Good Morning! On this day in 1987, singer, actor, rapper, and songwriter Aaron Carter was born in Tampa. He was the younger brother of Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys and had three sisters. Aaron Carter drowned in 2022 in California.
Southern Living compiled a list of the best places in Florida to buy seashells, including She Sells Sea Shells in Sanibel, considered “the shelling capital of the world.” See if your favorites made the list in Et Cetera.
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Daytona Beach 🌧️ 73/62° | Fort Myers 🌤️ 84/70° | Jacksonville 🌧️ 61/53° | Key West 🌤️ 81/74° | Miami 🌤️ 83/73° | Ocala 🌧️ 68/58° | Orlando 🌦️ 77/64° | Pensacola 🌦️ 60/50° | Port St. Lucie ⛈️ 85/67° | Tallahassee 🌧️ 60/52° | Tampa 🌦️ 80/67°
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DeSantis Speaks on Property Taxes
As four proposed constitutional amendments aimed at reducing property taxes for homeowners continued moving forward in the Florida House, Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke out in support of eliminating property taxes for Florida residents.
“The majority of our revenue for property tax is [from] non-Florida residents because people have second homes … and commercial property. So it ends up being about 30% of the [total property tax] revenue [that would be eliminated],” DeSantis said Friday.
DeSantis has proposed putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot next year to let voters get rid of the tax on homesteaded, owner-occupied houses and condos. It would need to be approved by 60% of voters.
DeSantis said that any shortfall faced by counties could be filled with Florida’s budget surplus, stating, “I’ve got a big surplus. Why would I not do that to be able to help them?”
Drug Bust Called Real Life ‘Breaking Bad’
Palm Bay authorities arrested 26-year-old Maxwell Horvath, operator of Overseas Organix, after a raid on Wednesday, Dec. 3 that uncovered over 90,000 pounds of drugs and an arsenal of guns and explosives. Considered the largest bust of its kind in the country, the Brevard County Sheriff described it as “Breaking Bad on steroids.”
“This is what danger looks like right here. Everything that you see behind us, everything you see in front of us, is a red flag for disaster,” Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in a video on social media.
Local and federal law enforcement agents seized approximately 92,000 pounds of an illegal substance believed to contain concentrations of 7-OH, a byproduct of the kratom plant said to be just as addictive as opioids. Testing is underway, but the estimated street value of the drugs is $4.7 million.
They also recovered thousands of pounds of ammunition, an arsenal of weapons, explosive devices, chemicals used to make explosives, and grenade simulators.
Billionaires Building Real Estate Empires in Miami
The New York Post recently reported on a rising real estate trend: the ultra-rich are grabbing up huge swathes of land in Miami, not to build bigger mansions, but to create compounds filled with amenities.
“Wealthy buyers coming to Miami are looking for privacy, security, and trophy assets,” said luxury real estate agent Fredrik Eklund.
Across the city, buyers are gobbling up neighboring lots to create large estates more valuable as a whole than their constituent parts.
“People aren’t just buying homes, they’re buying scarcity. The fact that Bezos, Griffin, and other billionaires are assembling here gives confidence to the entire market,” said Norma-Jean Callahan, who leads sales for the Witkoff portfolio at Douglas Elliman Development Marketing.
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➤Winter Park: Austin’s Coffee & Film, a local arts landmark, is moving to a new spot farther down Fairbanks Avenue to make way for a road project aimed at easing traffic backups at the Fairbanks and Denning intersection. (More)
➤Polk County:Officials offered a sneak peek at the 29,000-square-foot, $16 million fire rescue training facility, expected to open in spring 2026. (See Video)
➤ Tampa:After paying deposits for memberships at the not-yet-finished Divine Iron Gym, featuring indoor pickleball courts, locals were told the project had “permitting issues,” then the phone line was disconnected. (More)
➤St. Johns County:The Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved a new rule banning cigarettes and vape pens from public parks and beaches on Tuesday. Students from Washington Classical Christian School had requested the change. (More)
➤The Villages: Caring Neighbors in The Villages, a nonprofit organization, is seeking additional volunteers to help meet transportation needs for seniors. They currently have 39 chapters with over 1,000 volunteers. (More)
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➤All three Florida NFL teams gear up for action today at 1 p.m., with the most important game being between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Indianapolis Colts in a battle for AFC playoff seeding. (See Schedule)
➤Orlando Magic star Franz Wagner scored 32 points on Friday night to lead the team past the Miami Heat in a nail-biting finish. (See Highlights)
➤ Florida Panthers key forward Eetu Luostarinen has rejoined the team at practice for the first time in a month after missing time due to a barbecue-gone-wrong accident in November. (More)
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➤The largest playground slide in Southwest Florida—standing tall at 21 feet—opened at Roberto Clemente Park in Fort Myers on Friday. (See Slide)
➤ Seven sheriff’s deputies in Sarasota wrangled a 600-pound, 14-foot alligator off a road on Tuesday.(See Video)
➤Southern Living recently put together a list of seven must-visit Florida shell shops, ranging from Kelly’s Shell Shack in Naples to Shell World in Key Largo. (See the List)
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The Vero Beach community came together this week to honor fallen officer Sgt. Terri Sweeting-Mashkow.
DeSantis Speaks on Property Taxes
