Advocates gathered outside Tampa Electric’s offices on July 25 to mark the one-year anniversary of record 100-degree heat in Tampa.

It was a protest organized by the nonprofit Food and Water Watch and the Hillsborough Affordable Energy Coalition.

They are calling for an affordable energy reform following a recent report revealing TECO customers have seen their bills skyrocket by 81% over the past five years.

It is an increase of over $900 dollars a year—more than three times the rate of inflation.

That’s according to Isabella Moeller, the Florida organizer for the nonprofit Food and Water Watch.

“Our investor owned utilities such as Tampa Electric, Duke Energy, Florida Power and Light have been receiving massive rate increases year after year, all of which are rubber stamped by our utility regulators, the Public Service Commission,” said Moeller. “This has now caused Floridians to pay some of the highest electricity bills in the nation.”

TECO is removing a storm recovery charge from bills this month which they argue would save  customers about $20 per 1,000 kWh.

But the group warns this is a minor decrease and that base rates are still historically high.

Food and Water Watch also expect TECO to request another rate hike in 2027.

“There’s currently a case happening right now with the Public Service Commission that’s coming up this month in August,” said Moeller. “They’re going to be reviewing this large user tariff that Duke Energy has requested to see if it is in compliance with the new data center law.”

If passed, the proposal would allow Duke Energy to treat data centers as a large corporation using its grid.

Some consumer advocates say that proposal sidesteps the new law and would lead to ratepayers footing the costs.

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The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is the largest blackwater Swamp in North America.

For Jason Totoiu, senior attorney and Florida policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity, it is one of the sites everyone should visit at least once in their lives.

“It is a place that I would recommend to anyone who is just interested in the way America used to look centuries ago,” said Totoiu. “It is unspoiled. One of the few places left in the southeastern United States, in both Georgia and Florida, that remains truly wild.”

The World Heritage designation acknowledges the swamp’s rich diversity.

But it doesn’t provide any conservation regulations or protections.

“Largely due to the proximity of some proposed mines throughout the years and beginning in the 1990s,” said Totoiu. He refers to mining projects around Trial Ridge which surrounds the swamp. “Which would have compromised water levels and the water quality of the swamp.”

Public outcry led to the conservation of near areas and for the 1990’s proposal to be dropped.

But other proposals have come with the most recent one arriving in 2020.

The Everglades National Park received a World Heritage designation in 2010, but is now less than half its original size.

Most recently, it was the focal point of an environmental lawsuit due to an immigration detention center that the state called Alligator Alcatraz.

For Totoiu, the designation also comes at a time the federal government doesn’t prioritize habitat protection.

Just last month, the Trump administration eliminated habitat damage from the definition of harm under the Endangered Species Act.

“From a regulatory perspective, you know the elimination of habitat harm under the definition is very concerning,” said Totoiu. “Those protections are in place to help conserve species that would be otherwise threatened by private activities like mining. It is a somewhat naive approach that we will just figure it out”

During his second term, the Center for Biological Diversity has filed 123 lawsuits aiming to protect threatened species or their habitats.

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Lakeland city commissioners are considering a temporary moratorium on large data centers. Meanwhile, officials say the pause would allow time to evaluate the impact on infrastructure and future development.

The union representing TSA employees nationwide is vowing to fight a privatization plan at Tampa International Airport. However, union leaders argue the proposal could affect workers and airport security operations.

The court appearance of a woman who was injured during her arrest while pregnant has been delayed. Meanwhile, the case will move forward at a later date as legal proceedings continue.

Republican Congress member Cory Mills is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. However, officials have released few details as the investigation remains ongoing.

The Scoop, produced by Demaria Green

WMNF anchors Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Seán Kinane, Lisa Marzilli, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Megan Fair.
WMNF News Director Seán Kinane
WMNF reporters Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Lisa Marzilli, Seán Kinane, Sofia Caballero, Daria Mironova, Megan Fair, Luiza Medeiros de Campos, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Joeniyah Carter, Jaelin Diehl.
Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.

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The post The Scoop: Thurs. July 23, 2026, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

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The City of St Petersburg received two million dollars in state funding for the storm damage improvements project.

The project will take place at the Shore Acres neighborhood and it is a part of the St Pete Agile Resilience initiative to prevent flooding by working on sewer and water systems.

The initiative uses storm water pump stations which drain out the water that accumulates on lower streets and discharge it into the bay.

But it only works for rainfall, not for Hurricane surges such as Hurricane Helene in 2024.

Claude Tankersley is the City of St Petersburg’s Public Works Administrator and said the new pumps will have a big impact on the neighborhoods.

“So we’re talking about the ability to suck out and pump away four Olympic swimming pools every minute out of a neighborhood,” Tankersley said. “That’s a lot of water.”

With the grant, the city will build four new ones and Tankersley said they started planning for them in 2020.

A pump in Connecticut Avenue is in the final stages of design and is expected to go into construction later this year.

The one in Denver street is anticipated to start construction in 2028.

Tankersley said he believes all four new pumps will be completed in the next five years.

“When you have something as large as what we’re talking about, it takes a long time to really figure out how it would work, where it could work, what kind of impact it could have, how it would connect to other parts of the system,” he said. 

There are already four storm water pump stations completed and working effectively in St Petersburg – across Riviera Bay, Emerald Lake and 38th Avenue North.

Tankersley said the four new Shore Acres stations will cost about 100 million dollars.

As of now, the project has a total of three million dollars of state funding. 

Two million from the 2026-2027 state budget and another from the year prior.

**Editor’s note: This story was corrected on July 23, 2026. St Pete residents will be voting on whether to authorize the city to allocate up to $600 million in general obligation bonds not on whether to raise stormwater utility fees. These bonds will fund storm resilience improvements to infrastructure systems and can help pay for the Shore Acres project quicker and have it completed before the expected 2031 timeline.

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Lakeland city commissioners are considering a 12-month moratorium on large data centers while city staff studies how the facilities could affect infrastructure.

Officials say the pause would give staff time to study the impact on the city’s electric system, water supply and noise before developing new regulations.

Lakeland Electric’s largest customer, Publix, uses about 18 megawatts of electricity. A hyperscale data center could require around 100 megawatts, meaning major upgrades to the electric system.

Scott Bishop is the assistant general manager of Lakeland Electric.

“This is the right thing to do, to pause, take a breath, get all of our ducks in a row, and then we can start doing business again further if we decide we want to do that, but the breath, it needs to happen.” 

The moratorium comes after weeks of public pushback against a proposed data center in Lakeland called project Swan –a 600,000-square-foot facility.

Athena Wilson, a Polk County resident and board member of the Grassroots Collective, says she’s concerned about the impact on local water resources.

“If a data center operator can argue that it’s more feasible to utilize municipal water over non-potable water, we, as ratepayers, risk paying more and losing our necessary resources at the same time. With rates creeping up every year or so to accommodate the existing water insecurity, I feel that any hyperscale data center in Lakeland, let alone Polk County, will be a recipe for disaster.”

Kelly Quinn, a third-generation Polk County resident and candidate for Polk County Commission District 2, urged commissioners to approve the moratorium. 

“Lakeland is doing the responsible thing by pausing before approving a new class of high-impact infrastructure. Please adopt the moratorium and direct staff to bring forward clear standards based on what these facilities actually require.”

Commissioners will hold the ordinance’s second reading August 3rd.

If approved, Lakeland would be the fifth local government in Tampa Bay to approve a moratorium.

The others are: Citrus County, Hernando County, Pasco County and Zephyrhills.

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The three Florida species are the key mole skink, the rim rock crown snake, and the key ringneck snake.

These are the first new animals listed under the Endangered Species Act since the beginning of the second Trump administration.

Reagan Whitlock is an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. 

“These listings are welcome news after years of heel dragging. But they didn’t happen because this administration finally prioritized imperiled wildlife. They happened because litigation forced the government to fulfill its legal obligations under the Endangered Species Act, and unfortunately, the failure to designate critical habitat today shows there is more work that needs to be done.”

According to Whitlock, that’s the longest any administration has gone without protecting a species in the more than 50-year history of the law.

“These species represent millions of years of unique evolutionary history, and they’re only found here in Florida, where habitat loss is pushing them to the brink of extinction. And unfortunately, once they’re gone, they will be gone forever”

“There are many species that the service has failed to issue timely protections for, especially species across Florida and conservation only works because these listings are designed to be paired with strong habitat protections, a commitment to recovery, and a timeliness. And unfortunately, this administration has repeatedly moved in the opposite direction by weakening key safeguards for imperiled wildlife and cutting the funding out from under the agencies that are supposed to do this job.”

These designations come just a week after the Trump administration redefined the word “harm” to exclude damage to protected habitats.

The center also sued the National Marine Fisheries service earlier this month for failing to provide the critical habitat protection for the queen conch. 

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The Center for Biological Diversity plans to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to designate critical habitat for a bird that winters in Florida – the rufa red knot. 

Red knots are shorebirds known for making 19,000-mile round-trip migrations.

The population has declined by about 94 percent over the past four decades. It’s one of the steepest losses among North American shorebirds.

During migration, they stop along the Atlantic coast in places like Massachusetts and Delaware Bay to feed on horseshoe crab eggs. This gives them the energy they need to complete their migration.

But with horseshoe crab populations declining and no federally designated critical habitat, experts warn the birds could face extinction.

The Fish and Wildlife Service listed the red knot as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2014. However, the Center says it has failed to designate and protect critical habitat as required by law. 

Danny Waltz, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, says designating critical habitat is an important step in the bird’s recovery. 

“If one key part of their life cycle is lost, one key aspect of the food chain that they’re apart of is lost, there goes the species.”

Waltz says protecting red knots also benefits people, supporting coastal ecosystems and ecotourism.

“In many of our backyards we have this unique, rare bird that makes a fantastic journey,” said Waltz. “One of the most important parts of its journey is right where we all live. So we need to make sure that they continue to exist so that future generations can be aware and proud of this magical bird.”

The Center hopes the lawsuit will require the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate and protect the habitat the birds rely on during migration.

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On April 19, 2026, Manatee County released an update that could push for environmental policies, such as prioritizing habitat protection and water quality.

According to Casey Zemple, Communications Division Manager for Manatee County, environmental stewardship is a priority to the Board of County Commissioners. He explains that these decisions will serve as a clear and concise roadmap toward the future. 

“One of Manatee County’s greatest assets is its natural environment, including our pristine coastlines, beautiful river systems, preserves, agricultural lands, and wide open spaces. As we continue to make progress, the challenge is making sure that we’re planning in a way that protects those resources while still meeting the ongoing and changing needs of the community. The comprehensive plan is where we establish those long-term policies that strike that balance.”

Some of the elements included are strengthening and conserving habitats for species such as the Gopher Tortoise by by ensuring that land developers are following relocation rules.

Furthermore the plan implements rules such as the Outstanding Florida Water designation, which will improve water quality by freezing water at a clean state, preventing new construction from making the water dirty.

The county also wants to build radon-proof homes to prevent cancer-causing gases from entering homes and provide adequate monitoring of radon levels in homes.

“ This update gives us that opportunity to make sure that our policies reflect the realities of today instead of relying on guidance that may have been written a few years ago. It also ensures that we’re meeting state requirements while giving residents a whole bunch of opportunities to help shape the county’s future,” said Zempel

The plan is now open for public review, and residents have until August 6th to comment on the updates.

The post Manatee County updated its Comprehensive Plan, which sets the county’s development priorities until 2045 appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

His troubling past further challenges how little the Department of Homeland Security has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out President Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The city received two million dollars in state funding for storm damage improvement projects.

St. Pete is the first local government in the state to adopt this provision.

Since the start of the year, the state has averaged 5,990 claims a week.

The Scoop, produced by Maeleigh Fricke

WMNF anchors Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Seán Kinane, Lisa Marzilli.
WMNF News Director Seán Kinane
WMNF reporters Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Huérfano, Lisa Marzilli, Seán Kinane, Sofia Caballero, Daria Mironova, Megan Fair, Luiza Medeiros de Campos, Hanna Lau, Joeniyah Carter, Jaelin Diehl.
Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.

Theme music, Fresh06, by Stian via archive.org – CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5
https://archive.org/details/jamendo-001084/02.mp3
The Scoop logo by Robin Milcowitz / Greener Pixels / greenerpixels.com / WMNF

The post The Scoop: Fri. July 17, 2026, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.

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Fishermen now face new requirements when fishing in the US Atlantic.

Last summer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposed a new rule aimed to protect mobulid rays in the country.

Manta and devil rays are collectively known as mobulid rays.

They are a cartilaginous, filter-feeding fish that live in the tropical and sub-tropical oceans. 

Swordfish and tuna fisherman were accidentally catching rays and there was no rule that said they needed to release them.

Now the rule says the rays need to be back into the water as safely and quickly as possible.

Gib Brogan is the senior campaign director at Oceana.

“So this rule is good for the rays and will help their international conservation and hopefully their recovery,” Brogan said. 

“These rays need to be treated carefully, and that will prevent anyone from keeping one, or it will put that additional emphasis on the need to conserve this species,” Brogan said. 

There are still methods to capture the large rays for display and research purposes, but that goes through a different process that isn’t changed by this rule.

Brogan said he is hoping that, over time, the rule will decrease the deaths of these large rays in commercial fisheries.

“We’re hopeful that the regulations will improve the recovery of these species, that it will put an additional emphasis on the need to carefully release them,” Brogan said.

The rays now join a number of shark species under the Endangered Species Act with similar protections. 

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects endangered and threatened fish, wildlife, and plants to prevent their extinction and protect their habitats.

This new rule is specific to the accidental catch of these large rays in commercial fishing boats.

The rule went into effect on June 22 and Brogan said they are a great first step to conservation.

“We’re looking forward to the Fisheries Service continuing to do its job to protect species like meta rays,” Brogan said.

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