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Orlando terror attack

Rick Scott: “disappointing” Obama admin rejected emergency declaration following Orlando shooting

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Gov. Rick Scott said Monday he finds it thoroughly “disappointing” Obama administration authorities have denied his request for a federal emergency declaration in the wake of last weekend’s deadly shooting at an Orlando night club. Scott cited $5 million he requested which the state of Florida will miss out on, which Scott said would have funded “emergency response efforts, law enforcement response, emergency medical care, counseling services and other social services to assist victims.” Federal officials have, however, approved $253,000 to help pay for…

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Obama concludes meeting with families of victims

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President Barack Obama has concluded his meeting with survivors and the families of victims killed in Sunday’s nightclub shooting in Orlando. The president is visiting Orlando to express solidarity with the grief-stricken community. The White House says that Obama and Vice President Joe Biden also met with the owners and staff of the Pulse nightclub who were working when the attack occurred. Two employees were killed in the attack. The president and vice president have also had the chance to…

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Men and women of cloth and rainbow unite in Orlando

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Orlando-area clergy, politicians, and leaders of the LGBT community came together Wednesday afternoon at the Orange County Administration Building to preach scripture, love and unity as the city prepares for its 49 Pulse funerals. In what some called a nationally unprecedented showing, dozens of Central Florida clergy representing faiths including the Roman Catholic Church, mainline protestant churches, evangelical churches, Hispanic evangelical churches, African American churches, synagogues and mosques all heeded Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs‘ call to pledge support for…

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AP reporter returns to cover massacre at site of college job

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The call to my south Florida home asking me to grab my camera gear and hit the road came at 3 a.m. Sunday. I drove up the turnpike with tears rolling down my cheeks, traveling to cover an unspeakable tragedy unfolding in a place that helped me become the man I am today. Years ago, to help put myself through college, I was a straight man working at a gay dance club. That club was Pulse. As a cash-strapped college…

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Pam Bondi goes to Nevada

Drawing on lessons learned after a nightclub massacre last year in Orlando, Attorney General Pam Bondi and members of her

A night of terror at club Pulse: One young woman’s story

in Statewide by

Patience Carter lay bleeding on the floor of the bathroom in club Pulse. She recalled looking into the stall next to her, and seeing bloody handprints on the wall and people draped over a toilet. Some were dead, others moaned in agony. She turned her head to see her best friend, lifeless. Then she heard the voice. “Where is it?” the man demanded when he heard a ringing cell phone. “Give it up.” She was safe now — reclining in…

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Orlando killer appears to have been ‘homegrown extremist’

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The gunman whose attack on a gay nightclub left 49 victims dead appears to have been a “homegrown extremist” who espoused support for a jumble of often-conflicting Islamic radical groups, the White House and the FBI said Monday. As Orlando mourned its dead with flowers, candles and vigils, counterterrorism investigators dug into the background of 29-year-old Omar Mateen, the American-born Muslim who carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. “So far, we see no indication that this…

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Bill Nelson says hate calls are pouring in

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Florida’s senior Sen. Bill Nelson told the U.S. Senate today that hate calls are pouring into his Orlando office today about the Pulse nightclub massacre and Nelson implored that America has got to find a way to unite. Nelson, an Orlando resident who spent most of the past two days at the Orlando command center, said it didn’t start out that way. On Sunday all the calls to his Senate office were from Orlandoans, expressing grief and shock and looking for outlets…

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