Gracious, it's been a banner run for Democrats over the past five days or so.
The breaking news this morning was the arrest of Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa, who seems to have gotten caught up in one of those pesky COVID cash kerfuffles.
This is the kind of thing that always seems to happen when government money flows out of the coffers with the best of intentions - to rapidly address a crisis scenario and provide relief as quickly as possible.
But as everyone knows, in haste there is sloppiness, and in billions of dollars arriving in ill-defined and unregulated waves of largesse, there is chaos in keeping track of who got what, why, and whether they rated it to begin with. In that lucre-laden chaos, many, many unscrupulous types saw profit-making opportunities.
After all, who would miss a few tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands in a flood of millions in billions?
The odds seemed pretty good for the gambler at heart.
In July of this year, a special prosecutor announced that her investigation into Mayor Espinosa over reported ethics violations, including the handling of special COVID funds, was complete and that the report established clear probable cause to pursue impeachment proceedings against the mayor.
A special prosecutor says she's found probable cause to pursue impeachment proceedings against Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa, accused of ethics violations that include the disbursement of $50,000 in grants for businesses owned by her and her family.
The report, signed Thursday by special prosecutor Mayanne Downs, alleges the mayor had retained public money without disclosing her personal interests, even though the city attorney advised that accepting it created a prohibited conflict of interest.
Downs found "clear probable cause" to pursue impeachment proceedings against Espinosa on three ethics allegations involving the city's BOOST 2.0 small-business grant program, a multi-million-dollar COVID-19 relief grant program that she helped establish and was comprised of recovery funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The report states Espinosa participated in commission actions that allocated or expanded BOOST 2.0, including reallocations of $1 million in December 2024 and $375,000 in September 2025, without publicly disclosing her interests.
"I filed the ethics complaints, yes I did. I filed several ethics complaints,” Lillian Evans said.
Espinosa had tried mightily to fight the investigation, insisting that a special prosecutor had no jurisdiction over her office.
And besides, it was all a big misunderstanding about the money anyway. Honest mistake - nobody told her not to take it until afterward, for crying out loud!
...Espinosa didn't deny that she and members of her family took the money and claimed "she was not warned until after the funds had been received that she should not take them," according to the report.
Espinosa had asked a state appeals court in May to block the court-ordered investigation, arguing that only Florida’s ethics commission — not a local judge or special prosecutor — had the authority to handle the matter.
Things got even dicier in August when an associate of the Democratic mayor (although the seat itself is non-partisan) was hit with a misdemeanor charge for providing false information in relation to an ethics charge against a Kissimmee city commissioner.
As you might have guessed, that commissioner is no fan of the mayor's.
Political consultant Jeremy Fetzer, an ally of Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa, turned himself in Friday morning to face a misdemeanor perjury charge.
Fetzer operates several political websites and has supported candidates including Espinosa. He previously told Channel 9 that he was a private citizen who supported the mayor but did not have a paid business relationship with her.
The case involves a notarized complaint Fetzer filed seeking the impeachment of Kissimmee City Commissioner Janette Martinez. The filing accused Martinez of improperly intervening in city business to help a friend seeking a food truck permit.
Martinez said the filing included false information attributed to a city employee.
Special Prosecutor Mayanne Downs later cleared Martinez, finding the complaint was “factually and legally deficient” and that there was no probable cause to pursue an enforcement action against her.
“I’m glad justice is being served,” Martinez told Channel 9 on Friday. “This is what happens when people make false accusations.”
Dirty pools aren't just for backyards.
That same week, a deadlocked Kissimmee City Commission couldn't get impeachment proceedings going against the mayor, but that didn't stop Florida's CFO, Blaise Ingoglia, from asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's public corruption guys to take a look.
...The Kissimmee City Commission voted 2-2 Tuesday on whether to begin impeachment proceedings against Espinosa, meaning the measure failed to pass. Florida’s chief financial officer has also asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s public corruption unit to investigate the grant funding.
They must have finished in record time, because today the mayor got a visit from FL Attorney General James Uthmeier's associates, and CFO Ingoglia was there, too.
This morning my team, along with @fdlepio, arrested the Mayor of Kissimmee for abusing her office for personal gain. I am proud of the outstanding work that my auditing team and Criminal Investigations Division did to uncover the alleged misuse of taxpayer dollars and to ensure that Jackie Espinosa’s corruption did not go without recourse. See you at 2pm with more info with @AGJamesUthmeier
— Blaise Ingoglia (@GovGoneWild) October 21, 2026
Authorities pulled her over as she was leaving her house this morning.
Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa was arrested Wednesday morning and booked into the Osceola County Jail on grand theft and organized scheme to defraud charges.
Only Channel 9 was there when law enforcement pulled Espinosa over shortly after 8 a.m. as she drove away from her home. Officers asked her to step out of the vehicle and placed her in handcuffs.
This is, as POTATUS used to say, a BFD.
Mayor of Kissimmee Jackie Espinosa gets arrested for allegedly treating pandemic relief funds like a family ATM. Last month she said there was “No criminality.” This morning: Grand theft and fraud charges Plot twist: the AG had receipts. Criminals are no longer running the show. I voted for this.
— Sassafrass84 (@Sassafrass_84) October 21, 2026
...Criminals are no longer running the show. I voted for this.
Even before the press conference begins and we have a chance to learn more about what the charges entail and what the FDLE has learned during their own investigation, commenters on X are urging Ingoglia and Uthmeier to go after Orlando and other questionable counties and blue cities.
Kissimmee Mayor arrested, Orange County and Orlando Mayor next? https://t.co/e2HubKWuxz
— Bliss🏹🌸 (@TheDonallegedly) October 21, 2026
Another reason to make sure your red vote is safely in the till, hello.
In New Jersey, the Democrats have continued covering themselves with whatever that stench is they're so fond of up there.
If you remember, at the end of last month, Jersey Mikie's handpicked choice to be her Lt. Governor was forced to resign because of...well...his hands, among other things.
The Reverend turned out to be too smooth an operator for the job and didn't respond to the reconditioning sessions they sent him to.
...The second paragraph of the executive summary that opens the report is just brutal.
...A violation of the Workplace Policy is substantiated. Credible evidence shows that the LG made a romantic advance toward a female staffer's friend. After his advance was rebuffed, the LG told the staffer, in reference to her and her friend, that "you young women are looking for young sperm." The LG's comment, sexual in nature, caused the staffer to change the way she interacted with the LG at work, to attempt to distance herself from him, and to avoid travel with him when possible. We find that the LG's conduct, as set forth in greater detail below, constituted sexual harassment, and was derogatory or demeaning in reference to the staffer's sex, which is a protected category. The LG denied making this comment, but we did not find his denial credible.
It seems to go downhill from there, and it was a tough spot for a governor who personally chose the man yet claims to be a champion of women's rights. The results were especially galling to Sherrill, because, as her statement alludes to, it seems they'd tried some 'sensitivity retraining' on the Lt Gov/Secretary of State and it just must not have stuck.
So he got a second chance under the radar (which raises its own set of questions), and the report says he blew it anyway.
...Ms. Sherrill seemed particularly troubled that at least some of the incidents took place after Dr. Caldwell had been retrained on the state’s ethics guidelines.
“The ethical lapses persisted despite multiple warnings and trainings,” she said when she released the 61-page report.
This month's ne'er-do-well is a Deputy Attorney General who has been charged with using the power of AI to power up sick little fantasies about small children.
What a swell guy with a vivid imagination and an aptitude for computers!
A New Jersey deputy attorney general was arrested Thursday on charges that he used artificial intelligence to create child sexual abuse material and distributed it on social media, Bucks County authorities announced.
Brian Richard Fitzgerald, 51, of Lower Makefield Township, Pennsylvania, also allegedly obtained and shared sexual abuse material depicting real children, investigators said.
Fitzgerald faces felony charges of possession of child sexual abuse material, dissemination of photos or film of child sexual abuse materials, and criminal use of a communication facility.
“No one is above the law, least of all someone entrusted with upholding it,” said Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan. “Our office will pursue these cases aggressively and hold offenders fully accountable, regardless of their profession or title.”
The investigation began with a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children about an illicit image shared by a Discord user on July 10, according to the affidavit of probable cause. Investigators traced the account and associated internet addresses to Fitzgerald’s home.
Bucks County detectives and Lower Makefield police searched the residence Thursday, finding prompts and scripts allegedly used to generate child sexual abuse material with an AI program.
Look at that hound dog face.
WAAH WAAH
BREAKING: NJ Deputy AG Brian Fitzgerald has been ARRESTED on child abuse material charges! Investigators say he used AI to generate horrific images and shared them under the Discord name “thegentlemanpervert.” He’s now being held on $2M bail. Absolute SICKO! 🚨 https://t.co/WnnyJBWseC
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) October 16, 2026
Yeah. Banner month for Democrats in New Jersey.
Dems in NJ are a disaster, in the last month... Deputy AG was arrested for child sexual abuse material, Lt. Gov is gone for sexual harassment, Assemblywoman Tenille verbally abused her staff & used taxpayer funds for personal errands, Asm Atkins was arrested on Assault charges https://t.co/eqraJxGt8m
— Wake Up NJ 🇺🇸 New Jersey (@wakeupnj) October 16, 2026
Whatever that stench is.
NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill on the execution of Nidal Hasan: "The thing that just keeps breaking my heart: imagine the 20-year-old, maybe the 18-year-old that stepped up to serve, that gets orders and says, you’re going to go shoot this guy who’s in a wheelchair." https://t.co/6WdVnDjvTt
— Ezydu (@ezradulis) October 17, 2026
Get out there and vote anyway, dang it.
At the very least, to put this guy over the top.
Here's the complete exchange between Cory Booker and Justin Murphy on Iran during the U.S. Senate debate. https://t.co/CH4rJKXp1f
— David Wildstein (@wildstein) October 13, 2026
LFG!
