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Fifty-one beach-area restaurants are betting a $10 dish can draw locals through the door during one of the year’s slowest stretches, as Taste of the Beaches returns for its 18th year. The event, already underway and running through Oct. 11, invites diners to sample meals along the coast while reminding residents what is on offer…
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The Trump administration is moving ahead with a sweeping overhaul of Head Start that would discard most of the program’s federal rulebook, a proposal that has split conservatives and early education advocates. Head Start, which dates to the 1960s, serves more than 750,000 low-income children under age 5. The program is currently governed by more…
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Florida ranks as the toughest state in the country for home sellers, and Tampa Bay sellers are feeling it as listings sit longer and offers get harder to come by. A recent ranking by Underwood Law Firm compared state housing markets using real estate data and placed Florida last for sellers. Texas and South Carolina…
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Pinellas County school leaders will take up the future of seven campuses this week, as the district weighs closures it says are driven by a persistent shortage of students. School board members will meet in a workshop Tuesday morning to discuss closures proposed for the end of the current school year. Superintendent Kevin Hendrick has…
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Weather forecasters are tracking an area of interest in the tropics that has a 50% chance of developing into a tropical system as it moves toward the Gulf, though much about its future remains unsettled. The National Hurricane Center puts the odds of development at 50%. Computer forecast models support gradual formation over warm waters,…
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Parking at Pinellas County’s most popular beach parks is about to get more expensive, and annual passes already have. County leaders approved higher parking fees for Fort De Soto, Sand Key and Fred Howard parks as part of the newly adopted county budget. Starting Dec. 1, the flat $6 daily parking rate gives way to…
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The Seminole City Council voted Wednesday to remove links and position statements from a city webpage about Amendment 3 after a state lawmaker warned the page crossed a legal line. The page grew out of a July 15 “City Alert” on the city’s website directing residents to seven links about the November property tax measure.…
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Students hoping to earn a Bright Futures scholarship as part of the Class of 2028 will need higher standardized test scores than their predecessors, under new benchmarks set by the Florida Department of Education. For the top-tier Academic Scholars award, graduating seniors in 2028 must post a 1350 on the SAT, up 20 points from…
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Tampa Electric has asked state regulators to approve rules that would make data centers and other very large power users pay for the infrastructure they need, rather than pass those costs on to everyday customers. The utility says it filed the plan, known as a tariff, with the Florida Public Service Commission. The filing is…
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Florida’s minimum wage rose to $15 an hour on Wednesday, the last of the scheduled annual increases voters approved in a 2020 constitutional amendment. The wage climbed by $1 a year after the amendment took effect in 2021, and it will be adjusted annually for inflation from here. When voters passed the measure, the state…
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The city of New Port Richey has finished repairs on the fishing pier at the James E. Grey Preserve. An inspection found the old wooden pilings were rotting. Colin Eichenmuller, the city’s public works director, supervised the work. He says several of the timber pilings supporting the pier showed significant deterioration and rot. Much of…
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Florida voters will decide in November whether to cap annual property tax increases for residential rental homes. Additionally, Amendment 3 would also expand the homestead exemption for homeowners. Under current law, a rental property’s taxable value can rise by up to 10% a year. Amendment 3 would lower that cap to 5%. Rental properties do…
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St. Petersburg College has launched its own police department, putting sworn law enforcement officers on campus alongside its existing security team. The new St. Petersburg College Police Department will give the college direct access to law enforcement information and the authority to respond to and investigate incidents on campus. College leaders say that includes access…
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Hillsborough County Fire Rescue is about to send whole blood to trauma scenes by drone, and the idea is simpler than the headlines make it sound. Get the transfusion to the patient before traffic, distance, and the hospital doors eat the minutes that decide who lives. Officials announced the Drone Whole Blood Delivery Program on…
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A Pinellas County lawmaker says the City of Seminole crossed a legal line by using taxpayer-funded communications to steer residents toward voting against Amendment 3, the statewide property tax proposal on the November ballot. Republican state Rep. Berny Jacques, whose district includes Seminole, sent a letter to Mayor Leslie Waters arguing that the city’s website…
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The Federal Reserve raised interest rates earlier this month for the first time in more than three years, aiming to cool inflation as the cost of living keeps climbing. The effects are now showing up in Tampa Bay real estate, where borrowing costs are up for residential and commercial buyers, and prices remain elevated. The…
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Florida’s taxpayers aren’t imagining it. Over the past year, a wave of state audits led by Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia has reviewed dozens of Florida jurisdictions and uncovered over $1.9 billion in excessive local spending that far outpaces population growth and inflation. The findings reveal a consistent pattern: local governments capturing property tax windfalls…
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Florida’s regulated electric monopolies have won nearly everything they have asked for in recent rate cases, and the state’s own consumer advocate is now taking the fight to the Florida Supreme Court. A Record Increase, Approved by Consensus Florida Power & Light asked regulators in February 2025 for a $9.819 billion increase and an 11.9…
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Airbnb is putting an initial $250 million into a Housing Accelerator meant to close the last financing gap on housing projects that are nearly ready to build but still sitting idle. The company says the money is last-dollar capital — preferred equity or mezzanine loans at below-market returns — aimed at developments that have already…
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Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida taxpayers have earned relief, and he promises no rural community will pay the price. Speaking to reporters Thursday, DeSantis said the state would step in with grants for rural communities that lose revenue if voters pass Amendment 3 in November. The measure would raise the state’s homestead exemption and, if…
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Pasco County commissioners have signed off on $235.4 million for 20 infrastructure and mitigation projects meant to repair damage from Hurricanes Idalia, Helene and Milton and harden the county against the next storm. More than $147 million of that total is federal Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery money from HUD. The rest comes from other…
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the St. Pete-Clearwater Sun. Is a conflict of interest acceptable for your “safety”? That’s the question at hand because at the July 21, 2026, Pinellas Board of Commissioners’ meeting, Commissioner Brian…
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Starting Oct. 1, Florida landlords will finally have a real weapon against a rental fraud epidemic that has ballooned with the rise of artificial intelligence — even as advocacy groups push back against holding scammers criminally accountable. House Bill 1293, signed into law in June, makes it a third-degree felony to knowingly use forged financial…
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For years, if you wanted official weather data anywhere near Venice, you had to look more than 30 miles away to Myakka River State Park. That changed this month, and the fix has a name: Dorothy. The State College of Florida has installed a new weather station, nicknamed Dorothy, at its Venice campus in North…
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Florida ranks 10th in the country for grocery prices. That is not a rumor from the checkout line. It is the first-quarter 2026 grocery cost index compiled by the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center and mapped by Visual Capitalist. The national benchmark is 100. Florida sits at 105.7, or 5.7 percent above average. Hawaii…
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Nearly 9 in 10 Americans say they are worried about the growth of artificial intelligence, according to a recent CNN poll. On campus, the opposite is happening. College students are declaring AI majors as fast as universities can invent them. That gap is the story. The public hears the warnings. Young people are placing a…
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Brightline’s high-speed rail operation is leaning on fresh outside cash to stay afloat, even as several of the company’s own parent entities file for bankruptcy protection — a restructuring the company is working hard to frame as good news. Brightline Trains Florida LLC announced Friday it has secured nearly $500 million in new financing through…
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As dengue fever cases climb across the Tampa Bay area, Clearwater took action Friday with a low-cost, low-tech approach: releasing 10,000 mosquitofish into four city lakes rather than turning to costlier chemical intervention or new government programs. The fish were released into Prospect Lake, Glen Oaks, Moccasin Lake and Salls Lake, with each fish capable…
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Florida’s minimum wage climbs to $15 an hour next week, with the tipped-worker floor rising to nearly $12. The increase is the last scheduled jump under the 2020 constitutional amendment. After that, annual inflation adjustments take over. Along Gulf Boulevard in Indian Rocks Beach, restaurant and shop owners say they have already spent years absorbing…
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Florida’s deadline to pull automated license plate readers from state highway rights-of-way arrives next week. Agencies that have not removed the devices by Sept. 30 face having the Florida Department of Transportation take them down. The Aug. 31 FDOT memo revoked existing permits for the cameras, including those operated by Flock Safety, and halted new…
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A new report says Florida renters could end up paying more in property taxes if Amendment 3 passes, but the projected increase depends on local governments raising rates instead of trimming budgets. The Florida Housing Coalition released the report, written by tax-policy analyst Jared Walczak. It estimates that if local governments raise property-tax rates to…
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Two years after Hurricane Helene pushed storm surge into parts of Tampa, the city says it has closed out nearly all of the building permits tied to storm repairs. Dozens remain open. According to the City of Tampa, its Building Services department received 1,525 permits for Helene damage. Of those, 1,463 have been closed, about…
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A 404-unit luxury apartment community on the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs opens Thursday after more than five years of planning, public hearings, and neighborhood opposition. The Caroline at Anclote Harbor sits on about 72 acres. Developers say roughly 24 acres were set aside for buildings; more than 30 acres of wetlands and bald-eagle habitat…
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Pasco County has declared a one-week local state of emergency to intensify mosquito control after two locally acquired dengue cases. Officials will brief the public Thursday on aerial and ground operations already underway. The Florida Department of Health’s mid-September count showed 152 locally acquired dengue infections statewide. Hillsborough County accounted for 134 of them and…
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Hillsborough County Public Schools is asking voters to renew its half-penny sales tax for another 10 years, and the pitch includes a number likely to catch taxpayers’ attention: the district has already spent more than $1.326 billion from the same tax since voters first approved it in 2018. The renewal referendum will appear on the…
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Dozens of residents turned out Monday night in this Polk County town of about 5,300 people to oppose a proposed hyperscale data center. State Rep. Angie Nixon, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, headlined the gathering and framed the project as a fight over transparency and the environment. That is a fair description of how…
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Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky has approved rate reductions for four private homeowners carriers covering more than 62,000 policies at renewal. The cuts run as high as 10.4 percent. Kin Insurance separately announced average reductions of more than 20 percent for customers in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties. Those numbers would have sounded implausible…
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Gayle Flynn paid $30,000 out of her own pocket for a fence around her property, not for looks, but to keep short-term rental guests from trespassing on her land. It’s the kind of expense homeowners are increasingly bearing themselves while local government debates how to respond to a growing vacation-rental problem in residential neighborhoods. Flynn…
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Pinellas County Schools is pushing back its second round of community meetings on proposed school closures until after an Oct. 6 School Board workshop, giving board members more time to sort through recommendations that parents say don’t hold up to scrutiny. Superintendent Kevin Hendrick announced the delay Tuesday night, with new meeting dates to be…
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Two years after Hurricane Helene pushed several feet of storm surge into South Hillsborough County, the Firehouse Cultural Center in Ruskin is back in business — but not before taxpayers and private donors together covered a repair bill north of $300,000. The nonprofit arts center, which sits near an area that took on roughly four…
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Pinellas County Schools is staring at a number it can no longer paper over. The district was built for roughly 115,000 students. It now educates about 70,000. Officials put unused seats at more than 45,000. Seven campuses are up for closure, with a final board vote set for October 13. District leaders say the package…
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Southwest Florida Water Management District officials were expected Tuesday to consider extending a Modified Phase III water shortage order. Summer storms flooded Brooksville, Lakeland, and parts of Tampa. They did not erase a regional rainfall deficit that stood at 15.4 inches through August, slightly worse than the 15.2-inch gap in July. The district’s own statement…
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As Florida homeowners look ahead to a possible tax break in November, some local fire officials are warning that Amendment 3’s proposed expansion of the homestead exemption could squeeze their budgets — even as the measure’s backers argue relief is overdue for residents already stretched thin by rising costs. The amendment, which needs 60% voter…
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