Ocala Gazette | July 14 - July 20, 2023

‘The hate gotta stop’

Nationally recognized civil rights leaders and the Ocala community gather to demand justice for shooting victim AJ Owens.

Inflation rate lowers Pg

A9

Big Lee’s Rashad Jones: ‘I beat Bobby Flay’

By Julie Garisto julie@magnoliamediaco.com

The family and friends of Ajike “AJ” Owens and the Ocala community gathered July 8 at the Kingdom Revival Church to raise their voices in protest and come together in fellowship on the “National Day of Righteous Outrage for AJ.”

As reported by the “Gazette,” Owens, who was Black, was fatally shot through a closed front door by her white neighbor, Susan Lorincz, on June 2.

The mother of four visited Lorincz at the Quail Run-area home to ask about an electronic

See National Day, page A3

By Julie Garisto julie@magnoliamediaco.com

Big Lee’s pitmaster Rashad Jones continues his longstanding winning streak on the 12th episode of “Beat Bobby Flay” season 34, “The Win Beneath Their Wings.”

The show aired July 6 on the Food Network and a repeat of it can be seen at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 31. Locally, it’s available on Spectrum TV Ch. 59.

In the high-pressure “Beat Bobby Flay” episode, “Cowboy” Kent Rollins

of Oklahoma and Jones go tong to tong to out-cook Flay, a celebrity chef with a notorious competitive streak. To qualify for the opportunity to “beat” Flay, the chefs face off against each other with a secret ingredient of Bobby’s choice.

“He very rarely loses on the show,” Jones said of the star.

The initial round of “Win Beneath Their Wings” tasked Jones and his first opponent, Rollins, with transforming a grilled sirloin cap.

Rollins made “barbecue fajitas,” but Jones edged him out with his super-thinsliced classic barbecue sandwich.

Ocala’s quiet Pride month

By Jennifer Hunt Murty jennifer@ocalagazette.com

June 2023’s Pride Month couldn’t have been much quieter in the Ocala metro as a predominantly conservative community ponders new Florida legislation targeting the state’s LGBTQ+ citizens that took and renews what feels like an old conversation about the morality of the celebration.

Florida has received national attention for laws focused on sexual orientation and gender identity. Last year, then-local State Rep. Joe Harding, who later resigned after facing several federal felony fraud charges in

connection with illegally receiving COVID-19 relief, earned headlines for his controversial Parental Rights in Education measure, which opponents nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay’’ bill.

Far-right Republicans, part of the GOP’s supermajority in the Legislature, expanded the bill this year and created additional legislation aimed at the trans community, all under the premise that it would protect children.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the measures, which took effect July 1.

Some critics say Florida’s legislative measures reflect an intent to erase LGBTQ+ from discussions and censor Floridians, particularly the estimated 114,000

queer youth in Florida.

The “Gazette” reached out to locals to see how they felt about recent legislation.

For 17 years, Angie Lewis, a local philanthropist and community leader who owns a local insurance agency, has hung up the Pride flag at her office. But this year, she paused the practice.

Lewis was quick to say that it wasn’t because she is wavering in her support for equal rights for the LGTBQ+ community. Her decision was driven by a desire to protect those near to her from possible harm.

“I didn’t hang it this year because of my employees,” she said. “Because this subject has

“I cut my meat very thin—I mean, I shaved it,” Jones said. “I knew 20 minutes would be enough for that thermal energy from my grill pan to penetrate that meat, break it down enough because it’s small enough to get it tender.”

To defeat the show’s star in the second round, Jones cooked up some unbeatable chicken wings.

“What’s that smile on your face?” Flay asked Jones. “You look like you have some sort of a trick up your sleeve.”

The Ocala pitmaster just laughed and didn’t say anything.

See Rashad, page A4

become such a divisive partisan issue, I didn’t want my team to have to deal with any negative ramifications.”

Lewis said the waning of respectful dialogue about subjects people disagree with or hold different convictions about is driving society backward, adding that fear and anger are driving our political discourse. Since college, Lewis said, she has sought a diverse group of friends, including those in the LGTBQ+ community, and has sought to make everyone feel safe and welcome at her business.

Lewis, who says she is a Christian, is concerned that wellmeaning Christians use Scripture

to force their opinions on others when it was Jesus himself who, according to the Bible, welcomed and ate with those his religious community shunned.

“After all,” said Lewis, “Jesus said you will know my people not by their political stand against particular lifestyles. He said you’ll know my people by their love. As Christians, it’s not our job to judge. It’s our job to love.”

Bishop James D. Stockton III, Sr. Pastor of the Greater New Hope Church, in the Silver Springs Shores Community of Marion County, says he preaches that all sex outside of marriage is sin. Yet, he says he welcomes all

See Pride, page A2

On the heels of opening his first brick-and-mortar restaurant, Rashad Jones gets national TV attention for out-cooking the celebrity chef on the Food Network.

Pride Month

“The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

Continued from page A1 sinners, including himself, to praise God and that is not to the exclusion of the LGBTQ+ community.

“One of the problems in our churches today is that we want to categorize and rate sin,’’ he said. “We feel the need to focus on whatever is believed to be the Top Three .”

However, Stockton says if you believe in hell, then you must subscribe to the idea that “It’s a place for all sinners and all types of sin.”

“The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short. So, whether it is homosexuality, going five miles over the posted speed limit, not paying our taxes, lying, stealing, gossiping, hiding money in some Cayman Island bank, or cheating, if we do not repent, we are all subject to going to hell. We must obey God-given and allowed authority,” he told the “Gazette.”

Stockton said that too many times we ask elected officials to legislate things that should be the responsibility of the family and/or the church. He added that it is wrong to ostracize people because of fear and not taking the time to know a person.

“(Legislators) are straining at gnats,’’ he said. “Why are we so focused on such a small demographic group of people when in our great state of Florida more people die from guns and bullets, cancer from cigarettes, domestic violence and human trafficking?

“The message of the church should be love, for the Bible teaches that love covers a multitude of sins,’’ Stockton said. “For years, I didn’t understand that, until I remembered my grandmother saying, “Sometimes you need to love the hell out of them.”

Stockton said the small size of the LGBTQ+ community within the billions of people on the Earth makes them an easy target. “It’s almost like, pick on that community for they can’t fight back. The issue is that they can and will.”

In a 2022 interview with the “Gazette,’’ Harding said his bill’s Don’t Say Gay nickname and subsequent media attention were political moves to “tap into those fighting for gay equality. They were trying to tap into the rage and anger, mostly from the left, and get the gay community to fight us.”

DeSantis and other Republican lawmakers, including Harding before he lost his office, publicly maintain this targeting of the LGBTQ+ community is more about determining what activities are “age appropriate” and is not intended as an attack on any group.

State Rep. Yvonne Hinson, a Gainesville Democrat, disputed that reasoning. Any legislation aimed at protecting children should generally bring a nonpartisan tone to the conversation, she said, but that was not the case.

“Recently, a conservative legislator exclaimed from the House floor: ‘Terrorists hate gays as much as we Republicans do!’ Of course, he had to go back and retract that statement, but like a bullet once shot, it can’t come back. The LGBTQ community, much like the African American community, feels marginalized and under attack. So much so that both communities have issued travel advisories warning tourists and convention-goers about the hazards of visiting Florida if you’re Black or gay but most especially if you are trans because the trans community feels so threatened that they are leaving the state. The “new” conservative (community) is proving itself to be extreme in all that they think and do, including to hate what they hate.”

The “Gazette” reached out to other local state representatives, State Sen. Keith Perry and State Reps. Bobby Payne and Stan McClain, to discuss whether they believe conservative Republicans consider themselves to be anti-LGTBQ+, but none of them responded.

The concern that the GOP-led legislation has had a chilling effect on the LGTBQ+ community was echoed by other locals.

Kristen Carey, a bi-trans woman, started transitioning at the age of 24 in 2017 and has lived between Marion and Citrus counties during that time. Carey was married to a cisgender woman and was working at a church. The desire she struggled with to be “Kristen” led to her being fired from the church and divorced.

Carey’s education and background are in elementary education and ministry work, but during her transition she had to find work in retail and sales. She has tried to find a church that will accept her and let her participate and serve, a calling that has not waned despite not being accepted by church leaders or some partitioners over the years.

Carey says she finally found a church in Homosassa

that lets her volunteer and participate in the choir.

Carey goes to the places she feels safe, but even then, sometimes, people will hurl insults or complain to establishments about her choice of bathrooms. She says she felt “a little safer walking down the street” in Marion County from harassment than in Citrus County.

Carey said the threats have lessened as she has become more “passable” as a woman. But over the past year, Carey has seen a shift.

“Previously, people would ask questions from a place of curiosity or ignorance,’’ she said. “But I’ve noticed that things are changing. People are more brazen in what they say or yell or post because now they feel that is the way the community is going.”

“Even watching the backlash to the recent Bud Light advertisement was a huge eye-opener. So many people who I had thought were allies and friends suddenly were in upheaval because their favorite beer was sponsoring a trans person. I feel people are more brazen and feel more brave coming out now to be anti-trans than they were previously. I felt like we were heading in a good direction, then all of a sudden everything halted and went in reverse.”

Carey feels like elected officials are setting the example that others are picking up and Carey wonders if she will ever be able to return to work at a school. Carey said she is “terrified” that more legislation intent on keeping kids from being around trans individuals could be put in place.

Currently, Carey is working on her master’s degree in hopes to advance in the field of behavioral therapy, where she currently works with kids. Kids sometimes will ask Carey if she’s a boy or a girl. “I tell them I’m a girl,’’ she said. “But I’m constantly worried about how to answer correctly.”

Nicole Kopolovits, age 28, is a local firefighter paramedic, a recently married lesbian and a practicing Jew. She told the “Gazette” that she was fortunate to know at a young age that she was gay, and her family and friends were accepting. By the time she was a sophomore in high school, she was openly in a lesbian relationship.

“I was fortunate in that I had an accepting family,’’ she said. “However, I can see how if I didn’t, I would have sought out a conversation with a trusted teacher. It would concern me to hear that young LGBTQ people may not have support networks while trying to figure out this stuff because teachers were prohibited from discussing it.”

One local business owner says the concerns about drag shows in particular are overblown.

Meigan Sardinia has hosted drag shows at her restaurant The Black Sheep on Broadway in downtown Ocala for three years now. “Most of the shows are sold out,’’ she said. As for the possibility that a minor would be allowed into her business for a drag show, Sardinia noted, “We have always had a 21 and older policy in place.”

As for how the recent legislation is impacting drag shows and in other towns, she said, “I think it’s unfair for other drag shows to be targeted because of the parent’s choice. And not all drag shows are provocative.”

For years, The Black Sheep had a flag hanging at the end of the bar promoting DeSantis for president in 2024 with the message, “Make America Florida.” Sardinia said the flag was a gift from a patron and was hung back before the Trump-Biden election in 2020.

However, that flag has recently been taken down.

“The drag queens didn’t mind that it was there; however, I noticed recently that the flag was starting to hurt people, so I took it down,” she said.

Generally speaking, Sardinia said she stays out of politics. “Honestly, right now, it’s hard to find any leader that I can entirely support.”

Sardinia says she has become close friends through the years with the drag queens. “They work hard to make a living doing their show. I’m happy to see everyone supporting them so generously during the shows.”

When the “Gazette” asked Carey about what she thinks the public misunderstands about trans people, she said, “I think the biggest thing is that none of us chose to be this way. If I could have been happy living as a man, I would have stayed that way. None of us would choose to get the hate and the discrimination, the hormones, the weekly injections, the looks we get, the body dysmorphia we get, none of us would have chosen this.”

“Trans people aren’t doing this as a disguise or a cover up, we are doing this so we can live. If I couldn’t transition, it would be a death sentence. I would only last a few months,” Carey said.

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If I could have been happy living as a man, I would have stayed that way. None of us would choose to get the hate and the discrimination, the hormones, the weekly injections, the looks we get, the body dysmorphia we get, none of us would have chosen this.”

Kristen Carey

Anti-gun violence groups holds prayer walk in Ocala

By Andy Fillmore andy@ocalagazette.com

Relatives of victims of gun violence joined members of the community for a Prayer Walk 4 Our City on Thursday, July 6, in northwest Ocala to bring attention to the issue of gun related crimes.

The Marion County community has been rocked this year - New Year’s Day saw two shooting deaths on Southwest 5th Street and several shooting homicides have occurred over the last few weeks. Ajike “A.J.” Owens’ June 2 shooting death while knocking on neighbor’s closed door garnered national attention; 17-year-old Lezarius “Lee” Graham was found deceased on June 7; and, about two weeks

later, 18-year-old Tylique Le’John Christie died at a local hospital after suffering a gunshot wound. Roovens Pierre, 30, was shot on a street in northwest Ocala on July 1 and later died.

The prayer walk was organized by the local anti-gun violence group War Cry 4 Peace and several members of the group joined the walk.

Group text messages before the prayer walk stated the organization seeks “justice, closure, unity, change and peace” for the community.

Kimberly Wilkerson, founder and president of War Cry 4 Peace, said the prayer walk had a “great turnout, but more importantly all our hearts were there to sincerely pray.” Wilkerson stated many people told her they were also “praying at home or work,

even though they were not (at the prayer walk).”

“This is the beginning of a ‘SHIFT,’ and the miracles God will bring to our city and community,” Wilkerson said and wrote in person and text messages.

About 25 marchers held signs with images of loved ones or friends and signs with messages like “We Must Pray” and “No More Gun Violence.”

The prayer walk started at Howard Academy Community Center (HACC) at 306 N.W. 7th Avenue, continued about two blocks to West Silver Springs Boulevard, then headed west to Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, traveled to Northwest 4th Street and returned to HACC.

At least two Ocala Police Department officers accompanied the marchers.

Charnelle Gibson offered a continuous prayer on a loudspeaker during the roughly 45-minute walk and prayer service afterward.

Yvonne Raines carried a poster-size photo of her son, Jairah Raines Sr., who was killed Feb. 18, 2016.

An online obituary at legacy. com gives his age as 26 and notes he had three children.

Monique Weeks held a sign that read “Stop Gun Violence” with an attached photo of her brother, John Marcus Weeks, who died Feb 16, 2023, at age 33.

Theresia Douglas and Areshia Johnson held a picture of Willie “Willo” Douglas Jr., Theresia’s brother and Johnson’s uncle.

The National Gun Memorial website states that Jairah McCloud Raines was “lost to gun

National Day of Righteous Outrage

Continued from page A1 tablet that she heard had been confiscated from her kids. Eyewitnesses reported that the 58-year-old neighbor called Owens’ children racial slurs and threw a roller skate at them before the confrontation.

Lorincz was charged with one count each of manslaughter with a firearm and assault. If convicted, she faces up to 30 years in prison. Lorincz is being held at the Marion County Jail in lieu of $154,000 bail.

Lorincz had researched the “stand your ground” law before the shooting took place, according to the arrest affidavit. She claimed that she fired the gun because she was fearful for her life, due to Owens banging on her metal door from the outside. Owens did not attempt to enter the home or touch the door handle, and the door was locked with an extra-long deadbolt.

Recent Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) bodycam footage revealed numerous angry complaints from Lorincz about the children making noise, harassing her and calling her Karen. One video showed Lorincz admitting to placing “private property” signs in the common area where the children played. Sheriff deputies remind her that she cannot keep the children from playing in the apartment complex yard and that it is not her property.

In one video, the word “psycho” is audibly mumbled by one of the officers.

“I am aware of the desire of the family, and some community members, that the defendant be charged with second-degree murder,” State Attorney William “Bill” Gladson said in a statement on June 26, adding that his “obligation as State Attorney is to follow the law in each case that I prosecute. I did so in this case, and while some may not agree with that decision, I can assure you that the decision was thoughtful and made without consideration of any factors other than the specific facts of this terrible crime.”

Speakers at Saturday’s event included activist Tamika Mallory, who was named to “Time100,” Time Magazine’s most influential people of 2023; Marcus Arbery, the father of Georgia shooting victim Ahmaud Arbery; Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation; and attorney Barbara Arnwine, founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition and president emeritus of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. Representatives of the Black Voters Matters Fund passed out fans with its call to action to help cool off the attendees.

According to a report by Supervisor of Elections Wesley Wilcox’s office, a little more than 27,000 Black Marion County residents are registered to vote out of a total of 276,040 total registered voters. This

falls to around 4 to 5% short of the total documented Black residents in Marion County.

In the last primary election on March 7, 18% of all Marion County registered residents placed a ballot.

“I can’t express the importance it is to become a registered voter if you’re not,” implored Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother.

Throughout the event, the crowd chanted “Justice for AJ.” Attorney Benjamin Crump addressed the crowd: “I know I’m singing to the choir, but the choir got to sing louder,” he appealed, speculating that if the roles had been reversed, Owens would have been charged with murder, not just manslaughter.

“The hate gotta stop,” said bereaved father Arbery in his emotional speech.

Singer Tim Bush of Live Church Orlando performed gospel tunes. During one song, Owens’ son, Israel, approached the stage and provided his own sign language interpretation of the tune. Owens’ daughter Afrika, 7, was escorted in tears from the service.

In the weeks since the shooting, events to raise awareness about the shooting and manslaughter charge have taken place downtown and at local churches.

“We pray that the judge, prosecutors, and everyone involved do their due diligence to make sure and ensure that Susan receives the maximum penalty for what she’s done,” attorney Anthony Thomas said at the service. “(Lorincz) admitted that she told (the children) to ‘go get your mom.’ … What this suggests is that there was intent in her mind to harm AJ”

Crump demanded Lorincz be brought up on charges of federal hate crimes, comparing the disgruntled neighbor to the shooters of Ahmaud Arbery, whose charges had included a federal hate crime, and the police officers who shot Breonna Taylor, the first law enforcement officers to be charged with a hate crime.

“All walks of our community came together here a week after AJ’s passing,” said friend Tameka Robinson, “and we have not stopped our efforts meeting here weekly since AJ’s passing, waving on the boulevard, knocking on doors, text and phone banking, and getting ourselves organized for the long fight ahead for AJ and the greater fight of addressing the systemic challenges facing our community, which is gun violence, criminal justice, economic injustice, education and beyond.”

To learn more about the Justice for AJ cause, volunteer, donate and sign a petition, visit facebook.com/ JusticeForAJNow.

violence on February 18, 2016 in Ocala, Florida; Weeks was “lost to gun violence on February 16, 2023 in Gainesville, Florida”; and Willie Douglas,45, was “lost to gun violence on August 27, 2022 in Ocala, Florida.”

An online Snow’s Funeral Home and Cremation Services states Douglas left a “host” of cousins nieces and nephews, along with Douglas and Johnson.

An announcement by War Cry 4Peace calling for the prayer walk included the names of A.J.Owens, Delvontaye Boyd, Telva Shenita Burton, Benetria Robinson, Antonio Gordon, Zaki Thomas and Master Bracey, and the words “these lives mattered.”

To learn more, go to warcry4peace.org

Areshia Johnson and Theresia Douglas participated in the Prayer Walk 4 Our City in Ocala on July 6, hosted by War Cry 4 Peace, in memory of their brother and uncle Willie “Willo” Douglas Jr. [Andy Fillmore]

Monique Weeks was at the prayer walk with a sign in memory of her brother John Marcus Weeks, who died Feb. 16, 2023, at age 33. [Andy Fillmore]

During the July 6 prayer walk organized by the local anti-gun violence group War Cry 4 Peace, Yvonne Raines carried a photo of her son, Jairah Raines Sr. who was killed Feb. 18, 2016. [Andy Fillmore]

Photos By Bruce Ackerman Ocala Gazette Tiffany Bess, left, and Takema Robinson, right,

Friends of Ajike “AJ” Owens, Kimberly Robinson Jones, Tarlisa Brown and Velecia Woodyard, left to right, speak.

Attorney Benjamin Crump, left,

of

Rashad Jones

Continued from page A1

“One of my secrets,” he told the “Gazette,” “was the Mississippi Delta Blues Blueberry Barbecue Sauce, an ode to Uncle Leon (the inspiration behind Big Lee’s in Ocala),” Jones explained.

The Big Lee’s co-founder had some other maneuvers.

“I made a stove-top smoker, believe it or not,” he effused. “I smoked my wings, and then grilled them on a flat grill top to get some nice grill marks on there.”

Jones, who combines experimentation with tradition, made a rustic slaw.

“I didn’t go for your traditional, typical run-of-the-mill coleslaw that you can get from KFC or any other place,” he said with a laugh. “I introduced a new vibrant taste that had some bold flavors. I used dill, Greek yogurt, and I grilled some bok choy.”

Jones also took a corn cob and cut it lengthwise into quarters.

“I made what we call in the barbecue world, corn ribs,” he said, adding that he charred them and tossed them in a seasoned butter sauce.

Celebrity judges Kardea Brown and Carson Kressley teamed up with guest judges Robbie Shoults, Hugh Mangum and Mama Tanya to choose Jones as the winner in both rounds of the episode.

Ocala’s beloved barbecue man is the chef who now gets to shout, “I beat Bobby Flay!”

Renowned for his Ocala-area food trucks, Jones had more news to share last

week: the grand opening on July 4 of his first Big Lee’s Serious About Barbecue brick-and-mortar location.

One diner set up a tent and waited as early as 7 a.m. to be the first through the door, Jones said.

The “quick-service” restaurant, at 2611 SW 19th Ave. Road, also called “Easy Street,” features an open kitchen and order counter. Jones said his employees are trained to explain menu items so customers don’t have get caught off guard or have to order under pressure.

Located in a complex anchored by the Regal Hollywood 10 cinema, the eatery was once occupied by a Jimmy John’s and accommodates around 40 guests inside and 10 outside on a pet-friendly patio. Beer, wine, fountain drinks and Jones’ signature Big Lee’s Tea are available.

The restaurant is named in honor of Leon “Big Lee” Archie from Greenwood, Mississippi; the uncle of Jones’ wife, Patrice, and co-owner of the eatery. The “genius smoker” apprenticed Jones shortly before he died in 2012.

Jones honors Big Lee and keeps his memory alive, praising him for his “incredible skills” and the “unparalleled quality” of his ’cue.

“Even though there’s a lot of good things happening, we’re still looking at how to continuously improve,” Jones assured.

“Like I always say,” he continued, “anytime I do this stuff, it’s a win for my team. It’s a win for Ocala and what I call the whole Big Lee’s community.”

Ocala men plead guilty to postal robbery spree

By Caroline Brauchler caroline@ocalagazette.com

Two Ocala men have pleaded guilty to their involvement in a spree of armed robberies of postal carriers across the state.

Jacoby Jules Colon, 20, and Darius Rodney Capers, 19, worked together to rob three postal carriers at gunpoint through September and October of 2022, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.

Colon was charged with and pleaded guilty to conspiring to rob postal carriers, armed postal robbery and brandishing a firearm to further a violent crime. Capers was charged with and pleaded guilty to conspiring to rob postal carriers and attempted robbery of a postal carrier, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg. On Sept. 14, 2022, the pair robbed a postal carrier in Fort Lauderdale, then stole his “arrow key,” which can be used to open U.S. Postal Services boxes in a particular ZIP code. They then moved on to Orlando, when, on Oct. 4 and 6, 2022, they robbed two more postal carriers and also stole their arrow keys. Colon brandished a firearm in the final robbery, and Capers served as the getaway driver in

all three robberies. They attempted to rob a fourth carrier at the end of that month, but backed off when the carrier resisted, according to the release. Searches were conducted at the homes of both men in Ocala, as well as a hotel the men were staying at in Orlando. On Jan. 11, 2023, Capers’ Ocala home was raided and searched the Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) and its SWAT team.

“The residence was then relinquished to (United States Postal Inspection Service) investigators who located four handguns and a shotgun inside the location,” according to an incident report from MCSO detailing the search.

Between the three locations, investigators found firearms, ski masks, stolen mail and fraudulent checks. The men said the purpose of the thefts was to commit check fraud, according to the release.

Colon’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 20, where he faces up to five years in federal prison for conspiracy, up to 25 years for robbery and up to a life sentence for the firearm offense, according to the release.

Capers’ sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 18, where he faces up to 15 years in federal prison for conspiracy, robbery and attempted robbery, according to the release.

Framework for Freedom invests over $25 million into College of Central Florida

By Caroline Brauchler caroline@ocalagazette.com

The “Framework for Freedom” budget approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis will invest more than $25 million to the College of Central Florida (CF) to support the growing workforce.

Framework for Freedom, signed in mid-June by DeSantis, budgets funds for tax relief, environmental protections, debt reduction, education, military and veteran protections, emergency management, public safety and the economy, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

The money for CF is a fraction of the budget’s $1.7 billion investment in state operating funds for the Florida College System. The state holds Public Education Capital Outlay funds which will be disbursed to the college once they’re reserved for expenses, according to CF spokesperson Lois Brauckmuller.

In addition to the increased operations budget, money will be allocated toward three projects at the college that aim to serve Marion, Levy and Citrus counties by growing their workforces, according to a

press release from CF.

The Equine Studies and Agribusiness program, located at CF’s Vintage Farm campus in Ocala, will receive $1.6 million for new equipment. This campus houses classes for both associate and bachelor’s degree programs in equine studies, agribusiness, organizational management in agribusiness and applied science in business, according to the CF website.

The college will also receive $17.4 million to help fund the construction of a Criminal Justice Instruction Center. The center is still in very early stages of planning, so no details about the location or programs to be offered are available at this time, said Brauckmuller.

An investment of $6.4 million will go toward the renovation of Building 19 on the campus, which houses the Emergency Medical Services programs. These programs offer courses to become a paramedic, EMS or EMT, which can be applied to a degree, according to the CF website.

“The College of Central Florida appreciates the support of Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Legislature and Department of Education through the Framework for Freedom Budget,” according to the press release.

Leader calls for ‘unity’ and ‘education’

By Andy Fillmore andy@ocalagazette.com

Ajike “AJ” Owens, whose shooting death on June 2 in Marion County has drawn national attention, was hailed as a civil rights martyr by the president of the local chapter of the NAACP at a meeting Sunday night, July 9.

“AJ Owens was a civil rights martyr like Emmett Till and many others who died for no reason. ‘AJ’ had her civil rights snatched away (when) Susan Lorincz brutally murdered her,” said James Stockton, president of the Marion County Chapter of the NAACP.

Stockton referenced federal hate crime charges. The remarks were made during the NAACP membership meeting at Ramah Baptist Church near Belleview. Stockton’s remarks focused on the “atmosphere in the community” after Owens’ killing and a rash of shooting deaths in the community.

The city of Ocala has had four homicides to date in 2023, all Black males;

one was stabbed, the others were shot, according to Ocala Police Department Public Information Officer Jeffrey Walczak. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) has investigated 10 homicides so far this year, including the deaths of three teens in the Ocala Forest Area, according to Public Information Officer Zach Moore. MCSO has released information on eight cases—six were shooting deaths and the manner of death was not identified in two cases; four victims were identified as white and four Black.

Stockton indicated the shooting deaths other than Owens’ may “not necessarily involve civil rights” but he charged the local NAACP members to “shift from reactive to proactive” and called for “unity” and “education” and in the Black community.

Stockton also spoke at a National Day of Righteous Outrage held Saturday July 8. Attorney Anthony Thomas, of Florida, cocounsel representing Owens’ family along with well-known civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, had issued a statement inviting the community to the event. Crump also spoke at the gathering on Saturday. Stockton

said he saw a number of community leaders and activist at the event who were announced as being from Ocala, but he was “not aware of the great social and community work that they were doing.” He stated in a follow up question he saw a need to unify efforts among local leaders and groups.

Lorincz was arrested June 6.

Stockton reviewed several points listed in the arrest document, including that she bought two guns for “protection” during her ongoing dispute with Owens over Owens’ children playing in a field adjacent to her residence; when Lorincz was asked in an interview if Owens tried to turn the doorknob, she said Owens “was just beating the door”; and Lorincz admitted Google-ing “stand your ground” law information. The charging document states that on the night of the shooting Lorincz felt she was in “mortal danger.”

In a June 26 press release, Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Bill Gladson stated, “Lorincz has been charged with one count of manslaughter with a firearm and one count of assault. Lorincz faces up to 30

years in prison on the charges.”

Lorincz remains in the Marion County Jail in lieu of $154,000 bond.

The MCSO charging document stated, “there is probable cause for simple battery by throwing a roller skate at juvenile and probable cause for two counts of simple assault for swinging an umbrella at juvenile” and Lorincz “admitted to having used the n-word toward children out of anger in the past and also to calling children other derogatory terms.”

Stockton said Owens was defending her children like a “mama bear … because protecting your children transcends race. What would any parent regardless of race have done differently.”

Stockton told the group the Black community should closely study laws like the justified use of deadly force law known as stand your ground, which some shooters “hide behind,” and to know their elected officials in order to call for more oversight.

On Monday, July 10, during an appearance in court, Lorincz pleaded not guilty. Stockton said he was not surprised by the plea.

recent NAACP membership meeting included remarks about the death of AJ Owens and homicides in the community so far this year.

Judge rejects voter registration lawsuit

By Jim Saunders Florida News Service

AU.S. district judge Monday rejected a lawsuit alleging that a Florida voter-registration form violates federal law because it does not properly inform convicted felons about eligibility to vote.

Judge Allen Winsor issued a 13-page decision dismissing a lawsuit filed in April by the League of Women Voters of Florida and the NAACP against Secretary of State Cord Byrd.

The case stemmed, in part, from a 2018 constitutional amendment designed to restore the voting rights of felons who had completed their sentences. The plaintiffs argued that the state voter-registration form violates a federal law known as the National Voter Registration Act because it does not properly inform potential voters of eligibility requirements. That has resulted in high-profile arrests of felons who thought they had regained voting rights, according to attorneys representing the plaintiffs.

But Winsor ruled that the form accurately informs felons that they cannot

register to vote until their rights are restored and rejected arguments that it should provide more-detailed information.

“The restoration of rights remains the eligibility requirement for felons,” Winsor wrote. “And that requirement, as plaintiffs acknowledge, is included on the form they challenge. That is enough to doom plaintiffs’ challenge.”

Winsor added that “if the NVRA (National Voter Registration Act) required applications to catalog every potential ‘precondition to eligibility,’ Florida’s onepage, front-and-back application form would explode into something hopelessly cumbersome, counter to the NVRA’s goal of promoting convenient registration.”

After voters passed the 2018 constitutional amendment, the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2019 approved a controversial law to carry out the measure. That law included requiring felons to pay “legal financial obligations,” such as restitution, fines and fees, to be eligible to have voting rights restored.

Critics contended that the requirement put up a barrier to restoration of rights

and caused confusion about whether many “returning citizens” were eligible to vote. Also, the amendment barred rights restoration for people convicted of murder or felony sexual offenses.

The lawsuit sought to require the state to use a voter-registration application that informs people convicted of murder or felony sexual offenses that they cannot vote unless their rights are restored through the clemency process; informs other felons that they are eligible to vote if they have completed all terms of their sentences, including financial obligations; and informs people convicted of felonies in other states about their eligibility to vote in Florida.

“Florida’s eligibility requirements for returning citizens differ depending on the crime, terms of sentence, and state of conviction,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in a June 1 court document. “But the application says nothing about these requirements. Making matters worse, Florida agencies have proven unable to timely verify the eligibility of voters. The application exacerbates the widespread confusion about eligibility criteria under Florida’s convoluted regime for applicants

with prior felony convictions. Florida has chosen to withhold the information that its citizens need to determine their eligibility, and it has exploited this statecreated uncertainty by investigating and prosecuting individuals who believed in good faith in their eligibility to vote.”

But in a motion to dismiss the case, attorneys for Byrd said the federal law “does not require a detailed explanation of every eligibility requirement on the face of a mail voter registration form.”

“For the vast majority of prospective Florida voters, the application provides all the information they need to successfully register,” the motion said. “For those who require more detailed information to assess their eligibility, Florida’s application provides a link to the Division of Elections website. It is highly unlikely that providing the detailed legal explanations that plaintiffs demand on the face of the application will enhance convenience for any Florida voters, including for persons previously convicted of felonies.”

While Winsor granted the state’s motion to dismiss the case Monday, he said the plaintiffs could file a revised version.

Key insurance piece improves—at a price

By Jim Saunders Florida News Service

The market for reinsurance—a critical piece of Florida’s property-insurance system—is improving. But it comes at a price.

Those are takeaways from new reports as Florida insurers try to bounce back after two years of homeowners losing policies and facing major rate increases because of financial troubles in the industry.

Reinsurance, which is essentially insurance for insurers, helps drive the catastrophe-prone Florida insurance system. When the market for reinsurance is tight and costly, the effects trickle down to homeowners’ policies.

But the new reports indicate reinsurance has been available this year for Florida insurers during a critical period in June

and July when many reinsurance contracts are renewed. The rub?

Reinsurance prices are up.

A report released by the reinsurance broker Aon included a subtitle that said, “Florida: Challenging market turns a corner.”

“The 2023 mid-year renewal was orderly for Florida-domiciled insurers, which are heavily reliant on reinsurance to trade and meet solvency and ratings requirements,” the report said.

“Despite concerns post Hurricane Ian of a potential capacity crunch for Floridian insurers, catastrophe reinsurance capacity was available at mid-year, at a price.”

Similarly, a report by Gallagher Re, another reinsurance broker, said: “Overall, there was sufficient supply to clear renewals, albeit at meaningful price increases compounding over multiple years.”

The Insurance Journal reported on the Aon and

Gallagher Re reports last week. Property insurers buy reinsurance and a type of financial instrument known as catastrophe bonds to hedge against risks. Being able to offload a portion of risk is vital for insurers in situations such as last year’s Hurricane Ian, which caused tens of billions of dollars in insured losses.

But while many homeowners might not realize it, the costs of what is known as “risk transfer” get baked into their insurance premiums.

A report slated to go before the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Board of Governors on Wednesday said “risk transfer pricing is up for the year with most Florida carriers experiencing rate increases of approximately 30%-50%, while pricing indications for nonFlorida risk is up 10%-20%.”

The report said the state-

backed Citizens, which is Florida’s largest property insurer, plans to spend $650 million this year for its risk-transfer program, which would provide $5.38 billion in coverage. Insurers rely on a combination of reinsurance bought in the private market and from the state-run Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which can provide the coverage at a relatively low cost.

With the property-insurance market crumbling in May 2022—before Ian hit Southwest Florida—lawmakers agreed to spend $2 billion in tax dollars to temporarily provide additional reinsurance coverage to insurers. They followed up in December by approving a program that effectively offered additional levels, known as “layers,” of reinsurance funded through $1 billion in state tax dollars and premiums paid by insurers.

But the new reports indicate that other changes made by lawmakers, including a series of steps aimed at limiting lawsuits against insurers, have helped make Florida more appealing to reinsurers.

“Florida’s recently implemented tort reform package, which seeks to address abuses of the legal system, is perhaps the most significant action taken so far to stabilize Florida’s insurance market,” the Aon report said. “Prior accident year results remain a challenge, but as the full benefits of tort reform materialize, the supply of property insurance in Florida should increase. Combined with improved terms and conditions, the reform should also help attract additional reinsurance capacity to the state going forward.”

Growth continues as Citizens rate hikes weighed

By Jim Saunders and Tom Urban Florida News Service

As Citizens Property Insurance Corp. waits for a decision on a plan that would lead to double-digit rate increases for customers, the state-backed insurer remains on a path to grow to 1.7 million policies by the end of the year, President and CEO Tim Cerio said Wednesday.

Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, has faced explosive growth during the past three years as private insurers have dropped customers and moved forward with major rate increases because of financial problems.

As of Friday, Citizens had 1.322 million policies making it the largest property insurer in the state.

Citizens has asked the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation for approval of an overall 13.3 percent rate increase, with the most-common type of homeowners’ policies getting hit with 12 percent hikes. Regulators are reviewing the plan and could order changes.

Cerio and other Citizens officials contend the rate increases are needed because Citizens broadly charges lower rates than private insurers. They say Citizens’ lower rates undercut long-

running state efforts to push policies into the private market.

“We have to return to being the state’s property insurer of last resort,” Cerio said Wednesday during a meeting of the Citizens Board of Governors. “Instead, we are the state’s largest property insurer with the lowest rates on top of that. That is going to continue to distort the market and impede recovery efforts.”

Cerio also pointed to the possibility that policyholders throughout the state— including non-Citizens customers—could be forced to pay what are known as “assessments” if Citizens doesn’t have enough money to cover hurricane claims.

“These policyholders in the private market are already paying more for insurance,” Cerio said. “Most have had to absorb much higher rate increases over the last couple of years of 30, 40 or 50 percent. Now, on top of that, these policyholders in the private market face the risk of having to pay Citizens assessments in addition to their already higher premiums. This is fundamentally unfair and why we need a course correction in the market.”

But homeowners in some parts of the state have few, if any, other choices than Citizens for coverage. During a hearing held last month by the Office of Insurance Regulation, leaders of the group

Fair Insurance Rates in Monroe urged regulators to reject the proposed Citizens rate increases in Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys.

Joe Walsh, a member of the group’s board, pointed to the lack of competition in the Keys.

“The Citizens rate is the rate. And so if Citizens raises rates, rates go up,” Walsh said during the hearing.

Citizens has added thousands of policies a week as private insurers have scaled back in the state. As an illustration of the growth, Citizens had 474,630 policies on June 30, 2020; 638,263 policies on June 30, 2021; and 931,357 policies on June 30, 2022, according to data on its website.

Lawmakers have made a series of changes in recent years to try to shore up the insurance industry, including passing a bill during a December 2022 special session to limit lawsuits against insurers. But lawmakers and industry officials have said those changes could take as long as two years to filter through the system.

Carl Rockman, vice president of agency and market services for Citizens, said Tuesday that Monarch Insurance Co. removed 17,239 policies from Citizens in June and that two insurers could remove as many as 26,000 in

August. That is part of what Citizens calls a “depopulation” effort.

But the insurance market took a hit this week when Farmers Insurance said it will end residential, auto and umbrella policies in the state. That will affect tens of thousands of customers, though it was not immediately clear how many homeowners policies are involved.

State Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis lashed out Tuesday night at Farmers, saying he wants “additional scrutiny on the company.”

“I’ve always said that when big decisions are made on insurance, the policyholder is rarely in the room—and unfortunately Farmers Insurance proved me right,” Patronis said in a prepared statement. “I have asked my team to put their heads together in holding Farmers Insurance accountable to Florida policyholders.”

But Democrats blasted Patronis and other Republican leaders for not doing enough to resolve the state’s insurance problems.

“Policyholders will now scramble to find a company that will cover them, and I doubt many families will end up paying less than before,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said in a statement Wednesday. “Despite the promises, we’re moving in the wrong direction.”

94 ARRESTED FOR BOATING UNDER INFLUENCE

Dozens of people were charged with boating under the influence on state waters in the three days leading up to the July 4 holiday, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The “Operation Dry Water” awareness campaign, conducted July 1 through July 3, resulted in 94 arrests for boating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the commission said Tuesday. “I have no doubt that

DESANTIS SAYS FLIGHT PROBE ‘ABSURD’

the hard work our officers and partner agencies put in over the holiday weekend saved lives,” commission Division of Law Enforcement Col. Brian Smith said in a prepared statement. In Florida, it is illegal to operate a boat while having a bloodalcohol content of .08 percent or higher—the same as for driving cars or other vehicles. Most first offenses for boating under the influence are second-degree misdemeanors.

PHONE SURCHARGE REDUCED FOR RELAY PROGRAM

The Florida Public Service Commission on Tuesday slightly reduced a surcharge imposed on landline phone customers that helps provide telecommunication services to people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. In approving a $3.6 million budget for Florida Telecommunications Relay Inc., the regulatory commission reduced the monthly landline surcharge from 10 cents to 9

cents. The non-profit Florida Telecommunications Relay administers the Florida Relay System, which provides basic telecommunication services to people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired. T-Mobile USA, Inc. is the relay provider. The commission said in a news release that use of the relay system has declined as people shift to internet and wireless technologies.

MEDICAID WAGE CASE DROPPED

Industry groups and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration have agreed to end a legal fight about part of last year’s state budget that could have opened Medicaid providers to litigation if they didn’t pay a $15 minimum wage to “direct care” workers. Attorneys for the Florida Ambulance Association, the Florida Assisted Living Association,

Gov. Ron DeSantis called it “absurd” for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to request a federal investigation into Florida directing flights of migrants last month from Texas to Sacramento. Appearing Monday on Fox Business, DeSantis defended Florida’s use of a taxpayer-funded program to transport migrants, while criticizing California as a “sanctuary” state. “They’re serving really as a magnet for people to

cross our border illegally,” DeSantis said. As he runs for the Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis has made President Joe Biden’s handling of immigration and the Southwest U.S. border a key campaign issue.

Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, both Democrats, asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the June 2 and June 5 migrant flights to California. Those flights followed Florida

flying migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts last September. Critics have said DeSantis has used migrants as “pawns.” Attorneys for some of the migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard and the advocacy group Alianza Americas filed a potential class-action lawsuit, alleging the asylum seekers were “tricked” into going from Texas to Massachusetts.

ABORTION INITIATIVE TOPS $1.94M

Trying to quickly gather enough petition signatures to get on the 2024 ballot, a political committee leading efforts to pass a constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring abortion rights collected nearly $1.942 million in June, according to a newly filed finance report. As of June 30, the Floridians Protecting Freedom committee had collected about $4.719 million since being formed in April. It had

two other plaintiffs and the Agency for Health Care Administration last week filed a joint motion in Leon County circuit court to dismiss the case. The motion said a new state budget that took effect July 1 did not include the disputed issue. Last year’s budget included fine print that directed money to the agency to adjust reimbursement rates so Medicaid

spent almost $4.59 million, including about $2.52 million in June. Most of the June spending went to petitiongathering efforts, according to the report posted on the state Division of Elections website. Large donors in June included Planned Parenthood organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

To get the proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2024 ballot, Floridians Protecting

providers would pay at least $15 an hour to direct-care employees. Also, the budget said that as of Jan. 1, employees could file civil lawsuits against providers that did not pay $15 an hour, including possibly class-action lawsuits. The Leon County case focused on the constitutionality of the part of the budget that could have led to employee lawsuits. Last week’s motion

Freedom will need to submit at least 891,523 valid petition signatures to the state by Feb. 1. If the measure reaches the ballot, it would need support from at least 60 percent of voters. The initiative was launched after Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature this spring approved a bill that seeks to prevent abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

to dismiss the case indicated the budget fine print had not led to lawsuits. “The parties agree that, with the adoption of the 2023 budget, employees will not have a cause of action for alleged underpayment of wages after June 30, 2023,” the motion said.

A FLORIDA SINKHOLE THAT CLAIMED A MAN’S LIFE IN 2013 REOPENS, THIS TIME HARMLESSLY

By Curt Anderson Associated Press

enforcement department. “This is not uncommon, what we’re seeing here.”

news conference Tuesday. That will be done again.

AFlorida

sinkhole that in 2013 fatally swallowed a man sleeping in his own house has reopened for a third time, only now it’s behind chain-link fencing and doing no harm to people or property.

Hillsborough County officials said the sinkhole located in the Tampa suburb of Seffner appeared again Monday, which they said is not unusual for such underground formations especially in central Florida with its porous limestone base. The hole was about 19 feet (6 meters) wide at its largest point.

“None of the homes surrounding this appear to be in any danger,” said Jon-Paul Lavandeira, director of the county code

A decade ago, 37-year-old Jeff Bush was sleeping in a bedroom when the earth opened up and devoured him and part of the house. Five other people escaped unharmed and Bush’s brother, Jeremy, tried in vain to dig him out of the hole. Jeff Bush’s body has never been found.

“There’s not a day goes by I don’t think about my brother,” Jeremy Bush told WTSP-TV. “This is the only place I’ve got to visit him.”

After Bush’s home was demolished, county officials erected a pair of fences around the lot to prevent any further injury. The sinkhole opened again in 2015 and was filled in with a watergravel mixture, Lavandeira said at a

“If there’s a reoccurrence, it’s in a controlled area. It’s going to stay right there,” he said.

Sinkholes are as much a part of the Florida landscape as sandy beaches, alligators and developers. Florida has more sinkholes than any state in the nation, mainly because the peninsula is comprised of porous carbonate rocks such as limestone that store and help move groundwater.

When dirt, clay or sand on top gets too heavy for the limestone roof, it can collapse and form a sinkhole. Sinkholes are caused naturally but they can be triggered by outside events such as rainfall or from pumping groundwater used to irrigate

crops. The central Florida region is ground zero for sinkholes, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The state Office of Insurance Regulation said sinkhole claims in Florida cost insurers $1.4 billion from 2006 to 2010.

Most sinkholes are small, affecting things like parking lots and roadways. But some are quite large, such as one near Orlando that grew to 400 feet (121 meters) across in 1981 and swallowed five cars, most of two businesses, a three-bedroom house and the deep end of an Olympic-size swimming pool.

It’s quite likely the Seffner sinkhole will reopen sometime in the future, Lavandeira said.

“This is Mother Nature. This is not a man-made occurrence,” he said.

Florida in hot water as ocean temperatures rise along with the humidity

which is extremely warm,” said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. He said his 95-degree pool doesn’t cool him—it just leaves him wet.

Water temperatures across the Gulf of Mexico and Southwest Atlantic are 4 to 5 degrees (2 to 3 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal, Orrison said. Because the water is so warm, the air in Florida gets more humid and “that’s making things tougher or more oppressive for people who are going to be out and about,” he said.

The heat dome that baked Texas and Mexico for much of the early summer has oozed its way to Florida with sunshine, little to no cooling clouds or rain, but humidity worsened by the hot oceans, Orrison and McNoldy said.

Not only will it stick around for a while as weather patterns seem stuck—a sign of climate change, some scientists contend— “it may actually tend to get a little bit worse,” Orrison said, with extra heat and humidity that has NOAA forecasting a heat index around 110 by weekend.

of bleaching from Belize, which is very alarming this early in the summer,” said scientist Liv Williamson of the University of Miami’s Coral Reef Futures Lab. She said global projections give a 90% chance for major bleaching on many reefs, including in Pacific Islands along the Equator, the eastern tropical Pacific in Panama, the Caribbean coast of Central America, and in Florida.

“This is only July, this heat will just keep accumulating and these corals will be forced to deal with dangerously warm conditions for much longer than is normal,” Williamson said in an email.

Coral bleaching and die-offs are becoming more frequent with climate change, especially during an El Nino, with Australia’s Great Barrier Reef losing half its coral during the last supersized El Nino in 2016, Williamson said.

Scientists say a new El Nino is part of the reason for the current heat, along with ever-increasing warming from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

Then there’s that Sahara dust.

By Seth Borenstein and Mike Schneider Associated Press

Record global ocean heating has invaded Florida with a vengeance.

Water temperatures in the mid-90s (mid-30s Celsius) are threatening delicate coral reefs, depriving swimmers of cooling dips and adding a bit more ick to the Sunshine State’s already oppressive summer weather. Forecasters are warning of temperatures that with humidity will feel like 110 degrees (43 degrees Celsius) by week’s end.

If that’s not enough, Florida is about to get a dose of dust from Africa’s Saharan desert that’s likely to hurt air quality.

The globe is coming off a week of heat not seen in modern measurements, the World Meteorological Organization said Monday, using data from Japan’s weather agency to confirm unofficial records reported nearly daily last week by the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. Japan reported the global average temperature on Friday was half a degree (0.3 degrees Celsius) warmer than its past record hottest day in August 2016.

Global sea surface temperatures have been record high since April and the North Atlantic has been off-the-charts hot since mid-March, meteorologists report as climate change is linked to more extremeand deadly events.

“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall,” said WMO director of climate services Christopher Hewitt. “This is worrying news for the planet.”

Now it’s Florida’s turn.

Water temperature near Johnson Key came close to 97 degrees (36.1 degrees Celsius) Monday evening, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoy. Another buoy had a reading close to 95 (35 Celsius) near Vaca Key a day earlier. These are about 5 degrees warmer than normal this time of year, meteorologists said.

“That’s incredible,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Orrison. “The water is so warm you really can’t cool off.”

While the 95- and 96-degree readings were in shallow waters, “the water temperatures are 90 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit around much of Florida,

It could be worse. Air temperatures of 110 are forecast for the U.S. Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico and southeast California, Orrison said. Death Valley should see highs of 120 to 125 by the end of the week, and possibly a highly unusual 130.

At Hollywood Beach, south of Fort Lauderdale, Monday’s 91 degrees were about average and Glenn Stoutt said the breeze made him fine to do lunges with a 15-pound weighted ball and calisthenics— though he wore shoes on the blazing sand.

“It’s funny to watch the new people and the tourists get about halfway out and realize their feet are getting scorched,” Stoutt said. “They start running, but it doesn’t matter how fast you run, you need to get them in the water.”

Scientists worry about the coral in that warmed-up water.

“There’s a good chance of heat stress accumulating very early in the season so we could be looking at nasty bleaching,” said International Coral Reef Society’s Mark Eakin, a retired top NOAA coral reef scientist. Bleaching weakens coral; it takes extended heat to kill it.

“We are already receiving reports

With little rain to keep the soil grounded, it’s common this time of year for plumes of dust particles from the Sahara Desert to blow across the Atlantic on upper-level winds. It takes strong winds to push them all the way to Florida so it doesn’t happen often.

One plume settled over South Florida on Monday, and the next plume was expected later in the week, said Sammy Hadi, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Miami. The plumes typically stay two to three days, and dry the atmosphere so there are fewer of the afternoon rains that are typical for Florida summers.

One plus: sunlight bouncing off those dust particles produces more vivid sunrises and sunsets.

“In general, it makes the sunrises and sunsets more vibrant and beautiful,” Hadi said.

Terry Spencer contributed from Hollywood Beach. Borenstein reported from Washington. Follow Seth Borenstein at @borenbears and Mike Schneider at @ MikeSchneiderAP on Twitter.

Webb Space Telescope reveals moment of stellar birth, dramatic close-up of 50 baby stars

By Marcia Dunn AP Aerospace Writer

The Webb Space Telescope is marking one year of cosmic photographs with one of its best yet: the dramatic close-up of dozens of stars at the moment of birth.

NASA unveiled the latest snapshot Wednesday, revealing 50 baby stars in a cloud complex 390 light-years away. A lightyear is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

The region is relatively small

and quiet yet full of illuminated gases, jets of hydrogen and even dense cocoons of dust with the delicate beginnings of even more stars.

All of the young stars appear to be no bigger than our sun. Scientists said the breathtaking shot provides the best clarity yet of this brief phase of a star’s life.

“It’s like a glimpse of what our own system would have looked like billions of years ago when it was forming,” NASA program scientist Eric Smith told The Associated Press.

Smith pointed out that the

starlight visible in the image actually left there 390 years ago. On Earth in 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei went on trial in Rome for saying that the Earth revolved around the sun. The Vatican in 1992 acknowledged Galileo was wronged.

This cloud complex, known as Rho Ophiuchi, is the closest star-forming region to Earth and is found in the sky near the border of the constellations Ophiuchus and Scorpius, the serpent-bearer and scorpion. With no stars in the foreground of the photo, NASA noted, the details stand out all the

more. Some of the stars display shadows indicating possible planets in the making, according to NASA.

It “presents star birth as an impressionistic masterpiece,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a tweet.

Webb—the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever launched into space—has been churning out cosmic beauty shots for the past year. The first pictures from the $10 billion infrared telescope were unveiled last July, six months after its liftoff from French Guiana.

It’s considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting Earth for 33 years. A joint NASA-European Space Agency effort, Webb scans the universe from a more distant perch, 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away.

Still ahead for Webb: Astronomers hope to behold the earliest stars and galaxies of the universe while scouring the cosmos for any hints of life on planets outside our solar system. “We haven’t found one of them yet,” Smith said. “But we’re still only one year into the mission.”

File photo

As whiskey and bourbon business booms, beloved distillers face pushback over taxes and emissions

By Travis Loller Associated Press

For decades, the whiskey and bourbon makers of Tennessee and Kentucky have been beloved in their communities.

The distilleries where the liquor is manufactured and barrelhouses where it is aged have complemented the rural character of their neighborhoods, while providing jobs and the pride of a successful homegrown industry.

Now, the growing popularity of the industry around the world is fueling conflicts at home.

In Kentucky, where 95% of the world’s bourbon is manufactured, counties are revolting after the legislature voted to phase out a barrel tax they have depended on to fund schools, roads and utilities. Local officials who donated land and spent millions on infrastructure to help bourbon makers now say those investments may never be recouped.

Neighbors in both states have been fighting industry expansion, even suing distillers. Complaints include a destructive black “whiskey fungus,” the loss of prime farmland and liquorthemed tourist developments that are more Disneyland than distillery tour.

The love affair, it seems, is over.

“We’ve been their biggest advocates and they threw us under the bus,” said Jerry Summers, a former executive with Jim Beam and the judgeexecutive for Bullitt County, essentially the county mayor.

Bullitt County has long depended on an annual barrel tax on aging whiskey, which brought in $3.8 million in 2021, Summers said. The majority goes to schools but the money also is used for services that support the county’s Jim

Beam and Four Roses plants, including a full-time fire department.

Many of the new barrelhouses are being built with industrial revenue bonds exempting them from property taxes for years or decades. The counties supported the property tax breaks because they expected to continue collecting the barrel tax. When the state legislature voted to phase it out earlier this year, after intense lobbying by the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, county officials felt betrayed.

“Our industry was always a handshake agreement,” Summers said. Now, those agreements are being broken.

Once the barrel tax sunsets in 2043, the distillers will pay no taxes at all to Bullitt on some warehouses. The county will still have to provide them with services, protect them and protect the surrounding community from them if anything goes wrong, Summers said.

“Where you have an alcoholbased plant that produces a hazardous material, you need emergency management, EMS, a sheriff’s department,” he said.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who signed the bill after passage by Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature, said several industry compromises were vital to his support, while the bill will encourage investment.

“I know it was tough. You had an industry that supports so many jobs and calls Kentucky home. At the same time, you’ve got communities that have helped build that industry. I know there are, right now, probably some difficult feelings,” Beshear said in a news conference.

Kentucky Distillers’ Association President Eric Gregory noted the compromise bill creates a new excise tax to help fund school districts.

Another tax helps fire and emergency management services, though it does not apply in all counties.

“Even with this relief, distilling remains Kentucky’s highest taxed industry, paying $286 million in taxes each year,” Gregory said in an email.

While the tax changes take place, whiskey is booming.

As a former Beam executive, Summers remembers a time when whiskey was a cheap, “bottom shelf” drink. With small batch products, the liquor slowly became cool. American whiskey revenues since 2003 have nearly quadrupled, reaching $5.1 billion last year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. During the same period, the super premium segment rose more than 20-fold to $1.3 billion.

Now many of the most recognized brands are part of international beverage conglomerates. Jim Beam is owned by Japan-based Beam Suntory. Britain’s Diageo owns Bulleit. Italy’s Campari Group owns Wild Turkey.

In lobbying for the end of the tax, the distillers’ group suggested the industry could leave Kentucky. Officials like Summers are calling that a bluff. He said Bullitt County does not want any new barrelhouses unless things change, and he is not alone.

Nelson County, home to Heaven Hill, Log Still and other Kentucky communities involved with the industry, recently approved a moratorium on new bourbon warehouse construction while the county updates zoning and permitting rules. Soon, any new projects will be required to seek citizen input and zoning board approval, Judge Executive Timothy Hutchins said.

“That got their attention, let’s put it that way,” Hutchins said. “Now, we’re trying to kiss and

make up.”

The county gets about $8.6 million a year from the barrel tax, he said.

In Tennessee’s Lincoln County, Jack Daniel’s recently was slapped with a stop-work order after neighbors sued over a huge unpermitted expansion.

Since 2018, the company has built six 86,000-squarefoot (7,989-square-meter) warehouses holding 66,000 barrels each on a 120-acre (48-hectare) property, according to the lawsuit.

Jack Daniel’s has since retroactively received the proper approvals, but neighbors say their biggest complaint has not been addressed: A black fungus that feeds on the ethanol emitted as whiskey ages.

The “whiskey fungus” has been been a nuisance around liquor facilities for centuries, but the size and scope of the new barrelhouse complexes means much more ethanol is being released in a concentrated area. The fungus covers nearby homes and cars in a sooty black film, choking trees and shrubs.

When Pam Butler moved to Lincoln County 30 years ago, there were only two barrelhouses nearby, and she had “no issues.”

“I had a white car and it stayed white. I had a white horse trailer and it stayed white. Then about five years ago, everything started looking grungy,” Butler said.

Butler owns a small farm where she keeps horses adjacent to the Jack Daniel’s property. She said her pasture land is not thriving as it should, many of her trees are dying and she has developed asthma. She doesn’t know whether her illness is related to the fungus, but said she only started having symptoms in the past few years.

Butler and several other neighbors want Jack Daniel’s to capture its ethanol emissions instead of releasing them into

the neighborhood. The company would not comment on the fungus but spokesman Svend Jansen provided a statement saying it “will continue to work hard to be a good partner to all members of our community.”

“We recognize that there have been, at times, a small number of people who do not appreciate or value the growth of Tennessee Whiskey production in the areas where we operate,” the statement said.

Back in Kentucky, famed author and agriculturalist Wendell Berry has another concern: local food security and the destruction of prime agricultural land.

“I’ve been working, going on 30 years, to develop a regional food economy for Louisville,” Berry said.

“Cities like Louisville and Nashville are surrounded by fertile land that is well watered,” but they are importing much of their food from California’s Central Valley, he said. “I’ve spent my life arguing that this land is going to be needed by people who want something to eat.”

Berry recently lost a fight with distiller Angel’s Envy in Louisville over the development of a 1,200acre (485-hectare) property adjacent to the farm where he grew up. Henry County approved the company’s plans for a bourbon tourism complex there, complete with cabins, an amphitheater and a helipad. Angel’s Envy declined to comment.

Fred Minnick, who has written books on bourbon and judges world whiskey competitions, said it is an interesting time for the industry because bourbon has never been this popular.

“Bourbon was the good guy. Bourbon was loved by the state,” he said of Kentucky. “It will be fascinating to see if bourbon remains a hero.”

Bank of America hit with $250M in fines and refunds for ‘double-dipping’ fees and fake accounts

By Ken Sweet and Michelle Chapman Associated Press

Bank of America will reimburse customers more than $100 million and pay $150 million in fines for “double-dipping” on overdraft fees, withholding reward bonuses on credit cards and opening accounts without customer consent. Combined, it is one of the highest financial penalties in years against Bank of America, which has largely spent the last 15 years trying to clean up its reputation and market itself to the public as a bank focused on financial health and not on overdraft fee income and financial trickery.

BofA must refund $100 million to customers, pay $90 million in penalties to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and $60 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. “Bank of America wrongfully withheld credit card rewards, double-dipped on fees, and opened accounts without consent,”

said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, in a statement. “These practices are illegal and undermine customer trust.”

Empowered by a broad mandate from the White House, Chopra and the bureau have focused heavily in the past year on the issue of “junk fees”—fees charged to Americans that are often seen as unnecessary or exploitative by banks, debt collectors, airlines and concert venues. Banks such as BofA, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and others have been a target for the bureau under the Biden administration.

Part of the fines and penalties come because Bank of America had a policy of charging customers $35 after the bank declined a transaction because the customer did not have enough funds in their account, the CFPB said. The agency determined that the bank double-dipped by allowing fees to be repeatedly charged for the same transaction.

The fees often came when customers had routine monthly transactions, like a

gym membership. If a customer had too low of a balance to cover the transaction, it would be declined and BofA would charge the customer a $35 fee. The business, who hasn’t been paid, often would recharge the customer’s account, resulting in another $35 non-sufficient funds fee.

The bank ended this practice last year, but will still have to repay customers who got charged before the policy was changed.

BofA has been cutting down on its reliance on overdraft fee revenue for more than a decade, and cut how much it charges customers for an overdraft to $15 last year. Brian Moynihan, the bank’s CEO and chairman, told The Associated Press in 2022 that under these new policies, overdraft fee income was down 90% from 2021. The bank said that it voluntarily reduced overdraft fees and eliminated all non-sufficient fund fees in the first half of last year.

Bank of America also offered people cash rewards and bonus points when signing up for a card, but the CFPB said

the bank illegally withheld promised credit card account bonuses.

The CFPB also found that, since at least 2012, Bank of America employees illegally applied for and enrolled consumers in credit card accounts without their knowledge or authorization. It is a similar to, but smaller than, a charge that was made against Wells Fargo, which paid billions in fines after it was determined that the San Francisco bank opened millions of unauthorized bank accounts in order to meet unrealistic sales goals.

In 2014 the CFPB ordered Bank of America to pay $727 million for illegal credit card practices. Last year it was ordered to pay a $10 million civil penalty over unlawful garnishments. Also in 2022, the CFPB and OCC fined Bank of America $225 million and required it to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in redress to consumers for botched disbursement of state unemployment benefits at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

US inflation hits its lowest point since early 2021 as prices ease for gas, groceries and used cars

hotel costs 2% and car rental prices 1.4%—sharp drops that aren’t likely to be replicated.

And the cost of some services are still rising and likely to stay high this year, potentially keeping core prices elevated. Auto insurance costs, for instance, have soared, and are up 16.9% from a year ago. Americans are driving more than during the pandemic and causing more accidents. Insurance is also costlier because vehicle prices are much higher than before the pandemic, and cars are therefore more valuable.

Restaurant prices are still moving up, having risen 0.4% from May to June and nearly 8% from a year earlier. Restaurant owners have had to keep raising wages to find and retain workers, and many of them are passing their higher labor costs on to their customers by raising prices.

Some drivers of higher prices are likely to keep fading and pull down inflation in the coming months. Used car prices sank 0.5% from May to June, after two months of big spikes. New-car prices, too, have begun to ease as a result, and were unchanged from May to June.

In June, used vehicle prices paid by dealers were down 5.6% from a year earlier, helping to cool inflation, according to data gathered by Black Book, which monitors prices. But used vehicles are still comparatively pricey: Dealers are paying almost 70% more for them than in June 2019, before the pandemic began. The average list price offered by dealers to consumers was $28,850 last month.

By Christopher Rugaber AP Economics Writer

Squeezed by painfully high prices for two years, Americans have gained some much-needed relief with inflation reaching its lowest point since early 2021—3% in June compared with a year earlier—thanks in part to easing prices for gasoline, airline fares, used cars and groceries.

The inflation figure the government reported Wednesday was down sharply from a 4% annual rate in May, though still above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. From May to June, overall prices rose 0.2%, up from just 0.1% in the previous month but still comparatively mild.

Even with Wednesday’s betterthan-expected inflation data, the Fed is considered all but sure to raise its benchmark rate when it meets in two weeks. But with price increases slowing—or even falling outright—across a range of goods and services, many economists say they think the central bank could hold off on what had been expected to be another rate hike in September, should inflation continue to cool.

“It takes the second hike off the table, if that trend continues,” said Laura Rosner-Warburton, senior economist at MacroPolicy Perspectives. “They’re probably on hold for the rest of the year.”

On Wall Street, investors cheered the encouraging news, sending stock and bond prices

higher. Investors have been eagerly anticipating the eventual end of the central bank’s rate increases.

The Fed has raised its benchmark rate by a substantial 5 percentage points since March 2022, the steepest pace of increases in four decades. Its expected hike this month will follow the central bank’s decision to pause its rate increases last month after 10 consecutive hikes.

Wednesday’s inflation data may lift hopes that the Fed will achieve a difficult “soft landing,” in which price increases fall back to 2% without causing a spike in unemployment or a deep recession. Last week, the government reported solid hiring in June, though it slowed compared with earlier this year.

The unemployment rate ticked lower, from 3.7% to 3.6%, near a half-century low.

When the Fed began raising its key rate a year ago, many economists expected that unemployment would have to rise significantly to curb inflation.

Though inflation isn’t yet fully tamed, some economists say they think it can fall to a level near the Fed’s 2% target earlier than they had expected.

Excluding the volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation was lower last month than economists had expected, rising just 0.2% from May to June, the smallest monthly increase in nearly two years. Compared with a year ago, core inflation does remain relatively

high, at 4.8%, but down from a 5.3% annual rate in May.

In just the past two months, overall inflation, measured year over year, has slowed from nearly 5% in April to just 3% now. Much of that progress reflects the fading of spikes in food and energy prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last spring. Inflation is now significantly below its peak of 9.1% in June 2022.

Gas prices have fallen to about $3.54 a gallon on average, nationally, down from a $5 peak last year. Grocery prices have leveled off in the past three months and were unchanged from May to June. Milk prices, having dropped for a third straight month, are down 1.9% from last year.

Eggs, which had skyrocketed last year after an outbreak of avian flu decimated chicken flocks, have dropped to $2.22 a dozen—down more than 7% just in the past month. Egg prices had peaked at $4.82 in January, according to government data. Still, they remain above the average pre-pandemic price of about $1.60 a dozen.

Economists say inflation isn’t likely to keep falling at such a rapid pace. On a 12-month basis, inflation could even tick up in the coming months now that big drops in gas prices—they’re down 27% in the past year— have been achieved.

In particular, airfares plunged 8.1% just from May to June,

Chrishon Lampley, owner of the wine brand Love Cork Screw, says more expensive restaurant prices have led her to cut back on taking prospective customers out for meals. Instead, she gives potential wine buyers small gifts.

The cost of printing labels for her wine bottles has nearly doubled in the past year, Lampley said, mostly because of higher labor costs. She’s reduced her travel costs as a result. Lampley now chooses extended-stay hotels with kitchens rather than regular hotels, and she rents smaller cars even though she often carts around cases of wine.

“Everything has just become way more frugal,” she said. “I’ve got to pull back.”

Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have focused their attention, in particular, on chronically high inflation for restaurant meals, auto insurance and other items in the economy’s sprawling service sector. It’s a big reason why several Fed policymakers were still talking earlier this week about the likelihood of two more rate hikes.

“We’re likely to need a couple more rate hikes over the course of this year to really bring inflation back into ... a sustainable 2% path,” Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said on Monday.

At the same time, Daly said she was “holding myself to ... extreme data dependence” and could shift her thinking based on incoming reports. There will be two more inflation reports—for July and August—before the Fed meets in September.

Alex Yurchenko, chief data officer for Black Book, said he expects prices paid by consumers to keep falling through year’s end, contributing to declining inflation. But they aren’t expected to drop dramatically. Typically, prices fall in the second half of the year, then rise in the spring as the car-buying season begins.

“We expect a return to some kind of normality,” Yurchenko said. Supplies of new vehicles are rising, and prices are dropping slightly. As a global shortage of computer chips wanes, automakers have accelerated production. New-vehicle prices peaked in December but fell 3% to $45,978 last month, according to estimates from J.D. Power.

And rental costs, a huge driver of inflation, are expected to keep declining, as builders continue to complete the most new apartment units in decades. Rising housing costs have driven more than two-thirds of the increase in core inflation in the past year, the government said, so as that increase fade it should steadily lower overall inflation.

Prices first spiked two years ago as consumers ramped up their spending on items like exercise bikes, standing desks and new patio furniture, fueled by three rounds of stimulus checks. The jump in consumer demand overwhelmed supply chains and ignited inflation.

Many economists have suggested that President Joe Biden’s stimulus package in March 2021 intensified the inflation surge. At the same time, though, inflation also jumped overseas, even in countries where much less stimulus was put in place.

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People, Places & Things

Feeling ‘reborn’ after a kidney transplant, photographer Randy Batista captures his cultural ties and myriad personalities in an Appleton Museum of Art exhibition.

By Julie Garisto julie@magnoliamediaco.com

Never shy or reluctant to approach others while taking photos, Randy Batista could be called a people whisperer. Through portraiture and street photography, the Gainesville-based photographer captures the essence of his subjects and compels the viewer to look longer and closer in his latest solo exhibition, “Caught Up in History and Captured on Film,” currently on display at the Appleton Museum of Art.

“My parents were very influential,” Batista explained. “They had this underlying thing of just being just really gregarious. Even as a kid, I wasn’t afraid of talking to anybody. I was always really very observant of people and their body language. … My sense of it was that you really have to know who these individuals are and that you’re spending time capturing basically their spirit, so I would have them spend an hour with me before they even did the photo session. And I would just watch them and watch their body language, how they interacted together.”

To say Batista has lived a colorful life underscores the inadequacy of biographical description.

Batista shared that he “was conceived in Cuba,” born in Tampa in 1949 and, in 1954, was brought back to Cuba and raised there from the age of 5. He attended school in his parents’ hometown of Holguín, speaking only in Spanish until he returned to Central Florida as a teenager in 1961, relearning English all over again.

His father, who had a bachelor’s degree in soil science from the University of Florida, wanted his children to become U.S. citizens, but the death of one of his 12 brothers kept him home in Cuba, managing the family’s crops.

“My grandparents had major land holdings out there, sugar cane, cattle, you name it,” Batista said. “My grandparents from my mother’s side were Italian cigar rollers from Ybor City.”

Batista lived with his grandparents in Mango in his teens, until he attended the University of Florida, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

“One of my roommates bought a camera and we went to Orange Lake one weekend,” Batista reminisced. “He handed me a roll of film, and I took photos with his camera. When I got the roll of film back, I said to myself, ‘Oh, I love this.’”

Batista took classes at UF taught by famed photographer and professor Jerry Uelsmann, who would become a lifelong friend. The professor bequeathed his hound, Reba, to Batista before he died on April 4, 2022.

A photo of the revered mentor, taken by Batista, currently hangs in an exhibition titled “Jerry Uelsmann: His Life and Art” at the Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville.

In 1974, Batista captured scenes from Ybor City, photos currently on display in the Appleton Museum of Art’s balcony gallery.

“Everything was there,” he said of Ybor. “They had this bar downstairs at the Centro Español where all of these Spaniards basically hung out, played dominos, drank and read the newspaper. I was always fascinated by these people when I would visit them before going to college.”

Most of the photos, he explained, were intentionally taken from the human perspective, which is about 36 inches. He used a film camera with a 24-millimeter lens.

“I just ended up spending days there, you know, just photographing all these guys, and that project was very well received by my classmates and professors,” Batista said.

Later, he worked in a camera store, took wedding and passport photos, and commissioned portraits. He opened his own business at 21 SE Second Place, next to the Hippodrome Theatre in Gainesville in 1981. The Media Image Studio brought new life to an old building that had once been home to a Pontiac dealership and service station.

Before closing Media Image in 2013, Batista hosted several local exhibits such as “Chairwomen of Gainesville,” which brought in around $75,000 to help women with breast cancer. For the exhibit, Batista captured “all the muckety-muck women” of the community in black and white, in their favorite chair.

Fast-forward to his current show in the balcony gallery of the Appleton Museum, where we witness the photographer tackling the age-old question, “What’s in a name?” and likens his own multicultural name— Randy Obdulio Armando Batista Gonzales Cuba Cacciatore—to a journey through lineages. Through thoughtfully narrated title cards, we learn that a name can be like DNA, tethering us to our past and enlivening us with twists and turns, inspiring our present and future selves.

Batista took the photos in Holguín and Havana, Cuba, in 1996, where he found inspiration “on the crumbling street corners.” Seeing the abject poverty and disrepair came quite as a shock after being gone for three decades.

“I was just devastated just seeing what these people were going through,” Batista lamented. “The buildings were not painted, and people were putting their cars in their living rooms because they didn’t want thieves to rob parts from them.”

But it’s not all about despair. “The thing about the Cuban people is, in lieu of all they endured, is that their art and culture has become sort of like their lollipop. It was what they live for,” Batista once told WUFT.

From his Cuba trip to capturing Bo Diddley in a legendary portrait, Batista has sharpened both his photographic and people skills, expertise that has led to many vital connections.

One colleague valued him so much, she donated her kidney to him late last year.

“Honestly, the only way I can describe it is that it’s like a new life, you know?” Batista professed. “It’s like being reborn.”

The donor, former “UF Alumni” magazine editor Liesl O’Dell, had an ongoing working relationship and friendship with Batista, who suffered from complications caused by diabetes and a congenital illness for several years. (You can watch a touching UF-produced YouTube video about Batista and O’Dell’s experience here: tinyurl.com/RandyBatista)

“Randy is fluent in Spanish and English, but he is also fluent in people,” the UF article offered, praising the university’s longtime contributor for his “intrinsic respect” for each person he meets. This interchange inspired a wide range of projects, from UF Health’s youngest patients in intense care to the dean of the College of Dentistry wearing a pair of dentures as high-fashion clogs.

What’s next for Batista? “I want to take photos of kidney transplant patients and their donors. … One of my goals is to start working with the UF Health transplant team in an effort to attract more living donations.”

A common misconception is that a kidney transplant replaces an old kidney with someone else’s kidney. Batista, instead, now has three kidneys.

“One is right in front of mine on the right side of my belly, right by my hip!” he exclaimed. “I call her Lily, the nickname of her donor.”

Randy Batista’s (American, b. 1949) “Miembros del Centro Español de Tampa (Members of The Spanish Center of Tampa).” Ybor City, 1974. gelatin silver print.

Randy Batista and wife Linda in White Post, Virginia, 2021. [Randy Batista]

Randy Batista’s “Caught Up in History and Captured on Film” is on exhibit at the Appleton Museum of Art through Jan. 28. For more information, visit appletonmuseum.org.

Randy Batista with kidney donor Liesl O’Dell. [Photo by UF Health]

A portrait of Bo Diddley, taken by Randy Batista.

Randy Batista’s “El Tesoro de la Sala (The Living Room Treasure).” Havana, 1996, (gelatin silver print) depicts a Cuban family keeping their car indoors to prevent thieves from stealing parts.

Sawfish tagged in Cedar Key for first time in decades

The

By Jerald Pinson,

caught,

The Florida Museum of Natural History

In 2003, smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata) had the unenviable distinction of being the first native marine fish listed under the Endangered Species Act. The classification followed decades of declining populations due to habitat loss, overharvesting and mortality as fisheries bycatch. Now, 20 years later, a 13-foot adult female captured off the coast of Cedar Key suggests the species may be making a slow but spirited comeback.

The sawfish was caught, tagged and released June 6 during an annual shark field course co-taught by Dean Grubbs, the associate director of research at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory and a member of the U.S. Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery Implementation Team; and by Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program.

“This is the furthest north an individual has been tagged by the sawfish recovery team in the last 30 to 40 years,” Naylor said.

Sawfish are a type of elasmobranch, a group containing sharks, skates and rays, and they were once a common sight along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts. They were historically most abundant near Florida but occasionally ranged from Texas to as far north as North Carolina. Females give birth to live young, which hunt and shelter among the protective, stilt-like roots of mangroves. But widescale coastal development along the coast has drastically decreased the number of mangrove forests, reducing the size and suitability of available environments for sawfish to use as nurseries.

Their most conspicuous feature—a long, flat-edged blade studded with teeth— marked them as a prized possession among trophy hunters.

Early sensationalized accounts of their size and ferocity attracted thrill-seeking anglers, who collected and sold the saws, called rostrums, as curios. But the bigger threat to sawfish was from incidental bycatch. Their saws become easily entangled in gill and trawl nets, and freeing them poses the risk of injury to anyone attempting to remove the gear. As a result, many sawfish were either killed or released only after their saws had been severed, jeopardizing their ability to hunt.

Throughout the 20th century, smalltooth sawfish populations declined by more than 90%, and experts were dubious about their ability to quickly recover, even with the aid of protective regulations.

So, when Naylor and Grubbs began reeling in their line, expecting to haul aboard a juvenile shark for the class to inspect, they were surprised to find they’d snagged a full-sized sawfish instead.

“I felt something heavy on the line, and my first thought was that it was likely a nurse shark,” said Grubbs.

Nurse sharks are large bottom feeders that share many of the same habitats

as sawfish, but when the line jerked abruptly at a sharp angle, Grubbs knew he’d caught something much larger and more aggressive. “I was pretty sure this was a sawfish, but I remained stone-faced because I didn’t want to disappoint the students if I was wrong. I saw the tail before the rostrum, so I lost my calm at that point and screamed ‘Sawfish! It’s a sawfish!’”

Quick on their feet, Grubb and his graduate students carefully restrained the sawfish while another personnel member piloted a skiff back to shore to retrieve a tagging device, which no one had imagined they’d need. The tag will allow the team to track the animal’s movements for the next 10 years and is part of a broader effort by federal and state agencies, universities and non-governmental organizations to monitor sawfish populations.

A close inspection of the sawfish revealed it had mating scars on its fins and sides. There are few, if any, records of sawfish mating habits, but closely related rays and sharks exhibit courtship behavior in which the males bite the fins of their female partners before mating. Smalltooth sawfish have a lengthy lifecycle in which females give birth to a small litter of seven to 14 juveniles, which take several years to reach reproductive maturity. Their slow development has limited the recovery of sawtooth populations, but mating scars are a positive sign that their numbers are continuing to rebound.

“What’s remarkable to me is that they’re creeping back into exactly the previous habitats and range from which they’ve been extirpated,” Naylor said. “It’s as if they have a deeply embedded knowledge of where to go.”

The sawfish encounter occurred during the third edition of the shark course, jointly offered through the University of Florida and Florida State University. The course is a deeply immersive, two-week summer camp like no other, designed to intimately familiarize students with the sharks that inhabit the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf’s warm, nutrient-rich waters are a magnet for fish and—by extension—a variety of sharks and rays.

According to Naylor, the sawfish sighting taught a lesson that would otherwise have been impossible to convey.

“I can’t think of a better way for a group of young people studying environmental and conservation biology to learn about this critically endangered and incredibly spectacular animal. So much of the news about Earth’s climate and environment is doom and gloom, but this is a potent reminder that if you leave things alone, many species are capable of recovery,” Naylor said.

The Florida Museum of Natural History is located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville. It is home to more than 40 million specimens and artifacts. To learn more, visit floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science

sawfish was

tagged and released June 6 during an annual shark field course.

Researchers carefully restrained the sawfish in order to apply a tagging device to track its movements. [Derrick Biglin]

The sawfish was caught during an annual shark class, co-taught by researchers at Florida State University and the University of Florida. [Derrick Biglin]

Researchers have caught and tagged a 13 ft female sawfish off the coast of Cedar Key, FL, the furthest north an individual of this species has been tagged in decades. [Derrick Biglin]

Sawfish often hunt by swinging their saws through the water like a scythe, impaling and immobilizing fish they then scoop up with their mouths. [Courtesy of Alex Tate]

Hello, Ocala!

was 16, and he was a senior in high school, he asked her to marry him. She said no, she was too young. So, after high school, he enrolled in the U.S. Air Force and served two years in active duty, then was stationed near his hometown for the next four years when his mother became ill.

“He has a good heart and is very outgoing,” she said of her husband.

Scales earned three scholarships and is a graduate of the St. Joseph School of Nursing in Syracuse. After her graduation, she and Wayne married in 1979. She worked as a nurse for 42 years, 10 of those at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and then as a traveling nurse at the Navajo Nation in Fort Defiance, Arizona, for a short-term assignment. She also worked in South Carolina, then in Miami. Friends in Bell, in north Florida, told her she should look at Ocala. That is when they decided to settle here.

Although she is retired from active nursing, Scales has kept her license active. She said she took a course in healing touch in Virginia and is educated in Reiki and therapeutic touch therapy, having personally been helped by those methodologies.

Meet your neighbor: Barbara Scales

By Eadie Sickler Correspondent

Barbara Scales is a woman of many hats. She is a registered nurse (retired), an author of children’s and adult books and other publications, a Lion’s Club activist and a neighborhood group member. She helps anyone needing her care and expertise… be it family, friend or neighbor.

Scales lives in the On Top of the World (OTOW) community and said she enjoys amenities such as archery, swimming and aerobic exercise. To say she is busy is an understatement.

“Ocala is so beautiful with all the trees and flowers,” she said, adding “when we visited friends here and went through Ocala, we just fell in love with it. At OTOW there is just so much to do.

Sometimes you have to remember to slow yourself down.”

Scales was born in Chittenango, New York, an Indian settlement just east of Syracuse. The name of the town means “where the water flows north,” she shared. She was the sixth of 11 children. With such a large family, Scales’ father worked three jobs and her mother worked nights as a nurse’s aide to make ends meet. Scales’ first job was when she was 12 years old, cleaning house for a neighbor.

“She taught me to do it right,” Scales exclaimed. “She was a nurse and inspired me.”

Scales said she feels privileged to have worked alongside her mother at the nursing home when she was old enough.

Scales met her future husband, Wayne Scales, while she was in 10th grade in high school. She was 14 years old. When she

“1998 was a major change year for me,” she said, “in learning Reiki and other therapies.”

After his tour of duty, Wayne became a machinist with the Lamson Corp., where he worked for 18 years. Due to plant closings, he became a school bus driver, then a school custodian until his retirement. Scales shared that her husband has had two open heart surgeries and is medically disabled and is now legally blind.

The couple lives in the Americana Village at OTOW, where they are involved in neighbor-to-neighbor monthly gettogethers. They both participate in archery. Wayne has created a special eye device fitting so he can see the target.

Scales’ writing history includes writing for nursing and holistic journals over the years, including articles on perianesthesia nursing, an article in “RN Magazine” and in “Northeastern Holistic Resource Magazine.” Included in her repertoire is a short story anthology in the book “Everyday Heroes.”

‘Art on the Up and Up’

The creative fiction books she has written are available on Smashwords.com and Amazon. One is titled “Beckoned,” written after a nursing experience of unusual circumstances, and after participating in a study of psychokinesis. “All Kilts Are Off” is a romantic comedy. “Ada of the Angels,” she explained, is a true story of alternative intervention therapy, which she was involved in at the time. She is currently working on others.

The two children’s books Scales has written are “Max and Jax – The Haunted Pumpkin Patch,” and “Wally the Whale with the Crazy, Wavy Hair,” which she wrote as a bedtime story for her grandson. Her books are self-published.

The Scales’ have one daughter, Margaret (Maggie) Korycinski, and a grandson, Alan, 16, who live in Marcellus, New York. She has siblings in Alaska, Virginia, Arizona, Indiana and New York.

“My sister Sandy has been a huge influence on me,” Scales shared. “She taught me what it means to believe in God. She has a ‘can do’ attitude.”

At the Lion’s Club at OTOW, Scales initiated the Shoebox Express program, to help provide essentials for local school children.

“Some children go to school without shoes or underwear,” she reports.

Scales said she goes to second-hand stores and gets clothing items, then washes and repairs them, and takes them to schools to be given to children who need them. Some of the items are taken to the Ocala Sexual Assault Center, where there are women with children.

“The reason I do what I do today is that I love to help people,” she said. “My mom and dad always helped everyone, and others helped them in return.”

Scales hopes to organize a public movie night this summer at OTOW to benefit the Shoebox Express program. Admission will be a donation of money or canned goods, boxed goods, clothing items … “whatever someone can donate,” she explained. Those interested in donating, or learning the date of the event, may reach Scales by email at barbarascales58@hotmail.com or by text at (315) 440-0142.

The Appleton Museum of Art has unveiled a new lobby mural project featuring local artists and oversized vinyl graphics.

Staff report

The Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida, has announced an initiative to bring new perspectives to the museum’s iconic lobby and add opportunities for contemporary artists through the display of dynamic large-scale works of art.

“Art on the Up and Up” is an innovative project series that allows invited Florida artists to develop original artworks that will become oversized vinyl graphics installed in the museum’s lobby, according to the news release.

“You’ll have to look up to see these unique works—the gravity-defying vinyls are secured to the underside of both the eastern and western marble staircases leading to the second-floor galleries,” note the release.

“The museum’s striking travertine façade and reflecting pools have welcomed nearly 2 million visitors since opening in 1987,” said museum director Jason Steuber, in the release. “We’re delighted to present this fresh opportunity to reimagine the lobby and how

we engage and welcome visitors, through the installation of contemporary art in unexpected places.”

CF Professor Tyrus Clutter is the inaugural “Art on the Up and Up” featured artist. His vinyls, inspired by WilliamAdolphe Bouguereau’s “The Shepherdess” and Elizabeth Jane Gardner’s “Daphnis and Chloe,” are on display through the fall. Clutter noted that these two works are frequently chosen by his students for writing assignments when they visit the museum.

“They are iconic images from Arthur I. Appleton’s collection,” Clutter said in the news release. “I think many visitors are often attracted to them on their first visit to the museum and frequent visitors enjoy returning to them again and again.”

The Appleton Museum is at 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala. To learn more, call (352) 291-4455 or visit AppletonMuseum.org.

Barb Scales poses for a photo at a park with a gazebo in the Americana neighborhood at On Top of the World in Ocala on

Thursday, June 15, 2023. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2023.

Tyrus Clutter’s vinyl in the Appleton lobby, inspired by Elizabeth Jane Gardner’s “Daphnis and Chloe.” [Courtesy of College of Central Florida]

Tyrus Clutter’s vinyl in the Appleton lobby, inspired by William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s “The Shepherdess.” [Courtesy of College of Central Florida]

Bird of the Week

Sudoku is played on a grid of 9 x 9 spaces. Within the rows and columns are 9 “squares” (made up of 3 x 3 spaces). Each row, column and square (9 spaces each) needs to be filled out with the numbers 1-9, without repeating any numbers within the same row, column or square.

Belted kingfisher [MichaelWarren.com]

By Michael Warren

Agreat way to see belted kingfishers is to kayak down the Silver River or explore other shorelines around town. These solitary birds hunt fish by hovering above the water, then plunging down to catch their prey. They make a loud rattling call when they’re active.

What is degenerative disk disease?

By Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I’ve been struggling with back stiffness and pain for a long time, but it has gotten worse in the last few years. My doctor told me that I have degenerative disk disease. What exactly does that mean? Is it common and what can I do to feel better?

ANSWER: Degenerative disk disease is a common cause of back pain. Our spinal disks wear out with age and use. About 20% of all U.S. adults have some amount of degeneration by age 65. This increases to about 35% by 80. Everyone has a degree of degeneration with time. It may or may not worsen or cause symptoms. Progression can be stagnant, slow or fast.

Disks are the fluid-filled cushions between the bones in your spine. The disk is flexible, and it fills the space between the vertebrae and provides the necessary cushion to allow the spine to bend and flex fully without pain. Like airbags in a car, the disks prevent the vertebrae from hitting each other and act as shock absorbers.

Degenerative disk disease is the result of multiple factors, some that can be controlled and others that cannot. Age and time increase the odds of developing degenerative disk disease.

Women are more likely than men to develop degenerative disk disease. Carrying excess body weight increases your risk, as well as spine strain due to manual labor, poor posture or heavy lifting.

Your symptoms and pain depend on the progression of your disease. As degenerative disk disease begins, the spinal disks start to lose fluidity. They become dehydrated and are not as rubbery or soft. This leads to the disks shrinking and losing height. Often, the disks that are low in the spine degenerate first.

As degeneration progresses further, the disks dry out even more and may begin pushing on nerves. A person could develop a ruptured or bulging disk. Often, people have a bulging or ruptured disk with no symptoms, but sometimes this can cause symptoms in one or both legs.

A bulging disk happens when the outer layer of the disk, the annulus fibrosis, bulges into the spinal canal. A ruptured disk, sometimes called a herniated or slipped disk, happens when the inner part of the disk, the nucleus pulposus, leaks out of the disk through a crack in the annulus fibrosis.

If a disk continues to degrade, it can result in a complete loss of the disk. Then, the person only has an air-filled space between the vertebrae, or the bones of two vertebral bodies directly contact each other. If your condition progresses to this level, you likely will have severe pain, significant stiffness and possibly nerve compression.

There are many treatment options for degenerative disk disease. Nonsurgical treatments are important throughout the continuum. Weight loss can be extremely beneficial, along with decreasing the manual labor on the spine. Injections, medications, physical therapy and strengthening your core can ease symptoms. It is important to work with a spine center that can offer various options for treatment. This might include access to clinical trials.

Surgery is only an option after nonsurgical treatments are first exhausted. Surgery is considered if the condition is causing symptoms of nerve compression and these symptoms are progressing despite physical therapy, medications and injections. Symptoms from nerve compression may include pain, numbness or weakness that radiates into a limb.

Surgical options for degenerative disk disease include:

Decompression surgery, such as a laminectomy or diskectomy, which creates space for the compressed nerves by removing part of the vertebrae bone or damaged part of the disk. Relieving pressure on the spinal cord or nerves can ease symptoms. Stabilization surgery, such as a spinal fusion, which improves stability by permanently connecting two or more vertebrae in the spine. It may be performed after a decompression surgery for certain surgical indications of the spine. Disk replacement surgery, which replaces a worn-out disk with an artificial disk. Replacing a disk may help relieve pain in your arms or legs while maintaining motion and flexibility.

Talk with your health care team about your back pain, and ask them to tailor a treatment plan based on your personal goals and the level of your disk progression.— Kendall Snyder, M.D., Neurologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic Health System, Eau Claire and La Crosse, Wisconsin

(Mayo Clinic Q & A is an educational resource and doesn’t replace regular medical care. E-mail a question to MayoClinicQ&A@mayo.edu. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.org.)

29

50 Superhero who taps into the Speed Force

52 Hot

53 Mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles

54 Trattoria sauce

LOCAL CALENDAR LISTINGS community

JULY 14

Ocala Electric Utility 125th Anniversary

Downtown Square, Broadway St., Ocala

5:45pm

The anniversary celebration will include a ribbon cutting, proclamation from Mayor Kent Guinn, music by Left On Broadway, Jordan Shapot Art, a photo booth, face painting, electric bucket truck rides and more. Vendors include Face Painting by Tonya, Red Dog Balloons and Kona Ice Ocala. Free to attend. See ocalafl.org for more info.

JULY 14 & 21

Marion County Friday Market

McPherson Governmental Campus Field, 601 SE 25th

Ave., Ocala

9am-2pm

Shop locally fresh fruits and veggies, baked goods, jerky, freeze-dried treats, olive oils, seafood and more; recurs every Friday.

JULY 14-16 & 21-23

Market of Marion Market of Marion, 12888 SE US Highway 441, Belleview

8am-4pm

A classic—and big—farmer’s market with lots of vendor shops for all kinds of goodies. Fruits, vegetables, critters, jewelry, soaps, handcrafted items and more. Open every weekend, with monthly special events like car shows. See themarketofmarion.com

JULY 14

After Dark in the Park Movie Series

Mary Sue Rich Community Center at Reed Place, 1821 NW 21st Ave., Ocala

8:30pm

The city of Ocala hosts free movie nights and this month it’s “Encanto.” The movie showing is free and open to the public. Popcorn, drinks and other refreshments will be available for purchase. Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs and blankets. For more info, ocalafl.org/recpark

JULY 15

Backpack in the Park

Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Complex, 1510 NW 4th St., Ocala

10am-4pm

A backpack giveaway is hosted by local DJs, who

will also be playing music. This event includes free hot dogs and bottled water. For details, contact Samuel Melton Jr. Ministries of Old School DJs at (912) 409-8465.

JULY 15 & 22

Ocala Downtown Farmers Market

Ocala Downtown Market, 310 SE Third St., Ocala

9am-2pm

Vendors offer local fruits and vegetables, meats and seafood, fresh pasta, honey, jewelry, baked goodies, and arts and crafts. Check out local food trucks and the occasional guest entertainer. Rain or shine; recurs every Saturday. Visit ocaladowntownmarket.com for more info.

JULY 15 & 22

Farmers Swap Meet

Rural King, 2999 NW 10th St., Ocala

9am-2pm

A true farmers market where chickens, ducks, quail, geese, goats, turkeys, rabbits and sometimes even ponies are available, along with horse tack, home-grown plants, produce and hand-crafted items. Booth types vary, with occasional meat vendors, food trucks and other goods. Saturdays, weather permitting.

JULY 16

Joe Knetsch Lecture

Green Clover Hall, 319 SE 26th Ave., Ocala

2pm

The Marion County Museum of History and Archaeology hosts a regular series of talks and this month historian and author Joe Knetsch will discuss his book, “Florida at Sea: A Maritime History,” co-authored with Nick Wynne and Robert Redd. The lecture includes a reception with tours of the museum and refreshments. $5. For more info, see marioncountyarchaeology.com

JULY 17

Teen Gun Violence Prevention Task

Force

Mary Sue Rich Community Center at Reed Place, 1821 NW 21st Ave., Ocala

6pm

The Marion County Children’s Alliances hosts monthly meetings focused on prevention and solutions to teen gun violence. Everyone is welcome. For more info, contact Jeremy Vickers at (352) 512-5376 or jeremy@mcchildrensalliance.org

critters & equine

JULY 14-16 & 19-23

Summer Series: Hunter/Jumper

Shows

World Equestrian Center Ocala, 1390 NW 80th Ave., Ocala

8am-4pm

FEI CSI3* competitions. Food and drink options onsite; some events have a parking fee. See worldequestriancenter.com for more info.

JULY 15 & 22

Summer Sunset Polo

Florida Horse Park, 11008 South Highway 475, Ocala

6pm Free to the public, tailgate right next to the polo field and enjoy a unique evening out. Saturday evenings through September. Check out ocalapolo.com for more info.

JULY 17-21

City of Ocala Summer Camps Discovery Center, 701 E. Sanchez Ave., and E.D. Croskey Recreation Center, 1510 NW Fourth St., Ocala

Times vary, check website

The city of Ocala’s summer day camps continues this week with a DC Engineers theme. At the E.D. Croskey Recreation Center, camps are suitable for ages 5-12 and cost $75 for city residents; $100 for non-residents. Camps at the Discovery Center are suitable for ages 8-12 and cost $130 for members; $150 for non-members. Themes changes each week and include educational and recreational activities, field trips, STEM projects, sports and more. To register, see Ocalafl.org/summercamp

JULY 19

MCPS Hometown Hiring Career Fair

Various schools, see website

11am-2pm

Marion County Public Schools will host career fairs at Fort King Middle (545 NE 17 Ave., Ocala); Lake Weir Middle (10220 SE Sunset Harbor Road, Summerfield); and Marion Oaks Elementary (280 Marion Oaks Trail, Ocala) with more than 26 schools and departments looking to hire teachers, support staff, Marion Afterschool Program workers, and custodial, food service and transportation departments staffers. School administrators, district leaders and others will conduct interviews at all three locations. See marionschools.net/careers for listings. For more information, contact the MCPS Employment Services Office at (352) 671-7787.

JULY 19

College of Central Florida Open House

Ewers Century Center, 3001 S.W. College Road

11am-4pm

CF is hosting an open house with tours and opportunities to learn about more than 150 academic pathways, including 70 job-training programs. Attendees can get help with admission and financial aid for the fall semester, which begins Aug. 14. Those who complete an admissions application at the event will have the $30 fee waived. A virtual open house will be offered via Zoom at 10am Aug. 2. Attendees are encouraged to register at CF.edu/OpenHouse. For more information, call (352) 873-5800, ext. 1379.

JULY 18

Marion Alachua Dog Training

Association

MADTA, 6600 NW 3rd Place, Ocala

7pm

If you’re interested in learning about dog training, agility and fun activities with your canine, the MADTA general meetings are the third Tuesday of every month. Newcomers are welcome. For more info and the schedule of classes, see madta.org

JULY 19 & 26

Wildlife Wednesdays

Scott Springs Park, 2825 SW 24th Ave,, Ocala

5pm-6pm

This month’s talks are focused on bugs and spiders (July 19), and turtles and tortoises (July 26). Free to attend, this is a great way to learn about native animals and their habitats. For more info, ocalafl.org

government

JULY 17 & 24

Marion County Development Review Committee

Office of the County Engineer, 412 SE 25th Ave., Building 1, Ocala

9am

The first step for new development projects, the committee reviews and votes on waiver requests to the Land Development Code, major site plans, and subdivision plans. Meets weekly on Mondays; agendas are usually posted the Friday prior. Agendas, minutes and video available at marionfl.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

JULY 17

City of Ocala Board of Adjustment

City Hall, 110 SE Watula Avenue, Ocala

5:30pm Agendas and minutes available from ocala.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

JULY 20

Rex’s Birthday Bash

Discovery Center, 701 NE Sanchez Ave., Ocala

2pm-4pm

The Ocala Recreation and Parks Department will host a birthday party for Rex the Squirrel, their official community ambassador. This familyfriendly event has free admission to the Discovery Center during party hours and free cupcakes. Rex will make appearances throughout the event for photos and fun. For more information, visit ocalafl.org/recpark or call (352)368-5517.

JULY 20

OTOW Farmers Market

The Town Square at Circle Square Commons, 8405 SW 80th St., Ocala

9am-1pm

On Top of the World hosts this market with a selection of fresh seasonal produce from local growers as well as baked goods, plants, handmade soaps and more; recurs every Thursday. Visit circlesquarecommons.com for more info.

JULY 20

Summer Nights Lecture Series at the Fort Fort King National Historic Landmark, 3925 E. Fort King St., Ocala

6pm-8pm

The city of Ocala will host free weekly lectures on Thursday evenings through Aug. 17. This week, Keith Hill, champion of the History Channel’s “Forged in the Fire” and “Knife or Death” TV series talks about his years of re-enacting, bladesmithing and traveling. For more info, ocalafl.org

JULY 21 & 22

Special Ocala Downtown Markets

Ocala Downtown Market, 310 SE Third St., Ocala

6pm-10pm

These special night-time events continue through the summer with new themes each week. This week it’s the Oddities Marketplace on Friday with musical guest KennaDee and the Girls Night Out Market on Saturday. Check out special vendors, local food trucks and guest entertainers. Visit facebook.com/ OcalaDowntownMarket for more info.

JULY 20

SPCA Meetings

Friendship Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, 9510 SW 105th St., Ocala

1pm

This animal rescue group invites potential new members to find out how they help animals throughout Marion County. Meetings are on the third Thursday of each month. They also have a booth at the OTOW Farmer’s Market, collect donations of pet food and supplies, rescue animals, offer fostering services and place pets in new homes. For more info, spcaofmarioncounty.weebly.com

JULY 21-23

Florida Quarter Horse Association

Summer Sizzler Show

Florida Horse Park, 11008 South Highway 475, Ocala

All day

The versatility and power of the American Quarter Horse is highlighted in this summer show with English, Western, youth, amateur, reining and trail classes. Food and drink vendors onsite. Check out fqua.net for more info.

JULY 18

City of Ocala Community Redevelopment Board

City Hall, 110 SE Watula Avenue, Ocala 3:45pm Agendas and minutes available from ocala.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

JULY 18

Marion County Board of County Commissioners Meeting

McPherson Governmental Campus Auditorium, 601 SE 25th Ave., Ocala

9am & 2pm

Meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. The Planning & Zoning portion is scheduled for the 2pm meeting. Agendas are usually posted the Thursday prior. Agendas, minutes and video available at marionfl.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

JULY 18

Ocala City Council Meeting

City Hall, 110 SE Watula Avenue, Ocala

4pm Meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. Agendas are

JULY 23

Adoption Event: “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” Movie

Marion Theatre, 50 S Magnolia Ave., Ocala 1pm-3pm

The special showing of the movie includes the Marion County Animal Services team with pets available for adoption. Tickets are $5. See reillyartscenter.com for more info.

JULY 23-30

All-Star Reining Stakes

World Equestrian Center Ocala, Arena 5, 1390 NW 80th Ave., Ocala

All day

Reining horses are the ones with those flashy full-speed gallops down the arena and then sliding to a dramatic stop. Horse and rider perform particular gaits and movements, similar to dressage. Novice, youth, pro and amateur classes. Free to attend. See allstarreiningstakes.com/allstar-show for more info and schedule.

usually posted the Thursday prior; agendas, minutes and video available from ocala.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

JULY 18

Belleview City Commission Meeting

City Hall, 5343 SE Abshier Blvd., Belleview

6pm

Meets the first and third Tuesdays; Belleview agendas, minutes and video available at belleviewfl.org/200/Agendas-Minutes

JULY 18

Dunnellon Planning Commission Meeting

City Hall, 20750 River Drive, Dunnellon

5:30pm

Normally meets the second Wednesday of the month; Dunnellon agendas, minutes and video available at Dunnellon.org/89/Agendas-Minutes

VISIT OUR EVENTS CALENDAR ONLINE

civic

JULY 14 & 21

South Ocala Chess Club at Freedom Library

Freedom Public Library, 5870 SW 95th St., Ocala

10am-12pm

Meets weekly on Fridays; new members welcome. Please bring your own chess set. For more info, Walt Lamp at (352) 854-9378.

JULY 14 & 21

Kiwanis Club of Ocala

Central Christian Church, 3010 NE 14th St., Ocala

12pm

Meets weekly on Fridays. Supports Camp Kiwanis, children’s literacy and Habitat for Humanity. More info at ocalakiwanis.org

arts

JULY 14 & 21

Painting and More Workshops

Mary Sue Rich Community Center at Reed Place, 1821 NW 21st Ave., Ocala

10am

Arts in Health Ocala hosts a variety of visual artists to teach free weekly art workshops. All supplies are included, beginners are welcome. See aihocala.org/painting-and-more for more info.

JULY 14 AND 15-22

Art in the Attic Brick City Center for the Arts, 23 SW Broadway St., Ocala

5pm-7pm

The Marion Cultural Alliance’s annual Art in the Attic sale begins with a VIP reception on July 14 and continues with the sale from July 15-22. The reception lets buyers get in early for a first look at this collected art for sale. The reception includes bubbly and snacks, live music and artists. Online reception tickets are $20 for MCA members and $25 for non-members. Door admission will be $25 for all. The sale from the 15th-22nd is free to attend. See mcaocala.org/art-in-the-attic

JULY 15

Hot Guitar Pickin’:

Darell Morgan & Jon

Roman Morgan’s Music Junction, 6981 SW 147th St., Summerfield

7pm

Covering a range of genres, from Southern rock to classic and new country. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. For more info, see morgansmusicjunction.com

JUNE 16

Sunday Sampler at the Depot

Dunnellon Train Depot, 12061 S. Williams St., Dunnellon

2pm

Monthly concert put on by the Dunnellon Historical Society; proceeds benefit the train depot and its upkeep. Tickets are $15 at door, cash only. For more info, dunnellondepot.com/communityevents/Sunday-sampler1

JULY 15 & 22

Ocala Chess Club at Headquarters Library

Headquarters Library, 2720 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala

11am-3pm Meets weekly on Saturdays; new members welcome. Please bring your own chess set. For more info, facebook.com/ groups/53070499106

JULY 19

VFW Wednesday Dinners

Angela S. Santos FVW Post 4781, 9401 SW 110th St., Ocala

4:30pm-6:30pm

The post offers weekly dinners for about $5-$7 with a variable menu. The dining room is open to the public, meals are prepped by VFW Auxiliary volunteers and proceeds benefit veterans in Marion County. For the menu, call (352) 873-4781.

JULY 17-21

Summer Music Camps: Guitar

Reilly Arts Center, 900 NE 5th St., Ocala

9am-12pm

This guitar music camp is a hands-on introduction to the instrument and is open to students age

6-12. Studio musician Jack Covell teaches guitar techniques and standard chords. Snacks are included in the $100 tuition. The Community Music Conservatory sponsors these events and scholarships are available. See reillyartscenter.com for more info and to register.

JULY 19

Regal Summer Movie Express

Regal Hollywood Theaters, 2801 SW 27th Ave., Ocala

10am

Tickets are $2; check the theater website for show times. Movies this summer include “How To Train Your Dragon 3D,” “Abominable” and “The Croods: A New Age.” For more info, bit.ly/43k01DC

JULY 19

Summer Kid’s Film Series

Marion Theater, 50 S Magnolia Ave., Ocala

Times vary, check website

The series runs through Aug. 2. Kids age 12 and under can enjoy movies for $5 (includes a snack pack). Upcoming family favorites include “SpongeBob SquarePants Movie,” “Madagascar” and “The Lion King.” Visit reillyartscenter.com/mariontickets for more info.

JULY 19

Kids Summer Show Series

Epic Theatre, 4414 SW College Road, Ocala

Times vary, check website

Even more movies for the small humans. With titles like “Paw of Fury: The Legend of Hank,” “DC League of Super-Pets,” “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” and more, tickets for kids are $1. See bit.ly/3MEX4Go

JULY 19-AUGUST 30

Painting for Veterans

Mary Sue Rich Community Center at Reed Place, 1821 NW 21st Ave., Ocala

6pm-8pm

These free art workshops on Wednesdays are

JULY 20

Ocala Lions Club

Ocala Golf Club, 3130 E Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala

12pm

Meets weekly on Thursdays; newcomers welcome. The club supports vision health and diabetes prevention. More info at e-clubhouse.org/ sites/ocalafl

JULY 20

Greater Dunnellon Historical Society

Dunnellon Train Depot, 12061 S. Williams St., Dunnellon

7pm

Meets on the third Thursday of the month; new members welcome. See dunnellondepot.com

hosted by Arts in Health Ocala Metro and veteran Aaron Thomas. Beginners welcome. Supplies are included. Register at ocalafl.org/recpark

JULY 20

Coffee and Cake

NOMA Art Gallery, 939 N. Magnolia Ave., Ocala

1pm-4pm

These weekly coffee (and cake) klatches bring together gallery guests, artists, patrons, creative types and more. Every Thursday afternoon. All are welcome. See nomaocala.com/events for more info.

JULY 20

Totally ‘80s Dance Party with the Spazmatics Circle Square Cultural Center, 8395 SW 80th St., Ocala

7pm

The band is high-energy. Dress in your best ‘80s togs and be ready to dance. Tickets from $25 and available from csculturalcenter.com

THROUGH DECEMBER 12

“Patternz” by Kelsey Mahoney

Ocala City Hall, 110 SE Watula Ave., Ocala

Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm

The city continues its Art in City Spaces program with this exhibit by emerging artist Kelsey Mahoney. Her abstract work is filled with vibrant colors and mosaic themes. Free to the public. For more info, ocalafl.org/artincityspaces

THROUGH JANUARY 4

“Bold and Inspired: Native American Regalia” and “Abstract Island Expressions”

Mary 2Sue Rich Community Center at Reed Place, 1821 NW 21st Ave., Ocala

Community center hours

Married couple Diana and William Lee are exhibiting their work in side-by-side exhibitions, each with its own distinctive style and theme reflecting each artist and their different approaches. Diana shows colorful acrylic paintings inspired by her Cherokee ancestry and experiences visiting Native American sites in Kentucky. William revisits his childhood growing up in Nassau with his

vibrant abstract expressionist paintings. The exhibit is part of the Ocala Art in City Spaces program. See ocalaflo.org/artincityspaces for more info.

THROUGH JANUARY 8

The Beauty of Nature and Recyclable Refuse

Recreation and Parks Administration Building and Adult Activity Center, 828/830 NE Eighth Ave., Ocala 8am-5pm Albert Bevilacqua focuses this exhibit on recyclable items and has turned them into artistic statements about protecting the environment. Free to the public, this is part of the Art in City Spaces program by the City of Ocala. See ocalafl.org/artincityspaces for more info.

THROUGH JANUARY 9

Tony A. Blue, American Painter Ocala International Airport, 1770 SW 60th Ave., Ocala Airport hours Blue’s exhibits includes work in acrylics, mixed media and photographs, inspired by Florida’s tropical natural landscape. The exhibit is free and open to the public during airport hours. For more info, ocalafl.org/artincityspaces

THROUGH JANUARY 28

“The Unscene South” by Charles Eady Appleton Museum of Art, 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala

10am-5pm, Tuesday-Saturday This new exhibit from artist Charles Eady focuses on the daily lives of “free Blacks” from the Civil War era. He is a contemporary mixed-media artist and author. Check out appletonmuseum.org for more info.

THROUGH JANUARY 28

“Caught Up in History and Captured on Film” by Randy Batista

Appleton Museum of Art, 4333 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala

10am-5pm, Tuesday-Saturday Batista’s work focuses on Florida and Cuba, two places that had profound impact on the artist. This exhibit features club members of The Spanish Center of Tampa and their daily lives. Check out appletonmuseum.org for more info.

THIS CHEESY, SMOKY PLATE OF NACHOS WILL BRIGHTEN UP ANY COOKOUT

&nightlifemusic

JULY 20

TJ Brown The Yellow Pony World Equestrian Center Ocala, 1390 NW 80th Ave., Ocala 6pm

JULY 21

Miranda Madison The Yellow Pony World Equestrian Center Ocala, 1390 NW 80th Ave., Ocala 6pm

JULY 21

Stephen Lopez Crazy Cucumber Market Street at Heath Brook, 4414 SW College Road, Ocala 10pm

By America’s Test Kitchen

Temps are rising, summer has arrived, and grilling season has begun. That said, taking your chiles outside and cooking them over a foil packet of wood chips gives them a smoky flavor an oven broiler could never deliver!

Char savory poblano and fruity Fresno chiles until their skins blister and ears of corn until their kernels turn chewy and sweet. Then add black beans and two kinds of cheese for irresistible gooeyness.

When the nachos finally come off the fire, a squeeze of lime and a scattering of scallions brighten this shareable snack.

Smoked Nachos Serves 6 to 8

JULY 21

Nathan Mercado Homestead Park 1050 NE 6th Blvd., Williston 6:30pm

JULY 21

Kenny & the Heads Charlie Horse 2426 E Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala 7pm

2 cups wood chips

2 ears corn, husks and silk removed

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 poblano chiles, stemmed, halved, and seeded

4 Fresno or jalapeño chiles, stemmed, halved, and seeded

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed

8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (2 cups)

8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (2 cups)

12 ounces tortilla chips

2 scallions, sliced thin Lime wedges

1. Using a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, wrap wood chips in an 8-by4 1/2-inch foil packet. (Make sure chips do not poke holes in sides or bottom of packet. If using gas, make sure there are no more than two layers of foil on the bottom of the packet.) Cut two evenly spaced 2-inch slits on top of the packet.

2. FOR A CHARCOAL GRILL: Open bottom vent halfway. Light large chimney starter mounded with charcoal briquettes (7 quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour two-thirds evenly over half of the grill, then pour remaining coals over the other half of the grill. Place the wood chip packet along one side of the grill near the border between hotter and cooler coals. Set the cooking grate in place, cover, and open the lid vent halfway. Heat grill until hot and wood chips are smoking, about 5 minutes.

2. FOR A GAS GRILL: Remove cooking grate and place wood chip packet directly on the primary burner. Set the cooking grate in place, turn the primary burner to medium, and turn the other burner(s) to high. Cover and heat the grill until hot and wood chips are smoking, 15 to 25 minutes. Leave the primary burner on medium and other burner(s) on high.

3. Clean and oil cooking grate. Brush corn with oil. Grill corn, poblanos, and Fresnos on the hotter side of the grill (covered if using gas) until corn is charred on all sides and poblanos and Fresnos are well blistered, 5 to 10 minutes. As poblanos and Fresnos finish cooking, transfer to a bowl, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and let sit until skins soften, about 5 minutes. Transfer corn to a cutting board. Turn all burners to medium (if using gas).

4. Cut kernels from corn. Using paper towels, peel away skin from poblanos and Fresnos. Slice poblanos into 1/4-inch-thick strips and thinly slice Fresnos. Combine corn, poblanos, Fresnos, black beans, Monterey Jack, and cheddar in a bowl.

5. Spread one-quarter of tortilla chips evenly in a 12-inch cast iron skillet. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the vegetable-cheese mixture. Repeat layering of chips and vegetablecheese mixture 3 more times. Place the skillet on the cooler side of the grill (if using charcoal), cover, and cook until the cheese is melted, 15 to 30 minutes. Sprinkle with scallions and serve with lime wedges.

(For 25 years, home cooks have relied on America’s Test Kitchen for rigorously tested recipes developed by professional test cooks and vetted by 60,000 athome recipe testers. The family of brands—which includes Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country—offers reliable recipes for cooks of all skill levels. See more online at www.americastestkitchen.com/TCA.)

JULY 21

KennaDee The Oddities Marketplace Ocala Farmer’s Market, xxx TBD, Ocala, FL 7pm-10pm

JULY 22

Chris McNeal The Yellow Pony World Equestrian Center Ocala, 1390 NW 80th Ave., Ocala 6pm

JULY 22

Lupe Frausto Crazy Cucumber Market Street at Heath Brook, 4414 SW College Road, Ocala 10pm

JULY 22

Jeff Jarrett Homestead Park 1050 NE 6th Blvd., Williston 6pm

JULY 22

Pony World Equestrian Center Ocala, 1390 NW 80th Ave., Ocala 6pm

JULY 19

Blues Jam Charlie Horse 2426 E Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala 7pm

Sudoku

Sammy Jackson Charlie Horse 2426 E Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala 7pm

JULY 23

KennaDee Crazy Cucumber Market Street at Heath Brook, 4414 SW College Road, Ocala 1pm-4pm

Beat the heat with a juicy watermelon

Where to get the best watermelons for the best price.

more round in shape.

“The heavier the better,” he said, “and the webbing should be more spaced out instead of closer together. Those are the sweetest and riposte watermelons.”

The “Gazette” reached out to local residents on Facebook’s “Ocala Word of Mouth” page to get input. Three members (along with this writer) have purchased watermelons from a big box retailer that have been past their prime, so check carefully when shopping.

Other commenters claim that roadside vendors have the best watermelons and deals, but others chimed in and said that’s not always the case. Two group members said resellers buy from stores and mark up the price. One customer said one outdoor fruit seller let the watermelons stay out too long in the heat, which liquefied the pulp, and another complained they are inconsistent with their prices. Best to verify the source.

“There’s a guy that usually sets up at the corner of NE 35th Street and Old Jacksonville Road,” chimed in group member Vanessa Weaver.

SCHOOL DISTRICT RECEIVES AWARDS

Marion County Public Schools (MCPS) was one of five Florida school districts to receive awards from the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) at its annual competition.

The honors were given following more than 1,800 submissions. For the 2022-23 school year, MCPS received:

• Award of Excellence – 2022-23 Calendar (one of only eight nationwide)

• Award of Merit – Superintendent’s Weekly WrapUp, Oct. 7, 2022, video episode

Honorable Mention – FASTfacts e-newsletter

Honorable Mention – Core Values Poster

NSPRA will recognize winning entries during its annual meeting and Celebration of Achievement event at the 2023 NSPRA National Seminar in St. Louis and spotlight winners in a digital display at the conference, on its website and in association e-newsletters.

To learn more, visit bit.ly/3pMvNKO

Editor’s Note: Because we’re all feeling the pinch of inflation, the Gazette has begun “More for Less,” a recurring list of budget-friendly things to experience and buy to help stretch your dollar a little further.

By Julie Garisto julie@magnoliamediaco.com.

Not only are watermelons hydrating and refreshing, they’re also rich in vitamin C with a decent amount of potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin A, lycopene and magnesium. Here are some tips on finding the best watermelons from Fifteen Spatulas (fifteenspatulas.com):

• Find the field spot, or ground spot, which is a creamy spot on the outside and where the watermelon was resting on the ground. The spot should be a yellow-creamy color. If you knock on it, your knuckles should bounce off the melon and the surface should be fairly hard and firm. You will get a dull thud if the flesh is soft, which indicates it’s starting to spoil. If there are irregular bumps, this indicates the melon may have gotten inconsistent amounts of sun or water.

Don’t be concerned if there are green stripes or not, or if there’s solid green color on most of the outside of the watermelon. The exterior pattern has more to do with the varieties of watermelons a grocery store carries than with being a ripe melon or not. Pick the heavier watermelon. That means there’s more water in it, which means a juicy watermelon.

Ocala-based chef Richard Oaks recommends looking for watermelons that are less oblong and

Below are some deals we found shopping around and through local recommendations.

Waldron Produce Farms

17750 N U.S. 301, Citra (352) 595-5591

$6 for big, seeded watermelons

$4 for seedless watermelons

Rural King 2999 NW 10th St., Ocala (352) 622-2142

$3.99 for seedless watermelons

Aldi

7891 Bahia Road, Silver Springs Shores (855) 955-2534

Large seedless watermelons for $5.29

Target 2000 SW College Road, Ocala (352) 629-1333

Watermelons for $2.99-$5.29

Brown & Brown Farms

13940 U.S. 301, Oxford (352) 303-1550

Large seedless watermelons for $5.99

Recommendations from the online group included Harbison Farms in Anthony and Market of Marion in Belleview, but they didn’t get back to us with their prices by deadline.

DEMENTIA FRIENDLY DESIGNATION AWARDED TO OCALA/MARION COUNTY

Hospice of Marion County (HMC) and the Nancy Renyhart Center for Dementia Education, a program of HMC, announced that Dementia Friendly America has designated the Ocala/Marion County area as a Dementia Friendly community.

Dementia Friendly Ocala/Marion County is a collaborative effort led by the Nancy Renyhart Center for Dementia Education (NRCDE) and an action committee comprised of interdisciplinary community representatives from HCA Florida, Marion Senior Services, Renstar Medical Research, SouthState Bank, Pinnacle Retirement Advisors and a couple who are currently dealing with dementia, according to the news release.

“The NRCDE’s mission, aligned with Dementia Friendly Ocala/Marion County’s efforts, is to erase the stigma and misunderstanding about dementia

through conversation and education,” said Lanie Shirey, executive director of the Nancy Renyhart Center for Dementia Education, in the release. “The goal is to become the community’s go-to resource for information, resources and support for care partners while forging partnerships that result in a community that is safe and inclusive for people living with dementia,” Shirey added.

“We take great pride in receiving this designation and are honored that the city of Ocala and Marion County recently issued proclamations about the impact this initiative will have in our community,” said Hospice of Marion County CEO Rick Bourne, in the release.

To learn more visit hospiceofmarion.com or dfamerica.org

Public Notice Public Notice

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FIFTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR MARION COUNTY, FLORIDA.

IN RE: ESTATE OF RICHARD WAYMON CLOTFELTER, Deceased. CASE NO: 2023-CP-1606

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

The name of the decedent, the designation of the court in which the administration of this estate is pending, and the file number are indicated above. The address of the court is 110 N.W. 1st Avenue, Ocala, FL 34475. The names and addresses of the personal representative and the personal representative’s attorney are indicated below.

If you have been served with a copy of this notice and you have any claim or demand against the decedent’s estate, even if that claim is unmatured, contingent or unliquidated, you must file your claim with the court ON OR BEFORE THE LATER OF A DATE THAT IS 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER YOU RECEIVE A COPY OF THIS NOTICE.

All other creditors of the decedent and other persons who have claims or demands against the decedent’s estate, including unmatured, contingent or unliquidated claims, must file their claims with the court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT SO FILED WILL BE FOREVER BARRED. EVEN IF A CLAIM IS NOT BARRED BY THE LIMITATIONS DESCRIBED ABOVE, ALL CLAIMS WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN FILED WILL BE BARRED TWO YEARS AFTER DECEDENT’S DEATH. The date of death of the decedent is: May 3, 2023. The date of first publication of this Notice is July 14, 2023.

Attorney for Personal Representative:

JOSHUA L. MOSES Richard & Moses, LLC Florida Bar No. 119304 808 E Fort King Street Ocala, FL 34471 (352) 369-1300 Primary Email: Josh@RMProbate.com

Personal Representative: MARGARET PITTAS 3205 SE 21st Avenue Ocala, FL 34471

NOTICE OF SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

Notice is hereby given that the School Board of Marion County, Florida, will meet on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, at 5:30 p.m., at the School Board Administration Office, 1614 E. Ft. King Street, Ocala, Florida, 34471. An agenda will be published seven days prior to the meeting. The agenda may be obtained at the Administration Office between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The agenda is also available from a link on the District’s website: www. marion.k12.fl.us.

Persons wishing to address the Board should register with the Chairman prior to 5:40 p.m.

Any person deciding to appeal any decision made by the Board at the meeting will need a record of the proceedings and, for such purpose, may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, which record includes the testimony and evidence on which the appeal is to be based.

CharlesKing,MD BoardCertifiedUrologist

Dr. King provides comprehensive and exceptional urology services here in the local Ocala area. He is board certified and has over 30 years of experience in male and female urology.

.com

Big-seeded watermelons run for $6 at

Small seedless watermelons on sale at the Ocala Target for $2.99. Call store to verify prices.

Seedless watermelons at Aldi for $5.29.

BRICK CITY BEER AND WINE FEST RAISES $133,500 FOR LOCAL CHARITIES

The Ocala Silver Springs Rotary Club, in partnership with Ocala Sunset Rotary Club, successfully raised $133,500 at this year’s Brick City Beer and Wine Festival. The amount shattered last year’s record of $70,000, noted the news release.

On June 23, representatives from Interfaith Emergency Services, Kimberly’s Center for Child Protection and the Marion Literacy Council were awarded $133,500 at the World Equestrian Center from officials with the Ocala Silver Springs Rotary Club.

“These funds are used directly within our community.

Interfaith Emergency Services provides a wide range of services and assistance to residents in need. Kimberly’s Center for Child Protection provides services for child abuse in a safe and child friendly environment.

Marion Literacy Council provides GED testing and other resources for adults to improve their literacy skills,” according to the news release.

“I think the reason that an event like the Brick City Beer and Wine Festival is so important to us is because every moment that we are not working to raise funds to support our mission is a moment that we can reinvest

in offering these life changing services to the community,” said Marion Literacy Council Volunteer Executive Director R.J Jenkins in the release. “It’s not just about money. It’s not just a gift of resources. It’s also a gift of bandwidth to help people who deserve our help.”

The 2023 festival event on April 8 drew more than 1,400 attendees. Historically, the event has always been held the Saturday before Easter, rain or shine.

“Since its inception in 2014, the Brick City Beer and Wine Festival has helped to raise over $420,600 for local nonprofits,” noted the news release.

Kraków weaves a vibrant cultural tapestry

of the community, historic exhibits, and synagogues provide a meditative look at how the town was walled in and its residents eventually shipped off by the Nazis to be exterminated. In the old Jewish cemeteries, fragments of headstones – broken under Nazi tank treads – now make up moving mosaic walls and Holocaust monuments. Across the river from Kazimierz, the former Jewish ghetto is where Oskar Schindler saved the lives of many of his Jewish workers. His factory is now a museum that tells the heroic owner’s story.

For a look at untouristy Kraków, a walk or bike ride around Planty park is a treat. Centuries ago, Krakovians built a wall to protect their city. By the 19th century, it was no longer necessary, so locals tore down most of it, filled in the moat, and planted trees. Today, this delightful and people-friendly green belt stretches two and a half miles around the perimeter of Kraków’s Old Town and is delightful for a jog, a stroll, or a little people-watching.

By Rick Steves

Kraków is the Boston of Poland

– a charming and vital city buzzing with history, college students, and tourists. Though not the capital, Kraków is the cultural and intellectual center of the country – and easily Poland’s best destination.

At the center of the Old Town is the Main Market Square, one of Europe’s most gasp-worthy public spaces, and a great place to enjoy a drink. Knowing this is one of Europe’s least expensive countries, I choose the fanciest café on the square and order without considering price. Sinking deep into my chair, I ponder the scene. The square is vast and grand, but still retains a folksy intimacy. It bustles with fragrant flower stalls, horse carriages carting tourists, and loitering teenagers. A folk band – swaggering in their colorful peasant costumes – gives me a private little concert. Feeling flush, I tip them royally. Perhaps too royally (a big tip gets you “The

Star-Spangled Banner”).

Back in the 13th century, vendors came to this square to sell their wares. The Cloth Hall is where cloth-sellers had their market stalls. Today it’s a one-stop shopping arcade for souvenirs, including traditional embroidery, wood carvings, and jewelry (especially amber). On the upper level of the Cloth Hall, the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art displays great paintings by native artists.

Facing the square, the imposing St. Mary’s Church – with its distinctive twin towers – has long been an icon of the city. Each midday, crowds gather inside for a medieval moment as a nun swings open the church’s much-adored altarpiece. This exquisite Gothic polyptych – an altarpiece with pivoting panels – was carved in the late 1400s by Veit Stoss. One of the most impressive medieval woodcarvings in existence, it depicts the death of the Virgin with emotion rare in Gothic art.

The Main Market Square may be the heart of Kraków, but Wawel Hill is the

soul. The most visited sight in Poland, this is considered sacred ground, a symbol of Polish royalty and independence. Though a castle has stood here since the 11th century, the highlight is Wawel Cathedral, which houses the tombs of the country’s greatest rulers and historic figures. It’s the Westminster Abbey of Poland.

These days, a large majority of Poland’s people are practicing Catholics. But back in the 1930s, there was a sizable Jewish community – a quarter of Kraków’s population was Jewish. The Kazimierz neighborhood, named for the 14th-century king who welcomed the Jews when other nations were deporting them, was once a thriving Jewish district. While few Jews still live here, the spirit of their tradition survives. Perhaps the best way to enjoy that is at a klezmer dinner concert, with traditional cuisine accompanied by Jewish music from 19th-century Poland.

Like so many other Jewish communities in Europe, Kazimierz was decimated during the Holocaust. The fragile remains

Gazette regularly brings you two furry friends that are available for adoption from local animal rescue organizations.

Corvette Corvette is in a hurry to find his forever home. This flashy boy knows basic commands, walks nicely on a leash, and is only two-years-old! He’s a great age to start a new life and grow together with new family – maybe yours?

Adoptions fees are waived through the month of July!

For more information about adoptions please visit MarionFL.org/Animal

For a grittier experience, travel 20 minutes outside the city to the remarkable Wieliczka Salt Mine, a vast, thousandfoot-deep complex with nine levels and over 100 miles of tunnels. For centuries, generations of Wieliczka miners spent their daylight hours underground, rarely seeing the sun. Some of these proud miners carved sculptures out of the salt. You’ll see legendary figures from the days of King Kazimierz, the famous astronomer Copernicus, and even the region’s favorite son, Pope John Paul II. The mine’s enormous underground church, carved in the early 20th century, is still used for Mass. Everything, from the altar to the grand chandelier, is hewn from this underworld of salt.

Whether burrowing through Kraków’s countryside or skimming the city’s sights, this is a place that fascinates and inspires me. Of all of the Eastern European cities boasting to be “the next Prague,” Kraków is for real.

(Rick Steves (www.ricksteves.com) writes European guidebooks, hosts travel shows on public TV and radio, and organizes European tours. This column revisits some of Rick’s favorite places over the past two decades. You can email Rick at rick@ricksteves.com and follow his blog on Facebook.)

Kari

Little Kari needs a permanent place to enjoy her life. This nine-year-old girl may be slight in stature, but grand in her ability to love. All she desires is an empty lap to fill.

Just outside Kraków, the Wieliczka Salt Mine is filled with salt sculptures – and tourists. [Rick Steves]

From left, Dawn Westgate and Kristina Donahue with Kimberly’s Center for Child Protection, R.J. Jenkins with the Marion Literacy Council and Karla Greenway with Interfaith Emergency Services. [Submitted]