![Val Demings launches Florida Senate campaign to challenge Marco Rubio](https://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2021/05/18/7334207b-ce23-470b-9f54-b0902502e399/thumbnail/1200x630/2a449128e4538daff5e8daffb497856c/gettyimages-1227830937.jpg)
Val Demings launches Florida Senate campaign to challenge Marco Rubio
CBSN
Washington — Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings formally launched her Senate campaign to challenge Republican Senator Marco Rubio in Florida on Wednesday, after months of speculation about her plans. Rubio is up for reelection next year.
The Florida Democrat announced her campaign in a three-minute video released on Wednesday morning, describing her upbringing as the inspiration for her "tireless faith of that things will get better," and highlighting her experience as the first female chief of police for the Orlando Police Department. "When you grow up in the South poor, Black and female, you have to have faith in progress and opportunity," Demings explained in the video. She said that her mother, a maid, told her to "never grow tired of doing good."![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250214202746.jpg)
Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a high-stakes meeting at this year's Munich Security conference to discuss the Trump administration's efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Vance said the U.S. seeks a "durable" peace, while Zelenskyy expressed the desire for extensive discussions to prepare for any end to the conflict.
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Washington — The Trump administration on Thursday intensified its sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, the nation's largest employer, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who hadn't yet gained civil service protection - potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of workers.
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It was Labor Day weekend 2003 when Matt Scribner, a local horse farrier and trainer who also competes in long-distance horse races, was on his usual ride in a remote part of the Sierra Nevada foothills — just a few miles northeast of Auburn, California —when he noticed a freshly dug hole along the trail that piqued his curiosity.