Alligator Alcatraz. Guns. Social media.

Legal battles about those and myriad other Florida issues remain unresolved heading into 2026. Here are 10 big legal issues to watch in the coming year:

Alligator Alcatraz: The immigrant-detention center in the Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” has spawned a series of court battles since Florida opened the facility this summer. For example, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments in April in a case that alleges violations of a federal environmental law. Other cases involve issues such as detainees’ access to attorneys and whether the state has withheld public records.

Book Fights: Publishing companies, authors and parents are challenging state and local education officials in federal lawsuits after books were removed from school libraries because of alleged improper content. For instance, a case at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals challenges a 2023 state law that led to books being removed. Two other pending lawsuits target Escambia County School Board decisions to remove or restrict access to books.

Guns: Nearly eight years after the measure passed following the mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether to take up the National Rifle Association’s challenge to a law that prevents people under age 21 from buying rifles and other long guns. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has taken the unusual step of refusing to defend the law.

Immigration: A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in October about a law that created state crimes for undocumented immigrants who enter or re-enter Florida. The state appealed after a U.S. district judge issued a preliminary injunction, ruling the 2025 law was likely preempted by federal immigration authority. It remains unclear when the appellate panel will issue a decision.

Marijuana: After falling short in 2024 of passing a constitutional amendment to allow recreational marijuana, the political committee Smart & Safe Florida wants to take the issue back to voters in 2026. But first, it needs to submit enough signatures and get Florida Supreme Court approval of the proposed ballot wording. The court review could turn into a fight, as Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier oppose allowing recreational marijuana.

Social Media Platforms: A U.S. district judge in 2026 is expected to rule on the constitutionality of a 2021 Florida law that placed restrictions on social-media platforms, such as preventing the sites from banning political candidates. Tech industry groups challenged the law, which passed after Facebook and Twitter, now known as X, blocked President Donald Trump from their platforms after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Social Media Restrictions: Saying social media was harming children’s mental health, Florida lawmakers in 2024 passed a measure to prevent children under age 14 from opening accounts on certain platforms. Parents would have to give consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to have accounts on the platforms. Industry groups filed a First Amendment challenge and were backed by a district judge. The issue is pending at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Transgender Issues: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and lawmakers in recent years have approved a series of measures aimed at transgender people, sparking legal battles. For example, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing the constitutionality of a state law and regulations that restrict treatments for people with gender dysphoria. It also is considering a challenge to a ban on Medicaid coverage for hormone therapy and puberty blockers

Utility Rates: The state’s Office of Public Counsel and two consumer groups have gone to the Florida Supreme Court to challenge a decision by utility regulators to approve Tampa Electric Co. base-rate increases that began to take effect in 2025. Meanwhile, the Office of Public Counsel and consumer groups have indicated they likely will also challenge a November decision by regulators to approve a Florida Power & Light base-rate settlement.

Wetlands: In a case closely watched by conservation and business groups, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is considering whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2020 improperly shifted permitting authority to Florida for projects that affect wetlands. A U.S. district judge sided with conservation groups that challenged the shift. Florida and business groups have defended giving authority to the state.

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The post 10 Florida legal issues to watch in 2026 appeared first on Creative Loafing Tampa.

In 2025, the most read stories on Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s website illustrate a readership extremely interested in police accountability, Trump’s homegrown attorney general, immigration, elections, and the environment (you guys really care about what happens as FDOT makes plans to touch up the Courtney Campbell Causeway!).

But your eyes went to more than just hard news, with stories about the SNAP shutdown, Hulk Hogan’s death, Tampa rapper Doechii, and the defunding of Creative Pinellas being widely read, too. Below is a quick and dirty recap of some of the biggest stories from the last 12 months. Buckle up for 2026.

The race for Tampa’s District 5

City Councilmember Gwendolyn Henderson’s sudden death last June shocked and saddened much of Tampa. The District 5 representative frequently stood for residents of East Tampa who have long lamented the way their neighborhoods have been treated, especially during the city’s recent years of rapid growth.

The special election for her replacement saw 13 candidates plus a write-in, including Henderson’s daughter (Ariel Amirah Danley), Crowbar owner Tom DeGeorge, former Tampa Pride head Carrie West and Pastor Elvis Pigott—who later flashed a gun at a City Council forum. The final race came down to activist Naya Young, 33, and longtime Tampa politico Thomas Scott, 72. Despite Scott vastly out-raising her, Young won by a landslide with 61% of the vote. Her win mirrored the later success of Zohran Mamdani, whose win for New York City mayor made ripples in Florida with the message that young, progressive grassroots leaders stand a chance against establishment money.

Bradley’s crash

A high speed chase that started on Interstate-275 ended with four dead and 11 injured at a gay bar in Ybor City in November. While chasing a suspect allegedly suspected of street racing that night, Florida Highway Patrol made an unsuccessful PIT (precision immobilization technique) maneuver—in which the pursuing vehicle attempts to cause the pursued vehicle to spin out of control—about 2,000 feet from Bradley’s on 7th. The deceased victims were later identified as 25-year-old Christina Richards, 41-year-old Lisa Johnson, 53-year-old Sherman Jones and 53-year-old Marlon Collins. The fallout of the FHP’s failed PIT maneuver and the trial of the driver—22-year-old Silas Sampson—are likely to develop well into 2026.

Mural combat

After Gov. Ron DeSantis lost many battles in 2024—courts blunted his “Don’t Say Gay” and “Stop WOKE” laws—he took the war to the roads. Following Trump’s takedown of D.C.’s “Black Lives Matter” street mural, the Florida Department of Transportation decided that all street murals must go. That meant no more rainbow crosswalks and pavement declarations that “Black History Matters.” So, too, went non-political murals, like USF St. Pete’s Bulls-themed crosswalk. A bright spot for some of the “woke” included the City of Tampa erasing the city’s infamous “Bock the Blub” pro-police mural.

Pastors Andy Oliver and Benedict Atherton-Zeman were arrested for blocking state workers from removing St. Pete’s “Black History Matters” mural outside the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum. The mural was later repainted overnight by an unknown artist, then re-erased by the state. Private pavement murals have since popped up around Tampa Bay. As part of her “Love Thy Neighbor” project, Michelle Sasha rallied local painters to provide free Pride and Black Lives Matter murals to local property owners. “We’re going to paint back thousands,” Sasha told CL in September. “Hopefully they’ll regret their decision, because now there’s going to be way more rainbows than they were hoping for.”

Cringe-a-mania

Tampa Bay lost one of its biggest icons when Hulk Hogan died in July. The wrestling legend, born Terry Bollea, died of a heart attack at 71-years-old in his Clearwater home. Though he was booed at his final WWE appearance in January and his newly-launched wrestling league struggled to sell tickets, he maintained a large fanbase—many of which also wanted to “Make America Great Again.” In the month leading up to his death, Hogan and his wife, Sky, battled rumors that he was dying after complications from a neck surgery. It was one of more than two dozen surgeries Hogan underwent to alleviate back and neck pain after his WWE career. Over the fall, Hogan’s family requested an investigation into whether his care teams at Tampa General and Morton Plant Hospitals committed malpractice in treatment leading up to his death. No suit has been filed yet.

The real alphabet mafia

Trump and Elon Musk’s brief fling left thousands of federal workers without jobs, and may have permanently changed the way Florida state and local governments interact. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led to DeSantis trying to create a copycat Commissioner of Government Efficiency (COGE).

That wasn’t necessary, as his newly appointed state chief financial officer, Hernando County Republican Blaise Ingoglia, quickly began audits of the state’s largest municipalities—including Tampa, Hillsborough, St. Petersburg and Pinellas—for the rebranded Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO). FAFO reviewed spending by 11 local governments, claiming to have found more than $1.86 billion in alleged wasteful and excessive spending. Local governments have pushed back against what Ingoglia claims is wasteful, like St. Pete and Pinellas’ spending toward the St. Pete Pride parade. The fight is somehow really about property taxes, which DeSantis has said he wants a ballot initiative to substantially reduce for homestead properties. In the legislative 2026 session, Ingoglia is pushing a proposed law that would give him authority to recommend removal of any elected official for “financial abuse, malfeasance or misfeasance.”

Jolly times

David Jolly wants to be the next Dunedin native in the governor’s mansion. After representing Pinellas County as a Republican in the House of Representatives from 2014-2017, he’s now running for governor as a Democrat. Charlie Crist, who held the same congressional seat and was also a Republican when he was governor from 2007-2011, failed to beat DeSantis in the last election. Jolly faces an even redder Florida and a different GOP opponent. Eyes are on Trump-endorsed Byron Donalds and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner to see who will land on the November ballot. Lt. Governor and former Tampa Senator Jay Collins is rumored to also be vying for the seat.

There were signs

Anti-Trump “No Kings” protests brought tens of thousands of people to the streets this year, and of course, the governor took the chance to go on a right wing podcast to talk about hitting protestors with cars (Tampa police for its part, asked anyone demonstrating “to do so in a safe and responsible manner”). The resistance is alive in Florida. WMNF raised more than $280,000 during an emergency fundraiser last summer after DeSantis and Trump cuts left the community radio station with a $230,000 funding gap). One of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s photographers, Dave Decker even got swept up in it when he was arrested last month while covering an ICE protest in Miami (he spent more than a day in jail, and charges were just dropped last week).

Charlie Kirk

The brutal September murder of the right wing agitator rippled all the way to Florida where vigils brought out mourners and Jesus Christ cosplayers, while teachers and government employees saw themselves among those targeted for online comments about the killing. Florida House Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole) posted to social media a letter he sent to Pinellas Superintendent Kevin Hendrick, calling on him to fire teachers who have conducted “abhorrent” behavior on their social media accounts since Kirk’s death. He cited one instructor who he said posted “good riddance” after Kirk was shot.

Clouded rainbows

The future of Tampa Pride is up in the air after a September announcement that the celebration would shutdown for a year. The board blamed anti-DEI politics and added that it wouldn’t renew the contract of its president and co-founder Carrie West. But locals from every part of the LGBTQ+ community have been coming together to see what a Pride celebration in Tampa would look like. “I don’t foresee a parade, but there are other events we can do,” former Tampa Pride board member Mark Eary told CL. “We just need to get everybody on board.”

Chronister chronicles

Hillsborough’s Sheriff Chad Chronister got the big headlines this year, after multiple high-ranking deputies resigned or got fired in the wake of an academic cheating scandal. One of his former detectives even called on Gov. Ron DeSantis to start an independent investigation. In a six-page letter, James Stahlschmidt detailed allegations of academic dishonesty, abuse of taxpayer and charity funds, retaliation, domestic violence and other forms of misconduct perpetrated by command staff at HCSO, which he claims can be “supported by internal investigations, prior disciplinary actions, civil lawsuits, public records, or statements from personnel involved.”

Chronister pushed back on the letter and Stahlschmidt’s calls for the investigation in a statement to CL, adding that he has full trust in HCSO’s Professional Standards Bureau to conduct an inquiry. The gov’ didn’t say a peep about it, and Chronister opted for an internal investigation, which ended with the sheriff saying the cheaters made choices that were “wrong” but “not malicious.” OK.

The SNAP gap

Three million Floridians rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a federal program best known as SNAP. More than a million of those people are children. When the government shutdown hit the month-long mark last October, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to calls to safeguard the program for his constituents by passing the buck. Local restaurants, however, ditched politics and banded together to make sure kids could eat when benefits ended by offering free meals.

Sorry, Shilo

Shilo Sanders, son of NFL legend Deion, spent time in Bucs camp as an undrafted free agent and was ultimately cut—but not before telling fans that he loves the food at Water Street hotspot Boulon Brasserie. “If I got free food from here, that would be the best NIL deal in the world,” he said of an eclectic, hefty, order that included the restaurant’s Best of the Bay winning blue crab beignets.

Creative Pinellas

It’s an awkward moment for arts and culture in Pinellas County, punctuated with the September defunding of the county’s designated arts agency, Creative Pinellas, which saw county commissioners vote 5-2 to revoke funds despite 244 emails and more than 50 well-researched in-person pleas weren’t enough to save the nonprofit. The remaining staff will soldier on, but how the arts get funded in 2026 will be telling.

Sun rising

Last June, in front of more than 5,000 fans packed into a sold-out Riverfront Stadium at Blake High School, Tampa Bay Sun FC dominated play in the first-ever USL Super League championship match, earning a 1-0 overtime win over Ft. Lauderdale United FC. It was a shining moment, and while things aren’t as sunny at the club right now (our side is dead last, with just one win), the future of pro women’s soccer in the Bay area is still bright.

Swamp things

All eyes are on Crowbar this year (the lease is up this summer, signaling the end of a 20-year run for the famed Tampa music venue), but a special talent from 2910 E Genesee St. dominated local music headlines. Tampa rapper and Blake alum Doechii took home a 2025 Grammy award for Best Rap Album and staged one hell of a homecoming show for 6,500 fans who sold-out Yuengling Center just seven miles away from the address mentioned in “Boiled Peanuts” from the album Alligator Bites Never Heal.

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The post Tampa Bay’s biggest stories of 2025 appeared first on Creative Loafing Tampa.

Below are more of Dave’s best shots of the year from protests he covered across the country.

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The post Photojournalist Dave Decker’s best shots of 2025 appeared first on Creative Loafing Tampa.

Sligh Middle Magnet School, AKA Thaddeus M. Bullard Academy, hosted its namesake’s “Joy of Giving” celebration last Saturday.

WWE superstar Titus O’Neil and his sons, TJ and Titus Bullard, were assisted by 250 volunteers from his Bullard Family Foundation and the City of Tampa to distribute more than 5,000 gifts to local families.

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The post Photos: WWE star Titus O’Neil gives 5,000 presents to Tampa families appeared first on Creative Loafing Tampa.

ZooTampa has two more fuzzy residents.

Sadie and Seth, two red foxes who were among 250 animals rescued from a fur farm in Ohio, have settled into their new digs after arriving in Tampa last month. The pair were quarantined for about 30 days as part of health evaluations after their arrival, zoo officials said in a Monday press release.

They can be seen in the zoo’s Florida Wilds habitat, near the Roaring Springs ride. Seth has a classic reddish coat, while Sadie’s coat is a black-ish color.

“They have been observed actively exploring their surroundings and engaging playfully with each other,” the release notes.

Seth and Sadie were rescued nearly a year ago from the Grand River Fur Exchange, where foxes, coyotes, wolf-dog hybrids and skunks were raised and killed for fur, urine and as exotic pets, according to the Humane Society of the United States. The Humane Society said it worked with Ohio authorities in the rescue operation after the facility’s owner passed away, “escalating an already-dire animal welfare crisis on the property.”

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The post Photos: ZooTampa takes in foxes rescued from fur farm appeared first on Creative Loafing Tampa.

It’s a gorgeous December afternoon along the shores of Boca Ciega Bay. I’m standing at the southern edge of Eckerd College campus, where Frenchman’s Creek drains into the bay, watching sunshine glitter off the wake of passing boats and sift through the dense clump of mangroves at Maximo Point, just across the channel. I’m waiting for my friend Tyler, who directs Eckerd’s coastal management program and has promised to show me around the College’s new living shoreline installation, a grouping of plants and riprap meant to protect this erosion-prone section of its coastline. Snatches of students’ conversations in the nearby dog park drift by: a killer chemistry exam, roommate drama, plans for the upcoming break. The sun beats down and I peel off my jean jacket; by the time Tyler arrives, I’ve started to sweat. Even after 11 years, I’m still not quite used to Christmastime in Florida. 

The night before, we’d put up our tree: the six-and-a-half feet, prelit, made-in-China ersatz evergreen we’ve affectionately dubbed “Wesley Spruce” after the name printed on the box. (It’s worth noting that there is no such species as a Wesley Spruce. This is apparently a marketing name created by Christmas tree manufacturers to designate a particularly lush and lifelike type of artificial tree). I’ll admit, I have mixed feelings about using an artificial tree; growing up, I relished the yearly trip to the tree lot, the delightful man-versus-tree wrestling match between my dad and our chosen conifer that inevitably followed, and the sweet green smell of fir that would fill the living room all season. I also know that, by the time you balance the plastics, the carbon footprint of shipping millions of artificial trees around the world, and the carbon mitigation provided by all those Christmas tree farms, you really should just buy a live tree. It’s what real treehuggers do. And yet, our family has been ringing in the holidays with our scraggly, smells-like-attic Wesley Spruce since 2014.

But, of course, there’s more to the story. Christmas 2014 was the first one we’d spent in the house my husband and I had bought together. I had just left a good job that had gone sour, and was moping anchorless and miserable through bright December days that felt like an affront to my sad state of mind. Wesley caught our eye on a routine trip to Home Depot; we needed a tree, and I think my husband knew it might cheer me up a bit. So we brought Wesley home, patiently unpacking and stacking his octopus-like tiers, tenderly untangling and fluffing his feathery-plastic boughs, and covering him with two boxes worth of gold balls—all the ornaments we had at the time. Since then, Wesley’s finery has grown: my tarnished silver First Christmas ‘82 bell (still plays “Joy to the World” if you wind it up enough), my husband’s collection of owl ornaments, and all manner of painted and googly-eyed creations produced by our son over the years. We deck Wesley out, plug him in, and, every time, there it is—that sentimental catch in my throat that means the Christmas season has officially begun. An awkward beginning turned strangely lovely. 

Looking around me, I could say the same about the living shoreline. As we wade into waist-high spartina grass, I’m amazed by what I see. Just 16 months before, one broiling August afternoon, I had stood in this very spot, helping a throng of Eckerd students and staff plant grasses and shrubs in a patch of raw, sandy soil. Dodging shovel-swings and flying sand, I’d eased spartina and muhly grass plants from their pots, chatting with my planting partner about her first semester in college. We’d made a little game of wishing each plant luck as we patted it into the ground. When we finished and stepped back for a drink of water, it didn’t look like anything so grand as a living shoreline; it looked like a phalanx of ragged recruits, transfer-shocked plants stationed across 400 feet of bare soil. If I had understood the drubbing those little plants were to face in the next two months with the arrivals of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, I might have wished them more than luck. Parts of the installation had to be completely replanted.

But now, the picture is altogether different. Up and down stream, marsh grasses grow in wild profusion, slender stalks swept this way and that like tousled hair. They slope gently down to the water, sheltering gray-green tufts of salt bush, fiery splotches of blanketflower, and, right along the edge, scrappy stalks of red mangrove. Along the shaved-down remnant of the seawall—all that remains of a structure that had armored Eckerd’s shoreline for decades—Tyler finds new patches of oysters growing. And these aren’t the only signs of life: we find narrow wildlife trails winding through the grass and the delicate footprints of raccoon and possum along the low tide line. We also find slightly broader paths cut by students—known in the restoration business as “social trails”—down to the riprap, a prime fishing spot. And, wedged in the watery hole between the boulders and the old wall, one punchy little crab. 

Our campus, like so many other waterfront properties on Tampa Bay, is reckoning with the long term impacts of the dredge and fill craze that swept this part of Florida in the 1940s-1960s—the construction boom that brought ecological disaster to Boca Ciega Bay and became, as former State Representative Roger Wilson told Tampa Bay Newspapers in 2019, “a national representation of how not to dredge and fill.”  By some estimates, as much as a quarter of the bay bottom of Boca Ciega was scraped up and piled into finger islands, destroying seagrass meadows and mangrove banks that had once nourished one of the most productive estuaries in Florida. Add to this the runoff and sewage that followed from all that development, it’s no surprise that  environmentalists declared Tampa Bay “dead” by the 1970s.

Looking at old aerial photographs in the College archives, you can’t help but notice the startling fact that the western third of our campus did not exist—at least not as land—before the late 1960s. (Fun fact: the Ratner Fill project, which completed our campus and also laid the groundwork for neighboring Isla del Sol, helped spark the controversy which led to Zabel v. Tabb, a court ruling that called for the Army Corps of Engineers to take the cumulative effects of any dredging project into consideration when granting permits. It helped spell the end of the dredge and fill era.) The miles of sea wall that hold all that dredged land in place are now fighting a losing battle with time, tide, and sea level rise, all of which gradually erode and undermine them. It’s a common sight in the Tampa Bay area: places where land behind a seawall has subsided into ankle-twisting gaps and holes, where the concrete has begun to buckle and crack.

Living shorelines are promoted as a “green infrastructure” alternative to this overabundance of concrete that works on multiple levels: they absorb the wave energy that causes erosion, while creating habitat for wildlife—or in many cases, restoring lost habitat. They also scrub runoff headed into the bay, removing pollutants and improving the water quality that is so important for seagrass meadows and all the species they support. Where dredge and fill degraded the estuary, living shorelines repair, bit by bit.

We’ve wandered now to the end of the installation, where the cordgrass peters out into the shade of trees and the sidewalk curves away to the west. I start to thank Tyler for his time, but then he points out something interesting: the seawall keeps going, curving along the imposing wall of mangroves that shield the southernmost tip of the campus. As many times as I’ve walked (or even paddled) this quarter mile stretch of the shore, I never once noticed the old sea wall. And it’s easy to see why: red, black, and white mangroves all grow here, sheltering in their deep green shadows beach shrubs, vines, and fiddler crabs. In some places, sand has accumulated so deep that palm trees grow, and every once in a while, the vast mangrove hedge breaks to form a tiny secret beach. The seawall runs just landward of this hidden world, in some places a sizable hop above it, in others just barely visible above the soil. 

I’m momentarily bewildered. This isn’t what seawalls are supposed to do. Seawalls cut a clear, immaculate line between land and water; they let us roll our carpets of sand or sod right up to the edge of the bay and dangle our toes over; they slice through the map to turn nature’s messy edges into precise geometric shapes. But this seawall is…not doing that. 

Tyler sees the question on my face. It’s all about wave energy, he explains. Back at the living shoreline, boats coming into the creek cut their engines at the “No Wake” channel marker, ironically sending a surge of wake toward the encroaching banks of the creek. I’d seen that clearly enough when we were there; every time a boat passed, wavelets churned up, crashing into the old sea wall and bouncing back. Over time, this rough movement gouges out the sediment in front of the seawall, making it difficult for anything to grow. But at this point on the wall, the shifting sands slowed down, accumulated, transformed into the floor of a mangrove forest. Why? Tyler points out into the bay, where the emerald hump of Indian Key, an undeveloped mangrove island, rises out of the water just a third of a mile away. It’s possible, he says, that the key sheltered this part of the wall from the wind and waves, letting the sand settle and mangroves take root—an accidental forest. 

My mind jumps back to our Christmas tree in all its synthetic glory. What makes it lovely, I decide, is not its perfect imitation of nature (no matter how “Wesley Spruce” it may be). Instead, it’s the way it catches and holds our memories—the bells, owls, and other flotsam borne in on the tide of our life together—like a tidal flat transformed into a hidden beach. To fully appreciate it requires a firsthand understanding of our family’s history, the auld lang syne we’re always singing about this time of year.

In the same way, living shorelines complicate a simple understanding of “nature” versus “manmade.” They aren’t just about replacing the unnatural hardscaping laid down by generations past with something greener, something prettier—after all, living shorelines are also engineered by human hands (as the blisters on my thumbs that not-to-long-ago August day will attest). And, as much good as they can do for slowing erosion, enhancing habitat, and improving water quality, they’re not just about bringing those benefits to any one site. At heart, living shorelines require an understanding of the complex, unique-to-every-installation agencies of water, wind, sediment, plants, and animals; they require us to see how one location is connected to the others around it, to think—with apologies to Aldo Leopold—not like a mountain, but like an estuary.

I’ve zoned out. Tyler’s probably wondering what’s wrong with me, but it’s just sweet visions of oyster reefs dancing in my head. You can keep your Frosty snowmen and winter wonderlands, I’ve found my Florida Christmas groove. It’s Oyster the World, Away in a Mangrove, The Nutcracker Marshgrass: the pretty darn miraculous way the bay can heal itself, if we help it. 

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Niki Isaak was approximately 33 miles into the Central Florida Classic bike ride near Brooksville in October when a group of motorcyclists entered the bike path and began riding dangerously close to her.

Despite there being a wide-open road, one motorcyclist narrowly passed Isaak on the right shoulder, another pinned her in on the left, and a third finally hit her from behind.

The sudden impact smashed her body to the ground, puncturing her anal canal and fracturing her tailbone, among other injuries. She was immediately rushed to HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital, where she remained in the trauma center for three days before being released to return to her home in Fort Myers.

Two months later, she is still doing physical therapy and has created a GoFundMe page to help with the medical bills now totaling more than $400,000 as she tries to pick up the pieces in her life.

“The impact is so big,” she said in a Zoom conversation last month. “It’s ruined our lives in so many ways, and we don’t even know the outcome. I just hope people can see that it’s just getting worse.”

Despite the seriousness of the accident, the offending motorcyclist was only charged with a citation for careless driving, a moving violation.

Frustration among cycling advocates 

“What is the response of the local law enforcement officers? Nothing,” fumes Matt Scarborough, Isaak’s attorney who specializes in defending cyclists involved in accidents. “We’re seeing in my practice that cyclists are just being ignored. If this was a motor vehicle vs. another motor vehicle causing this much damage to somebody, I think it would be a much different story.”

One of Scarborough’s other cases involves pro triathlete Gabrielle Suver, who was cycling along the side of a county road in Lake County on  Nov. 15 when a driver sideswiped her, resulting in a broken back, a fractured neck, a broken leg, fractured kneecap, liver laceration, scapula and sternum fractures and concussion, according to WESH-TV. She was released from the hospital this past Sunday after 28 days.

For decades, Florida’s roads have been listed as the most dangerous in the nation for pedestrians and bicyclists, and there has certainly been more awareness regarding safety concerns in the Sunshine State. But observers lament that conditions aren’t getting better.

A recently released report from the Bicycle Accident Lawyers group concluded that Florida remains the most dangerous state in the nation for bicyclists, looking at combined 2022 and 2023 data. And there were another 207 bicycle fatalities in 2024, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

These troubling statistics continue despite the fact that Florida lawmakers in 2006 passed a law requiring motorists to give cyclists at least three feet of space when driving along or passing them.

Cynics question how often that’s being enforced. Just 130 motorists were cited for violating that law in 2024, according to the annual uniform traffic citation report produced by the state.

Florida’s 3 foot rule

“The 3-foot rule is not the 3-foot rule,” says Tampa attorney Steele Olmstead, who has represented injured cyclists. “The statute says that the motorist has to pass at a safe distance. Not less than 3 feet? Well, cops fall back on that and go, ‘Oh, well. I can’t get out and measure it. I couldn’t tell whether it was 3 feet or not.”

Florida statute 316.083 (2) says that that any driver overtaking a bicycle or other nonmotorized vehicle or an electric bicycle occupying the travel lane must pass that vehicle “at a safe distance of not less than 3 feet or, if such movement cannot be safely accomplished, must remain at a safe distance behind the bicycle or other nonmotorized vehicle or electric bicycle until the driver can safely pass at a distance of not less than 3 feet and must safely clear the overtaken bicycle or other nonmotorized vehicle or electric bicycle.”

Olmstead says he “might have” won one case over the past decade in which a motorist received a ticket for unsafe passing.

Officials say increasing bicycle deaths is a national problem but note that there is a greater proximity to higher speed roads in Florida.

“There’s often a transition from a 20-25 miles per hour neighborhood development that’s relatively self-contained or something like a quasi-gated community, and then you’re immediately on a 45 mph road,” said Ken McLeod, policy director for the League of American Bicyclists. “And at 45 mph, any mistake by a driver is more likely to cause a death for a person biking or walking.”

And while more Florida cities have incorporated separated paths for people to bike and walk, there remain plenty of unprotected bike lanes. “All it takes is driver looking down at their phone and drifting down into the bike lane at 45 mph, and you have a crash that could be a fatality, because you have that high speed and that kinetic energy potential is there to cause the death,” McLeod said. “If it was 35 or 30, you have a lower chance of death when that crash occurred.”

The League of American Bicyclists “Benchmarking Report” released in December 2024 showed that the percentages of bicyclist deaths have increased in Florida from an average of 143 between 2014 and 2018 to 197 between 2019 and 2023, a 38% increase.

And, according to preliminary data compiled by the state of Florida, as of Dec. 13, there had been 185 bicycling fatalities this year (along with 9,277 injuries from bicycle crashes).

(A group called “Ghost Bikes” places white-painted bicycles at sites where someone was hit or killed while riding.)

Some law enforcement officials say the fault often lies with cyclists. In a YouTube video posted last month, Pinellas County Sheriff Sgt. Jessica Mackesy said that at least four cyclists were critically injured or killed in crashes with vehicles because they didn’t stop at a stop sign or a red light.

“Physics doesn’t care if you’ve done it 100 times before. A 4,000-pound vehicle versus a bike, there’s only one outcome,” Mackesy said. “And looking both ways isn’t enough when there’s a driver who has the right of way and expects you to stop. Stop means stop—on the road, on the trail—every time.”

The Florida Department of Transportation last updated its Pedestrian and Bicycle Strategic Safety Plan in October 2021. In it, the agency reported that, between 2016 and 2020, 90% of all pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities and serious injuries on state roadways occurred in just 25 of the state’s 67 counties. (The top five counties for fatalities and serious injuries were Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, Hillsborough, and Duval).

Potential solutions?

Pinellas County Democratic Rep. Lindsay Cross is a cyclist who can be seen riding her bike to the Capitol during the legislative session. She says there are common-sense things that government can do to enhance safety for pedestrians and cyclists, such as creating more protected bike lanes and pedestrian crosswalks, but she believes part of the problem is with how local governments develop communities.

“They’re all focused on having a car,” she said. “People by and large will choose places that are more walkable, that have mixed uses where you can walk to your grocery store or to a coffee shop. People like that, but a lot of the new development doesn’t have that as an option. You’ve got to drive to get into your community. You probably have to go a couple of miles to get to a grocery store.

“Maybe there’s sidewalks in your community, but they’re not leading to anywhere. They’re just a loop within the community. So, I think fundamentally, we need to shift the way our development is happening, so it’s geared towards people moving at a slower pace. Cars are also going to have to slow down and make it safer. That also helps to just enhance our quality of life, make it more accessible for people who are aging to have those options.”

John Sinibaldi Jr. is president of the St. Petersburg Bicycle Club. He has been hit twice by motorists while biking, the last time in 2010 when a collision with a distracted driver led to two lower-back surgeries and two cervical spinal-fusion surgeries. He offers two changes that he thinks could significantly improve bike safety in Florida.

“I would increase communications dramatically between the state and the people who drive on our roads,” said Sinibaldi, whose late father, John Sinibaldi Sr., was a two-time Olympic cyclist in 1932 and 1936. “That would include visual things like billboards and public service announcements on TV. That would  include better driver education before you get your license, [and] driver education when you renew your licenses.”

His other idea is less prescriptive, and more philosophical.

“The second thing is we have to get our local police out of the mindset that if a motorist in a car hits a cyclist, the default option should not be to just assume that the cyclist did something wrong. And yet that’s often the case,” he said.

The Phoenix reached out to law enforcement agencies in Florida for reaction.

“Law enforcement works to enforce the law, and they will treat everyone with respect in that process, that includes both motorists and cyclists,” said Logan Lewkow, deputy executive director of operations for the Florida Sheriffs Association. “You can look around the state — sheriffs’ offices have created visibility enforcement programs specifically to make roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists. The safety of pedestrians and cyclists is very important to law enforcement.”

The Florida Highway Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.

Legislation

The Florida Bicycle Association says its top legislative goal is for the state to pass a comprehensive “Hands Free” law that would make it illegal to hold a phone while operating a motor vehicle. The group says such legislation must go beyond “texting and driving” to encompass all activities that take a driver’s hands and attention away from the road, including scrolling through social media, streaming videos, and any other non-driving activity requiring manual interaction with a handheld device.

Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, sponsored a bill to do just that during the 2025 session, which passed in the Senate, 37-9. But its House companion never moved at all.

No similar bill has been filed yet for the 2026 session.

Bills addressing bike safety have been introduced for the coming Florida legislative session, but only regarding electric or e-bikes, a relatively new phenomenon resulting in a spike in injuries around the state.

Lots of people—from kids to seniors—began using e-bikes during the COVID pandemic. “A new subculture” of seniors who never rode a bike before are using e-bikes seeking the freedom they’re looking for, Sinibaldi said, adding that he sees younger people who have lost their licenses or can’t drive for whatever reason who are also using these new bikes.

“They’re terrorizing the Pinellas Trail—there’s no other way to put it—because they don’t know anything about trail etiquette,” he said. The trail occupies old railroad right of way between St. Pete and Tarpon Springs.

A bill (HB 243) sponsored by Republicans Yvette Benarroch from Collier County and Kim Kendall from St. Johns County would require a person using or renting a class 3 electric bike to hold a driver’s license or learner’s permit. Class 3 electric bikes are the fastest legal bikes with a maximum speed of 28 miles per hour. Anyone caught purposefully modifying an E-bike to boost its motor-powered speed would face a fine up to $100. Subsequent violations could go up to $250.

And Hillsborough County Republican state Rep. Susan Valdés filed legislation last week (HB 667) that would require anyone under 18 to wear a helmet while operating or riding an e-bike.

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Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Blaise Ingoglia previewed legislation Wednesday meant to increase spending accountability and transparency for local government officials, with penalties for noncompliance including fines and removal from office.

Ingoglia has been crisscrossing the state for months with his FAFO (Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight) team, auditing spending by some of the state’s largest counties and municipalities. To date they have reviewed spending by 11 local governments and say that they have found more than $1.86 billion in alleged wasteful and excessive spending.

Ingoglia has been clear that part of the effort is to show taxpayers that extensive wasteful spending is taking place. His assertion of such excesses, he believes, should quell arguments by local government officials that a proposed reduction in property taxes for homestead properties will harm essential local services.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he wants to put a measure on the statewide ballot next November that would eliminate of substantially reduce property taxes on homestead properties but has yet to release his own proposal(s). He has, however, ridiculed the proposals on the issue already moving their way through the Florida House as “milquetoast.”

Ingoglia introduced his proposal during a press conference in Tampa that featured state Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Bay, who said she will sponsor them in the Florida House during the 2026 session.

“Over the last five years, we have seen property taxes increase by nearly 50%, and this at a time when Florida’s families are being asked to tighten their belts,” she said. “To be direct, tax dollars have become a drug for local governments. And, like any addiction, as long as the supply is unlimited, the behavior will not change.”

The provisions in the legislation

The proposals discussed on Wednesday that will be sponsored by Miller in the House and Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, would include:

• Codifying FAFO into statute to increase accountability and transparency in local government and make this effort a long-term permanent initiative. “Protecting taxpayers should not have an expiration date, and neither should FAFO,” Ingoglia declared.
• Grant government employees, contractors, subcontractors, and taxpayers whistleblower protections when reporting waste, fraud, and abuse of local tax dollars.
• Allow the Department of Financial Services to pursue financial penalties from local governments if they do not respond to inquiries in a “timely manner,” including the withholding of state funds until they comply. That office would have the power to issue subpoenas (as Ingoglia’s office did this summer with officials in Orange County).
• Require local governments to upload all of their contracts into a centralized state financial system.
• Require local governments to submit annual financial efficiency reports to include information such as cash on hand and how much goes to investment accounts and nonprofit organizations, and to list salaries of every local government employee.
• Codify that the Florida CFO can recommend to the governor and state Cabinet removal of any elected official found to have committed financial abuse, malfeasance, or misfeasance.

Miller said that whenever the conversation about cutting back on excessive government spending takes place, she has been “immediately bombarded by naysayers and their supporters with arguments as to why it is impossible. It’s just astounding.”

Ingoglia spent considerable time during the news conference ridiculing local government officials “and their leftist big-budget apologists” who have questioned the methodology of his team’s audits.

‘Fictitious’ claims?

Last week in Palm Beach County, Ingoglia claimed his team of auditors identified $344 million in “excessive, wasteful spending” in the most recent fiscal year—the highest amount across the 11 local governments his agency has reviewed this year.

That received strong pushback from Palm Beach County Administrator Joe Abruzzo, who called the claims “fictitious,” and sent Ingoglia a public records request asking for detailed information about how the calculations were made, according to Stet News.

Local government officials have repeatedly questioned what the CFO is identifying as being “wasteful” and “excessive” in their spending practices. Ingoglia has promised those governments that detailed audits identifying that spending are coming, but they have yet to be released.

“Will there be specific instances outlining line items in the budget that they are spending? Yes, but that is why this information and this piece of legislation is vital, because it allows us to get more information quicker than we would have before,” he said.

Among the local governments Ingolia’s team has audited to date, Tampa, the state’s third largest municipality, hasn’t been one of them. But Ingoglia said if he is elected next year and then re-elected in 2030, he’ll eventually get to every local government that draws taxpayer funds.

“Whether it is a city, a county, a taxing jurisdiction, a school board, a board that has its own millage rate, its own taxing authority, that will not escape my grasp over the next nine years,” he said. “I’m going to be looking at everything.”

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Gov. Ron DeSantis’s eighth and final legislative budget makes another run at redirecting cancer funding in Florida, including jettisoning a requirement that funds be awarded only to peer-reviewed projects and empowering an eight-member “collaborative” to direct how the state spends hundreds of millions of dollars on cancer care and research.

The push by the governor is likely to spark another largely behind-the-scenes battle among those who rely on the state money to help with their research programs.

Specifically, DeSantis’s proposed budget eliminates a decade-old law that spells out how $127 million should be distributed to four National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated facilities: Moffitt Cancer Center; University of Florida Health Cancer Center; Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center; University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; and Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Instead, the governor’s budget would empower the Cancer Connect Collaborative to distribute the money to all cancer providers, with a requirement that at least 60% continues to be spent on the four NCI facilities. NCI is the federal government’s principal agency for cancer research and training. There are 72 NCI-designated facilities nationwide.

The collaborative, established in law in 2024, is a group of eight people — three appointed by the governor, two by the Senate president, and two by the speaker of the House.

Lobbyists representing the four NCI facilities did not immediately respond to Florida Phoenix’s request for comment on the proposal. But representatives of the four facilities testified against a similar plan in a House Health Care Budget Subcommittee earlier this year.

John Cleveland, Moffitt’s executive vice president, director, and scientific officer, told members of the House House Health Care Budget Subcommittee in February that NCI facilities have recruited 980 premier investigators since the Legislature created the program in 2014 and has helped changed cancer care in Florida.

“Florida used to be a state where you flew to New York City or Boston to get your (cancer) care. No longer,” Cleveland said. “So, now they actually want to stay in the state. And I think that’s super important — we have to support our citizens. Having them get on a plane to get their care up in other states is just ridiculous.”

Florida has the second highest cancer burden in the nation. Between 2021 and 2023, the total number of cancer deaths in Florida was 140,955, according to the Florida Department of Health (DOH).

Former Gov. Rick Scott championed the NCI program, which was passed by the Legislature in 2014. Lawmakers pumped an additional $37million into the program in 2022 and renamed it the Casey DeSantis Research Funds.

Cancer innovation and incubator funds

The DeSantis administration first tried to steer funding away from NCI facilities to additional providers during the 2024 session and again in 2025.

The DOH issued a long-range report in 2024 noting that restricting the funding to NCI facilities “limits funding accessibility for other cancer facilities and research institutions across Florida, including those in rural or underserved areas.”

Although the Legislature refused to go along with the changes, lawmakers did agree to create and fund two new cancer grant programs: the Cancer Innovation Fund in 2024 and the Cancer Incubator in 2025.

There is $60 million available in Cancer Innovation Fund and $30 million in the Cancer Incubator program, which is directed toward research at children’s specialty hospitals

The cancer collaborative oversees both grant programs and is charged with making recommendations to the DOH, which awards the grants.

The governor announced in November that four pediatric hospitals were each receiving $7.5 million grants: Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami; John’s Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in Tampa; Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville; and Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando.

Statutes require that proposals for both the Innovation Fund and the Cancer Incubator program are “appropriate and are evaluated fairly on the basis of scientific merit.” To that end, the law requires the DOH to appoint peer review panels of independent, scientifically qualified individuals to review and score the merit of each proposal.

DeSantis’s proposed budget eliminates the requirement that grants for either fund be peer reviewed.

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The Tampa Bay area’s live music scene will soon get a much needed mid-size venue that can host 3,500 fans. This afternoon, Strategic Property Partners (SPP), primary owners of Water Street Tampa announced plans to build a massive complex across the street from the recently-renamed Benchmark International Arena.

The still-unnamed venue will be privately-financed, according to a press release, which added that the development will also include a 250-room hotel, 1,000 parking spaces , plus 100,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment.

SPP, which will partner with Vinik Sports Group (VSG) to manage the venue, expects to break ground on the project in 2027.

The project—proposed for a vacant lot between Morgan and Jefferson Streets and the Selmon Expressway—fills a void in the Bay area music scene, which does not have a venue this size.

VSG already owns or operates two arenas—Yuengling Center and Benchmark (capacities of approximately 10,000 and 20,000 respectively)—and there are several venues that can host around a couple thousand (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Jannus Live). Carol Morsani Hall at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts holds about 2,600 seats.

The press release added that, “the venue is expected to attract more performers to downtown Tampa and give fans more opportunities to experience live music, immersive experiences, and intimate shows designed for this scale.”

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor. “It strengthens tourism and creates new experiences for residents and visitors, all within steps of the Riverwalk and Convention Center.”

A rep for the proposed venue told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that Live Nation is not a partner in the financing or ownership of the venue, adding that diverse programming will be led by VSG.

Last summer, the global concert giant—which is at the center of an antitrust probe by the Department of Justice—shared plans to spend $1 billion opening or breaking ground on 18 venues across the country including a 3,500-seat concert and events venue in downtown Orlando’s Westcourt development.

Last month, the promoter, which works with Benchmark and Yuengling Center to help book shows, posted $8.5 billion in Q3 revenue—all while a report from the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) detailed how a majority of smaller mom-and-pop venues are on the verge of extinction despite collectively generating $153 billion in economic output collectively. 

In 2023, CL detailed how the Bay area music scene was alive and well, but faced significant challenges.

Tom DeGeorge, Southeast Director for NIVA told CL that he hopes new venue operators will lean into independent to help program the room, but assumes that Live Nation will run the show.

The rep for Tampa’s proposed new venue told CL that, “While the full programming strategy is still being finalized, there is an intention to work with a range of partners and promoters to ensure the venue attracts a broad mix of acts and experiences.”

NIVA’s report, DeGeorge noted, said while Florida ranked in the top three in nine of 10 categories related to independent concert venues’ effect on the local economy, including employment and tourism—”monopolization, corporate development and predatory ticketing practices” have rendered 65% of indie venues unsustainable.

“I would hope that our city leadership as well the developers in this case looks towards local, but unfortunately, based on everything I’ve seen in the way we operate, I’m not quite sure that’s something that we should count on or if there’s enough people that believe it’s worth fighting for anymore,” he added.

Once open, Tampa’s new 3,500-seat venue would join similarly-rooms in Los Angeles (Dolby Theatre), Philadelphia (Metropolitan Opera House), Boston (Roadrunner), and Chicago (Salt Shed).

UPDATED 12/18/25 9:30 a.m. Updated with comment saying Live Nation is not a financer or owner of the venue.

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