Bradenton Police Department Captain Bill Knight retires after years of service

Bradenton Police Department Captain Bill Knight retires after years of service

BRADENTON, Fla. (WWSB) – Congratulations are due to Bradenton Police Department Captain Bill Knight, after 22 years of service, he has retired.

Captain Knight has served the Suncoast community in many areas of the police department, including as a detective, SWAT Commander & Honor Guard Commander and Narcotics Unit sergeant, among other roles, according to BPD’s X post.

Source: mysuncoast.com

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Boy, 7, Among 2 Killed In Multiple-Car Crash In Manatee County

Boy, 7, Among 2 Killed In Multiple-Car Crash In Manatee County

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — A 7-year-old boy was among two people killed in a Friday night crash in Manatee County involving seven cars.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a car driven by a 25-year-old Sarasota man was driving north on U.S. Highway 301 near Tallevast Road around 9:45 p.m. when he struck the back of another car driven by a 38-year-old Ellenton woman.

According to police, the woman’s car spun into the right turn lane where it collided with a third car and overturned. Meanwhile, the car driven by the Sarasota man collided with four other vehicles.

Find out what’s happening in Bradentonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The woman and a 7-year-old boy riding in her car both died at the scene, police said.

The crash remains under investigation.

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Source: patch.com

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Another Astroturf "Conservative" Group Provides Cover to Developer Backed Commissioners - The Bradenton Times

Another Astroturf “Conservative” Group Provides Cover to Developer Backed Commissioners – The Bradenton Times

by Dawn Kitterman

MANATEE COUNTY — Despite the 2024 primary election being more than ten months off, and the general election more than a year away, some Manatee County voters are receiving familiar unsolicited partisan emails to their inboxes. While the political tactic may be leaving some voters feeling as though they are experiencing deja vu, the political strategy may not be the only thing that is familiar to local elections of the recent past.

A newly formed group calling itself the Real Manatee County Conservatives began pushing out the unsolicited emails more than a week ago. Since the delivery of its first email blast, the group has also created a Facebook business page and blog.

Leading up to the county’s 2022 elections—in early 2021—a mass email campaign was launched by a group going by the name of Manatee Concerned Citizens. The group set out to “inform” local voters about issues pertaining to county commissioners. If you were one of the registered voters to receive the emails from the Manatee Concerned Citizens group, you might recall the sort of unsolicited content that was delivered to your inbox.

Many members of the public—and even our publication—questioned who the nameless “concerned citizens” of Manatee County were. Each of the early emails included a mailing address to “reach out” with feedback, and despite the group claiming they were concerned citizens of Manatee County, the physical address was a residential address in Pinellas County.

Click here to see a sample of the emails sent to local voters by Manatee Concerned Citizens in 2021.  The group’s Facebook page and MailChimp has since been dissolved. 

When the Manatee Concerned Citzens’ emails first arrived in local voters’ inboxes in Feb. 2021, a simple online search of the group’s stated mailing address revealed that the address was the home address of an individual by the name of Nicholas Grant.

According to his LinkedIn, Grant was a full-time employee of the Tampa-based political consulting firm, Strategic Image Management (SIMWINS), from Oct. 2017 through Dec. 2021. SIMWINS is half-owned and operated by political consultant Anthony Pedicini.

As our publication has reported extensively, six of Manatee County’s current commissioners were clients of Pedicini’s during their campaigns. Until recently, it had been all seven commissioners until Vanessa Baugh resigned and the governor appointed Ray Turner to finish her term. Over time, numerous public record text messages have revealed that Pedicini has continued to engage commissioners on policy and personal matters well beyond his clients having won their respective races and their campaigns concluded.

The latest political emailing group, Real Manatee County Conservatives, is being run by an individual named Jennings Lawton DePriest. TBT was able to confirm that DePriest is the individual behind the group, based on multiple facts.

First, each blog post made by the group contains HTML code that is viewable to the user when “inspect data” is selected. HTML code is a computer language, a formatting system for displaying material retrieved over the internet. It scripts websites, instructing how the website will be displayed, everything from its colors to the layout of pages. Often, HTML can also reveal the author of a website or a username.

TBT utilized HTML inspect data last year to discover that someone with a  username of “Anthony” had been creating draft redistricting maps for Manatee County that former Commissioner Vanessa Baugh was submitting into the process as her own.

On each of the Real Manatee County Conservatives’ blog posts, the same name appeared as the author, “JenningsLawton.” See the image below for an example from one such post and click here to see the name stored in HTML on each of the group’s blog posts.


The second confirmation that “JenningsLawton” is Jennings Lawton DePriest, is that the emails being sent to unexpecting Manatee voters are being sent from the email address “info@mg2.toplobster.com.”
According to SunBiz.org, Top Lobster LLC is managed by DePriest. During the county’s 2022 commission races, DePriest was listed as the LLC’s registered agent and manager, but the registration information for the Top Lobster has since been revised to include a secondary LLC as its registered agent, and DePriest only as manager.

According to Top Lobster’s website, the business is “an elite team of digital assassins who do what it takes to win.”

Immediately upon entering the website, a black and white banner asks the following question, “When the government is the only thing standing between you and millions of dollars in revenue – you have two choices: you can dominate or you can disappear. Which will you choose?”

The webpage describes the company’s approach in part by stating, “To truly dominate modern politics, you have to prove that their reelection is directly tied to being on your side.”
To view a PDF capture of the entire Top Lobster website, click here.

During Manatee County’s 2022 commission races, Top Lobster appeared as the likely entity behind mass text messages pushed out against then-incumbent District 4 Commissioner Misty Servia. Top Lobster even appears as a small donor in the 2022 District 4 challenger Mike Rahn’s campaign finance reports.

While at least two mass text messages that were pushed out attacking Servia were without a disclaimer as to who was behind the texts, two others did disclose the PACs that had paid for the messaging.

The text messages, which were sent within the months of July and August 2022, showed as having been funded by two separate PACs; the Voter Response PAC and the Responsible Leadership Committee INC PAC. Campaign finance activity reported to the state by both PACs shows payments to Top Lobster. 

David Ramba’s Voter Response PAC shows that in August 2022, the political committee paid Top Lobster $2,247 for “texting, text messaging, digital ads.” The PAC’s most recent financial reports show that in Feb. of this year, Voter Response paid Top Lobster another $4,690 for similar services.

The Responsible Leadership Committee PAC, run by Stafford Jones, reported that it paid Top Lobster for “advertising” services between July and August 2022. In total, there are five payments reported to Top Lobster from the PAC, totaling more than $16,000.

A separate PAC, Make America Great Again, also reported a small payment to Top Lobster in August 2022. The MAGA PAC is registered to Eric Robinson and many of the glossy electioneering mailers that were delivered to registered voters across Manatee County in 2020 and 2022 were reported as having been paid for by the MAGA PAC.

In  July 2022, TBT reported on each of the PACs mentioned above and provided the public with some insights into the registered agents of the PACs. 

But these payments to Top Lobster are not the only clue that DePriest and his company were a likely source of text messages attacking a former incumbent commissioner to the benefit of the current District 4 Commissioner Mike Rahn. Numerous social media exchanges that played out publicly during the 2022 campaigns show that DePriest, Pedicini, and sometimes Commissioners Van Ostenbridge, Baugh, and Rahn would join together in attacking Servia.

In one such Facebook post, the former commissioner called out DePriest directly for being behind the text messages that were being sent out against her. In the comments of the post, Servia shared photos of the PAC financial reports and the SunBiz registration of Top Lobster. Much of the exchange is still accessible today, click here to view it.

Servia’s efforts to make public DePriest’s role in campaign attacks against her led to DePriest making a Facebook post of his own accusing Servia of having “doxxed” him and alleging that by sharing his business registration information, Servia put his family at risk. DePriest’s post was also still available at the time of this report’s publication, click here, or here.

A scroll back through Servia’s former commissioner Facebook and “X” (Twitter) profiles, as well as DePriest and Pedicini’s accounts on both platforms, reveals multiple ugly back-and-forths in 2022. As of this story’s publication, DePriest’s Facebook profile also displays posts from after the 2022 elections congratulating Rahn on his campaign win.

Up until last Friday, the Real Manatee County Conservatives emails were largely focused on promoting Manatee County Commissioners Van Ostenbridge, Satcher, Turner, Rahn, Ballard, and Bearden as the county’s “most conservative conservatives” that the commission has ever had. Notably, the Real Manatee County Conservatives either avoid mentioning the commission’s seventh commissioner George Kruse, or when mentioned, the writings criticize him.

The emails and blog posts have since gone from praising the commission’s success on traffic improvements, veteran’s housing, and defending private property rights, to most recently attacking a local environmental group—Suncoast Waterkeeper—as a “Soros-backed” organization.

Suncoast Waterkeeper has been outspoken against the commission’s effort to roll back local wetland protections to the benefit of developers and most recently members of the organization, including the group’s Executive Director Dr. Abbey Tyrna, were speakers at an informational panel to help educate the public about the importance of protecting local wetlands and coastal waters.

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Despite immense bipartisan public pleading, in August the BOCC voted 6-1 in support of transmitting a comp plan text amendment to the state that would reduce local wetland protections. Now the measure is scheduled to return to the board for an adoption hearing, tentatively on Oct. 5. If approved by a board majority, the reduction in wetland protections will officially become county policy. 

To read TBT’s previous reporting on the wetland protection text amendment, click here.

Perhaps coincidentally, the owner of Top Lobster, DePriest, has familial ties to the Manatee County Planning Commission.

Facebook profiles for DePriest and his wife show that DePriest is the son-in-law of Planning Commissioner Richard Bedford. As TBT reported last month, prior to the wetland protection text amendment going before planning commissioners, the BOCC seemingly rushed to fill a planning commission vacancy created when Ray Turner—who previously served on the county’s planning commission—was appointed to the BOCC by Governor Ron DeSantis.

DePriest’s father-in-law was one of only two planning commissioners who spoke in support of the measure being recommended for adoption by the BOCC, though the planning commission ultimately voted 4-2 to not recommend its adoption.

Bedford had served on the planning commission in the past and was the former vice president of planning for Schroeder-Manatee Ranch. According to his LinkedIn, he is currently the President and CEO of Real Estate And Land (REAL) Consulting, LLC.

While the financial reports of the PACs who had made payments to Top Lobster in 2022 do not reveal any significant payments to Top Lobster in 2023, another PAC with ties to Manatee County Commissioners and Pedicini has reported significant payments to DePriest.

The Save Our Quality of Life PAC reported two payments to Top Lobster—one in Feb. and the other in April. The combined total of the two payouts was more than $101,000.

The PAC is registered to Wendy K. White. According to records on file with the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections, White was also Commissioner Rahn’s campaign treasurer in 2022.

Rahn, a “Life Director,” of the Manatee-Sarasota Building Industry Association (BIA) and former member, was recently accused of sunshine violations for his alleged efforts to pressure one of the county’s former acting administrators, Lee Washington, into appointing BIA President Jon Mast as a deputy county administrator.

The detailed allegations presented by Washington in a whistleblower complaint he submitted to the county attorney were additionally troubling given that Mast had played a role in delivering to employees of the county’s Development Services Department a “BIA white paper” that provided significant suggested revisions—and deletions—to the county’s land development code.

Campaign finance activity reported to the state for the Save Our Quality of Life PAC also showed that Pedicini’s PAC—Citizens Alliance for Florida’s Economy—has made significant contributions to White’s PAC in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

In 2021, Pedicini’s PAC contributed $100,000 to White’s PAC. In 2022, Pedicini’s PAC contributed another $135,000 to White’s PAC according to financial disclosures—however, later in 2022, White’s PAC reported it had contributed $100,000 back into Pedicini’s PAC.

In April of 2023, Pedicini’s PAC is reported to have contributed $95,000 to White’s PAC.

The reported expenditures for White’s PAC also show that Save Our Quality of Life paid Pedicini’s firm, SIMWINS, $104,000 in 2021. In 2022, White’s PAC reported nearly a dozen expenditure payments to SIMWINS totaling more than $162,000. The final confirmation that Jennings DePriest and his Top Lobster LLC are running the newly formed Real Manatee County Conservatives came on Friday evening when the group pushed a mass text message sharing the blog post about local wetland regulations. The texts arrived on several Manatee County voters’ cell phones around 5:30 p.m. 

The text blast (click here to view) was noted as being paid for by the  Keep Florida Winning PAC. The political committee is relatively new according to Florida Department of State records. The PAC was first registered in December of 2022, and so far has less than $700 reported on its financial activity reports. Interestingly, the PAC’s registry records report no registered agent, but the PAC’s treasurer is reported as Eric Robinson—also known as the “prince of dark money” and who was listed as Manatee County Commissioner Amanda Ballard’s 2022 campaign treasurer

The Keep Florida Winning PAC‘s chairperson is reported in state political committee registration records as Jennings DePriest. 

Source: thebradentontimes.com

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DeSantis Betrays Florida - The Bradenton Times

DeSantis Betrays Florida – The Bradenton Times

by Craig Pittman, Florida Phoenix

Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth and I was in high school, I was part of a singing group that traveled around to Panhandle churches and performed religious songs. No, really! I’m not making that up!

No one would have confused me with Andrae Crouch. You could accurately describe my singing style as “monotone baritone.” The director wisely gave me no solos.

Instead, I had a featured spot doing a spoken-word monologue as Judas Iscariot. I counted my 30 pieces of silver and slowly realized what a horrible betrayal I’d carried out. It was very dramatic. The audience usually looked relieved when it was over and the music started back up.

As a result, I have become something of a connoisseur of traitors, turncoats, and sellouts throughout history — Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling, and Robert Hanssen, to name a few. Heck, I even read “The Sellout” by Paul Beatty.

So trust my expertise on this traitorous topic when I tell you that our own governor, Ron “Why Is Trump Beating Me Like I’m a Cheap Rug?” DeSantis just betrayed every Floridian.

He traveled to Texas last week to stand in front of a couple of noisy oil wells and a friendly crowd of oil field workers who were unlikely to boo him like the people in Jacksonville did recently. He was there to issue a clarion call for coping with climate change by … burning more fossil fuels.

No, I am not making that up either.

He actually acknowledged “the climate has clearly changed,” which may mark a first for a politician who’s always insisted he’s “not a global warming person.”

But then he said the way we should deal with it is by burning more of the stuff that’s been making our climate change so radically.

Specifically, he called for power plants to place a greater reliance on natural gas, which burns cleaner than coal or oil but is still a source of bad stuff for the atmosphere.

“It’s … the most practical way to reduce global emissions,” he shouted over the racket of extractive machinery.

Endorsing natural gas as your prescription for climate change is like announcing that instead of driving off a cliff at 90 mph, you’re in favor of driving off that same cliff, but at 60 mph. Same destination, but we don’t get there quiiiite as fast.

This is, of course, contrary to what the climate scientists say.

“Gas is better than coal but we need to get off fossil fuels entirely,” said Harold Wanless, a scientist from the University of Miami who’s been sounding the alarm about sea level rise since 1981.

Natural gas is, at best, a stopgap measure as the world moves to cleaner fuels.

“Burning natural gas still does emit carbon dioxide,” said David Zierden, Florida’s state climatologist. “It’s not a permanent solution.”

But if you’ve watched DeSantis work, you know he pays little attention to what the people who know what they’re talking about might say.

It’s almost as if he believes he was chosen by God to buck the scientists. I keep waiting for him to tell the hurricane prediction folks that he knows more about where the next storm will make landfall than they do, because he’s done his own research.

Of course, by bucking the experts, he’s parroting exactly what the oil companies want him to say — instead of doing what’s best for Florida.

But wait, there’s more!

Maybe you’re thinking this was just a slip, like when another Florida-based presidential candidate said this week that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was president during the Iraq War.

Maybe you think that what DeSantis meant was “use natural gas for now and then move to renewable energy sources like solar and wind.”

I wish that were the case. Unfortunately, as they say in the infomercials: “But wait, there’s MORE!”

As  the Houston Chronicle reported, he promised that if he’s elected president, he would replace the words “climate change” in federal policy documents with the words “energy dominance.”

(Presumably he’d replace the verbs, too. Otherwise, the documents will call for us to try to stop or slow down “energy dominance,” which I think is the opposite of what he’s going for.)

The New York Times reported that our allegedly well-educated chief executive also vowed to “remove subsidies for electric vehicles, take the U.S. out of global climate agreements — including the Paris accords — and cancel net-zero emission promises.”

DeSantis was quick to remind his pro-drilling audience of how he’d pushed through a Florida law that says local and state agencies aren’t allowed to invest in funds that avoid businesses that fuel climate change.  (This in spite of the fact that responsible investing tends to bring higher financial returns over time.)

So it’s clear he was completely serious about calling for more fossil fuel consumption as a way to battle climate change, despite how silly that sounds. It’s like saying you’ll fight a flood by pouring more water on it.

His argument is as paradoxical as the military regulation in “Catch-22.” The rules said the only way a World War II airman could prove he was mentally unfit to fly more bombing missions was to continue flying bombing missions.

“That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” one disgruntled bombardier admitted.

We’re No. 1!

The lectern in front of DeSantis bore a sign that referred to his craziest promise of all: $2 gas by 2025.

“We know that Joe Biden has waged war on domestic energy production,” DeSantis yelled at the oilfield crew. “As president, I will restore America’s energy independence.”

He promised to cut the regulations that are supposed to constrain the oil companies from dangerous drilling practices. You know, the tougher rules that were passed after the BP oil spill smeared nasty globs of oil on the white sandy beaches of the Panhandle. The ones that a certain Palm Beach club owner rolled back when he occupied the Oval Office, and the current occupant recently reinstated.

Yep, DeSantis wants to let oil drilling be sloppy and dangerous again, like it was in 2010. He wants to return to the days when giant international corporations could get a federal permit to drill in the Gulf of Mexico despite submitting paperwork full of erroneous information as a result of playing cut-and-paste with their Alaska permits.

Why would he do such a thing? Because, he says, making it easier to get a permit to drill will immediately lower the price of a gallon of gas to just $2.

There are a couple of problems with DeSantis’ two-buck plan which render it worth less than 2 cents.

One is that the main reason our gas prices are so high right now is because the Russians and Saudis cut the supply, not because of overly strict federal regulations.

The other is that the oil companies WANT the prices high. They’ve been posting record profits. They could charge less if they wanted to, but they don’t.

Remember how Trump rolled back those safety regulations while he was president? The day he left office (unwillingly, of course), the average cost of a gallon of gas was $2.93. That’s nearly a dollar more than DeSantis claims he could achieve using the exact same tactic.

The Chronicle reporter who covered DeSantis’ Texas appearance said in an interview that DeSantis was … oh, let’s be kind and say “misinformed” … about the state of the American oil industry. He depicted it in dire straits when its straits are anything but.

“The number of rigs that are active right now in Texas is almost double what it was when Joe Biden came into office,” Jeremy Wallace, formerly of the Tampa Bay Times, explained to the Texas Standard.  “And the number of jobs and the wages for oil workers in Texas are both up, according to the Texas Oil and Gas Association.”

In fact, the top crude oil producer in the world is us — by which I mean, the United States.  We hit the top spot in 2018 and haven’t fallen from it yet. That’s a string of successes not even Taylor Swift can match. If we wanted to run around the United Nations building in New York chanting “We’re No. 1!” we totally could.

Sounds like we’ve already hit that “energy dominance” goal that DeSantis was promising to achieve in 2025, doesn’t it?

But DeSantis ignores all these facts to push a phony narrative that the poor, beleaguered oil and gas industry is in trouble from Big Bad Biden. That’s why we need hundreds of new wells to pump out a lot more petroleum to “help” us with our carbon emissions.

It’s almost as if he wants to force the climate to change even faster: “C’mon, you darn climate!  Crank up the temperature! We can take it! We’re just that tough! We drink sweat like it’s a fine French wine!”

Except, of course, we don’t.

Soaking in irony

This is why I say DeSantis has betrayed his native state: Florida has been leading the nation in suffering the immediate effects of our alteration of the climate. We need real relief, not this phony baloney that DeSantis has been peddling.

Instead of talking only to oil industry executives and Fox News hosts, he should be talking with scientists like Wanless and Zierden. Then he’d know the sad and scary truth.

We just recorded the hottest January to July ever, followed by the hottest August in our state’s history.

How hot was it? “This year, July was our hottest month ever,” Zierden told me. “The previous record was in June 1998 when we had all those wildfires. Then August came along and crushed the July record.”

The heat’s been hardest on people who work outside — farmworkers, commercial fisherfolk, construction workers, roofers, those kids at Chick-Fil-A who take your order. And it’s been tough on all the poor people who can’t afford air conditioning. I’m assuming DeSantis merely cranked the mansion thermostat down a couple of notches.

But the bad news is where a lot of that heat wound up.

“Ninety percent of the heat is transferred to the oceans, which is what’s causing sea level rise,” Wanless told me, pointing out that heat makes water expand. Within the next two decades, “it’s going to be pretty dramatic. Miami’s already had a foot of sea level rise.”

Our peninsula is so flat that these rising seas lead to greater storm surge and sunny-day flooding. Meanwhile, the hot oceans are fueling more intense hurricanes even as they’re cooking our coral reefs.

Warmer air holds more moisture, leading to “rain-bombs” that inundate cities. Those stinky toxic algae blooms we’ve seen are stoked by warmer temperatures. And mosquito-borne diseases spread by the hordes of skeeters born in all the standing water are becoming more widespread.

In Florida, irony is always around us like the humidity. It’s like you’re soaking in it. Here’s an irony about DeSantis’ promise to lower gas prices: One reason the prices are so high right now is the extreme heat.

“Extreme temperatures along the Gulf Coast have kept refineries from operating at full capacity,” a spokesman for the American Automobile Association told WTVT-TV last month.

“Refineries already generate incredible heat while operating,” the station’s report explained. “When outside temperatures exceed 100 degrees, that can cause breakdowns and equipment failures.”

Wow, if only we had a chief executive who cared about Florida more than he cared about racking up an unlikely victory in the Iowa caucuses. Maybe then we’d see some progress toward weaning our state off these atmosphere-damaging fossil fuels.

At one point, in the late 2000s, we did have a governor like that. Charlie Crist, a Republican at the time, signed executive orders requiring more energy-efficient building codes and setting a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2025.

He even persuaded the Legislature to pass a law setting up a cap-and-trade system to limit emissions from power companies and other polluters. It also created a marketplace through which they could buy or trade credits to go over the limit.

Then, in 2011, Rick “I Wear My Navy Hat to Remind You How I Sunk This State” Scott took office as governor. He junked all those far-sighted climate initiatives.

Scott made it clear he didn’t want to hear the words “climate change,” much less do anything about it. For 12 years, we’ve been stuck in this same mode, even as the feds and other states try to fix the problem.

And now all our inaction has caught up to us.

Thirty pieces

Look, let’s be real for a second here.  Right now, DeSantis has as much chance of being elected our next president as I do of winning the next season of “The Voice.”

He’s spent the past five years sucking up to the donors who could finance his dreams of winning reelection and then the White House. That’s what he was really doing when he went to Texas. He was meeting with the money men who could hand over a few dollars to keep his presidential campaign chugging along a little while longer.

As a result, he’s spent all this time repeatedly parroting exactly what the fossil fuel industry wants to hear.

Maybe those pro-drilling talking points have been drilled into him so much that it’s become something he repeats even when he’s alone. Maybe he mutters about fossil fuels like Nick Nolte at the end of “The Prince of Tides” murmuring “Lowenstein, Lowenstein … .”

But in a few months, when he finally pulls the plug on his presidential campaign, he’ll have to return to our hot, sweaty, mosquito-infested state full of flooded streets and toxic algae blooms. He’ll have to face up to his betrayal of the people who looked to him for leadership.

I hope he realizes then that those 30 pieces of silver he collected in Texas for his campaign were far too cheap a price for his integrity.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.

Source: thebradentontimes.com

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Top Schools | Pet Saved From Fire | National Coffee Day: FL Good News

Top Schools | Pet Saved From Fire | National Coffee Day: FL Good News

FLORIDA — A gator missing the top half of its jaw finds a new home, four St. Pete museums offer free entry Saturday, Hooters celebrates its 40th anniversary.

The Bay Runner trolley in Sarasota has reached another milestone: carrying 250,000 passengers since its March 2022 launch.

Queer Horror Cabaret Scheduled

The jackpot-winning ticket for Aug. 8th’s historic Mega Millions drawing was sold at a Publix in Naples.

Free Admission To Museums 1st Weekend Of Month

Bank of America, Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank cardholders can receive free general admission the first weekend of the month.

First Chief Equity Officer Hired In St. Pete

Social justice champion, nonprofit leader Lenice C. Emanuel joins Mayor Ken Welch’s administration, St. Pete officials said.

The Spirits of St. Petersburg hosts the World’s Largest Ghost Hunt Saturday at the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

Pet Saved During House Fire

A homeowner’s beloved pet is safe after a fire broke out in a Davenport home Thursday evening.

Tampa School On List Of Healthiest Schools In U.S.

IDEA Public Schools’s four of its schools in the Tampa Bay area have been recognized on the 2023 list of “America’s Healthiest Schools.”

Source: patch.com

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Much To Celebrate AS MLB Regular Season Concludes - The Bradenton Times

Much To Celebrate AS MLB Regular Season Concludes – The Bradenton Times

by Don Laible

As the 2023 MLB regular season winds down today, there’s no shortage of highlights to look back on and off-season expectations to be excited about.

First off, congratulations to the Tampa Bay Rays. The team is staying put in St. Petersburg. They are getting a new ballpark and by preliminary indications, the Rays should be playing their inaugural season there at the start of the 2028 season.

What a bust Texas Rangers’ pitcher Jacob DeGrom is this season. After signing a five-year $185 million deal with the club this past off-season, the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner saw action in all but six games. After just 30 innings of work earlier this season, deGrom was placed on MLB’s Injured List.

DeGrom required reconstructive surgery; the second Tommy John surgery of his professional career. Like several other high-priced superstars of the game, DeGrom has a propensity for being injured. I, like many other New York Mets fans, didn’t shed a tear this past off-season when the hurler decided to take his game west.

Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels is an interesting case to follow this off-season. Heralded by many as the best all-around player in the game, for the first time in his 13-year career playing in California, rumors are swirling that for the right price, the perennial all-star can be had.

Trout has had his season shut down due to suffering a fractured bone in his left hand. The past four seasons Trout’s availability to play close to a full season has been hampered due to injuries. The center fielder, at age 32, may be on the decline when evaluating his talents. With a $37 million contract for next season, there are only a few clubs that may be able to take on such a financial load.

Perhaps Trout’s hometown Philadelphia Phillies will make inquiries?

Shohei Ohtani, a teammate of Trout with the Angels, also isn’t with his club for the final week. The former American League MVP and Rookie of the Year has been sidelined an elbow injury. Having returned to his native Japan two weeks back, the two-way superstar (pitcher and designated hitter) is eligible for free agency this off-season. Speculation of just how high the bidding will get for the three-time all-star is the number one guessing game in baseball. It isn’t out of the question that Ohtani could command $50 million annually.

Goodbye, and thank you, Miquel Cabrera. The great Detroit Tigers’ first baseman is calling it a career after 21 MLB seasons. Coming over to the Tigers for the 2008 season, after five with the Florida Marlins, Cabrera turned into a Hall of Famer, from the get-go of his career.

Offensively, the Venezuelan did it all. A sure first-ballot Hall of Famer in five years, Cabrera slugged 510 home runs, slapped away for 3,168 hits, batted .306, was a 12-time all-star, two-time American League MVP, hit for the Triple Crown and was a member of the 2003 Marlins’ World Series championship team.

When the Pittsburgh Pirates broke training camp this past March, I predicted the club would win 78 games. The club gave its fan base much to be excited about, especially at the start of the season. Andrew McCutchen proved that he had plenty left in the tank, and by all indications will be brought back for next season. Mitch Keller solidified his role as the club’s pitching ace.

With the emergence of top draft picks Henry Davis and Endy Rodriquez, the steady glove of Ke’Bryan Hayes at third base, and the steady outfield including Jack Suwinski and Bryan Reynolds, the club has a nucleus to brag of. Spring training can’t come soon enough to Bradenton.

Amazing, isn’t it? Three clubs, the New York Yankees ($279,022,482.), New York Mets ($343,585,229), and San Diego Padres ($253,287,946), the three highest MLB payrolls, won’t be seeing playoff action next week. Call it what you want, but the bottom line is, money can’t buy a championship. The human factor often is overlooked
when predictions are made during the spring of what clubs will dominate.

How great has it been to see large crowds consistently in Cincinnati and Arizona? The Reds averaged more than 25,000 fans at their home ballpark this season, and the Diamondbacks came up just shy of 24,00 per home game. A winning club always attracts attention.

There has been talk of Kansas City Royals Zack Greinke returning in 2024 for his 21st season, so he could collect his 3,000th strikeout. He currently sits at 2,972.

Now that Adam Wainwright has registered his 200th career victory, it’s doubtful that the pitching sensation for 18 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals would return next season. Retirement has been well earned. 200 wins is the new 300 pitching victories starters now hope to attain.

I’m excited for Pirates’ training camp for a whole host of reasons but none more exciting is the return of shortstop Oneil Cruz. Early in this season, Cruz fractured his left fibula. Turning 25 this coming week, the 6-foot-7 shortstop has an upside to his game that few have equaled in many years.

I miss Dave Wills at the Rays radio microphone. Wills, who passed this past March at 58 years old, teamed with Bradenton resident Andy Freed for the last 18 Rays seasons as Tampa Bay’s radio duo.

Next season will be Yankees’ John Sterling’s 35th season as the club’s lead voice on their radiocasts. Turning 86 years old next July, this could be Sterling’s last season calling games from the Bronx.

So, who will get into the Hall of Fame next year? It appears that the two leading candidates are Adrian Beltre and Todd Helton.

Beltre, who will be eligible for the first time to join the game’s elite in Cooperstown with this January’s announcement, seems to be a shoo-in. The 3,166 hits collected, four-time all-star, five-time Gold Glove, and four-time Silver Slugger winner all but assures the Dominican of a plaque at 25 Main Street.

Helton, the former Colorado Rockie, missed entry into the Hall of Fame this past January. Helton received 72.2 percent of BBWAA votes. He missed the mark by 11 votes. 75 percent is the threshold needed for election. This will be Helton’s sixth year on the ballot.

How cool is it to see Miami Marlins’ Luis Arraez come to the plate? This guy rarely strikes out. He has over 200 hits this season and is hitting above .350 at press time. He reminds me of the great Rod Carew. The hall of famer slapped balls to all corners of the field, and could always be counted on to come through in the clutch.

Where will longtime Reds first baseman Joey Votto play next season? Now that his contract is completed (10 years, $225 million), it is unlikely that Cincinnati ownership will exercise their option for $20 million in 2024. Could he end up in the American League as a designated hitter?

Watch Pirates’ Ji Hwan Bae hit, run, and play the field. Tell me he doesn’t remind you of former Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki. The similarities are haunting.

World Series prediction – Baltimore Orioles hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy. All season long, this young group of fellas seem to have the talent and Lady Luck rooting for them.

Source: thebradentontimes.com

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Live updates: High school football scores for Bradenton, Manatee County teams in Week 6

Live updates: High school football scores for Bradenton, Manatee County teams in Week 6

A weather delay coupled with two early turnovers were the only things that attempted to thwart Manatee’s unbeaten start to the 2023 season on Friday night.

The Hurricanes shook off two early interceptions with their unrelenting defense and big plays on offense to roll past Lakewood Ranch, 52-6.

The victory puts Manatee (6-0 overall, 1-0 Class 4S-District 13) in control of its own playoff destiny. The Canes just need a win against Palmetto on Oct. 27 to win the district title.

On Friday in East Manatee, the Canes’ first three possessions resulted in two interceptions and a field goal, before their offense settled in.

Manatee scored four touchdowns on its next four possessions to blow the game open in what could have been a trap game before next week’s highly anticipated showdown with Venice, which finished runner-up in the state last season.

“I really wanted to take it to these guys,” Manatee head coach Jacquez Green said. “I didn’t want to let them hang around. Clearly, we’re better than them. and I wanted to play like we’re better than them.”

Meanwhile, Lakewood Ranch (2-4, 0-1) struggled moving the ball against Manatee’s defensive front. The Mustangs, who started the season with three defeats before back-to-back wins, were outmatched Friday.

“Their defensive line is tremendous,” Lakewood Ranch head coach Scott Paravicini said. “They’re a very well-coached football team. So they do a good job of making it tough on you with the things that they do and the athletes that they have.”

Manatee had several contributors in the win. The Canes received touchdowns from Kei’Shawn Smith, Ty’ron Jackson (two touchdowns), Bon Bean Jr., Jamari Blake, Jalen Bryant and Christian Johnson.

Johnson’s touchdown was a 30-yard interception return.

Lakewood Ranch’s Jayden Munoz had two interceptions for the Mustangs in the first quarter, before Manatee quarterback Andrew Heidel settled in with three touchdown passes.

Here’s a look at the rest of the Week 6 games with scores below:

  • IMG Academy White 34, Palmetto 10

  • Port Charlotte 49, Braden River 16

  • Sarasota Booker 50, Bayshore 16

  • Saint Stephen’s 32, Fort Myers Canterbury 8

  • Bradenton Christian 29, Cape Coral Oasis 7 (Thursday)

Swipe below for scores involving Bradenton-area programs:

Manatee High’s Farrakhan Shannon runs the ball at Lakewood Ranch stadium on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.Manatee High’s Farrakhan Shannon runs the ball at Lakewood Ranch stadium on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.
Manatee High’s Cory Sanders runs the ball at Lakewood Ranch stadium on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.Manatee High’s Cory Sanders runs the ball at Lakewood Ranch stadium on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.
Lakewood Ranch makes their entrance through a tunnel to play Manatee at Lakewood Ranch stadium on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.Lakewood Ranch makes their entrance through a tunnel to play Manatee at Lakewood Ranch stadium on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.
Manatee High’s Cory Sanders runs the ball at Lakewood Ranch stadium on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.Manatee High’s Cory Sanders runs the ball at Lakewood Ranch stadium on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.

Source: news.yahoo.com

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9 FL Dream Homes: Horse Property On 20 Acres, 1925 Mediterranean Home

9 FL Dream Homes: Horse Property On 20 Acres, 1925 Mediterranean Home

FLORIDA — This week’s Florida dream houses include a Bradenton estate with a horse born on 20 acres, a custom-built courtyard estate in the Miami-area and a 1925 Mediterranean-style home in Lakeland.

Listed by: Keith Pavlick, Charles Rutenberg Realty Orlando Llc

$6.5M Custom Courtyard Estate Nestled In Pinecrest

Revel in a harmonious blend of indoor elegance and outdoor splendor with unparalleled attention to detail at this gorgeous Miami-area home.

Source: patch.com

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Local teacher uses bubbles to show impact of parenting

Local teacher uses bubbles to show impact of parenting

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

Maya Gilkison –Mustangs Ahead

(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL)- Last week in Lakewood Ranch High School (LRHS) Tana Phelps’ Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Science classes bubbles were “babies” and students were “parents.”

Mustangs performed a lab to visually comprehend the role parental care can help with the survival of mammal babies.

Find out what’s happening in Bradentonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

During the first round of bubbles the “parents” didn’t interfere with the bubbles at all. This led to the age of the bubble babies to average around 5.70 seconds.

In the second round of bubbles the “parents” were allowed to interact with the bubbles by trying to keep them in the air as long as possible.

Find out what’s happening in Bradentonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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They did this by using their hands or mouth to blow the bubbles up away from the ground, preventing them from popping. This allowed the average age of the “babies” to be around 13.76 seconds.

At the third-round mustangs had to blow the bubbles through a circle created with group members’ arms to add an extra stressor to the “babies” life. If the bubble babies did not cross the line, they “died” at one second. The average life span on these “babies” where 2.55 seconds.

Junior Ashley Crane said “it gives me a visual with what’s going on in the ecosystem, so we can see how it affects the population going up and down.”

The views expressed in this post are the author’s own. Want to post on Patch?

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  • Review the Patch Community Guidelines.

Source: patch.com

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Red Tide Status Update: 9/29/23 - The Bradenton Times

Red Tide Status Update: 9/29/23 – The Bradenton Times

by FWC

Red tide was not observed in samples collected statewide over the past week. No reports of fish kills suspected to be related to red tide were received over the past week.

We continue to use satellite imagery (USF and NOAA NCCOS) to help track nearshore and offshore conditions.  For more details, please visit https://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/health/ and https://visitbeaches.org/.

Respiratory irritation suspected to be related to red tide was not reported in Florida over the past week. For recent and current information at individual beaches, please visit https://visitbeaches.org/ and for forecasts that use FWC and partner data, please visit https://habforecast.gcoos.org/.

Forecasts by the USF-FWC Collaboration for Prediction of Red Tides for Pinellas County to northern Monroe County predict net northwestern movement of surface waters and minimal transport of subsurface waters in most areas over the next 3.5 days.

The next status report will be issued on Friday, October 6th. Please check our daily sampling map, which can be accessed via the online status report on our Red Tide Current Status page. For more information on algal blooms and water quality, please visit Protecting Florida Together.

This information, including maps and reports with additional details, is also available on the FWRI Red Tide website. The website also provides links to additional information related to the topic of Florida red tide including satellite imagery, experimental red tide forecasts, shellfish harvesting areas, the FWC Fish Kill Hotline, the Florida Poison Information Center (to report human health effects related to exposure to red tide), and other wildlife related hotlines.

To learn more about various organisms that have been known to cause algal blooms in Florida waters, see the FWRI Red Tide Flickr page. Archived status maps can also be found on Flickr.       

The FWRI HAB group in conjunction with Mote Marine Laboratory now have a facebook page.  Please like our page and learn interesting facts concerning red tide and other harmful algal blooms in Florida.

Source: thebradentontimes.com

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