Tribune News Service

In Miami, DeSantis supporters get campaign intel on how governor plans to beat Trump

MIAMI — A day after Ron DeSantis unveiled his presidential campaign, his top pollster met Thursday with a group of fundraisers at a Miami luxury hotel to outline exactly how they plan to knock down former President Donald Trump in the race for the GOP nomination.

The early morning presentation at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami was led by pollster Ryan Tyson and campaign staff. The team ran through data on how they could win the party’s nomination: namely, winning over Republican voters looking for an alternative to Trump and competing fiercely in the earliest primaries.

The briefing was closed to reporters, but multiple fundraisers remarked afterward that they left feeling convinced that it could be done.

Those in attendance included a mixture of political strategists and lobbyists, wealthy health care executives and developers, as well as some Florida politicians. The crowd included contingents from key early states like Nevada, as well as bigstate heavyweights like California and Texas.

—Miami Herald Nun accused of violating vow of chastity with priest appeals to Vatican

A Texas nun who accused the Fort Worth bishop of invading her privacy and violating civil law says the same bishop is refusing to allow her to choose her own representation in the church’s investigation.

The Rev. Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach has sent an appeal to the Vatican to challenge Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson on the matter, a civil attorney representing her said.

The Fort Worth diocese accused Gerlach of violating her vow of chastity with a priest, contending that she admitted to doing so. But Gerlach’s attorney, Matthew Bobo, said his client was questioned under heavy medication, including painkillers, following surgery. Gerlach, who uses a wheelchair and has a feeding tube, cannot remember what she admitted. “She did not have sex with a priest,” Bobo said.

Gerlach is a member of a small order called the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, who have been in Tarrant County since 1958. The nuns now live at a secluded monastery in Arlington, where they spend their days praying, cooking, cleaning and caring for the grounds. Save for medical care, they rarely, if ever, leave the premises.

—The Dallas Morning News

Colorado student sues school district that wouldn’t let her wear Mexican flag sash at graduation

DENVER — A Western Slope student whose high school and district told her she could not wear a Mexican American sash to her graduation ceremony is suing the school district, school board members, superintendent and principal in federal court.

Naomi Peña Villasano, 18, sued Garfield County School District 16, five school board members, superintendent Jennifer Baugh and Grand Valley High School principal Kelly McCormick on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

The lawsuit claims the defendants are violating Peña Villasano’s free speech rights and her state right to display the U.S. flag on her person.

Baugh told The Denver Post that Garfield County School District 16 does not have a comment regarding the pending litigation.

—The Denver Post