Sue Carlton

Sep 9, 2024 | tampabay.com | Sue Carlton

How they met sounds like the plot of a Hallmark Channel movie. She was the daughter of Eddie DeBartolo Jr., former owner of the San Francisco 49ers and granddaughter of the man who pioneered the shopping mall concept in the 1950s. He was a local sheriff’s deputy who had worked as a hotel bellman, dug ditches and unloaded UPS trucks at night before he went into police work — and got hired on as security for her family in Tampa. “He was always around,” said Nikki DeBartolo, 49.

Sep 3, 2024 | tampabay.com | Sue Carlton

A group of citizens trooped in to a recent Hillsborough County Commission meeting hoping to convince the board not to ax money for affordable housing. In purple T-shirts bearing the name of a grassroots group called Hope, they spoke of the homeless, of low-income seniors, of places for people to live near work.

Aug 21, 2024 | tampabay.com | Sue Carlton

Hillsborough County Commissioners voted Wednesday to increase residential garbage pickup and disposal fees by $40 a year. “This is always a difficult conversation” with costs going up across the board, said Commissioner Harry Cohen. But he also noted labor costs and the need to pay a fair wage. “These are hard jobs to do ... this is working out in the heat,” he said.

Aug 21, 2024 | centrotampabay.com | Sue Carlton

Los votantes de Hillsborough podrán decidir sobre la cuestión de aumentar los impuestos a la propiedad para complementar los salarios de los maestros, según falló una corte de apelaciones el lunes. El Tribunal de Apelaciones del 2.º Distrito no estuvo de acuerdo con la afirmación de la Comisión del Condado de Hillsborough de que tiene la discreción de mover la fecha del referéndum fiscal de este noviembre a 2026 o más allá.

Aug 20, 2024 | tampabay.com | Sue Carlton

Hillsborough School Board members Nadia Combs and Jessica Vaughn held onto their seats in Tuesday’s primary, despite opposition from Gov. Ron DeSantis and campaigns that turned ugly in the final weeks. Attack ads painted the two incumbents as socialists and supporters of pornography in the schools, as they have opposed banning books. One video linked Vaughn to the Hamas terrorists. But, despite the harsh missives, challengers Myosha Powell and Layla Collins finished well behind the incumbents.