Florida

William Baldwin is promoting a new faith-based movie called "Blind Faith," a film based on the true story of a high school senior who struggles to become the first blind person to play football.

The 48-year-old actor will play the blind football player's coach, whom Michael Chastain, the real-life athlete, accredits his success to.

"I happen to be at the right place at the right time, that just means I happen to be at a school with a coach that would give me that chance," Chastain told First Coast News. "Think about it. A totally blind kid playing a violent game like football." more >>

STUART, Florida – A week before Florida’s crucial GOP primary, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum asked this question to a crowd gathered on the football field of Community Christian Academy, “Who has the best narrative to go up against Barack Obama?”

Many in the crowd believe Santorum does. In a political era where story matters, Santorum is tapping into his family’s narrative of immigration, hard work, and eventual success – hoping it will resonate with working class voters.

“At my Granddad’s funeral, I knelt down by his casket and looked at his hands –enormous, working man’s hands,” said Santorum of his grandfather who worked in the coalmines until he was 72. “And I was thankful for what he did, clawing his way for my freedom.” more >>

Mitt Romney has been spending a significant amount of money and resources to win Florida's 50 delegates in the state's Jan. 31 Republican presidential primary. While Gingrich's position on immigration was seen as a drawback in earlier states, it, ironically, may deliver him a significant victory in Florida.

Former Massachusetts Governor Romney lost to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in the 2008 Florida primary. CNN's exit polls for that contest showed that Romney tied McCain among non-Latino voters but lost heavily among Latino voters. Thus, Latino voters helped deliver McCain his victory, and could do the same for Gingrich in a tight race.

Cuban-Americans made up seven percent of the votes cast in 2008 and they voted for McCain 54 percent of the time. Non-Cuban Latinos were another four percent of the electorate and supported McCain by 53 percent. Only nine percent of Cuban-Americans and 21 percent of non-Cuban Latinos supported Romney. more >>

The right to pray is still a hot topic in the Sunshine State. The Clay County, Fla., School District has been involved in a religious liberty debate over the legality of prayer on school property since last November.

During their January school board meeting last week, members decided that they would hold a workshop sometime between Feb. 27 and March 2 to discuss adopting a policy on school prayer.

School board member Charlie Van Zant told The Christian Post that he, along with the School Board chairman and School Board attorney, will talk to different law firms in the next few weeks about attending the workshop and presenting different perspectives on the constitutional right of school prayer. more >>

A small Haitian-American congregation in Palm Beach County, Fla., is remodeling a closed strip club and will begin to worship there in a few weeks thanks to the much-needed financial help it received from a megachurch.

A site in Boynton Beach where dancers allegedly engaged in sex and sold drugs will soon be a place of worship after Eglise Assemblee Evangelique de Christ finishes its renovation work. The strip club was closed after a police raid during Halloween in 2009.

While the congregation of about 250 Haitian-Americans bought the place for $600,000 last May, it didn't have sufficient funds to bring the work to completion until the Christ Fellowship megachurch in Palm Beach Gardens donated $12,000. more >>

A federal judge in West Palm Beach, Fla., recently ended the U.S. attorney general’s “two-year political prosecution” of a pro-life educator who accused of allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

“This is a tremendous victory not just for Susan but for the First Amendment and the pro-life movement,” Harry Mihet, senior litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel, commented. “Attorney General Holder sought to use federal law as a billy club against pro-lifers, but received instead a clobbering from the very Constitution he had sworn to protect. Freedom-loving Americans everywhere should rejoice.”

According to the Liberty Counsel, Attorney General Eric Holder vigorously sought to fine Mary Susan Pine, founder of a nonprofit pro-life organization called F.A.C.E. (Faith, Action, Counseling and Education), thousands of dollars as well as ban her from counseling women on the public sidewalk outside of the Presidential Women’s Center abortion clinic for purportedly obstructing the entrance to an abortion clinic in November of 2009. more >>