Florida aims to revoke hotel's liquor license for drag show
MIAMI — (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration is moving to revoke the liquor license of a Miami hotel that hosted a Christmas drag show, a crackdown that comes as the Republican governor looks to shore up his conservative credentials ahead of an expected 2024 presidential bid. Amir Blattner, the hotel’s general manager, said the liquor license remains active as the complaint is being reviewed. “Governor DeSantis stands up for the innocence of children in the classroom and throughout Florida,” the Republican governor’s office said in a statement regarding the hotel’s liquor license. Another bill would restrict venues from allowing children to attend drag shows if they have sexual content.
wftv.comFlorida targets Miami hotel’s liquor license after children allowed at drag queen Christmas show
In a complaint, Florida officials stated that the show used “targeted, Christmas-themed promotional materials that did not provide notice as to the sexually explicit nature of the Show’s performances or other content.”
A high school basketball coach is still out $10,000 after Southwest canceled a flight and left his whole team stranded in Las Vegas for 5 days over Christmas. They ended up chartering a bus to drive 1
Southwest tried to send them on "flights to nowhere," the coach said, before a local businessman finally chartered a bus for $15,000 to get them home.
news.yahoo.comOklahoma investigators identify body as missing 4-year-old
OKLAHOMA CITY — (AP) — The body of a child found in Oklahoma earlier this month was positively identified as 4-year-old Athena Brownfield, who investigators said was beaten to death by a caregiver on Christmas. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced on social media Thursday that the state’s chief medical examiner had made the identification. The girl was reported missing Jan. 10 when a postal carrier found her 5-year-old sister alone outside the home where she lived with Ivon Adams III and his wife, Alysia Adams. Ivon Adams, 36, was arrested in Arizona on murder and child neglect charges and returned to Oklahoma. The document does not reveal why Ivon Adams was beating the girl.
wftv.comFriends, family of 2 teens shot dead march to Palm Bay City Hall demanding justice
PALM BAY, Fla. — Friends and family members of two teenagers shot and killed last Christmas marched to Palm Bay City Hall Thursday for an event they called “the justice walk.”It took place along Eldron Boulevard and Malabar Road as the city held its council meeting. No arrests have been made in the case. READ: 2 arrested in connection with home invasion in downtown Orlando high-rise, police saySee the full story in the video above. READ: Audit reveals Orange County fleet of vehicles aren’t being serviced properlyVideo: Palm Bay police mum on teen boys’ murders More than a week after the bodies of two teen boys were discovered in the woods of partially developed land, Palm Bay police are not providing any updates. (Nick Papantonis, WFTV.com)Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
wftv.comWarming to make California downpours even wetter, study says
As damaging as it was for more than 32 trillion gallons of rain and snow to fall on California since Christmas, a worst-case global warming scenario could juice up similar future downpours by one-third by the middle of this century, a new study says. The entire western United States would likely see a 31% increase in precipitation from these worst of the worst storms in a souped-up warming world because of more intense and widely spread rainfall, the study said. “It could be even worse,” said study author Ruby Leung, a climate scientist at the U.S. Pacific Northwest National Lab. This happens because of the physics of rain storms, Leung said. When she used computer simulations, Leung chose the most severe worst-case scenario for how the world’s carbon emissions will grow.
wftv.comWhat are you doing with your old lithium batteries? Don’t throw them away, officials say
Just a few days after Christmas in the middle of the night at the Seminole County Solid Waste Transfer Station in Longwood, a fire started deep inside a trash trailer and slowly started to spread. Eventually four trailers were engulfed and burned to a crisp over three hours.
Workshop to focus on Palm Bay’s ‘Compound’ after teen deaths on Christmas
In its first meeting since police said two teenagers were found shot and killed on Christmas, the Palm Bay City Council Thursday proposed a workshop to help find solutions to violence and other illegal activities in the undeveloped neighborhood called the Compound.
Putin orders 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine to mark Orthodox Christmas
LONDON — Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine after the head of the Orthodox Church called for a Christmas truce, the Kremlin said Thursday. Putin instructed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to introduce a ceasefire from noon on Friday, Jan. 6, until midnight on Saturday, Jan. 7., a statement from the Kremlin read . The request comes after the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, requested that both Ukraine and Russia observe a truce over the Christmas holiday. Those who belong to the Orthodox Church celebrate Christmas in January. An official in the Ukrainian presidential office had called the proposal “propaganda.”This is a breaking news story.
wftv.comRussian church head calls for Ukraine truce, finds no takers
KYIV, Ukraine — (AP) — The head of the Russian Orthodox Church called Thursday for a 36-hour Christmas cease-fire in Ukraine at the end of this week, but his appeal looked unlikely to bring any breakthrough in halting the war that began last February with Russia's invasion. The Russian Orthodox Church, which uses the ancient Julian calendar, celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Turkey’s president Thursday and the Kremlin said afterward that Putin “reaffirmed Russia’s openness to a serious dialogue” with Ukrainian authorities. Previous attempts at brokering peace talks have fallen at that hurdle, as Ukraine demands that at the very least Russia withdraws from occupied areas. The fighting in Ukraine has increasingly become a war of attrition in recent weeks, as winter sets in.
wftv.comUK trains disrupted again as workers stage fresh strikes
LONDON — (AP) — Commuters returning to work on Tuesday after the Christmas break were advised not to travel as tens of thousands of British rail workers stage a fresh round of strikes that will disrupt services all week. Many places, including most of Scotland and Wales, have no train services. But rail workers, like others who work in the public sector, say wages have failed to keep pace with the skyrocketing cost of living. Inflation in the U.K. has soared to a 41-year high of 11.1%, driven by sharply rising energy and food costs. Nurses, airport baggage handlers, ambulance and bus drivers and postal workers were among those who walked off their jobs in December to demand higher pay.
wftv.comFloods in Philippines leave 51 dead, over a dozen missing
Floods have subsided in most of the areas hit by bad weather that disrupted Christmas celebrations in the eastern, central and southern Philippines. Over 4,500 houses were damaged by the floods, along with roads and bridges, and some areas still have disrupted power and water supply, the disaster management agency said. Teams from the capital Manila were sent to assist communities with limited clean water in setting up water filtration systems. At least 22 cities and municipalities have declared a state of calamity, the disaster management council said. A shear line — the point where warm and cold air meet — triggered heavy rains in parts of the country last week, causing the floods, the state weather bureau said.
wftv.comFloods in Philippines leave 51 dead, over a dozen missing
The death toll in the massive floods that devastated parts of the Philippines over the Christmas weekend has climbed to 51, with 19 others missing, the national disaster response agency said Monday, as affected residents struggle to get back on their feet. Photos on social media showed residents in Misamis Occidental province in Northern Mindanao sweeping away thick mud from the floors of their homes. The Northern Mindanao region in the south bore the brunt of the disaster, reporting 25 deaths, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
news.yahoo.comMost Disaster Recovery Centers in Florida will close for Christmas, New Year’s, FEMA says
Disaster Recovery Centers across Florida that remain open to assist people impacted by recent hurricanes Ian and Nicole have posted holiday closures for Christmas and New Year’s, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Surfing Santas to face wind chills in upper 20s, temps in 30s on Christmas Eve morning
Surfing Santas typically draws national television coverage with colorful images of costumed surfers joy-riding across a sun-splashed Florida beach — while most of America shivers amid wintry December weather, according to News 6 partner Florida Today.