The Tampa Bay Lightning will place single-game tickets for home games during the Eastern Conference Final of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on sale to the general public on Thursday, May 12 at 2 p.m. The Lightning defeated the New York Islanders 4-0 yesterday, advancing the Bolts to their second consecutive Eastern Conference Final. There will be a maximum of three games played at Amalie Arena during the Eastern Conference Final. The opponent will depend on the result of the Washington Capitals versus the Pittsburgh Penguins second-round series which the Penguins currently lead three games to two. The Lightning’s Eastern Conference Final series schedule will be announced at a later date.
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Tampa Police are investigating a possible road rage incident that occurred on the Howard Frankland Bridge last night just before ten o’clock. Several motorcycle riders and people in an SUV were involved in an altercation. Someone in the SUV reportedly fired a gun, injuring one of the motorcyclists, who has been taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The SUV has not been located. The cause of the altercation is not known at this time. The investigation is ongoing.
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A Miami-Dade circuit judge has declared Florida’s new death penalty law unconstitutional. The Miami Herald reports that Judge Milton Hirsch ruled that it is unconstitutional because a unanimous jury verdict is not required. The new law, signed by Gov. Rick Scott in March, requires a 10-2 vote. Hirsch’s decision yesterday was in the case of Karon Gaiter, who is awaiting trial for first-degree murder. Florida and Alabama remain the only states that do not require unanimous verdicts.
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – A Florida appeals court is wading back into a contentious legal battle over the state’s largest private school voucher program. A panel of judges with the 1st District Court of Appeal will hold a hearing Tuesday that may help decide the fate of the program that serves more than 78,000 students.
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) _ Retails sales of marijuana in the United States are expected to be $4.5 billion this year, but constant changes in state regulations are creating hurdles for business people trying to make money off pot. That’s the word coming out of the Marijuana Business Conference & Expo being held in Orlando this week.
Marijuana sales doubled in the United States from 2013 to 2015. Right now, 19 states have legalized medical marijuana. Another four states, as well as the District of Columbia, allow marijuana for both medical and recreational uses.
Walsh estimates 100,000 people are directly and indirectly employed in the industry, and 80 to 90 percent of companies are profitable.
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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida man accused of threatening to firebomb two mosques last fall has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison. 43-year-old Martin Alan Schnitzler plead guilty in February to obstructing persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs. He had faced up to 20 years in prison. Schnitzler admitted in his plea that he left voicemails for the Islamic Society of St. Petersburg and the Islamic Society of Pinellas County hours after the November attacks in Paris, threatening to firebomb the center and “shoot whoever is there.” FBI investigators deemed the threats not credible.
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The group “Voters in Charge” is trying to put gambling expansion in voter’s hands for 2018. They’re collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment that lets Floridians vote on casino expansion. John Sowinski leads that group and also the anti gaming group “No Casinos.”
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The mother of Michael Brown says she’ll never forget the day a police officer killed her son in Ferguson. Lezley McSpadden recounts what happened that day in August 2014 in her autobiography, “Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil,” set for release Tuesday and co-written by Lyah Beth LeFlore.
