NATIONAL NEWS

Florida’s attorney general targets a restaurant over an LGBTQ Pride event

Jul 22, 2025, 9:26 AM

FILE - Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks during a meeting between Gov. Ron DeSantis an...

FILE - Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks during a meeting between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state cabinet at the Florida capitol in Tallahassee, Fla., Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, file)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, file)

VERO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s statewide prosecutor has subpoenaed records of a popular restaurant after it hosted an LGBTQ Pride event last month that the prosecutor’s office says was open to all ages, even though a recent state law that restricts venues from admitting children to “adult” performances has been blocked by courts.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier claimed in a statement Tuesday that the event at the Kilted Mermaid in Vero Beach had “adult, sexualized performers in front of children.” His office on Tuesday did not respond to repeated inquiries asking which laws may have been violated.

The subpoena issued earlier this month asks for copies of guest lists, reservation logs, surveillance video and contracts identifying performers.

The owner of the Kilted Mermaid, Linda Moore, is vice mayor of Vero Beach, which is located on the Atlantic Coast, more than 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of West Palm Beach. Moore did not immediately respond to an email and phone call seeking comment.

Florida’s Protection of Children Act, also known as “the drag show ban,” was championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. It sought to punish venues for allowing children into what it called “adult live performances.” Though it did not mention drag shows specifically, the sponsor of the legislation said it was aimed at those performances.

Venues that violated the law faced fines and the possibility that their liquor licenses could be suspended or revoked. Individuals could be charged with a misdemeanor crime.

The law was challenged in 2023 by the Hamburger Mary’s restaurant in Orlando which regularly hosted drag shows, including family-friendly performances. The restaurant claimed the Florida law violated First Amendment rights by chilling speech.

In May, a three-judge panel for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals lower court’s preliminary injunction that described Florida’s law as overly broad and vaguely written. The case now returns to the Middle District of Florida for trial.

National News

Associated Press

Tropical Storm Iona forms in the central Pacific, no threat to Hawaii

MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Iona formed in the central Pacific and is expected to continue trekking toward the west over warm, open waters well south of Hawaii. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Iona emerged Sunday from a tropical depression about 960 miles (1,545 kilometers) southeast of Honolulu. The storm is expected […]

2 hours ago

Vice President JD Vance speaks at Don's Machine Shop in West Pittston, Pa., Wednesday, July 16, 202...

Associated Press

Vice President JD Vance is on the road again to sell the Republicans’ big new tax law

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Vice President JD Vance is hitting his home state on Monday to continue promoting the GOP’s sweeping tax-and-border bill. He will be in Canton, Ohio, to talk about the bill’s “benefits for hardworking American families and businesses,” according to his office. Aides offered little detail in advance about the visit, but […]

4 hours ago

Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy that reached Gaza City fr...

Associated Press

What to expect, and what not to, at the UN meeting on an Israel-Palestinian two-state solution

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly is bringing high-level officials together this week to promote a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict that would place their peoples side by side, living in peace in independent nations. Israel and its close ally the United States are boycotting the two-day meeting, which starts Monday […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

A 68-year-old man dies when part of a Family Dollar store’s roof collapses in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Part of the roof and front facade of a Family Dollar store in Kansas City, Missouri, collapsed Sunday, killing a 68-year-old man and seriously injuring a 50-year-old woman, authorities said. The building’s partial collapse occurred about 2:45 p.m. Sunday, the Kansas City Fire Department said. Two other people also were […]

8 hours ago

FILE - The Boeing logo is displayed at the company's factory, Sept. 24, 2024, in Renton, Wash. (AP ...

Associated Press

Boeing’s fighter jet workers in the St. Louis area reject a contract offer

Boeing Co. expects more than 3,200 union workers at three St. Louis-area plants that produce U.S. fighter jets to strike after they rejected a proposed contract Sunday that included a 20% wage increase over four years. The International Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said the vote by District 837 members was overwhelmingly against the proposed […]

11 hours ago

FILE - Musician Tom Lehrer sits beside the piano in his house in Santa Cruz, Calif., on April 21, 2...

Associated Press

Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tom Lehrer, the popular and erudite song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died. He was 97. Longtime friend David Herder said Lehrer died Saturday at his home in Cambridge, […]

14 hours ago

Florida’s attorney general targets a restaurant over an LGBTQ Pride event