Denise Royal

Tricia Cotham, whose recent defection from the Democratic Party handed their opponents a super majority, is surrounded by fellow Republicans in North Carolina's House of Representatives before it approved the SB20 bill limiting most abortions to the first trimester of pregnancy, a sharp drop from the state's current limit of 20 weeks gestation, at the State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina, May 3, 2023.
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North Carolina’s Republican-controlled state Senate on Thursday passed legislation...

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Two juveniles have been arrested and a third is being sought in connection with the recent shooting deaths of three area teenagers in the Central Florida community, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said Friday.
Investigators believe that the victims were involved with burglaries and robberies, and both the victims and the suspects were allegedly affiliated with criminal gangs, Woods said.
Robert Le’Andrew Robinson, 17, and Christopher De’l Atkins, 12, have been arrested and charged wit...

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A Florida man who served three decades behind bars for a murder he says he didn’t commit returned to prison Monday after spending the past two years building a life outside prison walls.
Since his conditional release in 2021 amid appeals, Crosley Green, 65, had held a job at a machine grafting facility, attended church and spent time with his grandchildren. He even fell in love.
“I’ve been with this man for two years,” his fiancée, Kathy Spikes, told CNN. “To not be able to have a 5 o’c...

The Fort Lauderdale airport reopened Friday morning, after monumental flooding wreaked havoc on the South Florida city and surrounding communities, closing schools and government buildings, and sending hundreds of residents to emergency shelters.
Many streets turned into lakes across Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday and Thursday when a historic volume of rain exceeding 2 feet inundated the coastal city. The flooding shut down the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for about 40 hours....

Fort Lauderdale, Florida CNN —
Fort Lauderdale and other communities across southeast Florida are working to get life back to normal after monumental flooding wreaked havoc on the area, closing transportation hubs, schools and government offices.
During the peak of Wednesday’s torrential barrages, a month’s worth of rain fell in just one hour. Many of Fort Lauderdale’s streets turned into lakes when rain exceeding 2 feet inundated the coastal city.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue crews on Thursda...

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Close relatives of former US President Jimmy Carter are remaining by his side as he receives hospice care at his home in Georgia, a family member told CNN Friday.
“It’s his kids and grandkids up there,” LeAnne Smith, a niece of Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, told CNN.
Carter, who turned 98 last year, became the oldest living US president in history after the passing of George H.W. Bush, who died in late 2018 at 94. Carter’s family announced Saturday the former president was entering hospice c...

Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day, an opportunity to remember those lost to HIV/AIDS.
It is also a day to spread awareness about the virus, encourage progress in HIV/AIDS prevention, and celebrate those who are surviving and thriving.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt is one of the best visual representations showcasing the history of HIV/AIDS in the United States. Fueled by activism and passion, the Quilt is the world’s largest community arts project. Activist Cleve Jones started the Quilt 35 years ago as a wa...

As America takes a hard look at gun safety, CNN's Leyla Santiago shows the effectiveness of Florida's red flag laws.

Puerto Rico, which is battered by hurricanes and threatened by sea level rise, is experiencing coastal erosion at an alarming rate, scientists warn.

What we covered here
Sam Bankman-Fried has been indicted on eight criminal charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy by misusing customer funds, according to an indictment from the US Southern District of New York. The FTX founder was arrested Monday in the Bahamas and was arraigned in a Nassau court Tuesday.
FTX's new CEO John J. Ray III testified before the House Financial Services Committee, providing new details about the company's investigation.
FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried faces ...

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A former Olympic boxer from North Miami has been arrested and accused of threatening to shoot up a gym in South Florida, according to an arrest affidavit.

Azea Augustama, who represented Haiti at the 2008 Olympics, was arrested Tuesday after putting a deposit down to buy an AK-47 and was accused of three felonies – two counts of issuing written threats to commit a mass shooting and one count of threatening to kill or do bodily harm – the affidavit said.

CNN has reached out to his attorn...

Editor’s Note: Affected by the storm? Use CNN’s lite site for low bandwidth.

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Massive Hurricane Nicole was dumping rain on Florida Wednesday night as the storm bore down on the east coast of the Sunshine State, threatening to bring damaging winds and heavy precipitation to some places still recovering from Hurricane Ian.

Earlier the storm battered the Bahamas while strengthening from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane.

The eye of Nicole is expected to make landfall on the Florida...

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A Florida judge on Friday dismissed the case of a Miami man who was arrested on charges related to election fraud in August, saying state prosecutors acted beyond their authority.
Robert Wood, 56, was charged with lying on voter forms and illegally voting. He is one of more than a dozen people arrested in August in a crackdown throughout five Florida counties.
Wood was convicted of murder in the second degree in 1991, his attorney said. He registered to vote and participated in the 2020...

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The multiple antisemitic messages that appeared in public spaces in Jacksonville, Florida, this weekend, including at the high-profile Florida-Georgia college football game, do not constitute crimes at this time, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
“At this time, the Sheriff’s Office has not identified any crimes having been committed; the comments displayed do not include any type of threat and are protected by the First Amendment,” public information officer T.N. Dash said in an e...

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The gunman who carried out the Parkland school shooting has been formally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury last month failed to unanimously recommend the death penalty, disappointing and angering many of the families of the 17 people he killed.

Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer imposed the statutorily mandated sentence Wednesday, ordering Nikolas Cruz, 24, to serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole for each of the 17 counts of ...