Tallahassee police said they removed 57 illegal guns from city streets in May
The Tallahassee Police Department said it took 57 firearms off the streets in May. In a social media post, TPD says the guns were either surrendered, collected as evidence or otherwise seized from those who had them illegally.
TPD's gun recoveries come at the same time that the Leon County Sheriff's Office seized several illegal guns, such as an AK-style pistol equipped with a 72-round drum magazine.
At the same time, however, more than 50 firearms were stolen from vehicles, many of them unlocked, since the beginning of the year, the department said.
So far in 2025, 10 people have died and at least 22 have been injured in 29 serious city and county shootings, according to a Tallahassee Democrat analysis of gun violence.
Police urge residents to secure their weapons and make sure they aren't left in unlocked cars.
More: National Urban League President in Tallahassee, endorses local anti-gun theft campaign
Also: Stopping violence with keychains: Reminding Tallahasseeans to lock their guns in cars
Arianna Otero is the trending and breaking news reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at AOtero@tallahassee.com and follow her on X: @ari_v_otero.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: TPD removes 57 illegal guns from Tallahassee streets in May
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Los Angeles Times
17 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Don't buy fancy butter to make great pie. Here's why
When it comes to the fat in pie dough, there are no kings. In terms of its ingredients, pie dough couldn't be more straightforward: For the most part, it's flour, butter and water. With so few ingredients, it begs the question: Does the quality of the butter make a difference? Typical American butter — brands such as Land O'Lakes, Cabot, Challenge and supermarket private labels — contains 80% butterfat. Many of the brands also offer extra-creamy lines. These 'European-style' butters have a higher butterfat content. Kerrygold from Ireland has a butterfat content of 82% to 83%, and Plugra, which is made in the U.S., is 82% butterfat. Ironically, European-style butters with the highest percentage of fat are from small American creameries: Straus Family Creamery in Marin County makes a European-style butter with 85% butterfat, and Vermont Creamery has a whopping 86%. Some sources say that European-style, higher-butterfat butter makes a difference in baked goods, but speaking strictly for pie dough right now, how could it? At least in any noticeable way. What isn't butterfat in butter — that other 14% to 20% — is water (with an insignificant amount of milk solids, and in the case of salted butter, salt). And you add water to pie dough anyway. (In my pie crust, I substitute heavy cream for some of the water, a 'trick' I learned from pastry chef Nancy Silverton, who does so because, she says, in addition to hydrating the dough, the cream brings with it fat and flavor.) The water in butter evaporates in the baking process, creating steam pockets in the dough, which is what forms the layers and translates into flakiness. So it wouldn't make sense that less water (fewer steam pockets, fewer layers) would be superior. I did a test of Land O'Lakes vs. Kerrygold. The one thing that Kerrygold added to the dough was color. Kerrygold has a bright, rich yellow hue that comes from the grass the cows graze on, and that makes for a buttery-colored dough. But that color didn't translate to the baked crust. I baked the dough off into little crackers. The Land O'Lakes crackers were light and flaky. As hopeful as I was about the Kerrygold, what with that beautiful buttery-colored dough, the crackers were flat. Barely a flaky layer in sight. Of course, both were delicious. Butter is butter. There's no question that butter, any butter, does reign supreme when it comes to contributing flavor to pie dough. For flakiness, there are still those who swear that shortening makes for the flakiest pie crust, which, more widely known by the brand name Crisco, is a solid fat made from primarily soybean and palm oils. Crisco is so popular in baking that, previously offered only in small tubs, the product is now sold in sticks, so it can be used in a recipe without making a mess stuffing it into a measuring cup. Lard (rendered pork fat) — specifically 'leaf lard,' which comes from the fat around the kidney and loin of the pig — is also said to make for a flaky pie crust. And when I worked at a bakery in a billionaire enclave in the Hamptons, we made the dough with — gasp! — margarine. To my knowledge, nobody complained, or even noticed. The crust was light and flaky and reasonably flavorful. The fruit was juicy and jammy and delicious. It was summertime in one of the most beautiful corners of the earth, and our customers, it would seem, were just happy to have pie. So what do I suggest? Use regular butter. If you want to experiment with Crisco or lard, use that in combination with butter. And if you are entering a pie contest that you really want to win, experiment with combinations of Crisco or lard and European butter. Yes, I might use Kerrygold for that small possibility that it might make a smidgen of difference in the flavor or the color. And if I were baking something that didn't involve piles of stewed fruit, like biscuits, I might splurge. But I guess it would depend on who I was making them for; for the kings and queens in my life, then yes. Absolutely. Ray Garcia, chef of the now-closed beloved modern Mexican restaurant Broken Spanish, calls for European-style 83% butterfat in these biscuits. The butter is frozen and grated, a trick that allows you to mix the butter in with the flour while keeping it as cold as possible. That way the butter melts in the oven, creating those coveted light, flaky the recipe. Cooking time: 1 hour. Makes about 12 biscuits. This pie has the best of both worlds: a crispy, flaky bottom crust and a crunchy crumble topping. This topping is unusual, as it has an egg in it, so it's like crunchy cookie dough dropped in clumps on the pie. For the filling, I cook the sugar first and then add the blackberries, to give them a head start. If I start with raw blackberries, I find that even after over an hour of baking, they don't break down and still look like whole blackberries. I add the cornstarch here too, to make sure the fruit filling sets. The pie is baked on the lowest rack to ensure a browned, crisp bottom crust. If you have a pizza stone, use the recipe. Cooking time: 2 hours. Makes 1 9-inch round pie. From the L.A. Times' long-running Culinary S.O.S. column, this recipe comes courtesy of Koreatown's historic Cuban restaurant El Colmao. Writer Astrid Kayembe highlighted the restaurant's popular ropa vieja dish in her guide to the city's best Caribbean spots, but the signature pollo al colmao translates the classic stewed chicken dish through a family the recipe. Cooking time: 1 hour 40 minutes. Makes 1 9-by-13-inch pie.
20 hours ago
Pope Leo XIV marks feast day as Vatican launches campaign to help erase its $57-68 million deficit
ROME -- Pope Leo XIV on Sunday celebrated a special feast day traditionally used by the Catholic Church to drum up donations from the faithful, with the Vatican under the first American pope rolling out a new campaign to urge ordinary Catholics to help bail out the deficit-ridden Holy See. Leo celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, marking the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul and repeated his message calling for unity and communion among all Christians. In churches around the world, Masses on the July 29 feast day often include a special collection for Peter's Pence, a fund which both underwrites the operations of the central government of the Catholic Church and pays for the pope's personal acts of charity. With a promotional video, poster, QR code and website soliciting donations via credit card, PayPal, bank transfer and post office transfer, the Vatican is betting this year that an American-style fundraising pitch under the Chicago-born Leo will help keep the Holy See bureaucracy afloat and erase its 50 million to 60 million euro ($57-68 million) structural deficit. The video features footage of Leo's emotional first moments as pope, when he stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica and later choked up as he received the fisherman's ring of the papacy. With an evocative soundtrack in the background, the video superimposes a message, available in several languages, urging donations to Leo via the Peter's Pence collection. 'With your donation to Peter's Pence, you support the steps of the Holy Father,' it says. 'Help him proclaim the Gospel to the world and extend a hand to our brothers and sisters in need. Support the steps of Pope Leo XIV. Donate to Peter's Pence.' The fund has been the source of scandal in recent years, amid revelations that the Vatican's secretariat of state mismanaged its holdings through bad investments, incompetent management and waste. The recent trial over the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Between the revelations and the COVID-19 pandemic, which closed churches and canceled out the traditional pass-the-basket collection on June 29, Peter's Pence donations fell to 43.5 million euros in 2022 — a low not seen since 1986 — that was nevertheless offset the same year by other investment income and revenue to the fund. Donations rose to 48.4 million euros (about $56.7 million) in 2023 and hit 54.3 million euros (nearly $63.6 million) last year, according to the Peter's Pence annual report issued last week. But the fund incurred expenses of 75.4 million euros ($88.3 million) in 2024, continuing the trend in which the fund is exhausting itself as it covers the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls. On top of the budget deficit, the Vatican is also facing a 1 billion euro (about $1.17 billion) shortfall in its pension fund that Pope Francis, in the months before he died, warned was unable in the medium term to fulfill its obligations. Unlike countries, the Holy See doesn't issue bonds or impose income tax on its residents to run its operations, relying instead on donations, investments and revenue generated by the Vatican Museums, and sales of stamps, coins, publications and other initiatives. For years, the United States has been the greatest source of donations to Peter's Pence, with U.S. Catholics contributing around a quarter of the total each year. Vatican officials are hoping that under Leo's pontificate, with new financial controls in place and an American math major running the Holy See, donors will be reassured that their money won't be misspent or mismanaged. 'This is a concrete way to support the Holy Father in his mission of service to the universal Church,' the Vatican's economy ministry said in a press release last week announcing the annual collection and new promotional materials surrounding it. 'Peter's Pence is a gesture of communion and participation in the Pope's mission to proclaim the Gospel, promote peace, and spread Christian charity.'
New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Zohran Mamdani's fiscal armageddon could bring NYC back to the bad old days
Ah, it's getting easier to long for the good old days — when Gotham was dominated by machine politics, corruption and fiscal mismanagement. Yes, it led to the dreaded fiscal crisis of the mid- to late 1970s, near bankruptcy and a deep city recession that hit hard at the working class in the five boroughs and even the suburbs, including my own family in Westchester. How the city fell into this fiscal abyss, which actually lasted a few years into the next decade, and climbed out is all laid out in gruesome detail in the extremely readable prose by Rich Farley, a lawyer who works on financial transactions. He's the author of 'Drop Dead; How a Coterie of Corrupt Politicians, Bankers, Lawyers, Spinmeisters, and Mobsters Bankrupted New York, Got Bailed Out, Blamed the President and went back to Business as Usual (And it Might Be Happening Again),' released in April. The title is a mouthful and it's not 100% accurate. New York City never declared bankruptcy. There's a debate that it even technically defaulted on its debt when the trigger for the crisis — investors losing confidence in the city's financial condition — boycotted buying city bonds. But those are mere quibbles as I dive into this trenchant historical account of how Gotham — with all its wealth and commerce on Wall Street and real estate and then a lot more — was brought to the brink, a near Detroit-style fiscal meltdown. Follow The Post's coverage of the NYC mayoral race In reading Farley's work, it does dawn on me that for all the grease and grime of those years, the city was immensely savable. The financial crisis did come to an end, but not until after a surge in crime because we couldn't afford cops, arson (The Bronx was literally burning), and unemployment (people like my dad, who lost his construction job because of a halt to city infrastructure spending). It was fixed, at least for decades, after the political leadership did re-establish itself as a stabilizing force. The saviors The saviors were people like Hugh Carey, the governor, who instituted reforms that repaired the confidence of investors and businesses. And Mario Cuomo (yes, that Mario Cuomo), who would succeed Carey and keep a close eye on his hometown for three terms during what's best described as a mini renaissance. And an upstart US congressman named Ed Koch, who inspired confidence that the city must and could survive. He ran for mayor on the slogan 'How Am I Doin'?' and won three terms. Don't forget that federal prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani, who took on the mob and municipal corruption with equal zeal, set the stage for becoming mayor and ushered in a real rebirth in Gotham of low crime and a booming business community. Here's the latest on NYC mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani There was also an engaged business community — people like investment banker Felix Rohatyn — that wasn't afraid to step up and say enough of the nonsense. And here's why I would love to turn back the clock, as crazy as that might sound. None of the gumption shown by those civic and political leaders is evident anymore, as a more serious existential threat looms — worse than 'Fat Tony' Salerno of Genovese fame, Tammany's Carmine DeSapio and graft in the Parking Violations Bureau. All of their lawlessness was snuffed out as the establishment re-established order. The fiscal Armageddon I fear comes in the form of a smiling socialist named Zohran Mamdani, who just won the city's Democratic mayoral primary over the son of the great Mario Cuomo. Mamdani outhustled Andrew Cuomo at every turn. Based on what we know, Mamdani seems like an honest fellow, which is good — and very, very bad. Bad because he's a noxious breed of politician who isn't afraid to promote his weird behavior and sell it as gold to an uninformed electorate. Even worse, no one in our political class or the business elite has really stepped up to call him out. He wants to tax to death those businesses and wealth producers that remain and employ our working class. He wants to give stuff out for free like bus rides. He wants to socialize grocery stores. He wants to defund the police, a sure recipe for more business flight. He has not disavowed the phrase 'globalize the intifada,' which many New Yorkers can reasonably interpret (as it was during those vile campus protests) as a form of antisemitism. There are more than 1 million Jews living in the Big Apple, but how much did Cuomo make of Mamdani's acquiescence to this sick rhetoric? Very little. NYC is still the epicenter of finance, the nation's largest bank run by Jamie Dimon. He has his headquarters and home here. But not a word from America's banker. In this city and state led by Dems, seasoned politicians — people like Chuck Schumer, a Brooklyn assemblyman and later congressman who is now US Senate minority leader — have been quiet as a mouse, except for congratulating Mamdani on his victory. Cuomo and Schumer should ask themselves if their precious political futures are worth not calling out this nonsense and angering the AOC wing of the party. Business leaders need to ask themselves if the price of doing business here is worth allowing a lefty loon to run the epicenter of capitalism. Our budget is in better shape from the morass of the 1970s. If you look at the numbers as I do, NYC is always a recession away from trouble. Couple that with rank socialist policies like defunding the police, and you see how things can and will go sideways if Mamdani wins — and you will miss the mess of the 1970s.
