Uncensored Free Speech Platform

Jimmy Kimmel calls US ‘ridiculous country’ with ‘a different Mr. T’ in charge
How is this acceptable?

Late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel lamented the current status of the world and the U.S.’s leadership at the Oscars on Sunday.

Kimmel, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, said he is “exhausted” by current events. 

“It’s ridiculous, we live in a ridiculous country,” Kimmel said to Variety. “We always lived in a ridiculous country, but it was always ridiculous in a fun, Mr. T kind of way. Now, we’ve got a different Mr. T.”

Jimmy Kimmel says that we “live in a ridiculous country” and that he’s “not scared but always hopeful.”

Vanity Fair #Oscar Party
— Variety (@Variety) March 16, 2026

Kimmel also said he’s “not scared,” and concluded he’s “always hopeful.”

“No, I’m not scared, no, I’m not scared. Am I hopeful? I’m always hopeful,” Kimmel said.

The comedian spoke at the 98th Academy Awards, and said there are “some countries” where its leaders don’t support free speech. He said he wasn’t “at liberty” to give specifics, but namedropped “North Korea and CBS.” 

Jimmy Kimmel takes a dig at CBS at the #Oscars: “As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS.”

(via ABC/AMPAS)
— Variety (@Variety) March 16, 2026

Kimmel also joked that Trump would be mad his wife, first lady Melania Trump, wasn’t nominated for any Academy Awards, likely referring to the Melania documentary released earlier this year. White House Director of Communications Assistant Steven Cheung rebuffed Kimmel’s swipe, saying on X that Kimmel is “a classless hack who is self-projecting his depression and sadness onto others.

Jimmy Kimmel (Mr. Blackface) is a classless hack who is self-projecting his depression and sadness onto others. He lives a pathetic existence where nobody— not even his family— enjoys his miserable company. The only people giving him any attention are Hollywood Elites. BUH-BYE!
— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) March 16, 2026

BILL MAHER ACCUSES TRUMP OF BEING ‘CAUGHT OFF GUARD’ BY HORMUZ CLOSURE

Kimmel received national attention last year when his show was briefly suspended in September over comments he made on Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk’s assassin, claiming the “MAGA gang” attempted to portray the shooter as “anything other than one of them.” Kimmel’s show returned to the airwaves about a week later, and he said, “It was never my intention to make light” of Kirk’s murder.

Comedian Conan O’Brien …

Oscar Gill-Lewis: Don’t privatise, or centralise – reform the Police
Trust is earned, not demanded.

Oscar Gill-Lewis is a political commentator with Young Voices and Correspondent Program Manager at Speak Freely Magazine. He writes for Speak Freely and on Substack, and his articles have appeared in Conservative Home, The Daily Express, and Comment Central.

Shabana Mahmood recently unveiled her plan to reform “broken” policing in England and Wales. She is absolutely right that it needs reforming. Unfortunately, many of the reforms leave much to be desired.

Many will turn to the Conservative Party, which proudly maintains its desire to be the party of law and order. Interestingly, both the Conservatives and Labour seem to align on two key policies: hire more police officers and reduce bureaucracy.

Readers will remember Diane Abbott’s infamous gaffe, where she simply could not remember or produce the amount of money they planned to pay the 10,000 new police officers Labour wanted to recruit. Boris Johnson made this a reality by hiring 20,000 more police officers, after a 15 per cent decrease in officers between 2009 and 2018.

Having more police and officers in the force sounds like a great idea and is very intuitive. If we can give the police a numerical advantage and strength in numbers, then criminals will be deterred and law and order restored. Obviously, numbers matter up to a point. But the persistence in keeping hiring more officers misses the actual point. There are so many reforms that you could and probably should do before increasing the number of police hires, because it makes it easier to know when you have a sufficient number of police. 

It also makes sense from an election standpoint, why the policy is so favoured. Voters make clear links between the number of police officers and a reduction in crime, and therefore their safety. The Conservatives want to hire 10,000 police officers over 3 years, while Labour want to put 13,000 neighbourhood police “back” on the streets.

This is both dull and predictable from both parties, however the Home Secretary’s recently announced plans offer a golden opportunity for the Conservatives. Mahmood’s plan ranges from the conceitful to the outright dangerous. She wants to reduce “excessive” bureaucracy but plans to centralise many of the local forces, absorbing around two-thirds. Trying to reduce excessive bureaucracy while centralising an organisation is like trying to slow down while pressing the accelerator. It is unwise and ‘fatally’ conceited. Mahmood also plans to have 40 more facial recognition vans. Regardless of its efficacy, it is a form of soft authoritarianism and has no place in a free society. The plans will allow Kemi Badenoch to offer policing reforms that go beyond ‘more bobbies’ and will have a greater but cheaper impact.

The Conservatives need not press the privatisation button …

Stephen Colbert will probably start ‘resistance’ podcast after his show ends: Guy Benson
Be honest—this is ridiculous.

Washington Examiner columnist Guy Benson said Sunday that late-night host Stephen Colbert will portray himself as being “silenced” by President Donald Trump once his show ends.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is airing various tributes ahead of the show’s final episode on May 21. The guests’ eulogies over the past six months have drawn the attention of Variety, which said in a piece that his farewell season has gone from “resistance to ego tour.”

Colbert has been a frequent critic of Trump, and said after his show was canceled that “the gloves are off” until his show ends.

“I think the reason he’s doing all the resistance stuff isn’t just because he believes it,” Benson said on Fox News’s The Big Weekend Show, “but he has an eye to the next gig, which is he’ll have some podcast, he’ll make a ton of money doing it, and it’ll be marketed basically as, ‘I was silenced because of Trump and the undue influence on CBS, so come to the resistance with me,’ almost like a resistance duty for the audience to show up and get him paid in the new gig.”

CONAN O’BRIEN MAKES JOKE ABOUT EPSTEIN DURING OSCARS MONOLOGUE

Benson said it appears “the whole driving force” of Colbert’s show these days is hating one political party” and added that the show’s guests are “one-sided.” He said this seems “very boring” for a show.

Trump took a victory lap after the plug was pulled on Colbert’s show, saying he “absolutely” loves the cancellation. He also suggested Jimmy Kimmel Live! could be “next.”

Cuba opens private-sector investment to nationals in US
Is this competence or optics?

Cuba is preparing to allow Cuban nationals living in the United States to invest in private businesses on the island, a possible shift in economic policy as the communist-run country struggles through one of the deepest economic crises in decades.

Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said Havana is open to having a “fluid commercial relationship” with the U.S. and Cuban families living in America, according to NBC News.

If implemented, the change would mark a significant departure from decades of restrictions that largely barred Cubans abroad from directly investing in businesses on the island. Cuba’s government has historically maintained tight control over the economy, with most industries operated by the state since the 1959 revolution.

Fraga said the U.S. has implemented a “blockade” and “policy of hostility” against Cuba, which has hindered economic growth on the island.

“The blockade deprives us of access to financing, access to technology, access to markets, and in recent years, it has specifically been aimed at depriving our country of access to fuel,” Fraga said.

The possible reform comes as Cuba increasingly looks to the private sector to stabilize the economy. Fraga said he is trying to create a “dynamic business environment” by reviving mining and tourism and updating the country’s power grid.

In recent years, the government has gradually permitted small private businesses and, earlier this month, approved rules allowing public-private enterprises for the first time in nearly 70 years.

Cuba’s economy has been battered by a combination of factors, including declining tourism, power shortages, and reduced oil shipments from allies such as Venezuela. The island has experienced frequent blackouts and shortages of fuel, food, and medicine, fueling economic pressure on the government.

The proposed shift comes amid heightened tensions with Washington under President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration has tightened sanctions and other restrictions on Cuba, including travel limits and additional economic pressure tied to allegations that Havana supports terrorism, and refused to cooperate on law enforcement matters.

Trump has repeatedly suggested Cuba’s economic crisis could force major political or economic concessions. In recent remarks, he said the island is in severe financial distress and suggested the U.S. could eventually see a “friendly takeover” of the country as officials engage in discussions with Cuban leaders. …

Conan O’Brien makes joke about Epstein during Oscars monologue
Nobody voted for this.

Comedian host Conan O’Brien was the host for the 98th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night in Hollywood, California. During his opening monologue, the former talk show host mostly avoided political topics, instead focusing his humor on the entertainment industry, most notably Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and actor Timothee Chalamet, in the news recently for remarks critical of ballet and opera. Yet, O’Brien did deliver one joke about the Epstein controversy, taking aim at British elitists who were arrested in February. 

After making a joke about how Amazon Studios did not receive any Oscar nominations this year, O’Brien mentioned that no British thespians were nominated in the best actor or best actress categories. He then made the quip about Epstein and British officials linked to the disgraced financier being arrested, with a not-so-subtle reference to the lack of arrests in the United States.

“It’s the first time since 2012, first time since 2012, that there are no British actors nominated for best actor or best actress,” O’Brien said. 

“Yeah,” O’Brien continued. “A British spokesperson said, ‘Yeah, well, at least we arrest our pedophiles. So, we got that going for us.”

The joke was followed by 13 seconds of applause from the audience and silence from O’Brien, who walked around on the stage. 

On Feb. 19, authorities in Great Britain arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew, over alleged connections and suspicions of misconduct related to his association with Jeffrey Epstein. 

“As part of the investigation, we have today (19/2) arrested a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk,” read a statement released by Thames Valley police at the time. “The man remains in police custody at this time. We will not be naming the arrested man, as per national guidance.”

“Following a thorough assessment, we have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office,” said Oliver Wright, Thames Valley police’s assistant chief constable. 

“It is important that we protect the integrity and objectivity of our investigation as we work with our partners to investigate this alleged offence,” he added. “We understand the significant public interest in this case, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time.” 

Mountbatten-Windsor was released on bail after a 10-11-hour detention, according …

Who Will Win Big at the Oscars?
Be honest—this is ridiculous.

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/ March 13, 2026

Who Will Win Big at the Oscars?

It’s that time of year again. 

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(Courtesy of A24 / Warner Bros / NEON)

This weekend is Oscar weekend. Your guess is as good as ours as to who the night’s winners might be, but here are some of our favorites among the nominees.

Secret Agent

(Courtesy of Neon)

Vikram Murthi: From its opening scene—a shakedown of Armando Solimões (Wagner Moura) by local authorities at a rural gas station—Kleber Mendonça Filho immerses viewers in a world of casual corruption and clandestine violence endemic to authoritarian rule.
 

One Battle After Another

John Semley: At first blush, Pynchon’s Vineland seemed unadaptable in a contemporary context…but Paul Thomas Anderson’s film proves that these more central divisions—between freaks and squares, parents and children, the rigid brokers of authority and subversive agents of liberation—can be mapped across American history.
 

Sinners

Stephen Kearse: Vampires, with their transgressive hunger for flesh and obsession with progeny, prove to be a potent vehicle for Ryan Coogler’s fascination with bloodlines. Although he doesn’t quite reinvent the classic creature, and his ambition gets ahead of him, the world into which he unleashes his vampires is rich with tensions and history.
 

Sirāt

(Courtesy of Neon)

Vikram Murthi: The ravers in Sirāt have learned the hard way that traditional social structures were never designed to save them. They must rely on themselves.
 

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Beatrice Loayza: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You endorses the well-seasoned argument that women will be judged more fiercely than their male counterparts for their parental failures, gesturing at a constellation of such case studies. Yet Mary Bronstein proves less interested in exploring the gender disparity in childrearing, sidestepping a more generic resolution that entails marital reconciliation and an open acknowledgement of the rift.
 

Marty Supreme

Current Issue

April 2026 Issue

Erin Schwartz: Marty’s real talent: the art of never-ending arbitrage, leveraging each small lucky break toward a bigger and bigger payday. That this produces a cascade of escalating disasters doesn’t dissuade him—it’s all in pursuit of greatness, and if he achieves greatness, it was all worth it.
 

Sentimental Value

Alana Pockros: With Sentimental Value, [Joachim] Trier makes the case that nostalgia doesn’t have to drag one down but can actually propel one forward.
 

It Was Just an Accident

(Courtesy of Neon)

Alex Kong: Jafar Panahi defied the attempts to silence him by making films in secret throughout this time. It Was Just an …

Timothee Chalamet critiques not the opera, but the audiences that have abandoned it
This looks less like justice and more like strategy.

During a CNN town hall with actor Matthew McConaughey, Oscar nominee Timothee Chalamet stated the obvious: The once-great American pastime of going to the movies is in real danger of losing its cultural centrality.

“I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, who go on a talk show and go, ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive. You know, we gotta keep this genre alive,’ and another part of me feels like, if people want to see it, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it,” Chalamet said. “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, and, you know, things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,’ even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore. All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”

Predictably, the backlash missed the point. Sunny Hostin branded Chalamet “vapid” and “shallow” on The View, while rapper Doja Cat complained on TikTok that “somebody named Tim-oh-tay Cha-lam-et had the nerve to say — on camera — that nobody cares about” the centuries-old art forms.

Timothee Chalamet at the 32nd Annual Actor Awards in Los Angeles on March 1. (Chris Pizzello/AP)

But this indignation ignores what Chalamet was actually saying. His observation was less an attack on ballet and opera than an indictment of modern audiences.

While ballet and opera were never as universally popular as moviegoing, they are less popular today than they once were. In 1982, the Census Bureau’s Survey of Public Participation in the Arts found that about 5% of Americans had attended the ballet at least once in the previous year, and 3% had attended the opera. By 2022, both figures had fallen by more than half.

An economist could argue that this decline is simply the result of a flood of at-home entertainment in the streaming era, especially after the pandemic. But even when attending the opera in person was prohibitively expensive for a poorer and much larger working class, mass audiences still consumed high culture from afar. After NBC radio began broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera on Saturdays, listeners across the country tuned in. In its obituary for Milton Cross, who hosted those broadcasts from 1931 until his death in 1975, the New York Times estimated that regular audiences reached 14 million Americans, roughly 10% of the postwar population.

Chalamet, whose grandmother, mother, and sister all performed with the New York City Ballet, is not sneering at the artists. He is …

Feminist Frankenstein: Review of The Bride!
Be honest—this is ridiculous.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s invigoratingly loopy new horror comedy The Bride! overcomes preachiness with sheer stylishness. Although she works overtime to wring #MeToo-ready self-righteousness from the classic she is remaking (James Whale’s 1935 monster movie Bride of Frankenstein), Gyllenhaal turns out to be far less adept at feminist propaganda than she is at overseeing eye-catching photography and bracingly original sets, music, and costumes. That the movie succeeds in spite of itself is an encouragement in two ways: that aggressively off-kilter projects still have a route to the big screen, and that genuinely talented filmmakers, like Gyllenhaal, can get out of their own way. 

While most remakes either blatantly rehash their source material or blandly contemporize it, Gyllenhaal announces from the first frame that she has something different on tap: The film opens in black-and-white with Jessie Buckley as a spectral incarnation of Mary Shelley, the English author of the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. True to the film’s feminist orientation, this Shelley seems to have a chip on her shoulder: despite having written one of the widely agreed-upon masterpieces of the horror genre, she seems to feel that she never quite told the story she wanted to. It is in the actualization of that story — which, in reality, is entirely of Gyllenhaal’s own concoction — that the movie comes alive. In the movie’s fuzzy metaphysics, Shelley wills herself into the consciousness of a character named Ida (also played by Buckley), a young woman angling for survival in 1930s Chicago — a colorful, dangerous world of bawdy lotharios and lethal gangsters. The gambit that Shelley somehow comes to possess her fictional creation is sustained, as Ida alternates between a very American dialect and a more high-toned British accent. This, not her work in Hamnet (2025), is the part Buckley ought to be Oscar-nominated for.

No less imaginative is the importation of the story from Europe to midcentury America. This allows the film to include among its sights rollicking nightclubs, decadent parties, and grand movie palaces, though Gyllenhaal intentionally incorporates elements that are not appropriate to the ’30s setting: one scene shows moviegoers transfixed by 3D, a technology that did not attain ubiquity until a decade or so later. Yet the film’s freewheeling maximalism is one of its greatest pleasures: Gyllenhaal pours into her blender not only time periods, but tones, acting …

The Cinema of Societal Collapse
How is this acceptable?

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The Cinema of Societal Collapse

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/ March 5, 2026

The Cinema of Societal Collapse

This year’s Oscar-nominated international feature films—especially The Secret Agent and Sirāt—tackle what it means to live and die under tyranny.

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(Courtesy of NEON)

In Sirāt, a band of ravers drive deep into the Moroccan desert searching for the next gathering where they can dance freely. A father and son impulsively join them on a search for a missing daughter, despite their limited resources and a vehicle unfit for the treacherous terrain. The last rave they all attended was broken up by soldiers enforcing a mandatory evacuation in response to news that war has gripped the world outside the desert. Later, as they’re listening to a radio broadcast, one raver asks another, “Is this the end of the world?” The other raver replies, like a cheeky punch line to a bad joke, “It’s been the end of the world for a long time.”

The speculative global conflict in Sirāt that writer-director Oliver Laxe alludes to in broad, elliptical terms stands in neat contrast with The Secret Agent’s granular depiction of Brazil’s military dictatorship, which endured from 1964 to 1985. From its opening scene—a shakedown of Armando Solimões (Wagner Moura) by local authorities at a rural gas station—Kleber Mendonça Filho immerses viewers in a world of casual corruption and clandestine violence endemic to authoritarian rule. Anyone who can be cheaply characterized as “left wing”—academics, scientists, and members of queer and minority communities—are routinely targeted by those in power. The year is 1977. For the film’s ensemble of political dissidents, many of whom are on the run under assumed names, it’s been the end of the world for a long time.

The Secret Agent and Sirāt are among the five films nominated in this year’s Best International Feature Film category, all of which confront state-backed oppression. It Was Just an Accident is about former Iranian political prisoners exacting vengeance against their onetime torturer. The Voice of Hind Rajab reenacts the cold-blooded killing of the 6-year-old eponymous Palestinian girl by the Israel Defense Forces. Even Sentimental Value, a bourgeois family drama about an absentee aging filmmaker and his two semi-estranged daughters, pivots on understanding the consequences of inherited trauma from a tortured Resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of Norway.

Living with or dying under tyranny pertains to each of the nominated films, yet The Secret Agent and Sirāt are primarily concerned with the texture of a fascist atmosphere. Differences in style and tone abound, but both films capture the psychology of knowing that one’s …

How frogs upstaged Robert De Niro at absurdist State of the Union alternative
This deserves loud pushback.

Welcome to Washington Secrets, where we saw a full 15 minutes of last night’s State of the Union. Instead we went deep inside the resistance to bring you a dispatch from the frontline in the nation’s war of absurdity, and a night earlier, we tucked into fish and chips (and “Turner Tonic” cocktails) in order to report on the latest addition to Washington’s diplomatic corps

Robby Roadsteamer is part activist, part gonzo comedian, and all in. All the time.

As Donald Trump started his marathon State of the Union address, he entered stage left, twerking, dressed in a giraffe costume. Then he serenaded the resistance rally with his newest one-line song: “Donald Trump was on the Epstein plane. Donald Trump was on the Epstein plane.”

Beside him, 15 people in inflatable frog suits bobbed along to the refrain as it echoed around the ballroom of the National Press Club just a block from the White House.

It was a moment of utter absurdity, and in the moment it all sort of made sense.

This was the “State of the Swamp,” one of a growing number of alternative ways to follow Trump’s biggest speech of the year without actually watching the speech.

“He promised he would drain the swamp, the corruption and the grift,” said Miles Taylor, the former Trump official, anonymous author, and administration dissident, who compered the evening. “And instead of draining the swamp, he turned America into the swamp.”

The face of his movement is green and bug-eyed. The frogs bopped along with every speaker.

They have become a key part of protests ever since a video captured the moment federal agents pepper-sprayed a puffy-suited Seth “Toad” Todd via his air intake.

Guests in the ballroom found green, bobble-eyed green caps on their seats.

The line-up was a mix of Trump allies who turned against their boss, comedians, members of the populist Left, journalists who lost jobs for condemning the president, an Oscar-winning Hollywood legend, and besuited politicians who didn’t get the memo about wearing green.

Stephanie Grisham, a former Trump press secretary, spoke for four minutes. Which is four minutes longer than she ever managed in the White House briefing room. A fact she leaned into.

“I’m the one who never stood behind a podium at the White House, and that is because I could never bring myself to lie to you guys,” she said. (This wasn’t the sort of audience that was going to wonder then why she took the job in the first place or point out the difference between a podium and …

Jimmy Kimmel carps over Trump’s record-breaking State of the Union: ‘Play him off’
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.

President Donald Trump‘s critics voiced their displeasure over his record-breaking State of the Union address, with longtime rival Jimmy Kimmel harping over the speech’s length.

Trump spoke to Congress for 108 minutes, breaking the record of 100 minutes he set last year. He had warned previously that the address would be “a long speech because we have so much to talk about.” Kimmel, with newfound resistance laurels over his brief firing over a joke about assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, led the charge.

“They do need to hire an orchestra to play him off like the Oscars. At the stroke of 90 minutes, go straight into ‘Y.M.C.A.’ and end it,” Kimmel joked.

“The speech went on so long, Kristi Noem’s dog shot itself,” he said at another point.

Kimmel also compared Trump’s immigration policies to the Holocaust.

“Trump applauded the efforts of a World War II vet who liberated an internment camp, at the same time he is building new ones here in the United States,” he said.

Most other criticisms focused on the speech’s length, driven in part by Trump’s repeated awarding of medals to military servicemen and heckling.

“Oh yeah, I think we’re all expecting that. You’re incapable of being brief. Even if you were just going to read a haiku, I would expect two intermissions,” late-night host Seth Meyers said.

‘THESE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY’: SIX TAKEAWAYS FROM TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION

“Trump told us in advance that the speech was going to be long and, for once, he was telling the truth,” Jimmy Fallon said.

The wider reception of Trump’s speech was predictably divided along partisan lines, with Republicans hailing it as a great address that retook framing around messaging, while Democrats decried it as rambling and incoherent.

Florida arrests felon released through Biden autopen commutation

Florida authorities have arrested a repeat offender whose federal prison sentence was commuted in the final days of former President Joe Biden’s administration, prompting a state review of clemency actions that officials say affected cases in the Sunshine State.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, announced that Oscar Fowler was taken into custody on Monday by the St. Petersburg Police Department. Fowler was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and one count of felon in possession of a firearm, according to a report from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

Moments ago, we took Oscar Fowler, a dangerous career criminal who was commuted by Biden’s autopen, into custody to face state charges.

Thanks to @StPetePD and @ATF_Tampa for the support. Florida is safer because of our local and federal law enforcement partners!
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) February 23, 2026

Fowler had been serving a more than 12-year federal prison sentence on drug and weapons charges before his punishment was commuted in January last year as part of a broader round of clemency grants issued at the end of Biden’s term, according to state officials.

Authorities said the new allegations mirror conduct similar to Fowler’s prior offenses. If convicted, he faces up to 45 years in state prison.

“The Biden administration’s use of the autopen is putting Floridians at risk by allowing dangerous felons back on the street, but we won’t put up with it,” Uthmeier said in a statement, echoing President Donald Trump and other Republican allies who have suggested Biden’s use of an autopen should invalidate pardons and commutations issued at the end of his term.

Uthmeier added that he has directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to review all commutations and pardons issued in Florida using an autopen “to determine whether state-level charges are viable.”

Fowler’s arrest followed a joint investigation involving the St. Petersburg Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Tampa Field Division, State Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit Bruce Bartlett, and the Office of Statewide Prosecution. St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said Fowler’s arrest “represents an important step in protecting our community,” adding that the city is safer with him back in custody.

A conservative watchdog group, the Oversight Project, said it warned Florida officials days …