Florida Trident

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.