DUNNELLON, Fla. — Authorities in Marion County are intensifying their search for a 17-year-old boy who disappeared after a reported shooting Thursday afternoon, sparking a statewide Amber Alert.

Deputies say Caden Speight, 17, was last seen around 4 p.m. near the 12800 block of Southwest Highway 484 in Dunnellon. Investigators believe he was wounded before vanishing.

 

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says Speight may be traveling with four unknown males, possibly Hispanic, in a light-colored van. His disappearance has prompted an urgent search involving helicopters, K-9 units and law enforcement partners across the state.

Speight is described as 6 feet tall, about 150 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt of an unknown color.

Marion County deputies found a vehicle connected to the incident with a bullet hole, but the teen was not inside. Officials say they are still working to determine how the shooting and the missing persons case are connected.

The Uvalde Foundation for Kids, a nonprofit crisis response group, announced it is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to Speight’s safe return. The group is also mobilizing volunteers to help distribute flyers in the community.

Anyone with information is urged to call 911, contact the Marion County Sheriff’s Office at 352-732-9111, or reach the FDLE Missing Endangered Persons Clearinghouse at 1-888-FL-MISSING.

I don’t let my kids have cell phones. I give them Rapid Radios — Push to Talk Walkie talkies with nationwide coverage. I talked to the owner of the company. Click here to learn more.

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Michigan Appeals Court Rules Grandparents Entitled to Hearing in Visitation Disputes

LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan law has a “grandparenting time” rule that lets grandparents ask the court for visitation with their grandchildren in certain situations. This law explains how grandparents can file affidavits, request hearings, and present evidence in court.

When grandparents can step in.

Under Michigan law, grandparents can ask a court for visitation under specific circumstances. These include when the child’s parents are divorcing or already divorced, legally separated, or their marriage has been annulled.

Grandparents may also petition if one of the child’s parents has died, if the parents were never married and live apart but paternity has been legally established, or if the child is living with someone other than a parent. Click here to read more.

 

Suspect charged with attempted murder after stabbing man in back aboard NY train

A 25-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the back with “an unknown object” while aboard a train New York train, according to authorities.

The suspect was identified as Louis Pallchisaca, 21, a spokesperson with the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information (DCPI) told The National News Desk.

Pallchisaca was arrested on Wednesday and charged with attempted murder and assault, according to DCPI.

The man was attacked Sunday night shortly after 11:30 p.m. on the No. 7 train at the 111th Street station in Corona, Queens, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the man was “conscious and alert” when police arrived at the scene, adding that he was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital-Queens in stable condition.

Citing an unnamed police source, The New York Post identified the man who was stabbed as Roberto Gaspar. The media outlet said one of Gaspar’s friends claimed Gaspar “was simply looking down at his phone” when a stranger approached him from behind and attacked him. Click here to read more.

 

The Truth About Michigan’s School Education Budget

There’s a lot for local school administrators to like in the budget the Michigan House passed in August. But they don’t seem to want to see it.

The House budget increases education spending in Michigan more than does the budget passed by the state Senate or the budget proposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. At the same time, it eliminates a host of categorical grants (or “special programs”) that fund outside priorities such as special education, infrastructure spending, smaller class sizes, mental health and other areas. By transferring some of this money to the general education grant, the House budget lets school district officials figure out how they want to spend this money.

This needs to be emphasized: School districts will be getting more money overall in the House budget, and they’ll be getting it with no strings attached. Click here to read more.

 

Venezuelan Illegal Who Pretended to Be High Schooler Pleads Guilty. Case Puts Spotlight on Operation Take Back America.

The Venezuelan national who posed as an Ohio high school student for over a year pleaded guilty to four criminal counts Monday. The case highlights the role of a Department of Justice initiative, Operation Taking Back America, in helping fulfill the Trump administration’s promise to tackle illegal immigration.

The case involving 24-year-old Anthony Emmanuel Labrador-Sierra thrust the Northern District of Ohio into the national news cycle. Labrador-Sierra first came to the attention of law enforcement in May when he was discovered posing as a 15-year-old at Perrysburg High School. He was arrested a month later. Click here to read more.

 

How Benji’s case exposed a vet going to great lengths to change identity of a dog

TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Benji, a Yorkshire Terrier, was a godsend to Monica Crogan.

Crogan, a 57-year-old resident of the Tuscarora Indian Nation, adopted Benji in the summer of 2023 for a support dog to ease her anxiety and depression.

Benji’s energetic and social personality delighted Crogan and her grandchildren.

A year later, on July 17, 2024, Benji went missing, sending Crogan into a panic.

What happened in the next few months is a series of events described by those involved as one of the craziest, stranger-than-fiction stories of a year-long investigation involving a missing pet. Click here to read more.

 

 

Canadian Detective Found Guilty of Investigating Infant Deaths Linked to mRNA Vaccines

Detective Helen Grus asked a forbidden question at the height of the pandemic: were COVID-19 mRNA vaccines connected to a spike in infant deaths? For daring to ask, she was dragged through the longest and most expensive internal disciplinary trial in Canadian police history. It has lasted 29 months, with 14 witnesses, 13 motions, and more than $1 million in taxpayer money.

According to the Ottawa Citizen: Grus allegedly accessed case files of Canadian newborn and infant death investigations to which she wasn’t assigned and inquired with the coroner about whether the parents of babies who had died unexpectedly during the pandemic were vaccinated against COVID-19.

Investigators also alleged Grus contacted the father of a deceased baby directly on Jan. 30, 2022, to inquire about the mother’s COVID-19 vaccination status.

Click here to read complete story.

 

‘UNACCEPTABLE’: Google Blasts Biden Admin Speech Policies

Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube and Google, sent a revealing letter on its free speech policies to the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday, detailing the Biden administration’s pressure, as well as future threats to free expression from foreign regulators.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, released the letter from Alphabet’s counsel, in which the company pledges to “keep the digital ecosystem safe, reliable, and open to free expression.”

he letter declares that during the COVID-19 Pandemic the Biden administration put Alphabet under pressure to combat narratives contrary to the administration’s positions.

“Senior Biden Administration officials, including White House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach … and pressed the Company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies,” Alphabet reveals in the letter. Click here to read more.

 

Secret Service dismantles telecom threat around UN capable of crippling cell service in NYC

NEW YORK - While close to 150 world leaders prepared to descend on Manhattan for the U.N General Assembly, the U.S. Secret Service was quietly dismantling a massive hidden telecom network across the New York area — a system investigators say could have crippled cell towers, jammed 911 calls and flooded networks with chaos at the very moment the city was most vulnerable.

The cache, made up of more than 300 SIM servers packed with over 100,000 SIM cards and clustered within 35 miles of the United Nations, represents one of the most sweeping communications threats uncovered on U.S. soil. Investigators warn the system could have blacked out cellular service in a city that relies on it not only for daily life but for emergency response and counterterrorism.

 

Parents’ lawsuit against Michigan school district over hiding daughter’s trans identity can proceed

A court has ruled that a couple’s lawsuit against a Michigan school district over concealing their daughter’s gender identity change from them can proceed.

Dan and Jennifer Mead filed a complaint against Rockford Public School District officials over its policy of keeping their daughter’s self-declared gender identity a secret from her parents.

United States District Judge Paul Maloney, a George W. Bush appointee, issued an opinion and order last week that partly denied and granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Maloney wrote that the lawsuit “contains sufficient factual allegations to support a claim for a violation of Plaintiffs’ fundamental rights as parents in the care, custody and control of their child, a right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.” Click here to read more.

 

Cause of death revealed for missing hunters found dead after ‘massive’ search, officials say

CONEJOS COUNTY, Colo. - Officials have confirmed the cause of death of the missing hunters who were found dead after a “massive” search in southern Colorado.

The coroner confirmed that the two missing hunters, 25-year-old Andrew Porter from Asheville, N.C., and 25-year-old Ian Stasko from Salt Lake City, Utah, were struck by lightning.

A “massive” search began Sept. 13 at the Rio De Los Pinos Trailhead after deputies said Porter and Stasko failed to check in with their loved ones.

The sheriff’s office said Porter and Stasko never returned while elk hunting in the San Juan Wilderness Area.

When deputies arrived at the trailhead, they found their vehicle with most of their gear inside, but did not find Porter or Stasko.

The sheriff’s office said search and rescue operations were immediately underway, with air operations, multi-county and state ground teams, dog teams, drone teams, ATVs and local volunteers working the area in a “massive” search.