News & Views
Grab the latest Tampa Bay news and politics from Creative Loafing’s unique community perspective
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‘Aliens are community’: Tampa poet gets the last word on DeSantis in this blackout poem
We take what’s been done, then edit and change it to our perspective.
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SCOTUS ruling on porn age verification has implications for lawsuit over similar Florida law
Florida lawmakers passed the age-verification requirements in 2024 as part of a broader bill (HB 3) that also seeks to prevent children under age 16 from opening social-media accounts on some platforms.
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Former Florida Sen. Jeff Brandes says ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ could ‘have all kinds of issues with staffing’
‘Is it a federal facility, or is it a state facility that is leased to the feds? That’s an important distinction.’
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Oracle of Ybor: I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I need to be the center of attention all the time
Everyone is the main character in their life, and sometimes, we have to be the supporting cast.
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There’s now a lawsuit to stop ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ from operating in the Florida Everglades
Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity filed the suit in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida.
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Organizers for Florida’s citizen-led amendments prep for ‘surge’ of petition gathering
There will also be an intense focus on collecting signatures this weekend in St. Petersburg.
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Florida’s slavery memorial, ‘Circle of Chains,’ is now open to the public in Tallahassee
Lawmakers are eying a formal dedication this fall.
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Sarasota’s Phillippi Creek won’t be dredged this hurricane season after no emergency permit issued
County commissioners were not told about the permit delay until Tuesday; three weeks after staff first learned of the agency’s decision.
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Reparations checks for Survivors of Florida’s notorious Dozier school are now being processed
Hundreds of men who were abused as children at two notorious state reform schools are in line to receive checks of more than $21,000 in the coming days
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is developing a new university accreditor to ‘upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels’
DeSantis has focused heavily on “woke” ideologies by pushing legislation to ban state spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and remaking state higher education institutions to be more conservative.
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Trump-supporting Florida firefighter loses job over behavior at ‘No Kings’ protest
The City of Largo told CL, ‘His actions were not consistent with the standards and trust the community expects and deserves.’
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Florida’s state-backed Citizens insurance now has less than 800K policies
It expects to have fewer than 654,000 by the end of the year.
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DeSantis says ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ will have ‘zero impact’ on Everglades restoration
Democrats pushing back “don’t want the laws enforced at all” on immigration, he said in Tampa on Wednesday.
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Florida ranks 35th in child well-being, report says
The state’s education ranking plummeted from fifth to 19th since 2024, with 79% of eighth graders failing math benchmarks.
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USF will rename mental health institute to honor Tampa Bay’s Sen. Darryl Rouson after all
Rouson sponsored one of the two bills (SB 1620) DeSantis signed on Wednesday.
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The public should be able to read the city council agenda in plain language—so Tampa Monitor built a tool for that
I want it to be as easy as possible for someone to skim through the agenda to find topics that are of particular interest to them.
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St. Pete’s LGBTQ+ liaison Eric Vaughan works to make the Sunshine City more inclusive
And, yes, there is plenty of work to do.