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news-folds · 2 years

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Downburst Damages Homes in Florida’s Manatee County

An intense and sudden storm damaged homes in two communities of Brandenton, Florida, on Friday, September 2, officials said. This footage taken inside a Manatee County EMS vehicle shows winds whipping debris into the air over the communities of Swan Lake Village and Chateau Village, according to the Manatee County Government Public Safety Department. No injuries were reported and damage…

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ausetkmt · 9 months

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A Florida plantation that had slaves still stands today | wtsp.com

Tucked away on the side of a busy Manatee County road stands the vestige of a defining era in American history.

At its peak, the Gamble Plantation enslaved 190 men, women and children. Federal documents say they ranged in age from two months to 105 years old.

Their stories are not well known. In fact, few locals are even aware of a slave plantation in the Tampa Bay region.

Some historians say it's intentional.

A descendant says it's time for change.

Chandra's Gamble 'This is my history'

One of Chandra Carty's first visits to the Gamble Plantation was during her time as a high school student in Manatee County.

"We didn't call it a plantation, we called it a mansion. I didn't know it was a plantation until maybe, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago," Carty, who is in her 60s, said. "Growing up, this was a mansion. So, they obscured what really happened here."

Interstate signs leading to the site make no mention of a plantation — only a mansion. It's only upon arrival that a sign reads, "Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Monument" at Gamble Plantation State Historic Park.

"How would the word change from plantation?" Carty asked.

However, Carty's quest for more information about the Gamble Plantation goes beyond the name. A family research project revealed she has direct connections to the site. Her great-great grandmother, Mariah, married Nelson Burton, who was enslaved at the plantation.

"The Manatee County historical records show in 1872, two freed ex-slaves being married, and that's where our family history picks up," she said.

It's history Carty and others who study the site say is missing from the Gamble Plantation, which now as a state park focuses heavily on its Confederate themes and memorial to Confederate cabinet member Judah P. Benjamin. He served as Secretary of State to the Confederacy and stayed at the plantation for a brief time on his escape from the country at the end of the Civil War.

"To be in line with how contemporary historians, contemporary museums, anthropologists try to interpret these public heritage sites, there needs to be a significant push to foreground the stories of the enslaved laborers here," Dr. Diane Wallman, associate professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida, said.

"As you know, somebody who studies history, and believes in, you know, the thorough and full telling of history, it makes me sad that the stories of particular people that lived here, died here, worked here, are not being told," she said.

Currently, there is little on the site that mentions the experiences of the enslaved. A visit to the plantation's information center does have a typewritten list of the names of all those enslaved. However, unlike other displays, there is no museum label to describe its significance.

"I want to see when I go into the little information booth, to see the story of specific slaves, to see Nelson Burton's story, because life is a story," Carty said. "We need to tell the story the best that we can. Where did the slaves live? What did their day to day activity consist of?"

A big Gamble The rise and fall of the Gamble Plantation

In the early 1840s, Robert Gamble of Tallahassee, Fla., used slave labor to establish a sugar plantation on about 3,500 acres of land along the Manatee River.

Federal documents show he came to the area under the Florida Armed Occupation Act, which gave away 160 acres of land to settlers willing to develop the area and battle indigenous inhabitants.

According to paperwork filed with the National Park Service, those enslaved to Gamble lived in 57 slave cabins on the plantation. They are credited for the success of the plantation and sugar mill.

Unable to keep up with "natural disasters and a fickle sugar market," information from Florida State Parks says Gamble was driven into debt by 1856 and sold the plantation in 1859.

A path forward Reconciling past with present

Documents filed with the National Park Service show in the 1920s, the United Daughters of the Confederacy purchased the Gamble Plantation mansion, restored it and made it a Confederate shrine.

10 investigates got records going back to the 1970s that show the UDC made an agreement with the state to limit the plantation's interpretation mostly to its Confederate themes.

When a state park leader proposed changes, he faced resistance.

"There was pushback from the state government level. There's letters from senators...supporting the UDC and folks and trying to keep this focused on the Confederacy Judah P. Benjamin and Robert Gamble," Wallman said. "it's come up in the 90s, it's come up again now, where we're trying to have these conversations about expanding the narrative here and making it more inclusive."

John Sims, the late Sarasota-based artist who based some of his last projects on reimagining parts of the Gamble Plantation said he would like to see a memorial to the enslaved at the site.

“The state should consider…funding and even through legislation being able to support efforts to memorialize the history of enslaved folks and their relationship to the various slave plantations in the state of Florida,” the late Sarasota-based artist John Sims told 10 Investigates’ Emerald Morrow before his death in December 2022.

“Let’s look at some of these former slave plantations as places that really belong to all of us, particularly descendants of African slaves who have occupied those spaces,” Sims said.

Requests for on-camera interviews with the Judah P. Benjamin chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy were denied, but member Evelyn Hoskins said she believes others will be open to doing more at the Gamble Plantation to honor the enslaved.

"We are all looking for answers," she said. "The slaves were just as much of the Gamble story as anyone else."

10 Investigates also reached out to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the Gamble Plantation Historic State Park. A spokesperson denied our request for an interview, but said in a statement:

"The Florida Park Service is committed to providing resource-based recreation while preserving, interpreting and restoring natural and cultural resources, and the agency strives to do this in a positive and appropriate manner.

"Our agency is always evaluating how we communicate Florida's unique history across all state parks, including at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park."

Carty remains optimistic. She said her focus’s is not on removing what’s at the site. Instead, she wants to include what’s missing.

"I just want the complete story because this is my history," Carty said. "Why would I tear down my history? Nelson had to build this? Why would I destroy?"

So, she's calling on the UDC, the state park, lawmakers and even the governor to push a more balanced version of history—one she never wants to be forgotten.

"I'm feeling hopeful," Carty said. "Hopeful that some I see the image of Nelson...the image of Mariah, and they say, 'job well done.' You finally got our story out so everybody can understand what it was like living here."

#florida #plantations #white history #white supremacy #florida history of enslavement of Black people #gamble plantation #florida parks service #manatee county

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ms-cellanies · 2 years

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#florida #brevard county #animals #manatees

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ncfcatalyst · 2 months

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New College gets land donation over USF Sarasota-Manatee

The New College Board of Trustees (BOT has approved a nine-acre land donation from Manatee County, following the Manatee County Commission’s vote in October 2023 to give the land parcel to New College of Florida. The parcel was originally promised in 2020 to the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (USFSM), which had planned to build student housing and an educational facility. “We…

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#9 acre land #crosley estate #manatee county #new college 9 acre land donation #new college land donation #New College of Florida #powel crosley estate #richard corcoran #Sarasota County #usf #usf saraasota-manatee

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conandaily2022 · 7 months

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Bond for Bradenton, Florida's Guadalupe Chapa Jr. set at $150k

Guadalupe Chapa Jr., 24, of Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida, United States is accused of sexually battering a teenager, 15, on September 22, 2023. He was known to the teenager’s family. On September 24, 2023, the teenager told a friend about the alleged crime. On September 25, 2023, detectives interviewed Chapa. During the interview, Chapa confessed to the crime. Manatee County Sheriff’s…

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#Bradenton #Florida #Manatee County

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supportingeducation · 1 year

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Censorship or Jail for Florida Teachers

Censorship or jail is being offered to Florida teachers, told to remove ‘unvetted’ books from their classroom libraries or be charged with felonies. Governor Ron DeSantis and his fellow Florida Republicans pushed hard the narrative that teachers and libraries are using books to ‘groom’ students in dangerous ways. New laws and regulations in Florida restrict not only what books schools may…

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#censorship #Florida #manatee county #ron desantis #school libraries #state censorship

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gwydionmisha · 1 year

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#Florida #Confederate Monuments #Manatee County #Republican Agenda #News

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reportwire · 2 years

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Florida's political dividing line: Touring I-4 in 2022

Florida’s political dividing line: Touring I-4 in 2022

Republicans dominate Tallahassee, and most of Florida’s electoral map is red, but bright blue Democratic population centers have kept the state — as a whole — reliably purple. Sharp divisions between the parties and their supporters traditionally play out along our so-called “I-4 corridor,” where candidates for all levels of state and federal office focus lots of their time and money. So,…

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ebookporn · 1 year

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Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution

by Judd Legum

Teachers in Manatee County, Florida, are being told to make their classroom libraries — and any other "unvetted" book — inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution. The new policy is part of an effort to comply with new laws and regulations championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R). It is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to "groom" students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies.

Kevin Chapman, the Chief of Staff for the Manatee County School District, told Popular Information that the policy was communicated to principals in a meeting last Wednesday. Individual schools are now in the process of informing teachers and other staff.

Teachers in Manatee County lamented the news on social media. "My heart is broken for Florida students today as I am forced to pack up my classroom library," one Manatee teacher wrote on Facebook.

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news-folds · 2 years

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Downburst Damages Homes in Florida’s Manatee County

An intense and sudden storm damaged homes in two communities of Brandenton, Florida, on Friday, September 2, officials said. This footage taken inside a Manatee County EMS vehicle shows winds whipping debris into the air over the communities of Swan Lake Village and Chateau Village, according to the Manatee County Government Public Safety Department. No injuries were reported and damage…

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offender42085 · 8 months

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Post 1022

Jabe Ira Carney, Florida inmate S15074, born 1983, incarceration intake in April 2008, at age 24, scheduled for release April 2027

Manslaughter, Driving with invalid operators License, Fleeing LEO, Reisting LEO, Possession of Heroin

Jabe Ira Carney has the name of his buddy tattooed on his arm, a permanent reminder of the man killed when Carney lost control of a vehicle in a drunken-driving crash on Interstate 275.

Carney and Jason Michael Gibson were in residential drug rehabilitation in St. Petersburg when they left to go drinking in Manatee County in February 2006. Carney, and a passenger survived the roll-over crash. Gibson died at the scene.

At trial in March 2008, Carney's attorneys tried to convince jurors that Carney was not behind the wheel at the time of the crash. The jury deliberated for nearly six hours. Carney was found guilty of DUI manslaughter.

Carney was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes that included DUI manslaughter and fleeing to elude a law enforcement officer. His driver's license will be revoked for the rest of his life. Prosecutors pushed for severe punishment, hoping a long stint behind bars would serve as a deterrent.

Carney's friends and family, including his mother, urged Circuit Judge Janette C. Dunnigan to find compassion and not put Carney away for decades.

Defense attorney Jeffrey C. Young of Sarasota asked Dunnigan to sentence Carney to the bottom of a range of prison sentences -- about 12 years. Young noted that the victim also had been drinking.

The friends and family of Carney explored the tension between rehabilitation and punishment. Locking Carney up for a long time, the supporters said, does nothing to help him solve the drug and alcohol addiction that landed him in jail.

A store surveillance camera recorded Carney getting into the driver's seat hours before the wreck on I-275 north of Palmetto. Carney's blood-alcohol level was 0.111 percent -- above the threshold at which Florida motorists are considered impaired.

"I really messed up this time," Carney reportedly told the Florida Highway Patrol.

Last year, Carney ignored a court order to appear for trial on the manslaughter charge. Carney was arrested after a police chase on Interstate 75. He was in possession of heroin.

Carney said he was trying to evade capture because he was wanted for skipping trial.

Dunnigan found little sympathy for Carney, who was also convicted on a felony-level charge of driving with a suspended license.

3g

#inmate

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ploridafanthers · 1 year

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Calling all Floridian environmentalists!!!

i just checked my email which i never do which is why i missed all of dracula daily last year but that’s not the point and i got this plea from hernando county FNPS (florida native plant society)

weeki wachee state park (famous in earlier decades for its mermaid show) contains an unfathomably beautiful stretch of untouched wetland sandwiched between the ever-expanding suburbs of gulf-coast central florida. or almost untouched. it’s an active recreation area with catwalks, hiking trails, and boat ramps. boat mooring damages our ever-dwindling eelgrass beds, a horrible blow to our struggling manatee population. boating also creates pollution and transports invasives (booooo), not to mention the noise pollution (i think every person in hernando may own an airboat. going to the only beach in that county is miserable (for a lot of reasons)).

hernando county submitted a proposal for a Spring Protection Zone to prohibit boat mooring, grounding, and anchoring in these precious areas. FWC wants to reduce the protection area to appease boaters.

we need to email the commission before they make a decision by monday, 5/8/23

it’s an uphill struggle trying to protect florida from its inhabitants. please help by signal-boosting this and emailing [email protected] to protect an irreplaceable sliver of our ecological inheritance.

thank you

#florida #weeki wachee #FWC #do yourself a favor and drive down CR-597 sometime it is absolutely stunning

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beardedmrbean · 5 months

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A rowdy tourist is accused of sexually molesting a statue in one of Florida’s Gulf Coast vacation hubs, investigators say.

It happened Friday, Dec. 8, in St. Pete Beach and the “victim” was a life-sized statue of a manatee that doubles as a mascot for Rick’s Reef Restaurant and Patio Bar, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. St. Pete Beach is about 30 miles southwest of Tampa.

Investigators say the suspect is a 23-year-old man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who is accused of creating disturbances at the restaurant and a nearby hotel.

“While at Rick’s Reef, the defendant was throwing gator nuggets ... in the restaurant,” a deputy wrote in an affidavit.

“When confronted by staff the defendant became belligerent and was sexually molest(ing) a manatee mannequin in the presence of staff and several other patrons.”

The suspect then ran about one-third of a mile to the Postcard Inn On The Beach, where he began “yelling and screaming obscenities at the front desk worker,” officials say.

The “defendant then chose to linger in the parking lot and yell obscenities causing a traffic backup,” officials said.

Deputies arrested the man and charged him with disorderly intoxication, which is a misdemeanor, officials said. He was released Dec. 9 on his own recognizance, records show.

The manatee at the center of the incident is one frequently used by Rick’s Reef for promotions, including dressing it up for special occasions, social media posts show.

Rick’s Reef is on a barrier island along Florida’s west coast. __________________

ahh florida

#nunyas news

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conandaily2022 · 7 months

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Bradenton, Florida's Nicholas Bassler Jr., Sierra Campany arrested

Images of child sexual abuse were transmitted from Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida, United States, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) recently learned. Investigators discovered that the images were transmitted over Facebook by Bradenton residents Nicholas Bassler Jr., 24, and Sierra Campany, 24. On June 5, 2023, the NCMEC sent cyber tips to the Internet Crimes…

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#Bradenton #Florida #Manatee County

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meret118 · 1 year

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For those who are paying attention, it's been obvious for some time that Florida's mega-MAGA governor, Ron DeSantis, is aggressive with book bans because he would just prefer it if kids didn't read books at all. So while it was infuriating, it was not surprising to read that the investigative journalism team at Popular Info had discovered that teachers in Manatee County, Florida were told that every book on their shelves was banned until otherwise notified. Failure to lock up all their books until they could be "vetted" by censors, teachers were warned, put them at risk of being prosecuted as felons.

#Books #Censorship #GOP #Fascism

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blackbirdsrest · 2 months

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Another Article Compilation

These are mostly random articles I've come across and am saving here. Quite a few of these come from more local American News outlets which tend to provide a lot less biased news. Mediabiasfactcheck has a list of least biased news sources here. If you're not in the US and can't seem to access these pages, I think if you use a VPN and set it in the states it should work. Let me know.

Some horrifying news out of Alabama that will have really awful consequences.

Warning. These stories detail allegations of violence against Indigenous people.

Another set of articles on Florida book bans.

Tbh I don't get why it can be flouted so hard when it's directly censoring freedom of speech and forcing people to abide by a mainly religious ideology that discriminates against a large segment of the population. Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion. You can't take away books from everyone just because YOU don't like them, that's not how freedom of speech works. The state charging people with a felony for not abiding with censorship is also absolutely unconstitutional.

Continuing in the vein of Education.

#article compilations #articles #housing discrimination #IVF #Alabama #education #housing #discrimination #mmiwg2s #indigenous issues #racism #censorship

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