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Break the city’s watering rules, and you get a fine. Rip out your grass, and you might get a check. In Tampa, both come out of the same pot. The city’s Florida-Friendly Landscaping Incentive Program, known as FLIP, pays for part of the cost when homeowners replace irrigated turf with native, drought-tolerant plants. The money…
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The national morning show “Live with Kelly and Mark” is packing up for the Gulf Coast next month, and local fans can request a seat in the audience. Co-hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos will tape the show on the sand at the Sandpearl Resort on Monday, Nov. 16, and Tuesday, Nov. 17. Visit St.…
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After two summers of depleted supplies, watering limits and threats of steep fines, a few weeks of heavy rain have done more for the region’s drinking water than any ordinance. The C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir, which serves Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, is now about 72 percent full, according to Tampa Bay Water. Chief…
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Pinellas County school board leaders are moving forward with the district’s “plan for progress.” The plan closes some schools, consolidates others, and creates new K-8 campuses, with the changes taking effect in the coming school year. The decision followed a Tuesday night meeting in which more than 60 speakers addressed the board. Many urged officials…
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U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner came to Palm Harbor on Tuesday to argue that the federal government can help young Americans buy homes by cutting red tape and boosting supply. Turner joined Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna at a D.R. Horton development for a roundtable with real estate professionals, homebuilders and…
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Childcare industry leaders are gathering in Northeast Florida this week to work on two long-running problems: making care more affordable and raising pay for the teachers who provide it. The conference is also meant to teach them how to win over the lawmakers who control the money. The Florida Association for the Education of Young…
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Lenders repossessed 5,794 U.S. homes in August 2026, up 22 percent from July and 42 percent from August 2025, according to ATTOM’s latest foreclosure report. Overall foreclosure filings—covering default notices, scheduled auctions, and completed repossessions—hit 40,277 properties. That was up 1 percent from the prior month and 13 percent from a year earlier, extending a…
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The University of South Florida has landed another federal check for its seafloor mapping work, a five-year, $8.5 million cooperative agreement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Coast Survey. The award goes to USF’s College of Marine Science to help fund the Center for Ocean Mapping and Innovative Technologies (COMIT). NOAA announced…
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Pinellas County school leaders say they must act on falling enrollment, and Tarpon Springs parents made clear Monday night that they want other options on the table before the district closes or consolidates schools. The district’s “Planning for Progress” proposals could affect more than 10 schools through closures or consolidation into K-8 campuses. Deputy Superintendent…
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Pinellas County School Board members will vote tonight on a plan to close four schools and reshape several others, a decision that will affect more than 1,000 students and their families. Superintendent Kevin Hendrick has warned since last school year that tight budgets and shrinking enrollment would require more closures. The board now has to…
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A federal lawsuit accuses McDonald’s of using artificial intelligence to push up menu prices. The company says the claim is wrong and that its franchise owners, not software, set what customers pay. The suit alleges that McDonald’s AI-enhanced pricing tool violates antitrust law. It argues the tool shares nonpublic data with franchisees that may compete…
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Clearwater City Council will choose between two very different futures for the city-owned Landings Golf Course. One keeps the fairways. The other replaces them with a $180 million private development. Council members were scheduled to hear 5-minute presentations from both bidders at a work session Monday at 1:30 p.m. The city said the public could…
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Reclaimed water customers in St. Pete Beach will pay 50% more each month after city commissioners voted unanimously to raise utility rates. The goal is to stop covering the system’s shortfall with general fund money. The ordinance, approved on second reading, raises the monthly charge from $25 to $37.50 for fiscal 2027, which began Oct.…
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A small Tampa nonprofit is getting a share of a record federal housing grant. The money lets it do more of what it already does: get homeless veterans off the street and into stable homes. P&P Helping Hand Foundation is set to receive up to $350,000 from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The amount…
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Florida voters decide Amendment 3 on Nov. 3. It raises the homestead exemption for non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, adjusted for inflation after that. It also cuts the annual assessment cap on non-homestead property from 10% to 5% and limits property tax spending to core purposes such as public safety,…
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Manatee County has paused a type of project no one is currently trying to build there. County commissioners voted Thursday unanimously to impose a 12-month moratorium on new data center-related development applications in unincorporated Manatee County. The pause covers building permits, site plans, development orders, development agreements, special permit uses, rezonings and Comprehensive Plan amendments…
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A federal paperwork error is being corrected, and St. Petersburg stands to receive $173 million in Hurricane Milton recovery money that Mayor Kenneth Welch says went to the wrong place. Welch announced the funding Friday, on the storm’s second anniversary. He said a geocoding error at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent…
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Bern’s Steak House wants a judge to stop Tampa’s $100 million South Howard flood project, and the legal fight could come down to who controls the ground and who pays for the work. Bern’s, companies tied to the Ciccio Restaurant Group and the Epicurean Hotel, and other property owners filed two class-action lawsuits Thursday. The…
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Two years after back-to-back hurricanes battered the Tampa Bay area, Pinellas County has a large pool of federal recovery money and a long line of residents still waiting on it. The county has received more than $813 million in disaster recovery funds through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Its Pinellas Recovers program…
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Pinellas County’s newly rebuilt beaches took some of the storm’s hit this weekend, and county officials say that’s what the money was for. Hurricane Isaias largely spared the Tampa Bay area. In Indian Rocks Beach, early Saturday waves carried off some sand, but the storm didn’t put heavy stress on the shoreline. The county finished…
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The Hillsborough County School Board took the first step Tuesday night toward building subsidized housing for its own employees on the grounds of a school it closed two years ago. Board members approved a land lease agreement that could allow 100 to 150 affordable housing units on unused property at the former McLane Middle School…
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Hillsborough County commissioners voted 4-3 Wednesday to advance a $75 million public funding agreement for ZooTampa at Lowry Park. A public hearing and a third and final vote are set for Oct. 21. The same 4-3 margin carried the proposal in September. The money would come from the county’s Community Investment Tax, a local sales…
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Today marks two years since Hurricane Milton struck the Tampa Bay area, and Hillsborough County’s federally funded rebuilding program is drawing far more applicants than officials first projected. According to the county, 1,776 applications have been filed through September under Rebuilding for Tomorrow, which launched May 1. WFLA reported that the figure comes as another…
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Federal regulators say they will rewrite vehicle lighting rules in response to a growing number of complaints about glaring LED headlights. Nothing has been banned, and no new limits have been proposed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced this week that it will consult industry stakeholders and safety advocates on how modern headlight technology…
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Nearly ten months after the city opened applications for Sunrise St. Pete, residents still have no clear public answer to a basic question: how many people have actually been paid? The city runs the program with $159.8 million in federal disaster recovery money from HUD, meant to help residents recover from Hurricanes Idalia and Helene.…
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The Hillsborough County School Board voted Tuesday unanimously to oppose County Referendum 1, a November ballot measure that would let voters, not the board, choose the district’s superintendent. Board Vice Chair Nadia Combs introduced the resolution opposing the measure, and the board passed it. Combs said the board has to keep politics out of schools.…
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Hurricane Isaias, the ninth named storm of the Atlantic season, has become the season’s first hurricane and is gaining strength over the Gulf, according to the National Hurricane Center. Sustained winds are near 80 mph, and the storm is moving east-northeast at about 9 mph. Isaias is expected to turn north today, passing a few…
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Walt Disney World raised prices across annual passes, select tickets and Lightning Lane services this week, and the top-tier annual pass now costs $1,749. The increases took effect Oct. 6. The Incredi-Pass, the only pass available to all guests, rose $120 from $1,629. That is a 7.4% jump, and by one tracker’s count, the largest…
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The Greater Tampa Bay Area Scouting Council wants to sell 604 of the 1,300 acres at Sand Hill Scout Reservation in Hernando County. Hundreds of residents, environmental advocates, and Scouts filled Nativity Lutheran Church on Tuesday night to oppose the redevelopment plan. The Scouting Council says proceeds would fund infrastructure improvements and Scouting programs. The…
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Pinellas County Schools is moving toward closing seven schools at the end of this school year, part of a push by Superintendent Kevin Hendrick to cut $25 million in recurring annual expenses. The district says shrinking enrollment is driving the school closure and consolidation plan. Hendrick pointed to a 25% drop in local birth rates…
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Hillsborough County taxpayers are on the hook for more than $848,000 in emergency mosquito-control purchases that commissioners are only now being asked to approve. With another $250,000 possible, the total could pass $1 million. The County Commission was scheduled to hear a dengue situational update at 10 a.m. Wednesday and to vote retroactively on three…
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Sexton Elementary has been pulled from next week’s Pinellas County School Board vote on school closures. Parents who organized against the plan have won at least a temporary reprieve. Superintendent Kevin Hendrick said the district will take another look at options for schools in the Lealman area and north of downtown St. Petersburg. The move…
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Tropical Depression Nine formed in the southern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday. The tropical system is forecast to become Tropical Storm Isaias, the season’s ninth named storm. If the forecast holds, it could become the season’s first hurricane. The depression is moving east at about 5 mph. It is expected to turn north on Thursday,…
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Students at St. Petersburg College will soon have more ways to turn a two-year degree into a four-year one without starting at a university from day one. The college has announced three new guaranteed transfer partnerships with Florida Gulf Coast University, the University of West Florida, and Western Governors University. The agreements are designed to…
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With the voter registration deadline behind them and Election Day four weeks away, the candidates for Florida’s 17th Congressional District are in the final stretch. Meanwhile, the state is moving forward on a policy shift that could change what parents must do before enrolling their children in school. A district race built on retail politics…
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The Largo City Commission trimmed its property tax rate this fall, but most property owners will still send the city more money next year. Rising property values will outpace the cut. On Sept. 15, commissioners voted 6-1 to set the rate at 5.49 mills for fiscal 2027, down from 5.52 mills this year. They approved…
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Two years after Hurricanes Helene and Milton tore through South Hillsborough County, residents are not waiting for the next storm to find out whether the recovery system will work better. A locally organized coalition is drawing up its own plan. The back-to-back 2024 storms left parts of the SouthShore community with severe flooding, downed trees,…
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Saint Leo University plans to offer a three-year bachelor’s degree starting next year, trimming the credits required to graduate to cut both the time and the money students spend on college. The business analytics major can be completed in 93 credits, compared with 120 for a standard four-year degree. The university says it will be…
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Forecasters expect a tropical depression to form in the southwestern Gulf within the next day or so, but where it goes and how strong it gets remain open questions. Showers and thunderstorms are organizing around a broad area of low pressure, and the system is expected to continue developing as it drifts eastward. By the…
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Clearwater officials cleared the way last week for an 83,000-square-foot entertainment complex downtown, approving street vacations and a city land sale for a privately funded project that backers say will bring visitors and business to the Cleveland Street District. The proposed EVO Family Entertainment Center would sit at Cleveland Street and Myrtle Avenue and be…
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Florida is in the middle of one of its worst dengue fever surges in decades, and Tampa Bay health officials are asking residents to do something simple: get rid of standing water around their homes. The Florida Department of Health has confirmed a death tied to the outbreak, though it has released few details. The…
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Nearly two years after Hurricanes Helene and Milton battered the Pinellas beaches, the shops on historic Corey Avenue are rebounding, driven by the business owners who stayed and rebuilt. Most businesses along the strip have reopened, and owners say customer traffic is returning. Yvonne Marcus, owner of Art Expo, remembers what she found after Helene.…
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