Negotiators trying to bring a stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays to Hillsborough County say they are unfazed by Monday's announcement that St. Petersburg chose the team's proposed plan for redeveloping the Tropicana Field location.
"Their attendance would be much higher, and the revenue generated would be much higher and much greater in Tampa and Hillsborough County," said Hillsborough Commissioner Ken Hagan.
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FLORIDA GOVERNOR RON DeSantis has called a special legislative session to finalize the government’s decision to revoke Disney’s control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
The state’s legislature voted last year to strip the media company of special taxing and self-governance provisions in the area around its Florida park after the company opposed the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill that placed widespread restrictions on the discussion of LGBTQ related topics in schools.
“We’re not going to have a corporation controlling its own government,” DeSantis said during a news conference on Thursday. “So the state’s going to have a board to run it. So Disney will not have self-governing status anymore.”
“We’re not going to bend the knee to woke executives in California,” DeSantis added.
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Florida is expected to join Texas and 24 other states in allowing permitless carry in a country that has 330 million people and even more guns. Cynically, DeSantis and other Republican leaders have recognized that the MAGA base will ride and die for this right-wing culture war predominantly animated by fear and racial anxiety.
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The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Election told News Channel 8 that the mayor is not unopposed but will go up against one write-in candidate, Belinda Noah.
Ybor Speaks, a new public art project commissioned by the City of Tampa Arts & Cultural Affairs Division, is offering a unique window into the immigrant experience in Ybor City, from the boom town of the 1890s through the creative revival of the 1980s. The project is an immersive on-site and online sound experience.
WHERE: Centennial Park (1800 E 8th Ave, Tampa, FL 33605)
TIME: 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the top of each hour, every day except Saturday & during special events.
On Friday, Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan said talks with the Rays are progressing. He said Tampa officials met with the team last week and the Rays have chosen a future stadium site in Ybor City.
"Things are progressing," he told FOX 13's sports director Scott Smith. "We met with the Rays as recently as last week. It’s critically important that the Rays remain in Tampa Bay, so I’m confident they will, at the same time, I’m also confident that the Rays will choose Tampa. They’ve hand-selected a site in Ybor City. We’re excited about it and I think the discussions will certainly intensify here in the weeks to come."
That location, according to Hagan, is the Ybor Harbor, a 33-acre piece of land sitting along the Ybor Channel, next to Port Tampa Bay. The property was recently purchased by real estate investor Darryl Shaw.
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