. "She also displayed being very apologetic and was willing to apologize to him for her actions." Investigators asked if any extra footage, such as security cameras in the gym, would show her possibly shoving the student, and she denied ever touching him. The detective asked again if it was possible that she could have shoved him while trying to grab his smoothie to which she said, "No, I did not shove him at all; I never put my hands on him." "When I left out of Leach, I knew that was a bad idea," she told police. Survelliance footage captures similar interaction as viral clip The FSU investigator noted in court records that the woman appears to hit the man's shoulder in the viral video, causing him to lean back in a "defensive manner as if he was pushed." In his review of the gym's survelliance camera footage, the investigator saw a similar interaction as recorded in the video circulating on the internet. The woman "appears to touch [the man's] left shoulder in a shoving motion while trying to attempt to reach for his beverage," court records say. The man "can be observed leaning back in a reactionary and defensive manner while lifting his left arm up to protect himself." After that, the woman is seen walking away to grab her belongings and saying something to the gym employee as she left. The gym worker told police that he didn't even realize any argument occurred until she approached him. He said the woman said it was "unfair" and asked why they let the student in with the shirt on. The worker "advised he just let [the woman] vent, and she left the premises without any further incident." After asking the gym employee for guidance, the student immediately reported what happened. FSU said in its statement that its "commitment to swiftly and effectively respond to incidents of hate is unwavering." "We appreciate the prompt report of this incident, which allowed us to address this instance of antisemitism without delay," the university said. The viral moment even drew attention from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi who responded to FSU over social media and thanked the university for its "prompt action." 'Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Florida or anywhere else,' she wrote, adding that civil rights officials in the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Jack Heekin of the Northern District of Florida would also investigate. Local government watchdog reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@ Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida State employee charged after viral 'antisemitic' altercation Solve the daily Crossword
