St. Pete council approves controversial tower’s height increase

A local developer can add four stories to a tower in downtown St. Petersburg that once included short-term rentals, despite one city council member calling it a “monstrosity.”

The Roche Bobois Tower is no longer a “condotel” with a rooftop Sky Bar, two previous causes for community and council concerns. Instead, Clearwater-based Valor Capital will increase the development’s size to 29 stories and offer 165 luxury condominiums rather than 152.

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Feds release $6.8 billion in frozen education grants

The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday afternoon that it had decided to "unfreeze" $6.8 billion in nationwide school grants, approved by Congress but held back at the direction of the Trump administration since June 30. Nearly $400 million allotted to Florida schools, with $9 million earmarked for Pinellas County, was held back just a day before the start of the Pinellas school district’s fiscal year, and a little more than a month before classes begin.

Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Department of Education, said that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) "has directed the Department to ...

Marika Luneau - Purpose Driven Professionals

Arts Alive!: Rui Farias and the Civil Rights Trolley Tour

For this edition of Arts Alive!, we forgo the fun and frivolity of our regular podcast programming to focus on a weekend event that’s enlightening, not entertaining: St. Petersburg Museum of History director Rui Farias’ trolley tour of significant places from the civil rights movement in St. Petersburg.