Month: September 2025

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo have announced that they will work to phase out all childhood vaccine mandates in the state.

Ladapo declared at a press conference, “every single one of them. They’re all wrong,” which drew a standing ovation from the audience. Ladapo questioned the government’s authority to make personal health decisions, saying “who am I—or anyone else—to tell you what has to go into your body? Who am I to say what your child must take? That’s not my right.”

Ladapo described mandates as an “immoral” intrusion on people’s rights bordering on “slavery,” and hampers parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children. He said: “People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions. They don’t have the right to tell you what to put in your body. Take it away from them.”

The Florida Department of Health will move forward on this plan in coordination with the governor’s office, according to Ladapo, adding that the state Health Department can scrap its own rules for some vaccine mandates, but others would require action by the Florida Legislature.

Currently, Florida law requires children attending public schools to be vaccinated against several diseases, with those guidelines listed on the state health department’s website. Ladapo emphasized, however, that the state is not banning vaccines: “If you choose to get vaccinated, that’s your decision, and I hope it’s an informed one. If you choose not to, that’s also your decision. That’s how it should be.”

Gov. DeSantis also announced on Wednesday the creation of a state-level “Make America Healthy Again” commission modeled after similar initiatives launched at the federal level by President Trump, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The commission will be led by First Lady Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, with members including Ladapo, Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris, and Department of Children and Families Secretary Taylor Hatch. According to DeSantis, the commission will “prioritize reforms that give Floridians more control over their health, cut red tape, hold bad actors accountable, and promote healthier lifestyles and innovation.”

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A New York judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors can present DNA evidence they say connects Rex Heuermann, the suspect accused of being the Gilgo Beach serial killer, to six of the seven women he is charged with murdering.

Suffolk County Judge Tim Mazzei made his ruling that prosecutors can use DNA evidence generated by Astrea Forensics in their case against Rex Heuermann. Astrea Forensics uses new techniques to analyze old and highly degraded DNA samples, like the ones collected from the bodies of the victims. Defense attorneys had fought to block the evidence, arguing that it was obtained through a relatively new method called whole genome sequencing, which had never before been admitted in a New York courtroom; however, prosecutors have said they have a trove of other evidence, including a “blueprint” for the killings and cellphone tracking data, that ties Heuermann to the case.

The defense quickly filed a motion on new grounds in an effort to block the evidence. saying the DNA evidence violates New York public health law that states a for-profit lab cannot submit evidence in criminal cases in the state. Prosecutors countered that the approach is rooted in widely recognized scientific principles. In filings ahead of previous court hearings, they said the defense request to dismiss the evidence should be denied because the method is “well established in the scientific community” and already applied in a range of forensic and research fields.

Heuermann, a New York City architect, was arrested in July 2023 and charged with the killings of three women: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. Their bodies were among 10 found along Long Island’s Gilgo Beach when police set out in 2010 to search for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old aspiring actress from New Jersey.

In 2024, Heuermann was charged with the killings of four more women: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla and Valerie Mack.  He has pleaded not guilty to killing seven women whose bodies were discovered on Long Island between 1993 and 2011, several of them along Gilgo Beach.

The defense had specifically sought to exclude DNA evidence from hairs recovered from six of the victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor, and Valerie Mack. Investigators say they also discovered newspaper and magazine clippings about the Gilgo Beach murders inside his Massapequa Park home.

Prosecutors previously said that hairs found on some of the victims matched Heuermann’s family members through mitochondrial DNA testing, linking them to his wife and daughter. The defense is still awaiting a separate decision on its request to split the charges into multiple trials. Judge Mazzei said he expects to rule on that motion at the next hearing, scheduled for September 23.

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Authorities have filed murder charges against a man accused of fatally shooting an 11-year-old boy who had been ringing doorbells with friends as part of a prank.

The suspect, Leon Gonzalo Jr., was arrested and booked at the Harris County Jail on Tuesday morning and charged with one count of murder, according to Harris County court records.

According to the Houston Police Department, the incident happened around 10:55 p.m. on August 30, at a home in the 9700 block of Mimbrough in southeast Houston. Police said a group of children were playing “ding-dong ditch,” a game where kids knock on doors and run away, when someone stepped outside and began firing at them as they scattered.

The victim and at least two of his friends had been going around their neighborhood banging on or kicking doors and running away. Sgt. Michael Cass with the Houston Police Department’s homicide division said that “officers were told the male was ringing doorbells of homes in the area and running away. A witness stated the male was running from a house, after ringing the doorbell, just prior to suffering a gunshot wound. A witness reported that a person came out of the home and started shooting at the kids as they ran down the street. Tragically, one of them—an 11-year-old boy—was hit in the back.”

Cass said the preliminary information indicates that the victims and his friends ran down the street after banging on the suspect’s door. The boy was rushed to a hospital but died from his injuries on Sunday afternoon, with the victim was identified on Tuesday as 11-year-old Julian Guzman; police said the boy lived about a block from the home.

The prank is similar to what’s being dubbed the “door-kicking challenge,” a TikTok trend based on an old prank called “ding dong ditch,” in which groups of kids record videos of themselves kicking and banging on doors of homes and apartments before running away and then posting the videos on social media.

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A federal judge in California on Tuesday has ruled that the Trump administraion’s decision to deploy 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in June violated a 19th-century law barring the use of soldiers for civilian law enforcement activities when it mobilized .

In a 52-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer found that the president and his administration breached the Posse Comitatus Act, a statute dating back to the 19th century that prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

At the time the troops were dispatched, Trump argued they were needed to safeguard federal buildings and agents during demonstrations sparked by immigration enforcement actions. The deployment led California Gov. Gavin Newsom to seek an injunction limiting federal intervention in the state.

In his written opinion, Breyer noted that both Trump and then–Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had signaled plans to use Guard units in other cities, raising the prospect of what he described as a “national police force with the President as its chief.”  Breyer wrote: “the evidence at trial established that Defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles. In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act.” While acknowledging that some protesters engaged in violence, Breyer emphasized that the situation did not rise to the level of a rebellion and that civilian law enforcement was capable of maintaining order.

About the Posse Comitatus Act, Breyer wrote, “Nearly 140 years later, Defendants — President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the Department of Defense — deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced. There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence. Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.”

To prevent more violations of the law in California, Breyer blocked Trump and Hegseth from using troops there for “arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or acting as informants.” Breyer stayed the ruling until Sept. 12 to allow the administration to appeal.

Gov. Newsom praised the ruling in a post on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “DONALD TRUMP LOSES AGAIN. The courts agree — his militarization of our streets and use of the military against U.S. citizens is ILLEGAL.”

Editorial credit: Matt Gush / Shutterstock.com