The long-awaited trial for Virgil Lee West began Wednesday in Highlands County. West is charged with first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, shooting into a vehicle and tampering with evidence from an incident that occurred in Lorida on July 14th, 2015. Prosecutors say West was the shooter and his actions resulted in the death of Shawn Ziegler, also known as Shawn Doty, and critical injuries sustained by Carrie Leaphart. Allegedly, West and Ziegler were former friends that had, had a falling out. On the day of the shootings, a verbal altercation took place that led to the deadly attack on a dead-end road in Lorida. West has been incarcerated since the day of the incident. Court will resume at 9:00am this morning.
Police are looking for two young suspects accused of stealing from a Polk County gas station last month. Authorities say two girls were caught on camera leaving the 7-Eleven near Poinciana Community Park without paying for their items. The store employee tried to stop the suspects during the incident on July 30th, but they drove off in a dark-colored four-door sedan. The sheriff’s office has posted the surveillance footage on Facebook. Deputies are asking anyone with information about the suspects to contact them or Heartland Crime Stoppers.
Valencia College is helping more young people get their GED. The school has obtained a one-point-five-million-dollar federal grant to expand its Osceola County YouthBuild program to Orange County for the next three years. The initiative is designed to provide education and job training to students between ages 16 and 24 who left high school without a diploma. The newly expanded program in Orange County will start by offering free carpentry classes before growing to other courses. Applications are scheduled to open next month.
Florida’s final Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season kicks off tomorrow. Florida’s Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie says the time to prepare is now. Residents can buy important items like carbon monoxide detectors, pet supplies, tarps, batteries, generators and flashlights tax-free from Saturday until September 6th. The hurricane season ends November 30th.
There’s a new launch date for a SpaceX mission designed to advance the future of spaceflight. The company shared a post on X Thursday, saying it will delay liftoff of Polaris Dawn by one day in order to allow for more preflight checkups. That means that if everything goes as planned, a private crewed launch will take place at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, August 27th. The group of trained specialists are expected to attempt the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
The Florida Department of Health is starting to notify residents who were impacted by a cyberattack roughly two months ago. The agency began the process yesterday, saying they will alert the people whose personal and health information was stolen by hackers through the mail. The international hacker group RansomHub is accused of illegally obtaining at least 20-thousand files from the department in June and releasing the data on the dark web the following month. The state is offering the victims free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services for 12 months.
Two US senators aren’t happy with New College of Florida’s decision to throw out their book. Maine Republican Susan Collins and Washington Democrat Patty Murray co-wrote a book called "Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate." That was one of the books NCF administrators tossed in the dumpster last week in Sarasota. Collins and Murray said Wednesday they were stunned; they stand against the senseless banning of books and such actions go against our constitutional values. They add universities should be places where the freedom of speech is allowed to flourish and perspectives of all kinds are heard. NCF has placed its library dean on administrative leave. A school spokesman says the library did not follow all the requirements while conducting the routine disposition of materials.
The state of Florida is investigating an auto protection company over allegations of deceptive sales practices. Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis says the state is looking into CarShield after the Federal Trade Commission fined the company ten-million dollars to resolve charges of misleading advertisements, including those involving celebrity endorsements. The state’s Department of Financial Services is planning to review sales representatives with CarShield and other agencies who promote their products. Patronis says possible criminal charges could come out of the investigation. He is encouraging anyone who feels like they have been defrauded to contact his office.