Author: stpeteclearwatersun
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For the third time since Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s SAVE Act into law in April, advocacy groups are back in federal court trying to stop a law that hasn’t even taken effect yet. The latest suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, comes from the Southern Poverty Law…
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Two female Asian elephants have a new home in Tampa, and their arrival is a quiet rebuke to the activist groups who insist zoos have no business keeping these animals at all. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay announced this week that Schottzie, 50, and Jati, 39, have moved into the park as part of the Association…
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City officials in Largo spent Wednesday night warning residents that a proposed statewide property tax cut could blow a hole in the municipal budget — a reaction that says as much about how dependent local government has become on ever-rising property taxes as it does about the amendment itself. Largo held a town hall to…
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Heavy equipment rolls onto Lido Beach starting Monday as the city launches the final phase of a multi-year, $13 million effort to rebuild one of Florida’s most visited stretches of Gulf Coast shoreline after years of hurricane battering. Beginning Sept. 21, crews will install more than 3,000 vegetated dunes and native plantings across 1.2 miles…
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Florida voters won’t just be picking a new governor this November. Three statewide Cabinet seats are on the ballot too, and the outcome will determine how much of Governor Ron DeSantis’s conservative agenda survives his departure from Tallahassee. All three offices are currently held by Republicans, and all three incumbents or incumbent-aligned nominees enter the…
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Largo residents will get a rare chance tonight to hear both sides of one of the most consequential ballot questions Florida homeowners have faced in years — and city officials aren’t hiding how nervous they are about the outcome. The city is hosting a town hall on Amendment 3, the statewide property tax measure headed…
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A Clearwater group has collected more than 7,300 signatures to challenge the City Council’s 3-2 decision to vacate a stretch of South Garden Avenue for the Church of Scientology. Save the Garden needed 7,067 valid signatures. It has already cleared that number, with a Sept. 16 deadline still ahead. After that, the city clerk will…
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Tarpon Springs commissioners unanimously advanced an ordinance on Aug. 25 that would ban bicycles, e-bikes, and motorized scooters from sidewalks in some of the city’s busiest tourist stretches. The first-reading measure targets East Tarpon Avenue between Pinellas Avenue and Ring Street and Dodecanese Boulevard between Pinellas Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard—the heart of downtown and the…
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Indian Rocks Beach commissioners will take a final vote Tuesday night on an ordinance that would ban cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and other smoking devices on public beaches, with penalties that include fines of up to $500 and as much as 60 days in jail. The measure passed its first reading unanimously. If approved at the 6…
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Hillsborough County Schools’ nearly 20,000 teachers are back at the bargaining table this week, seeking higher pay and lighter non-teaching duties even as the district reports falling enrollment and tighter tax receipts. Starting pay for a first-year teacher sits just above $48,000. Union president Rob Kriete of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association notes Florida ranks…
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Tampa Bay didn’t flip a switch September 1. Meteorological fall started last week, the astronomical equinox arrives September 22, and neither date will deliver sweater weather. Highs still average near 90 in September. They typically settle into the mid-80s in October and closer to 80 in November. That is the climate record, not a talking…
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Kathryn Bruno wanted to replace the roof on her New Port Richey home before listing it. She did what any prudent homeowner should do: she shopped around. The quotes she received ranged from about $15,000 to $36,000. “It’s been quite a range of quotes and what needs to be done,” she told WFTS. She remembered…
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A new federal housing law signed in July removes a bureaucratic barrier that kept some disabled veterans from qualifying for rental assistance even while they were living on the street. The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act permanently excludes VA disability compensation from the income calculation used for HUD-VASH, the joint HUD-VA program that…
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Typically, gasoline prices ease as summer driving demand fades. That seasonal break did not arrive this year. As of September 3, AAA put the national average for regular gasoline at $4.14 a gallon, up from $3.19 at the same point in 2025 — a jump of roughly 30 percent. The national average has never before…
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Dunedin city commissioners voted 5-0 Thursday night to permanently ban launches of Jet Skis and other personal motorized watercraft from the south side of the Dunedin Causeway. The designated launch area has been closed since back-to-back hurricanes damaged the Causeway in 2024. The new ordinance ensures it will not reopen. The spot has served as…
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Hillsborough County Public Schools has installed vaping detectors in K-8 and middle school bathrooms after a high school pilot showed the devices cut bathroom vaping and made restrooms usable again. The district already recorded more than 1,000 vaping-related referrals in a single school year. Officials say the problem did not start in 11th grade. The…
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Governor Ron DeSantis has declared September Florida Preparedness Month, a practical reminder that the state’s most dangerous stretch of hurricane season is here and that residents—not distant agencies—must take the first steps to protect themselves. September is the climatological peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. Over the last 60 years, the basin has produced at…
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Safety Harbor is putting a new twist on shopping local this month, giving residents and visitors an incentive to explore businesses throughout the community. The Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce has launched its Safety Harbor Passport Challenge, a month-long promotion running from Sept. 1 through Sept. 30. The free digital program encourages participants to visit…
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Manatee County commissioners will meet Wednesday to discuss creating a new bureaucracy to regulate short-term rentals, with county staff estimating the program could cost taxpayers $1.5 million in staffing during its first year alone, plus nearly $237,000 annually in software costs. The work session marks the latest chapter in a debate that has dragged on…
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A grassroots campaign to strip Duke Energy of its decades-long grip on St. Petersburg’s power grid officially launched Wednesday, but the group behind it is glossing over a price tag that could run into the billions. The organization, calling itself “Dump Duke,” kicked off a petition drive to place a measure on the 2028 ballot…
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Self-driving cars are officially picking up paying passengers on Tampa streets starting today, and unlike most transportation upgrades this city has seen, taxpayers aren’t footing the bill. Waymo announced Tuesday that Tampa is one of three cities nationwide — alongside Denver and San Diego — where the company is opening its autonomous ride-hailing service to…
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Tampa city officials rolled out a slickly produced computer simulation this week designed to convince residents that a $92.7 million public works project will finally solve South Tampa’s chronic flooding problem. Whether it convinces the small business owners who stand to lose their livelihoods during years of construction is another matter entirely. Tampa Mobility Director…
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The Florida Department of Transportation has ordered local police departments to rip out automated license plate readers installed along state highway rights-of-way, giving agencies just 30 days to comply. The move, spelled out in a memorandum issued Monday, revokes existing approvals for the devices and shuts the door on any future installations on state roads.…
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Downtown Sarasota residents took their frustration directly to City Hall this week, rallying against a paid-parking program that critics say has functioned more like a revenue scheme than a traffic management plan. The rally followed a poster-making gathering the day before at Mattison’s on Main, where organizers prepared signage to bring to City Hall as…
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After nearly seven years of taxpayer-subsidized golf cart rides around town, St. Pete Beach officials have quietly pulled the plug on the Freebee on-demand shuttle service — no formal vote, no public fanfare, just an acknowledgment that the money isn’t there anymore. City commissioners said at last week’s meeting that St. Pete Beach is still…
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A new tropical depression has formed in the northern Gulf of Mexico, marking the fifth organized system of the 2026 hurricane season, though current tracking keeps it well clear of the Tampa Bay area. Tropical Depression #5 developed roughly 100 miles south of the Louisiana coast and is forecast to push west toward northeast Texas…
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Local business owners are sounding the alarm over a proposed paid-parking plan that would carve the island into color-coded zones, warning that charging beachgoers to park could drive away the very customers their livelihoods depend on. The City of Anna Maria will hold a public hearing Monday at 4 p.m. to present the proposed parking…
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The wrecking balls that leveled most of Sarasota Square Mall this year are clearing the way for something the old shopping center never was: a walkable, high-density mixed-use development betting that Palmer Ranch residents want to live, shop, and dine in the same few blocks. For longtime locals like Mike Wayne, who brought his son…
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A 50% jump in tariffs on Canadian aluminum is squeezing Tampa Bay manufacturers, forcing companies to eat rising material costs or pass them along to customers, industry leaders say — the latest test of how well local businesses can adapt to a shifting trade landscape. Southern Manufacturing Technologies, a Tampa-based supplier that produces components for…
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A flood-tracking network built on ordinary residents snapping photos with their phones has quietly become one of the most effective storm-response tools in Pinellas County, in contrast to the often slow-moving, taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects local governments typically rely on. The system, known as CRIS-HAZARD, was developed by University of South Florida St. Petersburg professor Barnali…
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By the slimmest possible margin, the Tampa City Council voted 4-3 on Thursday to commit public dollars toward a $2.3 billion stadium and mixed-use development intended to lure the Tampa Bay Rays to a new home at Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus. Council Chair Alan Clendenin and members Bill Carlson, Luis Viera and Naya Young…
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed suit against two of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers, accusing them of striking a secret pricing deal that gutted reimbursements to local pharmacies and left Floridians with fewer places to get their prescriptions filled. The lawsuit, filed against Prime Therapeutics LLC and Express Scripts, Inc., alleges the…
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Manatee County has $252 million in federal disaster recovery money on the table for homeowners still repairing damage from Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton — and when the county held a public hearing this week on how to spend it, exactly one resident showed up. The hearing, held Wednesday, was meant to gather feedback on…
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More than two years after St. Petersburg quietly doubled its network of license-plate-reading cameras, the City Council took up the matter in public for the first time Thursday, prompted by a growing coalition of residents who say the program was built without their knowledge or consent. Council Vice Chair Richie Floyd placed the item on…
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Tropical Storm Dolly formed Thursday morning in the central tropical Atlantic, becoming the season’s latest named storm, according to National Weather Service data. As of the storm’s formation, Dolly carried maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was tracking west at a brisk 24 mph. Forecasters say Dolly will be short-lived and is not expected…
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The Tampa City Council will decide Thursday morning whether to lock the city into its share of funding for a new $2.3 billion Tampa Bay Rays ballpark, a vote that could commit taxpayer dollars to the project for years to come. The council meets at 10 a.m. to consider finalizing the city’s contribution to the…
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Manatee County commissioners voted unanimously this week to block Flock license plate reader cameras from county facilities, parks and buildings, siding with residents who argued the technology amounts to government overreach into everyday life. The 5-0 vote came after commissioners heard from constituents who said they never agreed to have their movements tracked simply for…
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Beachgoers who have parked at some of Pinellas County’s most popular waterfront parks for years on a flat $6 daily fee may soon be asked to foot a much larger bill, as county commissioners weigh a fee restructuring that could push costs as high as $28 a day. Under the proposal, the county would scrap…
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Manatee County commissioners voted Wednesday unanimously to prohibit Flock license plate-reading cameras from being installed at county-operated parks, facilities and buildings, citing concerns about privacy and the potential misuse of surveillance technology. The 5-0 vote comes as automated license plate readers face increasing scrutiny across the Tampa Bay region and elsewhere in Florida. The decision…
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The City of Tampa has settled with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection after state inspectors documented illegal discharges, permit violations and persistent sewage odors at the Howard F. Curren Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, south of downtown. The city was staring down a fine of nearly $590,000. Instead, under a deal state regulators call an…
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A license plate reader program credited with helping deputies solve felonies and locate missing children is being shut down after Pasco County commissioners turned against it, Sheriff Chris Nocco announced this week. Nocco notified the Board of County Commissioners that he is terminating the interlocal agreement governing the license plate detection systems, effective September 30.…
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