Here are the biggest local news stories of the year, 10 at a time.
MYSTERY FORMULA FOR EARLY LEARNING FUNDS
Funding for Florida's poorest children to receive early learning services is distributed using an unexplained and politically controlled methodology, the Herald-Tribune revealed in an investigation. Without regard for shifting demographics, the state gives each county the same portion every year, resulting in counties like Miami-Dade receiving millions more than they are due while Sarasota and others consistently lose out.
Not only does the methodology ignore population shifts and changing demographics, managers at the Office of Early Learning admitted they did not know the basis for the more than $600 million it distributed last year. The original allocation predates the OEL, and is possibly based on the amount of federal funding counties received at some point in the '90s.
Despite this, South Florida legislators have fought to maintain the status quo, ignoring changes in counties like Osceola, where the number of poor children has nearly doubled since 2005. Low-income families in underfunded counties face long wait lists, vastly disproportionate to the number of families waiting for services in Miami-Dade.
State Sen. Greg Steube, R- Sarasota, introduced legislation in December to establish a funding formula through the Office of Early Learning. He said a formula will eliminate the political games surrounding early learning funding, but he is ready for the opposition from South Florida lawmakers.
VENICE HOSPITAL FIGHT
A court decision is expected in early 2018 on the competing bids by Sarasota Memorial Hospital and Venice Regional Bayfront Health to build new medical campuses just one exit apart on Interstate 75 in Venice. But the rivalry won't necessarily end there.
The two longtime health care providers’ battle for the South County patient base goes back to at least October 2012, when Sarasota Memorial first moved to operate an urgent care center on the U.S. 41 Bypass. In December 2016, the state surprised some industry observers by approving both hospitals' applications.
If both facilities are built, South County residents will enjoy an unprecedented choice between two state-of-the-art facilities — along with new access to maternity care and a community medical clinic for low-income patients at the Sarasota Memorial site. The presence of two hospitals could, in turn, prove a magnet that draws even more retirees to the area. But each provider challenged the others' right to build, and the case was argued before an administrative law judge in August and September. With both sides determined to win, this judge's decision may not settle the matter. In November, Sarasota Memorial's board moved to hire an architect and builder for the Venice site, signaling that its investment in a southern expansion will continue.
OPIOID CRISIS
The growing death toll from opioid overdoses prompted Gov. Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency on the issue in 2017.
The numbers are staggering. Nearly 16 people died every day in Florida from opioid-related overdoses in 2016, a 35 percent increase. Sarasota and Manatee counties had 257 deaths.
The problem has become even more alarming in recent years because of an influx of street drugs that are extremely potent and can kill in small doses. Lawmakers responded by passing tough, and controversial, new penalties in 2017 for possession of large amounts of the synthetic opioid fentanyl and its derivatives.
The fentanyl bill was sponsored by two Southwest Florida Republicans, Bradenton state Rep. Jim Boyd and Sarasota state Sen. Greg Steube. The region has been particularly hard hit by the epidemic, with Manatee County having the highest rate of overdoses deaths in the state for the fentanyl derivative carfentanil.
Boyd is continuing to pursue the issue in the 2018 legislative session with a bill aimed at restricting prescription opioids. Scott also is requesting a $53 million increase in funding to combat the problem.
SOLAR ECLIPSE
On Aug. 21, millions of Americans oohed and ahhed over the total eclipse of the sun that crossed the country from Oregon to South Carolina.
In Sarasota, science educator Chap Percival had been promoting the eclipse for years. The retired Pine View School teacher wrote a book, created a website and printed up T-shirts that said “Go See the Eclipse – And Take a Kid With You.”
While people in Florida viewed a partial eclipse, Percival traveled to Tennessee for the full eclipse.
“It’s unlike anything you’ll ever experience,” he said. “The temperature drops. You can actually see the shadow of the moon projected on the sky. You can see it rushing toward you. The very last thing you see is this diamond ring effect before the moon hides the rest of the sun, and when you’re with people there’s lots of shouting and hollering.”
ATLANTA BRAVES PICK NORTH PORT
The Atlanta Braves are officially moving the club's spring training headquarters to the West Villages district in North Port.
Team executives and local leaders hosted a formal groundbreaking at the site of the planned $100 million stadium and practice facilities campus this fall and construction has already begun.
The ceremony capped what has been a roller-coaster ride to land the Braves since negotiations with the team were first made public in March 2016. For a time, the Braves flirted with other counties for possible stadium deals, then West Villages officials flirted with other teams to join the Braves and, just days before the groundbreaking, the primary contractor hired to oversee the project switched course and handed the job off to a local firm.
The team is funding the bulk of the public-private financing for the project with $37.5 million total in debt payments on the stadium over the next 30 years and another $18 million in architecture, engineering and construction now.
Sarasota County has committed about $21 million from its tourist tax revenue for the project, North Port $4.7 million and the state has approved a $20 million grant. The West Villages Improvement District, the public body that oversees the development of the West Villages, will contribute another $4.7 million and manage the construction.
The ambitious construction schedule aims to complete at least the stadium in time for when pitchers and catchers report to camp in February 2019.
ISIS, FBI AND AN ATTACK ON SARASOTA
A computer virus attack on the City of Sarasota in early 2016 was revealed to be far more severe than originally reported when the Herald-Tribune obtained previously unreleased documents related to the attack and ensuing investigation in July.
Those documents revealed the "ransomware" hack itself was only the beginning of a bizarre series of events that included the city's appearance in an Islamic State propaganda video, Russian hacking, the FBI and, ultimately, a Sarasota Police Department criminal investigation into city staff’s handling of the virus after the attack.
Although state prosecutors decided not to pursue charges of evidence tampering against city employees, the reports on the security breach and subsequent standoff between city staff and SPD raised serious questions about the response to the attack.
LONGBOAT RESORT WORKERS KILLED
A week after a night manager and a security guard were killed at Zota Beach Resort, police arrested Darryl Hanna Jr., 29, a former security guard at the resort, and charged with armed robbery and two counts of second-degree murder.
Zota night manager Timothy Hurley, 51, of Sarasota, and security guard Kevin Carter, 59, of Bradenton were identified as victims.
According to the Longboat Key Police Department, Hanna took three cash drawers with $900. He was seen on security video leaving the resort, and license plate readers that monitor nearly all traffic going in and out of the town of Longboat Key provided “valuable” evidence in the investigation.
Hanna suffered a “stroke-like” event while awaiting trial the day before Hurricane Irma and is unresponsive, Assistant State Attorney Suzanne O’Donnell said.
VENICE INDIANS FOOTBALL WINS STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
Seventeen years after their first state football title, the Venice High Indians added another plaque to their trophy case with a 37-24 victory over St. John’s Bartram Trail in the Class 7A championship in Orlando on Dec. 9.
Quarterback Bryce Carpenter ran for 226 yards on 40 carries and scored four touchdowns. Wide receiver Jaivon Heiligh set state career marks for receptions, yards and touchdowns. Venice took a 34-3 lead in the game and never looked back.
The Indians (14-1) finished third in the Florida Power 25 final rankings, the highest by a state public school.
ANDRE BRYANT
In August, an argument erupted into gunfire in Manatee's Bayshore Gardens. Three people died, including Andre Bryant, who was driven to Sarasota and left by the curb on Bahia Vista Street, not far from Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
In 2006, Bryant was convicted of robbing a deputy’s wife and her children at gunpoint and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
After a 2014 investigation by Herald-Tribune reporter Elizabeth Johnson cast doubt on his guilt and the Innocence Project of Florida took on his case, Bryant was released from prison after having served nine of those 30 years.
"When I asked what would’ve happened to him if he hadn’t been pinned for the robbery, he listed three things: 'In prison for something else, dead or use my mind and be successful,'" Johnson said after hearing of his death. "I don’t know exactly what happened to Andre. I’m saddened to hear his life didn’t go the way we hoped."
SARASOTA ONE OF ONLY A FEW DISTRICTS IN THE STATE WITHOUT LIBRARIANS
Instead of media specialists, the libraries in Sarasota County schools -- one of the state’s most well-funded and highest scoring school districts -- are staffed by paraprofessionals, who are only required to have a high school diploma and pass a “para pro assessment test.”
Manatee has taken the opposite approach, with Superintendent Diana Greene beefing up Manatee’s libraries, renaming them “media centers" and staffing them with certified specialists earning teacher salaries and increasing their responsibilities in the schools.
Greene said the payoff for keeping certified librarians in Manatee’s schools will result in more educated citizens. Media specialists are experts in information literacy, Greene said, and they teach classes on it in Manatee. When students have the world of information at their fingertips, they need someone to help them know whom to trust.
“You have to be quite savvy to understand what is real information,” Greene said. “I value our paraprofessionals, but when you have to teach students these skills, that’s why we hire media specialists who are certified as teachers.”