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ST. PETE BEACH — Growing up in St. Pete Beach, Steve Lamb wanted to be a famous surfer. Unable to afford a board, he tried to use a wooden door from home and nearly drowned.“It’s this beautiful but really sad first wound for Steve that basically motivated his entire life,” filmmaker Ethan Payne said. “He decided he needed to make money.”Lamb instead found infamy on the water by smuggling drugs, primarily marijuana.He earned and spent millions, was a fugitive, served stints in federal and state p…
10 days ago
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BRANDON — There’s a mystery to the home at 315 N. Moon Ave., which was part of the Brandon community’s original downtown, before Highway 60 became the hub of activity.Karen Waters and Roy Vaughn, who are engaged, recently bought the 96-year-old Craftsman-style home. While working to restore it, they discovered a small room behind an upstairs bathroom wall. Adding to that mystery, there was a tiny concrete basement hidden under the floorboards that had an exhaust pipe climbing up the house to the…
11 days ago
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TAMPA — As word spread through Tampa history Facebook groups that the former Adams & Jennings Funeral Home building had sold, members had two questions: Who bought it and what will become of the white porcelain cat that’s been fastened to the roof as a Seminole Heights landmark for nearly eight decades?“We heard from people all over the country, not just locally,” said Michael Guinn, who purchased the building at 6900 N. Nebraska Ave with fiancée Casey Lee. “It’s just amazing how much people lov…
15 days ago
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TAMPA — Since 2009, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. has been Tampa’s last operational cigar factory.Recently, the 129-year-old business located inside Ybor City’s El Regensburg Cigar Factory learned they have an even more notable distinction.They now run the last operational cigar factory in the nation.Throughout the country, there still exists small operations, like the storefront businesses rolling cigars along Ybor’s Seventh Avenue.“However, these are essentially tourist stops, a cigar retailer with a…
17 days ago
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TAMPA — George Guida Sr. compared building his dream home to preparing an ice cream cone, his son said.The two-story, 4,500-square-foot house that was once at the center of West Tampa’s social circle was the ice cream and cone. Its unique elements, such as the Florida basement, an outdoor dining area and a heart-shaped driveway, were toppings that made the treat sweeter.“He was going to add what he liked,” George Guida Jr. said.It’s been 30 years since the city of Tampa purchased the home, now a…
22 days ago
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TAMPA — It was a heck of a date, Walter Romeo recalled with a laugh, but it might have been better if he had known the truth about their destination.A teenager at the time, Romeo, now 75, had a crush on a neighborhood girl. Of course he said yes when asked to go boating to a local island with her and another teenage couple.He could’ve bragged of a link to their destination.“My uncle owned it,” he said. “She might have been impressed. But I had no idea at the time.”They’d gone to Pine Key — the p…
28 days ago
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TAMPA — The Cuban sandwich might be delicious, but it’s also contentious. Debates have raged for decades about whether a real Cuban includes Genoa salami and where the sandwich comes from: Tampa, Miami or Cuba?The co-owner of La Creacion Bakery would not weigh in on the origins of the sandwich but has a strong “no salami” stance.That’s the popular opinion in Puerto Rico, where he was born and raised, Kelvin Cruz said. So it’s also how Cuban sandwiches are prepared at his bakery, which serves Pue…
about 1 month ago
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ST. PETERSBURG ― In 2006, as part of the WWE writing team, Dusty Rhodes and Court Bauer had a meeting with then-CEO Vince McMahon that left them confused.McMahon, who also played an onscreen version of himself, wanted to wrestle God. The one from the Bible. “Our marching orders were to fill in the episodes leading up to this bill,” Bauer said. After McMahon left the room, “with this half-smile, Dusty says, ‘Thank God he’s paying me a lot of money.’”Bauer, who’d once run his own promotion that he…
about 1 month ago
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TAMPA — There was a time when Rachel Paulson couldn’t wait to get out of Tampa.For her, it seemed too small-town, lacked a film scene and, more importantly, felt narrow-minded when it came to views on the LGBTQ+ community .“It was pretty harsh back then,” Paulson said. “I would hear slurs and things like that.”But Tampa’s changed, she said. It’s an exciting LGBTQ+-friendly city with a thriving independent film scene.“It’s really awesome to see the kind of growth that Tampa has gone through over…
about 1 month ago
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TAMPA — One benefit of owning an island is setting the dress code.During his six years as one of four partners who own Pine Key — better known by locals as Beer Can Island — Cole Weaver’s been casually naked there quite a few times.“That’s one of the things I am going to miss the most,” he said.The 9-acre apostrophe-shaped island, with another 60 acres of surrounding submerged land, is for sale . Located between Apollo Beach and MacDill Air Force Base, it went on the market Feb. 15 and intereste…
about 1 month ago
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TAMPA — Ernest Hooper has been happily married for 34 years, but colleagues wonder if he has eyes for another woman — Ruth Atkinson.“The joke around here is that I am in love with her,” laughed Hooper, the spokesperson for United Way Suncoast, which is Tampa Bay’s affiliate of one the world’s largest privately funded charities. “I sort of am.”It’s not love born from romance, but rather respect for a historic figure charged 100 years ago as the first leader of the Tampa Welfare League, which morp…
about 2 months ago
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TAMPA — Established in Ybor City, Silver Ring Café has been slinging Cuban sandwiches and Latin cuisine to Tampa Bay patrons for 77 years but, until last week, had not had a presence in Tampa since 2008.“It was time to bring it back,” said Nelson Valdes, 64.Valdes opened a Silver Ring Café inside Westshore Plaza’s food court, doing so with Tim Booth, whose family has owned the rights to the name since 1985.Booth’s niece operates one in Riverview, but he been retired from Silver Ring Café operati…
about 2 months ago
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TAMPA — When profiled by the Saturday Evening Post and interviewed on “The Mike Douglas Show,” both in 1964, Ann Lowe was described as “society’s best kept secret” despite making Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding gown and being the go-to dressmaker for social elites during the era of segregation — nearly unheard of for a Black woman.Six decades later, the custom dressmaker with roots in Tampa is still somewhat of a secret, but her story is attracting attention.A book on her life was recently released…
about 2 months ago
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TAMPA — Ray Didier never met his father, Frederick Didier, who was killed in action during World War II less than two weeks before his twin sons were born in 1944.But Didier and his brother, Freddie, were there five years later at a ceremony dedicating Hillsborough High School’s new clock to alumni killed in the war. They placed a wreath beneath a plaque bearing the name of their father and 138 others, located at the bottom of the clock tower.It has been 75 years and the plaque is still there. T…
about 2 months ago
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APOLLO BEACH — Their story unfolded like a National Lampoon movie. Four friends needed a place to park their floating bar , bought an island, ran afoul of the powers-that-be and then fought for their right to party.Now, a little more than six years after their purchase, they are selling Pine Key Tampa Bay — better known as the apostrophe-shaped Beer Can Island located between Apollo Beach and MacDill Air Force Base.The listing price is $14.2 million and includes the 9-acre island plus another 60…
2 months ago
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CLEARWATER — Clearwater is the main backdrop of the movie “Suncoast,” about a teenager coping with the pending death of her brother. Local landmarks and businesses populate scenes, and a fictitious school bears the city’s name on its building, van and uniforms.But very little of the movie starring Woody Harrelson and Laura Linney, which is now streaming on Hulu, was actually filmed here.A crew shot a few days of exterior B-roll footage in Pinellas County to establish the area as the focal point.…
2 months ago
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TAMPA — It was around seven years ago when Larry Schiller first saw the collection of maritime items.Cannons, corals, searchlights, fossils and much more were carefully organized in the backyard of a Hillsborough County home. The chain from an anchor formed a walking path through the items.Schiller was adding to the collection by bringing to the collector an oversized shackle used to fasten a heavy anchor chain to a ship.A year ago, the collector’s wife called Schiller, who owns Schiller’s Archi…
2 months ago
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TAMPA — Growing up in Tampa, Ali Scher wanted to be one of the popular kids. She was not.“I was a little bit different and weird,” said Scher, a 2003 graduate of Plant High School. “I was made fun of.”As an adult, Scher realized she didn’t need to be popular.“You don’t need a ton of friends,” she said. “You just need somebody. That’s one of those lessons that’s really hard to understand as a kid, but as you get older it sinks in.”Now a writer and director living in Los Angeles, Scher hopes her n…
2 months ago
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TAMPA — More than a century ago, a home was constructed with stones dredged from the Hillsborough River.Located at 712 S. Edison Ave. and now one of the buildings that make up the Hyde Park Historic District, the house is one of just two buildings made with those rocks. St. James House of Prayer Episcopal Church at 2708 N. Central Ave. is the other.The church has maintained its structure. Previous owners of the home did not.But restoration of the house has begun thanks to 712 S. Edison Ave. LLC,…
3 months ago
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TAMPA — For decades, most neighbors have embraced the peacocks of suburban Wellswood. They name the colorful birds, feed them and welcome them on their properties, where tree branches serve as beds.It’s part of the identity of the neighborhood nestled between Hillsborough Avenue, the Hillsborough River, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Armenia Avenue.“When I moved to Wellswood five years ago, one of the major selling points for me was the peacocks,” Maria Perez-Soto said.But in recent mo…
3 months ago
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Daria Berenato, best known as WWE wrestler Sonya Deville, is featured in a movie filming in Pinellas County this week.She plays a police officer in “DNA Secrets” produced by David Yates, the former Clearwater Marine Aquarium CEO who helmed the two “Dolphin Tale” movies .According to Yates, “DNA Secrets” follows an antique store owner who “opens a Pandora’s box” by gifting DNA kits to relatives.After several family members are killed, the store owner “realizes that she could be next on the killer…
3 months ago
