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  • Armed man enters secure Mar-a-Lago perimeter, shot dead by Secret Service

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    An armed man drove into the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, before being shot and killed early Sunday morning, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service.Although Trump often spends weekends at his resort, he was at the White House when the breach occurred around 1:30 a.m.The man had a gas can and a shotgun, authorities said. Investigators identified him as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly, and authorities said his family had recently reported him missing.He’s believed to have purchased his shotgun while driving south, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, and a box for the weapon was later discovered in the man’s vehicle.Investigators have not identified a motive. However, Trump has faced threats to his life before, including two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign. The investigation is ongoingThe man entered the north gate of the property as another vehicle was exiting and was confronted by two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.“He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him. At which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” Bradshaw said at a brief press conference. The two agents and the deputy “fired their weapons to neutralize the threat.”The Moore County Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina said a relative of Martin’s reported him missing early Sunday morning.Investigators are working to compile a psychological profile. Asked whether the man was previously known to law enforcement, Bradshaw said “not right now.”The FBI encouraged residents who live near Mar-a-Lago to check any security cameras they may have for footage that could help investigators.In a post on X, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau would be “dedicating all necessary resources” to the investigation. Martin was described by family as quiet and averse to gunsOn Sunday afternoon, vehicles blocked the entrance to a property listed in public records as an address for Martin at the end of a private road in Cameron, North Carolina.Braeden Fields, Martin’s cousin, reacted with disbelief. He described Martin as quiet, afraid of guns and from a family of avid Trump supporters.“He’s a good kid,” Fields, 19, said. He said they grew up together. “I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing,” Fields said.He said Martin worked at a local golf course and would send money from each paycheck to charity.“He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun,” Fields said.He said his cousin didn’t discuss politics.“We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, but his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”Trump faced two assassination attempts during his last campaignSunday’s incursion at Mar-a-Lago took place a few miles from Trump’s West Palm Beach club where a man tried to assassinate him while he played golf during the 2024 campaign.A Secret Service agent spotted that man, Ryan Routh, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire and caused Routh to drop his weapon.Routh was found guilty last year and sentenced this month to life in prison.Trump also survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That gunman fired eight shots before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper. One rally attendee was killed by the gunman.White House brings in shutdown politicsWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that “the United States Secret Service acted quickly and decisively to neutralize a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded President Trump’s home.”Leavitt used her post to blame Democratic lawmakers in Congress for the partial government shutdown affecting the Homeland Security Department, which began Feb. 14 after Democrats demanded changes to the president’s deportation campaign.The Secret Service is among the agencies where the vast majority of employees are continuing their work but missing a paycheck.“Federal law enforcement are working 24/7 to keep our country safe and protect all Americans,” Leavitt said. “It’s shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department.”The White House referred all questions to the Secret Service and FBI. Both Trump and his wife posted statements on social media after the incident, but they were unrelated to the shooting.Numerous recent acts of politically motivated violenceIn the past year, there was the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk; the assassination of the Democratic leader in the Minnesota state House and her husband and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife; and an arson attack at the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.Five days ago, a Georgia man armed with a shotgun was arrested as he sprinted toward the west side of the U.S. Capitol. Trump is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address there on Tuesday night.

    An armed man drove into the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, before being shot and killed early Sunday morning, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service.

    Although Trump often spends weekends at his resort, he was at the White House when the breach occurred around 1:30 a.m.

    The man had a gas can and a shotgun, authorities said. Investigators identified him as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly, and authorities said his family had recently reported him missing.

    He’s believed to have purchased his shotgun while driving south, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, and a box for the weapon was later discovered in the man’s vehicle.

    Investigators have not identified a motive. However, Trump has faced threats to his life before, including two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign.

    The investigation is ongoing

    The man entered the north gate of the property as another vehicle was exiting and was confronted by two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

    “He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him. At which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” Bradshaw said at a brief press conference. The two agents and the deputy “fired their weapons to neutralize the threat.”

    The Moore County Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina said a relative of Martin’s reported him missing early Sunday morning.

    Investigators are working to compile a psychological profile. Asked whether the man was previously known to law enforcement, Bradshaw said “not right now.”

    The FBI encouraged residents who live near Mar-a-Lago to check any security cameras they may have for footage that could help investigators.

    In a post on X, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau would be “dedicating all necessary resources” to the investigation.

    Martin was described by family as quiet and averse to guns

    On Sunday afternoon, vehicles blocked the entrance to a property listed in public records as an address for Martin at the end of a private road in Cameron, North Carolina.

    Braeden Fields, Martin’s cousin, reacted with disbelief. He described Martin as quiet, afraid of guns and from a family of avid Trump supporters.

    “He’s a good kid,” Fields, 19, said. He said they grew up together. “I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing,” Fields said.

    He said Martin worked at a local golf course and would send money from each paycheck to charity.

    “He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun,” Fields said.

    He said his cousin didn’t discuss politics.

    “We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, but his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”

    Trump faced two assassination attempts during his last campaign

    Sunday’s incursion at Mar-a-Lago took place a few miles from Trump’s West Palm Beach club where a man tried to assassinate him while he played golf during the 2024 campaign.

    A Secret Service agent spotted that man, Ryan Routh, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire and caused Routh to drop his weapon.

    Routh was found guilty last year and sentenced this month to life in prison.

    Trump also survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That gunman fired eight shots before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper. One rally attendee was killed by the gunman.

    White House brings in shutdown politics

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that “the United States Secret Service acted quickly and decisively to neutralize a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded President Trump’s home.”

    Leavitt used her post to blame Democratic lawmakers in Congress for the partial government shutdown affecting the Homeland Security Department, which began Feb. 14 after Democrats demanded changes to the president’s deportation campaign.

    The Secret Service is among the agencies where the vast majority of employees are continuing their work but missing a paycheck.

    “Federal law enforcement are working 24/7 to keep our country safe and protect all Americans,” Leavitt said. “It’s shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department.”

    The White House referred all questions to the Secret Service and FBI. Both Trump and his wife posted statements on social media after the incident, but they were unrelated to the shooting.

    Numerous recent acts of politically motivated violence

    In the past year, there was the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk; the assassination of the Democratic leader in the Minnesota state House and her husband and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife; and an arson attack at the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

    Five days ago, a Georgia man armed with a shotgun was arrested as he sprinted toward the west side of the U.S. Capitol. Trump is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address there on Tuesday night.

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  • Armed man enters secure Mar-a-Lago perimeter, shot dead by Secret Service

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    An armed man drove into the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, before being shot and killed early Sunday morning, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service.Although Trump often spends weekends at his resort, he was at the White House when the breach occurred around 1:30 a.m.The man had a gas can and a shotgun, authorities said. Investigators identified him as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly, and authorities said his family had recently reported him missing.He’s believed to have purchased his shotgun while driving south, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, and a box for the weapon was later discovered in the man’s vehicle.Investigators have not identified a motive. However, Trump has faced threats to his life before, including two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign. The investigation is ongoingThe man entered the north gate of the property as another vehicle was exiting and was confronted by two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.“He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him. At which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” Bradshaw said at a brief press conference. The two agents and the deputy “fired their weapons to neutralize the threat.”The Moore County Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina said a relative of Martin’s reported him missing early Sunday morning.Investigators are working to compile a psychological profile. Asked whether the man was previously known to law enforcement, Bradshaw said “not right now.”The FBI encouraged residents who live near Mar-a-Lago to check any security cameras they may have for footage that could help investigators.In a post on X, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau would be “dedicating all necessary resources” to the investigation. Martin was described by family as quiet and averse to gunsOn Sunday afternoon, vehicles blocked the entrance to a property listed in public records as an address for Martin at the end of a private road in Cameron, North Carolina.Braeden Fields, Martin’s cousin, reacted with disbelief. He described Martin as quiet, afraid of guns and from a family of avid Trump supporters.“He’s a good kid,” Fields, 19, said. He said they grew up together. “I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing,” Fields said.He said Martin worked at a local golf course and would send money from each paycheck to charity.“He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun,” Fields said.He said his cousin didn’t discuss politics.“We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, but his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”Trump faced two assassination attempts during his last campaignSunday’s incursion at Mar-a-Lago took place a few miles from Trump’s West Palm Beach club where a man tried to assassinate him while he played golf during the 2024 campaign.A Secret Service agent spotted that man, Ryan Routh, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire and caused Routh to drop his weapon.Routh was found guilty last year and sentenced this month to life in prison.Trump also survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That gunman fired eight shots before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper. One rally attendee was killed by the gunman.White House brings in shutdown politicsWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that “the United States Secret Service acted quickly and decisively to neutralize a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded President Trump’s home.”Leavitt used her post to blame Democratic lawmakers in Congress for the partial government shutdown affecting the Homeland Security Department, which began Feb. 14 after Democrats demanded changes to the president’s deportation campaign.The Secret Service is among the agencies where the vast majority of employees are continuing their work but missing a paycheck.“Federal law enforcement are working 24/7 to keep our country safe and protect all Americans,” Leavitt said. “It’s shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department.”The White House referred all questions to the Secret Service and FBI. Both Trump and his wife posted statements on social media after the incident, but they were unrelated to the shooting.Numerous recent acts of politically motivated violenceIn the past year, there was the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk; the assassination of the Democratic leader in the Minnesota state House and her husband and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife; and an arson attack at the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.Five days ago, a Georgia man armed with a shotgun was arrested as he sprinted toward the west side of the U.S. Capitol. Trump is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address there on Tuesday night.

    An armed man drove into the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, before being shot and killed early Sunday morning, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service.

    Although Trump often spends weekends at his resort, he was at the White House when the breach occurred around 1:30 a.m.

    The man had a gas can and a shotgun, authorities said. Investigators identified him as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly, and authorities said his family had recently reported him missing.

    He’s believed to have purchased his shotgun while driving south, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, and a box for the weapon was later discovered in the man’s vehicle.

    Investigators have not identified a motive. However, Trump has faced threats to his life before, including two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign.

    The investigation is ongoing

    The man entered the north gate of the property as another vehicle was exiting and was confronted by two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

    “He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him. At which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” Bradshaw said at a brief press conference. The two agents and the deputy “fired their weapons to neutralize the threat.”

    The Moore County Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina said a relative of Martin’s reported him missing early Sunday morning.

    Investigators are working to compile a psychological profile. Asked whether the man was previously known to law enforcement, Bradshaw said “not right now.”

    The FBI encouraged residents who live near Mar-a-Lago to check any security cameras they may have for footage that could help investigators.

    In a post on X, FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau would be “dedicating all necessary resources” to the investigation.

    Martin was described by family as quiet and averse to guns

    On Sunday afternoon, vehicles blocked the entrance to a property listed in public records as an address for Martin at the end of a private road in Cameron, North Carolina.

    Braeden Fields, Martin’s cousin, reacted with disbelief. He described Martin as quiet, afraid of guns and from a family of avid Trump supporters.

    “He’s a good kid,” Fields, 19, said. He said they grew up together. “I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing,” Fields said.

    He said Martin worked at a local golf course and would send money from each paycheck to charity.

    “He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun,” Fields said.

    He said his cousin didn’t discuss politics.

    “We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, but his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”

    Trump faced two assassination attempts during his last campaign

    Sunday’s incursion at Mar-a-Lago took place a few miles from Trump’s West Palm Beach club where a man tried to assassinate him while he played golf during the 2024 campaign.

    A Secret Service agent spotted that man, Ryan Routh, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire and caused Routh to drop his weapon.

    Routh was found guilty last year and sentenced this month to life in prison.

    Trump also survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That gunman fired eight shots before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper. One rally attendee was killed by the gunman.

    White House brings in shutdown politics

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that “the United States Secret Service acted quickly and decisively to neutralize a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded President Trump’s home.”

    Leavitt used her post to blame Democratic lawmakers in Congress for the partial government shutdown affecting the Homeland Security Department, which began Feb. 14 after Democrats demanded changes to the president’s deportation campaign.

    The Secret Service is among the agencies where the vast majority of employees are continuing their work but missing a paycheck.

    “Federal law enforcement are working 24/7 to keep our country safe and protect all Americans,” Leavitt said. “It’s shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down their Department.”

    The White House referred all questions to the Secret Service and FBI. Both Trump and his wife posted statements on social media after the incident, but they were unrelated to the shooting.

    Numerous recent acts of politically motivated violence

    In the past year, there was the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk; the assassination of the Democratic leader in the Minnesota state House and her husband and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife; and an arson attack at the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

    Five days ago, a Georgia man armed with a shotgun was arrested as he sprinted toward the west side of the U.S. Capitol. Trump is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address there on Tuesday night.

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  • A Publix sold a $250,000 lottery ticket. Another store had second win in 23 days

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    There was one jackpot win but two big winners among Wednesday’s Powerball, Florida Lotto, Cash4Life and Fantasy 5 drawings.

    The Florida Lotto top prize in Saturday’s drawing will be $14 million after nobody hit the main drawing sextet of 2, 4, 43, 48, 52 and 53. But a Quick Pick ticket bought at a Naples Publix, 13550 Immokalee Rd., had the Double Play numbers — 12, 21, 29, 34, 47, 51 — and is worth $250,000.

    For the second time in 23 days, Supermercados El Bodegon at 4704 Forest Hill Blvd. in unincorporated Palm Beach County sold a Fantasy 5 jackpot winning Quick Pick ticket. This time, it was for the evening draw, which came up 1, 11, 17, 23 and 31 and was worth $115,069.

    These tickets must be cashed at the Florida Lottery main office in Tallahassee or one of the nine district offices throughout the state. The office in Palm Beach is a half mile east of El Bodegon, in Palm Springs at 4360 Forest Hill Blvd. and can be reached at WPBRC@flalottery.com or 561-640-6190. Appointments can be made, but aren’t necessary.

    This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 9:51 AM.

    David J. Neal

    Miami Herald

    Since 1989, David J. Neal’s domain at the Miami Herald has expanded to include writing about Panthers (NHL and FIU), Dolphins, old school animation, food safety, fraud, naughty lawyers, bad doctors and all manner of breaking news. He drinks coladas whole. He does not work Indianapolis 500 Race Day.

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    David J. Neal

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  • How the Coast Guard found three divers who got lost off Palm Beach

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    A U.S. Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet boat crew rescues three divers one mile east of Palm Beach Sunday afternoon, Jan. 4, 2026.

    A U.S. Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet boat crew rescues three divers one mile east of Palm Beach Sunday afternoon, Jan. 4, 2026.

    U.S. Coast Guard

    The U.S. Coast Guard rescued three people who lost sight of their boat while scuba diving off Palm Beach Sunday afternoon, the agency said.

    A Lake Worth Inlet boat crew launched around 4:10 p.m. after receiving an alert from the divers’ electronic Satellite Emergency Notification device, which sends a distress signal to authorities, according to the Coast Guard.

    The patrol boat crew found the divers around 5 p.m. floating in the ocean about one mile east of Palm Beach, the agency said. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office also had crews on the search.

    “It was a collective effort from everyone to save these divers,” Petty Officer 2nd Class Vallery Massey, a Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet boat crew member, said in a statement. “Thanks to their emergency equipment we were able to bring them back home to their families.”

    The crew took the people to shore where paramedics were waiting. The Coast Guard said all of them were in stable condition.

    The Coast Guard recommends scuba divers always carry an emergency transmitter with them. The agency also says to plan dives, ensure you have all the appropriate gear and conduct safety checks on that equipment.

    Scuba diving is a physically taxing activity, so the Coast Guard also recommends getting checked out by a health care provider before heading out, not consuming alcohol or drugs before dives and always going with a dive buddy, qualified instructor or experienced guide.

    David Goodhue

    Miami Herald

    David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.

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    David Goodhue

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  • Donald Trump Jr. Is Engaged (Again). Will Bettina Anderson Get a White House Wedding?

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    As the father of the groom looked on in the background, Don Jr. took the microphone, thanking Anderson, standing to his right in a strapless red dress with a stone twinkling on her ring finger, for “that one word: yes.”

    “When you’re down there and you’re gonna go, and you’re trying to ask, and you’re not sure what the answer’s gonna be, it’s always a little bit rough,” he said of the proposal. “But she said yes, so that’s a big win for the end of the year.”

    This is the third time Don Jr. has gotten engaged, which explains that “always” he dropped. Trump was previously engaged, then married to Vanessa Trump, who has been romantically linked to golf star Tiger Woods since early this year, and before Anderson, was engaged to Kimberly Guilfoyle, whose relationship with Trump ended about the same time as her ambassadorship to Greece was announced and Anderson and Trump’s relationship became public. Are those last things connected? Who could even begin to say!

    The engagement could be seen as a belated birthday present to Anderson, who turned 39 on December 1, or one heck of an early Christmas stocking stuffer.

    Or, hey, maybe there’s something in the air: Earlier Monday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently announced that she will resign from her position in January following disagreements with the president, shared that she is also engaged to be married, in her case to journalist Brian Glenn of Real America’s Voice.

    The White House, when contacted by Vanity Fair for comment on the presidential offspring’s latest betrothal, referred us to Don Jr.’s representative. As of the publication of this article, that spokesperson did not respond to the request for comment.

    Anderson also said a few words to the assembled well-wishers at the White House Monday, where her experience as a benefit host, welcoming and thanking attendees and sponsors, was apparent.

    “Wow, what a privilege it is to be here in the White House, Mr. President,” she said. “To our first lady—these decorations! Am I right? Are they unbelievable? This has really been the most unforgettable weekend of my life and I get to marry the love of my life, and I feel just like the luckiest girl in the world.”

    Those “unbelievable” Christmas decorations masterminded by Melania Trump include a Lego recreation of her husband’s mugshot alongside one of George Washington’s presidential portraits, as well as topple-ready structures made of dominoes and playing cards. It’s an about-face from the chilling blood-red trees of yesteryear, though no update has been publicly offered on whether she now “gives a fuck about Christmas stuff and decorations” as she said in 2018.

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    Kase Wickman

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  • Daughter of woman killed within hour of seeking police protection from ex sues Boynton

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    Miami Herald

    The daughter of a woman who was shot to death less than an hour after she went to the Boynton Beach police station seeking protection from her ex-boyfriend is suing the city.

    Fridelene Daniel, 34, arrived at the police station on Nov. 8, 2023, telling officers that her ex-boyfriend, Robens Cesar, was going to kill her, according to the complaint and a probable cause affidavit. Cesar, who was stalking her, followed her into the station. But instead of separating the two, investigating Cesar or offering Daniel further protection, a police officer spoke to her for only a short time, made fun of her Haitian accent, and then let her leave with Cesar still following her, the complaint alleges.

    Within an hour, Cesar had shot Daniel dead, according to police. He is facing first-degree murder charges.

    Daniel’s daughter, Abigail Orelien, now 18, filed the wrongful death lawsuit Thursday, close to the two-year anniversary of her mother’s death.

    “Fridelene was a strong and proud woman, who came to this country, built a life of purpose, became a U.S. citizen, and raised her daughter on her own,” Orelien’s attorney, Gary Susser, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “She achieved much through perseverance and integrity, yet her life was tragically and brutally cut short despite her efforts to seek protection from the harm she had, moments before, foretold.”

    Go to Sun-Sentinel.com for the full story

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    Shira Moolten

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  • ‘Suspicious stand’ found near Trump’s Air Force One exit at Palm Beach airport: FBI

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    FILE - In 2023, Donald Trump’s private plane takes off from Palm Beach International Airport.

    FILE – In 2023, Donald Trump’s private plane takes off from Palm Beach International Airport.

    jiglesias@elnuevoherald.com

    The Secret Service found what officials are calling a “suspicious stand” near a part of Palm Beach International Airport frequented by President Donald Trump.

    FBI Director Kash Patel said on a post on X that agents are investigating the stand. Patel said the stand was located near the Air Force One landing zone.

    According to CBS News, the Secret Service said it found “items of interest” before Trump’s arrival on Friday. The agency, the report says, did not detail what was found but shared a photo of a platform in a tree.

    A “suspicious stand” was found near a part of Palm Beach International Airport frequented by President Donald Trump.
    A “suspicious stand” was found near a part of Palm Beach International Airport frequented by President Donald Trump. Secret Service

    “There was no impact to any movements and no individuals were present or involved at the location,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said.

    Trump traveled to South Florida for the weekend, according to CBS News. Trump’s mansion and resort Mar-a-Lago is in West Palm Beach.

    This story was originally published October 19, 2025 at 4:37 PM.

    Grethel Aguila

    Miami Herald

    Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.

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    Grethel Aguila

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  • Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach to oversee repairs at historic Warden House condo

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    The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach will oversee the project to repair the historical Addison Mizner-designed Warden House condominium building, but warned town officials the project will take months to complete.

    That’s what Aimee Sunny, director of preservation and planning for the nonprofit foundation, told the Code Enforcement Board during a Sept. 18 hearing. The board sought to determine whether the Warden House Condominium Association should be fined for the crumbling stonework and deteriorated concrete apparent at Unit No. 1 of the William Gray Warden House at 200 N. Ocean Blvd. The issue was first discussed by the board in July.

    The code board unanimously voted to defer any action to impose fines on the condo group to its Oct. 16 meeting, on the condition that the association adds additional safety screening around Unit No. 1. If the association adds the screening and continues to move forward with the efforts to repair the building, the board would continue to defer the consideration of fines, members agreed.

    The repairs would focus on the northeast apartment at the former 1920s-era mansion and would be led by the Warden House Condominium Association, Sunny told the board. The condo group has been in communication with the Preservation Foundation about the repairs, because of a conservation easement with the Preservation Foundation, Sunny said. That document is related to the Warden House’s designation in the National Register of Historic Places.

    Signed in 1987, the easement doubles as an agreement between the Warden House Condo Association and the Preservation Foundation, giving the foundation perpetual rights as a guardian of the building’s historical architecture.

    “We would be required to review and approve any plans that the condo association would have before they proceed with them,” Sunny told the board. “So, before any stone would be taken down, before any stone would be replicated or replace, we would need to issue a written approval for that.”

    But Code Board member Chris Larmoyeux wanted to know whether the Preservation Foundation had a way to hold the condo association accountable, should it choose not to carry out the repairs.

    Sunny said the agreement allows the Preservation Foundation to take the condo to court should it fail to follow the easement’s requirement of keeping the property in good condition. The nonprofit group also could undertake the repairs and charge the association for that project, she told the code board.

    But Sunny said the association had been working diligently on the repair plans.

    “We have a receptive owner. I’ve worked with various projects at the Warden House over the years,” she said. “I’ve always had good communications with the architects or the owners that were doing those projects, so I don’t anticipate that I would see something different here.”

    The Warden House condominium, 200 N. Ocean Blvd. in Palm Beach, can be seen beyond a wall facing the ocean on July 24, 2025, in Palm Beach.

    Designed in 1922 by renowned Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner, the former mansion is considered a good example of the architect’s Mediterranean Revival style. Even after its conversion to a six-unit condo in the 1980s by the late developer and real estate investor Robert Eigelberger, the U-shaped building still features interiors with Mizner’s handcrafted tile floors, antique European stained-glass windows and intricate stonework detailing, as well other historic elements.

    Sunny said the damage seen today pales in comparison to the state of the building before the Eigelbergers took ownership.

    “We did go out to inspect, and frankly there are some areas that have some stone deterioration, (but) the building is not crumbling or falling apart. The building looked a lot worse in the 1980s,” she said.

    Sunny said the association will soon have a stone conservator inspect the damaged stonework to see whether it can be repaired or if it will need to be replaced.

    It would take about a month for the conservator to issue the association a report on the stone’s condition and repair recommendations, she said.

    “But to do the actual stone restoration work takes some time,” Sunny said, noting that a similar project took about six months to complete. “But that’s the level of preservation we would expect as the easement holder and (it) would be the most appropriate for this landmarked structure.”

    The town granted the building landmark protection in 1979. In 1984, the Warden House was added to the National Register of Historic Places, a preservation program overseen by the National Parks Service.

    Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com.

    This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Preservation Foundation to guide repairs at Palm Beach’s Warden House

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  • West Palm’s Grandview Market now closed as part of Warehouse District reboot

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    The Warehouse District in West Palm Beach is getting a reboot that backers say will bring in home furnishings, interior design, wellness and fitness retailers to the district, which consists of warehouses initially built between 1925 and 1974. It will also see the shuttering of the food hall known as Grandview Public Market, with aspirations to bring in other dining options.

    The district sits along Elizabeth and Clare avenues, about a mile south of CityPlace.

    The rehabbing of the Warehouse District is a venture by real estate investor Alex Griswold, who bought the properties in 2024. Griswold recently brought in veteran retail leasing executive Francis X. Scire Jr., the leasing director for West Palm Beach’s Nora District, to fill the project’s spaces.

    Nora District: Sneak peek shows new WPB neighborhood with restaurants, stores

    West Palm’s Grandview food hall closed, no details on replacement yet

    At the end of July, the space’s Miami-based operator, City Food Hall, shut down Grandview Public Market.

    In a July 17 interview, Griswold and Scire said they aren’t yet certain what will become of the food hall space, but they said they are aware it is the district’s anchor. Griswold said he hopes the space can be filled with a food and beverage operator “for the locals and by the locals.”

    Isla & Co, a sit-down restaurant adjacent to the food hall, will remain open.

    Griswold said he has big plans for the Warehouse District, which sits in a pocket of the city next to longtime residential enclaves such as Grandview Heights and Flamingo Park.

    “Our goal is to serve the community,” he said.

    Aerial view of the Warehouse District in West Palm Beach.

    To that end, creating a roster of interesting tenants is a major goal, especially in the home furnishings market. It’s also a solution for retailers that want to be close to the city’s major residential communities but can’t find space that’s large enough, or affordable enough along South Dixie Highway.

    “We can offer larger spaces to these designers and furniture businesses while still being adjacent to the Dixie Highway corridor,” Griswold said.

    More: Transformed from rundown to hip, Warehouse District fetches $18.5 million

    New West Palm Beach businesses include home furnishings retailer, Show Pony Palm Beach

    Among the tenants that just opened in the district is Show Pony Palm Beach, specializing in 20th century home furnishings, including art and furniture.

    Michael Walker, its owner and a veteran of New York’s fashion industry, moved to West Palm Beach nearly four years ago, then opened a furniture gallery on South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach.

    Walker said he quickly found success with people who appreciated his eye for finding unusual items for the home. After a lease on his existing warehouse space ran out, Walker decided to take up 13,000 square feet in two spaces in the Warehouse District.

    Furnishings offered by Show Pony Palm Beach, a home furnishings store that just leased space in the Warehouse District in West Palm Beach.

    Furnishings offered by Show Pony Palm Beach, a home furnishings store that just leased space in the Warehouse District in West Palm Beach.

    With the surge in migration to West Palm Beach from New York and other major U.S. cities, Walker is optimistic the Warehouse District will thrive as a destination for home furnishings. Even as Walker was moving items into the spaces this month, he said he was surprised to see walk-up inquiries.

    “This area is going to explode,” Walker said. “The local community is so good at decorating their homes. They have sophisticated taste, and designers come here from all over.”

    Blake Anding, owner of Classic Sofa, moved into the district last year after searching for space in Southeast Florida from Miami to Vero Beach.

    More: New apartments in West Palm Beach’s hip Warehouse District add to allure of industrial area

    Classic Sofa is a 43-year-old company that makes custom upholstered furniture from a New York-based manufacturing facility. The setup allows customers to obtain their pieces in weeks, rather than months, as is the case with furniture stores that use foreign manufacturing sites, Anding said.

    Anding said he settled on the Warehouse District because it had the feel of a place that felt artsy enough to be interesting but not so pricey it was closed off to new players.

    “It’s a breath of fresh air,” Anding said.

    Anding said he’s particularly impressed by Griswold’s decision to bring in creative tenants to give life to the district, including complementary neighbors such as Show Pony. For his part, Anding said he’s eager to be part of the Warehouse District’s new shine: “I just want to help in any way I can.”

    Warehouse District gave fresh life to old buildings

    The Warehouse District first burst onto the scene in 2018 with the opening of the Grandview Food Market, the county’s first food hall.

    The food hall was formed out of one of six rundown properties purchased and revamped by investor Hunter Beebe of Palm Beach.

    In addition to creating the food hall, Beebe also brought hip tenants, such as Steam Horse Brewing and Steel Tie Spirits Company, to nearby properties.

    Mural by artist Renda Writer at The Warehouse District at 1500 Elizabeth Avenue in West Palm Beach, Florida on July 15, 2024.

    Mural by artist Renda Writer at The Warehouse District at 1500 Elizabeth Avenue in West Palm Beach, Florida on July 15, 2024.

    In late 2018, just months after opening the Grandview Public Market, Beebe sold the properties for $18 million to Charlotte-based Asana Partners. The real estate company held the portfolio for a few years and then sold it to a Griswold entity for $19.5 million in July 2024.

    During the past year, Griswold said he’s managed to bring the project’s occupancy to about 90% from 50%. This includes leasing the entire 12,000 square foot boutique office space to tenants.

    Prior to Griswold’s ownership of the buildings, the warehouse district and its occupants experienced mixed success.


    Stay up to date on South Florida’s sizzling real estate market and sign up for The Dirt weekly newsletter, delivered every Tuesday! Exclusively for Palm Beach Post subscribers.


    The district attracted a rental apartment project now known as The Point at District Flats.

    But the food hall struggled amid the COVID pandemic. Steam Horse Brewing at 1500 Elizabeth Ave. also took a hit from the pandemic and never really recovered. The brewery closed its doors in September.

    By teaming with Scire, Griswold hopes to tap into the thriving market for design and furnishings, boutique gyms, wellness concepts, and selected food operators.

    Wellness businesses also finding a home in Warehouse District

    A new tenant that just opened in the Warehouse District is Bindu Yoga & Wellness at 1530 Elizabeth Ave.

    Formerly an axe-throwing venue, the space “has a different energy now,” co-owner Angela Reinhardt quipped.

    Reinhardt said she and partners Annie Cardelus and Bella Jones were attracted to the district “because it seems to have a growing wellness community that we want to be a part of.”

    A prior location on Dixie Highway was half the size, Reinhardt said. But the new district space, which opened two weeks ago, allows for group classes, private yoga sessions, massage and soon a red light therapy room.

    Reinhardt said the studio’s expanded services will meet demand from customers “who have a better understanding of how we need to focus on our health if we want to stay comfortable in our later years.”

    Indeed, health and wellness are key components of the Warehouse District, said Scire, who has experience bringing these retailers to central Palm Beach County.

    Scire successfully leased the newly-created Nora District, a dining, entertainment and shopping district set to open in September in a section just north of downtown West Palm Beach. Like the Warehouse District, Nora also was fashioned out of old industrial buildings, along with some new construction.

    Prior to the Nora District, Scire previously leased the Royal Poinciana Plaza, filling the 1950s-era Palm Beach shopping center with new tenants. The property, now known as The Royal, today features a top collection of restaurants, designer retailers and wellness facilities.

    Scire said he’s staying on with the Nora team as a consultant for a year to help guide the project’s planned second phase, set to open in 2028.

    At the same time, Scire said he’s eager to create a new gathering spot for West Palm Beach residents and visitors in the Warehouse District, which is close to his home in the nearby Grandview Heights Historic District.

    This plan includes possibly making use of the district’s main street, Elizabeth Avenue, into a spot for events, especially for families in the evening hours.

    Scire described the Warehouse District as “the best kept secret” in the city, and he and Griswold hope to unveil more details in the fall, including more new tenants.

    “We want to reintroduce the district to West Palm Beach as a place to serve the neighbors around us,” Scire said.

    More residents could be filling up the area, too.

    West Palm Beach-based Amato Millan Development is approved to build two new apartment buildings featuring 245 residences. The buildings are an extension of the nearby 51-residence Mercer Park Apartments, which the company finished in 2022.

    Alexandra Clough is a business writer at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. X: @acloughpbpHelp support our journalism. Subscribe today.

    This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm’s Grandview Market food hall closed in Warehouse District

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  • Sales of $10 million homes surge in Palm Beach and New York

    Sales of $10 million homes surge in Palm Beach and New York

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    Tarpon Island, a private island in Palm Beach, Florida, sold for $150 million in May 2024.

    CNBC

    A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

    Sales of ultra-luxury homes surged in New York, Miami and Palm Beach, Florida, in the second quarter, even as they fell in much of the rest of the world, according to a new report.

    The number of homes that sold for $10 million or more in the second quarter jumped 44% in Palm Beach, 27% in Miami and 16% in New York, according to a report from real estate firm Knight Frank.

    New York led the U.S. in $10 million-plus sales, with 72, its highest total in two years, according to the report. Miami came in second with 55, followed by Los Angeles with 42 and Palm Beach with 36. Los Angeles saw a 29% decline in $10 million-plus sales, due largely to the new “mansion tax,” which adds a 5.5% charge on homes sold for over $10 million, the report said.

    The biggest sale of the quarter was the $150 million deal in May for Palm Beach’s only private island, reportedly purchased by Australian infrastructure investor Michael Dorrell, according to The Wall Street Journal. In June, a historic 3.2-acre estate in Palm Beach sold for $148 million, while in Manhattan, the penthouse of the Aman New York was sold for $135 million in July.

    Get Inside Wealth directly to your inbox

    While demand in many top luxury markets is slowing from the 2021 peak, ultra-wealthy buyers continue to pay record prices for rare trophy properties, boosted in large part by rising financial markets, Knight Frank said.

    “Substantial wealth creation has supported the growth in the global super-prime sales market,” said Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank. “The transformation of markets like Dubai, Palm Beach and Miami has more than offset the slowing experienced by some more mature markets.”

    Globally, in the 11 top luxury markets that Knight Frank tracks, sales of $10 million-plus homes fell 4% over last year to $8.5 billion.

    Dubai leads the world in ultra-luxury real estate, with 85 sales in the second quarter, the report said. The city has seen a stratospheric rise, as the ultra-rich from Russia, China, Europe and other areas moved to Dubai for its friendly tax and regulatory regimes. In 2019, Dubai had only 23 sales over $10 million. In the past 12 months, it has had 436 sales — although sales in the most recent quarter fell slightly from last year and the first quarter, Knight Frank said.

    London saw one of the largest declines in the world, with sales of $10 million-plus homes plunging 47% from last year on fears of higher taxes on the U.K. wealthy, according to Knight Frank.

    Although ultra-luxury buyers usually pay cash for their properties, falling interest rates throughout the world are expected to help support sales in the second half, according to the report.

    Last week, 29 contracts were signed in Manhattan for properties priced over $4 million, according to the Olshan Luxury Market report — the strongest post-Labor Day week since at least 2006.

    “With rates moving lower, total transaction volumes are likely to tick higher into 2025,” Bailey said.

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  • Florida Law and Order Priorities Highlighted by Governor DeSantis, AG Moody, Sheriff Judd

    Florida Law and Order Priorities Highlighted by Governor DeSantis, AG Moody, Sheriff Judd

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    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis highlighted law and order priorities, including protecting from fentanyl and illegal drugs, and curbing illegal immigration, with Attorney General Ashley Moody, Sheriff Grady Judd, and others in law enforcement.

    Last year, Governor DeSantis signed legislation establishing the State Assistance for Fentanyl Eradication (SAFE) grant program, which provides law enforcement with the funding needed to conduct large-scale drug operations across the state, including many in Central Florida.

    Florida has also enacted a suite of legislation to crack down on crime, curb illegal immigration, increase penalties for drug and human traffickers, and recruit law enforcement officers to the state.

    And when two state attorneys refused to carry out the duties of their positions and enforce the law, Governor DeSantis removed them from office.

    “Leadership matters,” said Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. “Law and order is maintained when leaders insist on enforcing the law. Florida has enacted legislation to combat crime, recruited police officers from all over the country, refused to allow cities to defund the police, and—when necessary—removed rogue state attorneys who refused to enforce the law.”

    “Florida is a law-and-order state, and through proactive leadership and diligent law enforcement efforts we continue to prosper, break tourism records and lead in new business formations,” said Attorney General Ashley Moody. “This is due in large part to the brave men and women in law enforcement, and we will always work to ensure they are supported by Florida leadership.”

    In 2023, the Governor approved $20 million in funding for Florida’s SAFE program administered by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. This state-funded grant has allowed local law enforcement agencies to effectively fight against drug trafficking and get hundreds of pounds of deadly drugs off our streets.

    “I commend Governor DeSantis and the Florida legislature for their support of law enforcement in Florida,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “We are a law and order state, and proud of it. Because of this, our communities are thriving. Florida is a safe place to live, work, and play.”

    Examples of Florida being a law and order state from SAFE grant success stories include:

    • In January 2024, the Polk County Sheriffs Office utilized SAFE to arrest 11 suspects trafficking in fentanyl and cocaine, seizing 30 pounds of cocaine and nearly 8 pounds of fentanyl.
    • In March 2024, Santa Rosa County and Escambia County Sheriffs’ offices, working alongside the DEA, seized 3 grams of fentanyl, marijuana, prescription pills, and several handguns.
    • In April 2024, FDLE operations in conjunction with Sheriffs’ Offices in Seminole County and Palm Beach County resulted in arrests of nearly 40 drug traffickers.
    • In April 2024, officers in the Fort Myers region successfully seized nearly 4kg of cocaine, 90g of fentanyl, 69g of MDMA, 375g of marijuana, two AR-15 weapons, and more than $60,000 in currency.
    • In July 2024, FDLE Pensacola, Santa Rosa County and Okaloosa County Sheriff’s offices, Fort Walton Beach Police Department, FHP, and the DEA announced the arrest of 19 drug traffickers facing charges including trafficking in cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, conspiracy to distribute, and racketeering.
    • In August 2024, a SAFE-funded investigation dismantled a drug trafficking operation in St. Petersburg which was responsible for manufacturing hundreds of doses of fentanyl daily throughout Polk County, specifically in Lakeland.
      • Officers confiscated 10.7 kilos of fentanyl, along with cocaine, oxycodone, marijuana, 3 illegal firearms, and over $500,000 in cash.

    “Florida is a national model in eradicating drugs from our communities and taking criminals off the street,” said Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Dave Kerner. “In every corner of this great state, you will find State Troopers and local law enforcement working together to interdict drugs and arrest those who profit off of it. Instead of being demonized, Governor DeSantis celebrates the dangerous work our law enforcement officers do every day, and our men and women in law enforcement deeply appreciate that.”

    In total, SAFE funds have resulted in over 650 arrests and the seizure of more than 145 pounds of fentanyl, 220 pounds of cocaine, and 60,000 fentanyl pills – numbers officials say show Florida is a law and order state.

    “Thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis and his leadership, Florida’s law enforcement officers have arrested hundreds of dangerous drug traffickers and taken fentanyl and other deadly drugs off our streets,” said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass. “Florida is a national role model and stands in stark contrast to crime-plagued blue states.”

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  • The six fire-, flood- and storm-prone cities where billionaires love to buy homes

    The six fire-, flood- and storm-prone cities where billionaires love to buy homes

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    Rising interest rates. Natural disasters. There are a host of reasons not to buy a home in the current real estate market — particularly in certain areas. But the ultra-rich are unfazed.

    As most of the market recovers from its pandemic hangover, megamansions in some cities have been immune to the slowdown. Across the country, billionaires are still spending tens of millions of dollars on homes, despite traditional logic telling them to park their money elsewhere.

    A new report from Realtor.com says that six cities have emerged as the favorites of the elite so far this year, and two of them are in California. Tops for the fat-cat crew are Malibu, San Francisco, Aspen, New York City, Miami and Palm Beach.

    All six have seen sales north of $50 million so far in 2024, and a handful have seen sales much, much higher.

    In May, a private island compound in Palm Beach fetched $152 million, setting the all-time price record in the Sunshine State. California saw a record of its own a month later when Oakley founder James Jannard sold his Malibu spread for $210 million.

    For every excuse not to buy, billionaires find a workaround, the report said.

    For example, climate change and its ripple effects — floods, fires and storms — threaten homes in coastal communities across California and Florida. But Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations and insurance providers have raised the standards for homebuilders and developers, requiring increased wind and flood protection. So well-heeled buyers in Florida, for instance, see many new homes, especially expensive ones, as hurricane-proof.

    Storm-prepped homes may be too expensive for some, but not for those with a budget of $50 million or more.

    The same logic goes for other environmental disasters, the report said. Wealthy beach-house hunters can minimize the effects of coastal erosion by buying a home with a concrete foundation and brand-new sea wall, which protects against crashing waves and shrinking beaches much better than do the older, less pricey homes built on wood stilts in the 1950s and ’60s.

    For mansions in fire-prone areas, billionaires outfit estates with fire suppression systems and even hire private teams of firefighters to protect their homes from the flames.

    The other factor barring some potential buyers from the housing market? Soaring interest rates.

    Unlike during the pandemic, when rates plummeted to 2% or lower, rates in the modern market hover around 7%.

    A mortgage payment with a 7% rate can cost thousands of dollars more per month — or even tens of thousands more for multimillion-dollar properties. But billionaires aren’t at the mercy of interest rates for a few reasons, the report said.

    Some affluent buyers can pay all-cash for a luxury property, avoiding interest altogether.

    Others are able to broker special deals with banks due to their longstanding relationships and massive holdings. In other words, the more zeroes you have in your account, the better rate you’ll score from a bank.

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    Jack Flemming

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  • Donald Trump Jr. Discusses His Hunting And Outdoor Magazine – ‘One Of The Least Political Things I Do’

    Donald Trump Jr. Discusses His Hunting And Outdoor Magazine – ‘One Of The Least Political Things I Do’

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    Opinion

    Source: Field Ethos YouTube

    Donald Trump Jr. has launched his own hunting and outdoor magazine called Field Ethos, describing it as ” probably one of the least political things I do.”

    Trump Jr.’s New Magazine

    When Trump Jr. is not campaigning for his father, he can typically be found in the great outdoors.

    “If I’m in Colorado doing an event, I’ll sneak off for half a day and go fly fishing,” he told Politico. “Today, I had a pretty crazy day of conference calls, but I’m literally in the car, banging all of those out. I’m gonna go do a quail hunt in upstate Florida before I have to drive back down to Palm Beach to have a business dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

    “That’s my decompression from the five-speaking-events-a-day general lifestyle that will be my next, let’s call it year,” he added. “The next 12 months are going to be interesting for me and my family ,and it’s great to know I can pick up one of our journals when I just need a break from it all.”

    Trump Jr. was first introduced to the great outdoors by his maternal grandfather Milos Zelnicek, who would take his New Yorker grandson on camping trips in then-communist Czechoslovakia. 

    “I literally just fell in love with it; I read every book there was on the subject,” Trump Jr. said. “All of those things, I think, are getting lost in today’s instant gratification society. You know, kids sit there on a video game. Everything’s … instant gratification.”

    Related: Trump Jr. Rips Mitch McConnell as ‘Pro-Amnesty Turtle’ After Vast Majority of $118 Billion Senate Bill Goes to Israel, Ukraine

    Field Ethos Co-Founder Speaks Out

    Field Ethos co-founder and CEO Jason Vincent explained that the target demographic for the magazine is men between the ages of 25 and 55, though a quarter or more of the audience is female.

    “That may really just come from the fact that there’s still kind of a draw to that unapologetic male mindset,” Vincent said. “That may be why we’ve built the female following that we have … it doesn’t feel like it’s being watered down to try to get traction with them.”

    Vincent went on to say that while the magazine is not explicitly political, there are times when politics intersects with issues that readers are inherently interested in, like gun rights.

     “Yes, Don is involved. He’s part of our group of friends and our team at Field Ethos,” Vincent said. “But … Field Ethos is really designed to be a place people can go when they’re kind of sick of that.”

    When politics does find its way into the magazine, Vincent said that the politics are “sensible,” middle-of-the-road, and emphatically not far-right.

    “The extreme right is not our brand,” Vincent said. “We see ourselves as speaking to a sophisticated audience that is smart enough to not find themselves at the extreme of either side.”

    Related: Donald Trump Jr. Calls For ‘Mass Deportations’ As Reports Show Over 1,000 ‘Gotaways’ Escaping Into Country Every Day

    Trump Jr.’s Goal With Field Ethos

    In the end, Trump Jr. has a clear goal in launching Field Ethos.

    “Creating an alternate viewpoint for the Americans who felt like they’ve been left behind who don’t want to support those things,” he concluded, “that’s a big part of the focus.”

    Given how crazy this year is likely to be for the Trump family, we’re glad to see that Trump Jr. has a passion project that will allow him to escape. If you’re a fan of the great outdoors, be sure to pick up a copy of Field Ethos!

    Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust.
    The Political Insider ranks #3 on Feedspot’s “100 Best Political Blogs and Websites.”

    An Ivy leaguer, proud conservative millennial, history lover, writer, and lifelong New Englander, James specializes in the intersection of… More about James Conrad

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    James Conrad

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  • Why Attacks on Trump’s Mental Acuity Don’t Land

    Why Attacks on Trump’s Mental Acuity Don’t Land

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    Ten years ago, I stood in the back of a large room at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, watching Donald Trump ramble. The celebrity billionaire had been loitering on the fringes of American politics for a few years, but this was my first time seeing him give a proper speech. At least, that’s what I thought he was supposed to be doing. Speaking at the Politics & Eggs forum is a rite of passage for presidential aspirants, and Trump at the time was going through his quadrennial ritual of noisily considering a bid for office. Typically, prospective candidates give variations on their stump speech in this setting. Trump was doing something else—he meandered and riffed and told disjointed stories with no evident connection to one another. The incoherence might have been startling if I had taken him seriously. But the year was 2014, and this was Donald Trump—the man who presided over a reality show in which Gary Busey competed in a pizza-selling contest with Meat Loaf. Nobody took Trump seriously. That was my first mistake.

    Over the past decade, I’ve told the story of what happened next so many times that I can recite each beat in my sleep. The ride to the tarmac in the back of Trump’s SUV. The phone call from his pilot with news that a blizzard had shut down LaGuardia Airport. The last-minute decision to reroute his plane to Palm Beach, and his fateful insistence that the 26-year-old BuzzFeed reporter in the car (me) tag along. What was supposed to be a short in-flight interview turned into two surreal, and oddly intimate, days at Mar-a-Lago, which I spent studying Trump in his natural habitat.

    The article I published a few weeks later—“36 Hours on the Fake Campaign Trail With Donald Trump”—cannot exactly be called prescient, in that I rather confidently predicted that my subject would never run for office. But my portrait of Trump—his depthless vanity, his brittle ego, his tragic craving for elite approval—has largely held up. I described him on his plane restlessly flipping through cable news channels in search of his own face, and quoted him casually blowing off his wedding anniversary to fly to Florida. (“There are a lot of good-looking women here,” he told me once we arrived, leaning in at a poolside buffet.)

    Trump, suffice it to say, did not like the article, and he responded in predictably wrathful fashion. He insulted me on Twitter (“slimebag reporter,” “true garbage with no credibility”), planted fabricated stories about me in Breitbart News (“TRUMP: ‘SCUMBAG’ BUZZFEED BLOGGER OGLED WOMEN WHILE HE ATE BISON AT MY RESORT”), and got me blacklisted from covering Republican events where he was speaking. It was a jarring experience, but enlightening in its way. I’ve returned to it repeatedly over the years, mining the episode for insight into the improbable president’s psyche and the era that he’s shaped.

    As the tenth anniversary of my Mar-a-Lago misadventure approached this week, much of the conversation about Trump was focused on his mental competency. There were political reasons for this. Democrats, hoping to deflect concerns about President Joe Biden’s age and memory, were circulating video clips in which Trump sounded confused and unhinged. Trump’s Republican primary opponents had suggested that he’d “lost the zip on his fastball” or was “becoming crazier.” Nikki Haley had called on Trump (and Biden) to take a mental-acuity test. On social media and in the press, countless detractors have speculated that Trump is losing touch with reality, or sliding into dementia, or growing intoxicated by his own conspiracy theories. The sense of progression is what unites all these claims—the idea that Trump is not just bad, but getting worse.

    To test this theory, I went back and listened to the recording of my hour-long interview with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2014. Half-convinced by the narrative of the former president’s worsening mental health, I expected to find in that audio file a more lucid, cogent Trump—one who hadn’t yet been unraveled by the stresses and travails of power. What I found instead illustrates both the risks of returning him to the Oval Office and the futility of trying to prevent that outcome by focusing on his mental decline: He sounded almost exactly the same as he does now.

    This is not to say he sounded sharp. He struggled at times to form complete sentences, and repeatedly lost his train of thought. Throughout our conversation, he said so many obviously untrue things that I remember wondering whether he was a pathological liar or simply deluded.

    Take, for example, our exchange over Trump’s embrace of the “birther” conspiracy theory. Trump had notoriously accused President Barack Obama of forging his U.S. citizenship and, near the end of the 2012 election, had offered to donate $5 million to a charity of Obama’s choosing if he released his college transcripts.

    Here is what Trump said to me, verbatim, when I asked him about the stunt:

    Well, I thought it was good. I mean, I offered $5 million to his charity if he produced his records, so—to his favorite charity if he produced his records. Uh, and I didn’t want to see his marks; I wanted to see where it says “place of birth.” I wanted to see what he put on there. And to this day, nobody’s ever seen any of those records. Uh, they have seen a book that was written when he was a young man saying he was a man from Kenya, a young man from Kenya, ba ba ba ba ba. And the publisher of the book said, “No, that’s what he said,” and then a day later he said, “No, no, that was a typographical error.” Well, you know what a typographical error—that’s when you type the word, when you put an S at the end of a word because it was wrong. You understand that. The word Kenya versus the United States—okay. So he has a book where he said he was from Kenya. Uh, and then, uh, they said that was a typographical error. I mean, there’s a lot of things. Um, I mean I have a whole theory on it, and I’m pretty sure I’m right. Uh, but I have a whole theory as to where he was born, uh, and what he did. And if you noticed, he spent millions and millions of dollars on trying to protect that information. And to this day, I’m shocked that with the three colleges that we’re talking about—you know, Columbia, Harvard, and, and Occidental—that somebody in the office didn’t take that file and say, “Hey, here it is.” I just am shocked. But—and by the way, if it were a positive thing, I would say that it’s something he should’ve done. Because there were a lot of people that agree with me. You know, a lot of people say, “Oh, that was controversial.” A lot of those people in the room loved me because of it. You understand this. You know, there’s a group, a big group of people—I’m not saying it’s a majority, but I want to tell you, it’s a very strong silent minority at least that agrees with me. And I actually said that if he ever did it, I would hope that it showed that I was wrong. And that everything would be perfect. I would rather have that than be right.

    A couple of minutes later, I asked Trump about the charges of racism he’d faced as a result of the birther crusade. His response:

    Don’t forget, Obama called Bill Clinton a racist, and Clinton has never forgiven him for it. Um, uh, many, they called many—anytime anybody disagrees with Obama, they call him a racist. So there have been many people called racists. No, that didn’t, it never stuck in my case, uh, at all. It’s something I was never called before, and it never stuck. At all. But if you notice, whenever anyone got tough with Obama, including Bill Clinton, and including others, they would call him, they would call that person a racist. Uh, so, it’s, it was a charge that they tried, and it never stuck. And you know why it never stuck? ’Cause I am, I am, I am so not a racist, it’s incredible. So it just never stuck. As I think you would notice.

    What do you do with an answer like this if you’re a reporter? On a substantive level, it’s objectively detached from reality: Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, and there is no record of his having called Bill Clinton a racist. On a sentence level, the remarks are incoherent, confused, repetitive, and syntactically strange. Transcribing Trump is a nightmare. So is fact-checking him. In the end, I quoted eight words from this rant—“I am so not a racist, it’s incredible.”

    Maybe that was a failure on my part. For years, a contingent of Trump’s critics have argued that journalists fail to show this side of the former president—that we sanitize him by extracting only his most coherent quotes for our stories. And I’ll be the first to admit that it’s difficult to capture Trump’s rambling rhetorical style in print.

    But does anyone believe that publishing those comments in full would have meaningfully changed the public’s perception of Trump, then or now? There may have been a time—in the 1980s and ’90s, perhaps—when he sounded more articulate and grounded in reality. But that Trump was long gone by the time he announced his first campaign. It was not a secret. We all watched those rallies on TV; we all saw him in those debates. And he was elected president anyway.

    There’s a simple reason coverage of verbal flubs, memory lapses, and general octogenarian confusion is more damaging to Biden than it is to Trump. Biden ran for president on a platform of stability and competence, and that image is undermined by suggestions of mental decline. Accusing Trump of going crazy doesn’t work because, well, he has sounded crazy for a long time. The people who voted for him don’t seem to mind—in fact, it’s part of the appeal.

    After listening to the old recording of my Trump interview, I called Sam Nunberg for a gut check. A former political operative with a thick New York accent and a collection of shiny neckties, Nunberg was the prototypical Trump acolyte when I first met him. But his relationship with his former boss has been rocky since he arranged for my access to Trump in 2014 and accompanied me on that trip to Mar-a-Lago: Trump theatrically fired him after my story came out, hired him back, fired him again, then sued him for $10 million, before eventually agreeing to a settlement.

    The two men haven’t spoken in years, according to Nunberg—but that hasn’t stopped reporters from calling him up for quotes about Trump’s mental state. “They’re wanting me to say he’s not the same,” Nunberg told me. “But I don’t see it, at least publicly. I think he’s the same guy.”

    And what kind of guy is that? “He’s reckless, and he’s a narcissist,” Nunberg said. But that’s not exactly news. He’s always been that way.

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  • Young Mom Charged With Manslaughter After Allegedly Doing Nothing As Newborn Suffocated To Death Hours After Birth – Perez Hilton

    Young Mom Charged With Manslaughter After Allegedly Doing Nothing As Newborn Suffocated To Death Hours After Birth – Perez Hilton

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    [Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

    A Florida woman is facing manslaughter charges over the disturbing 2022 death of her newborn son.

    Bianca DeSouza (pictured in her mugshot, above) was 19 years old at the time of the May 2022 incident when her hours-old infant died on a bed in her mother’s Boca Raton home. According to a probable cause affidavit in the case, Bianca was laying on a bed in another room when her mother came home to find the infant — who had been born only hours before — lying lifelessly on a bed alone.

    Related: Jenelle Evans’ Former BFF Charged With First-Degree Murder!

    The investigation into the infant’s death has been a long time in coming, and Bianca was only arrested on Friday of last week. Now, finally, details are coming to light about what transpired. Per the arrest affidavit uncovered on Wednesday by People, Bianca’s mother asked the teenager to call 911 to get medical help for the infant. However, the teen allegedly replied that her phone was going to die, and declined to make the call.

    The mother rushed to call police, and first responders showed up to render aid. Sadly, it was too late, and the newborn baby was declared dead. The reason behind the baby’s death was later determined to be asphyxia, with homicide as the official cause listed in medical reports.

    Cops questioned Bianca at the scene, and she confirmed to them that she went into labor at home while wearing shorts. Per the arrest affidavit, the teenager “pulled [the shorts] to the side during the birth,” and the child “came out of the right side of her shorts.” Officers noted in their write-up that they found the baby with shorts wrapped around its torso.

    DeSouza’s mother claimed to officers that her daughter had previously been diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia and PTSD. She also indicated that Bianca had switched around her medications and dosages during pregnancy. To that end, Bianca told cops she considered terminating the pregnancy months before, but decided not to. In fact, Bianca had apparently been intending on giving up the baby for adoption as she was uncertain of her ability to care for the child.

    Related: 16-Year-Old Texas Cheerleader Found Murdered In Bathtub

    Sadly, that didn’t happen, as the child died shortly after being born. Now, Bianca has been charged with manslaughter after she allegedly did nothing to help the struggling newborn or seek out first responders. In an interview with cops, the transcript of which is partially revealed in the arrest affidavit, Bianca reportedly admitted that she did exceedingly little:

    “I didn’t know what was going on. I gave birth … and kind of just sat there. … I just didn’t do anything and I’m so mad. It was like my body stopped working.”

    So sad…

    Tragically, the teenager’s mom believes Bianca likely had “a psychotic break” during the birth, and was rendered helpless in the baby’s time of need. Indeed, the psychological effects of pregnancy and birth on a person can be larger than most think.

    Regardless, cops have charged the teenager with counts of aggravated manslaughter of a child and child negligence. She is now being represented by a public defender, per People.

    If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.

    [Image via Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office]

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  • Trump sells snippets of mugshot suit, Mar-a-Lago dinner in latest NFT promotion

    Trump sells snippets of mugshot suit, Mar-a-Lago dinner in latest NFT promotion

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    Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

    Former President Donald Trump has found a new way to monetize his infamous mugshot — while also selling the chance to see his face in person.

    Trump announced Tuesday that snippets of the suit he wore for that photo would be available for purchase, as part of a new sale of NFT “digital trading cards,” a product he debuted in late 2022.

    Customers who buy 47 of the $99-apiece digital cards, Trump says, will receive a physical card containing a piece of the suit Trump is seen wearing in the photo.

    “It was a great suit, believe me, a really good suit. It’s all cut up, and you’re gonna get a piece of it,” Trump said in a video on Truth Social.

    The $4,653 package also includes a dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

    The Aug. 24 photo was shot in an Atlanta-area jail, where Trump was booked on state charges of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.

    Like the first round of card sales, the current offer claims the cards are “not political and have nothing to do with any political campaign.”

    Still, by offering buyers an in-person dinner with Trump, the deal essentially provides access to a former president and current top presidential contender — without any of the guardrails of federal campaign finance rules.

    The cards are produced and sold by NFT INT LLC, which has a licensing agreement with Trump to use his name and image.

    Trump said the 2022 digital card offer sold out within hours. He later reported earning between $100,001 and $1 million in income from the sale. He released another series of 47,000 cards in April.

    The cards show cartoon versions of Trump in various hero-like postures and outfits. One in the new batch shows him gripping blue bolts of lightning in front of the U.S. Capitol as fighter jets fly past. Another shows him sitting in the place of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial statue.

    “Some people call these cards pop art or modern art,” Trump said in the video. “They give me muscles where, believe me, I don’t have them.”

    NFTs, short for nonfungible tokens, are unique digital assets that have their ownership recorded on a digital ledger called a blockchain.

    For those who buy 47 digital cards, the physical cards will contain one of 2,024 pieces of Trump’s suit from the mugshot. Some of these cards are autographed, according to the site.

    The suit was authenticated by Troy Kinunen, president of sports memorabilia authenticator MEARS. Kinunen is quoted describing Trump’s suit as “the most historically significant artifact in United States history.”

    In an interview with CNBC, Kinunen confirmed that quote, albeit with the caveat that it was “definitely one of them, especially in modern times with social media.”

    He also reiterated his view that the value of the suit is “priceless.”

    “How do you put a price on something like that?” Kinunen said. “It’s really unprecedented.”

    Read more CNBC politics coverage

    Kinunen said he conducted a physical evaluation of the suit using a digital microscope and a light table to check the quality, size, construction and manufacturing details of the garment.

    “I can’t think of anything that has reached this threshold,” he said.

    There are also $9,900 “VIP Tickets” to the black-tie-optional dinner at Mar-a-Lago, which include access to a cocktail reception with Trump.

    The VIP ticket holders also get two physical cards: one with a piece of Trump’s suit from the mugshot, and a second autographed card containing a piece of Trump’s suit and tie.

    This offer is limited to 200 people, who must each buy 100 cards in one transaction, and pay by cryptocurrency, the site specifies.

    There is no date for the dinner, though the website says buyers will get at least 30 days’ notice to plan a trip to Florida. The gala dinner will include roughly 800 people, according to the terms and conditions.

    Attendees are responsible for all costs and expenses associated with the live event, including travel expenses and related charges, the site notes.

    Trump sought to capitalize on his mugshot almost immediately after it was released. His campaign has repeatedly used it in fundraising pitches and his joint fundraising committee has slapped it on T-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs and Christmas stockings.

    Within a day of being booked in Georgia, Trump’s campaign reportedly raised more than $4 million, marking his highest-grossing 24-hour period of the primary cycle.

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  • Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and 'kings' would pay $1B for Mar-a-Lago, Trump expert to testify at NY fraud trial

    Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and 'kings' would pay $1B for Mar-a-Lago, Trump expert to testify at NY fraud trial

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    • Trump plans to call Palm Beach real-estate broker Lawrence Moens at his NY fraud trial next week.

    • Moens has sworn Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and “kings” would pay $1B for the club, where he’s a member.

    • On Friday, the judge OK’d Moens’ testimony despite the state saying it will waste “an entire day.”

    Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and “kings” would pay $1 billion dollars for Mar-a-Lago, according to a Palm Beach real-estate broker whom Donald Trump plans to call to testify next week, as an expert defense witness in his New York civil fraud trial.

    “It’s like a fantasy list,” the broker, Lawrence Moens, said in a pre-trial deposition over the summer, describing the dozen-or-so ultra-billionaires he thinks would spring that high for the property.

    “I could dream up anyone from Elon Musk to Bill Gates and everyone in between,” he told lawyers for the state attorney general’s office during the July deposition, previewing next week’s trial testimony. “Kings, emperors, heads of state.”

    “If they want the best house in the country, that would be one of the top two or three that would be available if they were for sale,” he added, according to a transcript.

    “I wish he’d let me sell it, but it’s not for sale,” he said.

    Moens is scheduled to testify on Trump’s behalf Tuesday in the ongoing trial, where lawyers for state Attorney General Letitia James are trying to prove the former president exaggerated his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion a year in a decade’s worth of financial statements to banks, insurers and tax officials.

    Mar-a-Lago is chief among those exaggerations.

    Donald Trump allegedly inflated the value of his Palm Beach resort in financial documents by as much as $714 million.

    Donald Trump allegedly inflated the value of his Palm Beach resort in financial documents by as much as $714 million.New York attorney general’s office

    The AG’s office alleges that as part of an effort to trick banks into charging him better interest rates, Trump intentionally valued the property at astronomical levels, saying it was worth as much as $739 million. That’s the number he used in 2018, when state officials say it was only worth $25 million.

    In doing so, the state alleges, Trump relied on the false premise that Mar-a-Lago was an unrestricted property. Trump misrepresented that he could develop the 17 waterfront acres even though the former president had personally signed deeds donating away his residential development rights for tax purposes, the state alleges.

    Trump has fixated on the value of Mar-a-Lago during the trial’s nine weeks, as a matter of personal pride and as part of his defense that his net-worth statements actually underestimated the value of his properties.

    What’s at stake

    The trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, already found in a pretrial ruling in September that Trump’s net-worth statements were frauds.

    At issue now, in the non-jury, civil trial, is whether the over-valuations of Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties fit the legal definition of fraud under New York criminal law, and if so, how many millions in ill-gotten gains he must pay back.

    The state alleges that over the course of a decade, Trump pocketed more than $250 million in interest savings and property sales proceeds that he’d never have had if he’d told banks what his assets were really worth.

    The state fought hard on Friday against Trump’s side calling Moens as an expert witness.

    Kevin Wallace, a lead lawyer on the case for James, called the broker “a friend of Trump” whose valuation of the club can’t be recreated or tested.

    The judge had already found in his ruling from September that those deed restrictions severely limited the club’s value, Wallace noted.

    “The defendants now want to spend a whole day arguing that you’re wrong,” he complained.

    “And that Mar-a-Lago should be valued at $1 billion because Elon Musk might want to go to Palm Beach,” he added, sounding exasperated.

    “And that’s what we’re going to do,” the judge responded. “I’m very reluctant to allow this but it’s the defense case.”

    Mar-a-LagoMar-a-Lago

    Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

    An unbiased witness?

    Moens is likely to be questioned on the witness stand Tuesday about whether he can give a truly unvarnished view of Mar-a-Lago’s worth. He and Trump go back a long ways, and a lot of money has passed back and forth between them.

    In 2008, Moens brokered a record $95 million sale of Trump’s starter Palm Beach oceanfront mansion to a Russian fertilizer billionaire.

    “And did you receive a commission?” Moens was asked during the July deposition.

    “Well, it was a few million dollars,” he answered. “I don’t remember the amount.”

    “Do you recall receiving $225,000 for consulting work” from Trump, an attorney for the AG, Alex Finkelstein, asked the broker, showing him Trump Organization documents saying that money crossed hands in 2014.

    Moens answered that he’d have to check his records.

    Moens also testified that he has been a broker for Eric Trump, and a member of Mar-a-Lago since 1996, months after it opened. He knows Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump, who he testified was “a very lovely person.”

    “I’ve known her since she was a little girl,” Moens said.

    He was more circumspect about Trump, though.

    “He’s someone I’ve known for probably three decades, maybe longer,” he told the state’s lawyers, when asked how he’d describe his relationship to the former president.

    “How do you describe the word ‘friend?’” the state’s lawyer then asked.

    “I have very few friends, so I would describe them as people that are very close to me, that I see often, that I spent time with, that I have a relationship with,” Moens answered.

    “Is Donald Trump one of those people?” the broker was then asked.

    “I don’t see Donald Trump enough or spend enough time with Donald Trump to call him a friend,” he answered.

    Asked “What would you call him?” Moens added, ‘I’d like to think he’s my friend, but I would call him someone that I’ve had an association with for many years.”

    Moens will be the third Trump insider to testify on his behalf as an expert witness.

    Read the original article on Business Insider

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  • New Charges Suggest Trump Asked Mar-A-Lago Employee To Tape Over Security Footage With Rerun Of ‘Hong Kong Phooey’

    New Charges Suggest Trump Asked Mar-A-Lago Employee To Tape Over Security Footage With Rerun Of ‘Hong Kong Phooey’

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    MIAMI—According to sources familiar with the case, new charges filed Thursday in the federal indictment against Donald Trump suggested that the former president instructed a Mar-a-Lago employee to tape over security footage with a rerun of Hong Kong Phooey. “Despite being more than aware that doing so would obstruct an ongoing federal investigation, Trump ordered property manager Carlos De Oliveira to erase Mar-A-Lago security footage and replace it with the antics of the crime-fighting dog Penrod ‘Penry’ Pooch,” said sources, who confirmed that all surveillance footage pertaining to the classified documents case had been replaced by episodes of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. “This was crucial evidence, and now all investigators have is episode six, where Phooey saves a candy factory and foils Professor Presto’s malevolent plan. He can argue it’s his favorite show and he’s allowed to tape it any way he likes, but we’ll just have to see how that holds up in court.” At press time, sources confirmed that the Justice Department was also investigating Trump for holding onto classified episodes of Hong Kong Phooey that were never supposed to leave the White House.

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  • Trump charged with 37 counts in classified documents case, indictment says

    Trump charged with 37 counts in classified documents case, indictment says

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    A 37-count criminal indictment against Donald Trump for retaining classified government records and conspiring to prevent their return to U.S. officials was unsealed Friday.

    The charging document was made public a day after the former president was indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Miami.

    Among other allegations, the indictment says that Trump showed classified documents to other people in the summer of 2021, after leaving office.

    Follow our live coverage of Donald Trump’s indictment in the classified documents case.

    One of those documents was a “plan of attack” that he said was prepared by the Pentagon, while the other was a classified map related to a military operation, the indictment alleges.

    Also charged in the indictment was Trump’s valet, Walter Nauta, who faces several of the same charges as his boss, with whom he allegedly conspired to keep classified records and hide them from a federal grand jury.

    The FBI raid of Trump’s Florida home last August discovered hundreds of classified documents, which he had failed to turn over to U.S. officials despite months of efforts to recover them.

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump is seen in Midtown on April 03, 2023 in New York City. Trump is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow at a Manhattan courthouse following his indictment by a grand jury.

    Gotham | Gc Images | Getty Images

    The indictment says Trump was aware of the highly sensitive nature of the documents, quoting him at one point as saying: “As president, I could have declassified it … but this is still secret.”

    Trump and Nauta are due to be arraigned in Miami on Tuesday, the day before the ex-president’s 77th birthday.

    He and Nauta each face a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges, which are conspiracy to obstruct justice and counts related to withholding and concealing the government records.

    Thirty-one of the counts accuse Trump of willful retention of national defense information. He is also charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document or record; concealing a document in a federal investigation; scheme to conceal; and false statements and representations.

    Trump was put under criminal investigation in the spring of 2022, after the FBI was notified that classified documents were found in the 15 boxes of government records he gave to the National Records and Archives Administration after months of effort by NARA to recover documents the agency believed were missing.

    By law, presidents must give NARA all government records when they leave office.

    The indictment notes, “As he departed the White House, TRUMP caused scores of boxes, many of which contained classified documents, to be transported to The Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he maintained his residence.”

    “TRUMP was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents,” the indictment says.

    Trump later suggested to any attorney that he lie to the FBI and a grand jury by saying that he did not have the documents they were seeking, and directed Nauto to move boxes of documents to conceal them from Trump’s own lawyer, the FBI and the grand jury, the indictment alleges.

    Trump also is accused in the indictment of suggesting to his lawyer that the attorney hide or destroy documents, that he gave the FBI and the grand jury only some of the documents he had kept while claiming he was fully cooperating.

    And Trump caused a certification to be submitted to the FBI and grand jury, falsely representing that all documents had been produced when he knew that was not true, according to the indicment.

    The indictment estimates that Trump’s trial would take between 21 and 60 days.

    Earlier Friday, two of his lawyers resigned from representing him in the classified documents case, and in another pending federal criminal investigation for his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election.

    Read the indictment against Donald Trump

    This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

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  • ELLE Escapes: Palm Beach

    ELLE Escapes: Palm Beach

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    There’s something about Palm Beach. Maybe it’s the namesake trees. Or the prime people-watching—the relaxed island known for its exclusive resorts and private beaches has drawn in members of the fashion pack like Aerin Lauder and Katie Sturino, but still somehow manages to feel like an intimate, close-knit community, whether you’re a homeowner or are just passing through for the weekend at one of its cool boutique hotels (our vote goes to The Brazilian Court). Cruise around with the top down—I chose Lexus’ LC 500 Convertible in the flashiest color imaginable—as you enjoy a truly niche part of Florida, synonymous with luxury and the lifestyle to match. For your next trip down south, we rounded up where the snowbirds eat, drink, and sunbathe.

    What to See


    The Spa at The Breakers

    Courtesy The Breakers

    The Breakers has everything, from the beach to golf, tennis, bars, and restaurants, but don’t sleep on The Spa, which now offers Tata Harper facials and products. I opted for the Ultimate Facial, featuring the skin care founder’s Supernaturals line, a customized cleansing, and a hand, scalp, and neck massage that miraculously cured my tech neck.

    Royal Poinciana Plaza

    drawbertson gallery royal ponciana plaza

    Carrie Bradburn

    With stores including La Ligne, LoveShackFancy, and Veronica Beard, plus restaurants, you could spend your whole afternoon walking around the John Volk-designed Royal Poinciana Plaza and be totally content doing so. I recommend stopping by Donald Robertson’s new open-concept gallery and studio for art, prints, and, if you feel so inclined, a private group class led by the artist himself.

    Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course

    palm beach par 3 golf course

    Discover The Palm Beaches

    Golf and Palm Beach basically go hand in hand. If you’re a novice in the sport like I am, this scenic par 3 course overlooking the water is a good place to practice your swing—or just replay your regrettable bogeys over and over in your head. (I’m working on it.)

    The Inca Bucket

    Lack of Color The Inca Bucket

    Kamila Reversible Jacket

    Veronica Beard Kamila Reversible Jacket
    Credit: Courtesy

    Pleated Stretch-Jersey Tennis Dress

    Tory Sport Pleated Stretch-Jersey Tennis Dress

    Where to Eat


    Café Boulud

    cafe bohlud

    Brownwyn Knight

    With its picturesque outdoor terrace at The Brazilian Court, this hard-to-get-into Daniel Boulud-helmed restaurant lives up to the hype. Everything on the menu is solid, but the White Cosmo—a mix of vodka, elderflower, and white cranberry, finished with an orchid ice cube—begs to be Instagrammed. If only And Just Like That… filmed in Palm Beach.

    LoLa 41

    lola 41 palm beach

    Ovi Mustea

    Though LoLa 41 shares an address with the White Elephant hotel, the Pan-Asian restaurant is a destination on its own, with dishes ranging from sushi to Korean beef bulgogi over noodles, cocktails, and a bar adorned with vintage coins from all over the world. Fun fact: the name is a nod to the resort’s Nantucket location.

    Le Bilboquet

    le bilboquet

    Ori Harpaz

    For a South of France vibe on Worth Avenue, head to Le Bilboquet. The Upper East Side mainstay helmed by self-professed bon vivant Philippe Delgrange is known for its bistro fare and Cajun chicken in particular. Displaced New Yorkers, take one.

    Mireya Bralette

    LoveShackFancy Mireya Bralette
    Credit: Courtesy

    Arla Midi Skirt

    LoveShackFancy Arla Midi Skirt
    Credit: Courtesy

    Miso Platform Sandal

    Larroudé Miso Platform Sandal

    Where to Drink


    Swifty’s

    swifty’s

    Carmel Brantley

    A good choice for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, Swifty’s, situated poolside at The Colony Hotel, may be one of the more casual dining options on the island, but a satisfying one nonetheless. Take advantage of the live music—specifically, acoustic guitarists strumming everything from the Beatles to the Backstreet Boys. No need for song requests here.

    HMF

    the breakers palm beach

    The Breakers Palm Beach

    The Breakers’ restaurant and lounge space, HMF, is a great place to grab a drink and wander the property’s storied halls. There’s a reason it’s been named a Wine Spectator Grand Award winner each year since the list started in 1981.

    Sant Ambroeus

    sant ambroeus

    Nicole Franzen

    Located in the Royal Poinciana Plaza, Sant Ambroeus has a bar and outdoor section that’s ideal for a round of post-retail therapy drinks. Or a gelato, if that’s your thing.

    Bellagarda Puff Sleeve Crop Top

    Silvia Tcherassi Bellagarda Puff Sleeve Crop Top

    Now 40% Off

    Credit: Courtesy

    Palm Beach Tote Orange

    Amanda Lindroth Palm Beach Tote Orange
    Credit: Courtesy

    Grass 18K Yellow Gold & Emerald Sunrise Leaves Hoop Earrings

    Ileana Makri Grass 18K Yellow Gold & Emerald Sunrise Leaves Hoop Earrings
    Credit: Courtesy

    Where to Stay


    The Brazilian Court Hotel

    brazilian court hotel

    Brownwyn Knight

    Sizable suites? A private, shaded pool area and hair salon? Custom Linus bikes for loan? The Brazilian Court Hotel gives guests a homey feel in the center of town, a quick ride from the Palm Beach Lake Trail. Take it from co-owner Courtney Davis: “The hotel was built to feel like a private estate, so when you’re here, you feel like you have your own place in Palm Beach,” she tells ELLE.com. “That’s what I love the most: waking up in the morning, sitting on the terrace with a coffee, and imagining Daniel Boulud is my own private chef.”

    White Elephant Palm Beach

    the white elephant

    Chi-Thien Nguyen/Elkus Manfredi Architects 

    The newest, fully renovated hotel on the island, White Elephant Palm Beach has spacious rooms decorated with pop art, a heated pool, and shuttle service to and from the beach.

    The Colony Hotel

    the colony

    Carmel Brantley

    Celebrating its 75th year in business, this all-pink hotel is not only pleasant to look at, but has Art Deco interiors, recently redesigned rooms, a great pool scene, and activations from Dolce & Gabbana, Dr. Barbara Sturm, and artist Ashley Longshore. The programming is also noteworthy: don’t miss bingo night or seasonal workouts by celebrity trainer Isaac Boots in the East Garden.

    The 1Z

    Bleusalt The 1Z
    Credit: Courtesy

    Hardshell Carry On Luggage

    Herschel Supply Co. Hardshell Carry On Luggage

    Beauty Picks


    Retinoic Nutrient Face Oil

    Tata Harper Retinoic Nutrient Face Oil

    For a face that gleams in the sunlight, pack this hydrating oil with vitamin C in your beach bag.

    Voluminous Lash Paradise Waterproof Mascara

    L’Oréal Paris Voluminous Lash Paradise Waterproof Mascara

    Now 40% Off

    If you plan on taking dips in the pool, applying waterproof mascara is a must. Sweat- and water-resistant with a lengthening effect, this one pairs well with a cocktail.

    Unrivaled Sun Serum SPF 35

    EleVen by Venus Williams Unrivaled Sun Serum SPF 35

    Just because you’re longing for a tan doesn’t mean you can skimp on the SPF. Venus Williams’ sun serum is super sheer and blendable, with a matte yet hydrating finish. This woman certainly has plenty of experience with sunscreens.

    Headshot of Claire Stern

    Deputy Editor

    Claire Stern is the Deputy Editor of ELLE.com. Previously, she served as Editor at Bergdorf Goodman. Her interests include fashion, food, travel, music, Peloton, and The Hills—not necessarily in that order. She used to have a Harriet the Spy notebook and isn’t ashamed to admit it. 

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