Florida Trident

Since the overhaul of New College of Florida in 2023, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration is now moving toward a potential expansion for the tiny public liberal arts college in Sarasota, by taking over educational and cultural facilities from other state universities.DeSantis aims to have the school take over the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, which is adjacent to the school but run by Florida State University.

The Sarasota County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday morning to stop work on a proposed agreement with Hi Hat Ranch, directing staff to cease further drafts of any agreement. The project will not move forward until a public workshop is scheduled within six months.The decision follows a Florida Trident investigative report published just a day earlier, which raised concerns about the deal’s financial impact — requiring taxpayers to cover half of a $28 million road-widening project for a segment of Bee Ridge Road between Bent Tree Boulevard to Lorraine Road.

A senior Sarasota County staffer called the developer’s proposal ‘insulting’ and urged the county to abandon negotiations.

In the early hours of Saturday, May 18, 2024, a cascade of failures within the Florida criminal justice system led to a heartbreaking tragedy: one man dead, his brother—a star running back for the Auburn University football program—partially paralyzed, and a grieving community. At the heart of the chaos was the shooter, Darryl Bernard Brookins, Jr., a five-time convicted felon with prior arrests for violent crimes, who remained free despite an arrest just three months earlier for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor.