Local Events

After you cast your ballot on Election Day (Nov. 3), you can ease that sinking feeling and soothe your jangled nerves – or get even more amped up? – with a free cup of coffee courtesy of Downtown Credo and law firm Farah & Farah.

Simply flash your "I Voted" sticker or proof that you voted by mail ("a photo or verbal commitment is sufficient") at any Downtown Credo location on Election Day and a free coffee will be placed in your democratically-participating hands.

As part of their Voting Boldly campaign to boost voter engagement in select Florida cities, Farah & Farah is ponying up $1,000 for free java for Orlando voters with Downtown Credo.…

Just in time for Halloween (and the election), ABC Fine Wine & Spirits and FedEx are teaming up to get Floridians just a little bit more tipsy with a new same-day delivery service.

ABC and FedEx launched this new venture on Monday, available now in major Florida markets including Orlando, Daytona, and the Tampa Bay area. Currently 90 of ABC’s 123 brick-and-mortar outlets are included in this program.

Same-day delivery is available only through abcfws.com and for purchases made on that site.…

Orlando-area 7-Eleven stores are going in on the "treat" side of the time-honored trick vs. treat equation with BOGO pizza just in time for Halloween.

On Oct. 30 and 31, participating 7-Eleven locations will offer up a two-for-one pizza pie deal to both celebrate Halloween – fun fact: one of their busiest pizza-slinging days – and cap off National Pizza Month. (A month, incidentally, that began with the convenience store chain giving away whole pizzas.)

The promotion is available for in-person, pickup or delivery for 7Rewards members, or through the 7NOW delivery app.…

Joining venues like Will's Pub and the Timucua Arts Foundation House in taking tentative steps back toward regular concert programming, the Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts will begin holding in-person events towards the end of November.

Kicking off a list of shows going through December will be a Blue Bamboo regular: jazz guitarist – and onetime metal legend – Bobby Koelble playing in a trio format.

The schedule released so far is mostly weekend shows, and it's full of familiar local faces.…

Gov. Ron DeSantis, like his political ally Trump, has emphasized a need to reopen the state and return a sense of normalcy during the pandemic.

As part of that, DeSantis this week announced plans to expand visitation at nursing homes and assisted living facilities. For example, the state will allow outdoor visitation, regardless of whether the facilities have COVID-19 infections.

Florida barred visitors to nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the spring to try to prevent spread of the deadly virus.…

Bungalower and Ravenous Pig are teaming up this week for a Star Trek-themed dinner-and-a-movie affair at the Pig's new beer garden.

Be warned for the faint of heart: You'll most likely be assailed left and right by hammy screams of "Khannnnnnnnn!" in homage to the great thespian Shatner.

On Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 6 p.m., Ravenous Pig and Bungalower are unveiling the fruits of their collaboration on a new beer – “Klingonberry Blood Ale” – over a pot roast dinner.…

A full federal appeals court has rejected a request by prominent National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer to take up a case about graphic emails she received after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Hammer asked last month for the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear her case against California attorney Lawrence Sorensen, who emailed photos to Hammer that included photos of gunshot wounds, including fatal wounds suffered by President John F. Kennedy. The request came after U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle and a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court ruled against Hammer, who alleged that Sorensen violated state laws about issues such as cyberstalking, harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.…

Every morning on Magic 107.7 FM, Leslye Gale discusses the most interesting Orlando Weekly stories of the day on "Chad & Leslye." Check out Leslye's picks today.

Late last week, an area high school was forced to quickly shutter after an outbreak of Covid-19.…

Dear Epcot,

My friends and I just spent a pretty penny attending your theme park yesterday and I have to tell you how appalled I was by the fake news you’re spreading about science, “progress” and the future.…

In a case involving a woman who died at age 52 of smoking-caused lung cancer, a state appeals court Friday tossed out a $16 million punitive-damages award against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

An Orange County jury ruled in favor of the estate of Lois Stucky in a wrongful-death lawsuit and awarded $300,000 in compensatory damages to her adult children and $16 million in punitive damages, according to Friday’s ruling by a panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal.…

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and President Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett as her successor have raised anxieties about a reconfigured court’s impact on our environmental laws. Barrett’s refusal to answer questions on climate change during her confirmation hearings has only increased worries about the future of climate legislation and environmental protection if she joins the court.

But Ginsburg herself had a more “complex” history on key environmental cases than her green reputation suggests.…

You can read the full text of the proposed county charter amendments on your sample ballot or at this Orange County link.…

Every year these word salads pop up on the ballot and if you haven't prepared, it can be near impossible to parse out their actual meaning there in the booth.…

As President Donald Trump continues to draw strong support from Hispanics in South Florida, Democrat Joe Biden and his supporters are targeting Puerto Ricans along the Interstate 4 corridor in the effort to flip the state blue.

“The Tampa to Orlando corridor, it’s key,” Latino Victory Fund Chairman Luis Miranda Jr. told reporters during a video conference Friday.

Trump has solid backing from Cuban-American voters, especially in Miami-Dade County, who for decades have been a reliable source of support for Republican candidates running statewide.…

As Florida battles the coronavirus pandemic, the effort has exposed an inconvenient truth that the state’s public health infrastructure has been whittled down by the Republican-led Legislature, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

Despite what is expected to be a tough budget year, the Florida Department of Health is asking for money to begin rebuilding the infrastructure.

Health department officials in their 2021-2022 budget request made it clear to legislators: Florida has been stretched thin due to an ongoing series of public health outbreaks over the past few years that have included grappling with Zika and hepatitis A.

“Such threats are likely to continue and are of concern to Florida’s large population with underlying health conditions and older residents,” the legislative budget request said.

The agency's proposed spending plan also notes that “the national COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated an even greater need to build and sustain a professional epidemiological public health workforce, focused on infectious diseases and protection of our growing diverse population in Florida.”

To that end, the department asked to bolster its public health efforts by nearly $7 million in general revenue, with money going to adding 68 positions, including 14 new employees to help with the state lab in Jacksonville.…

There are four "groups" up for election to join these unpaid county Soil and Water Conservation board seats: Groups 1, 2, 3 and 5.…

Florida has moved past New Jersey to have the fourth-highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the country, according to totals posted Thursday on a Johns Hopkins University website that tracks national and international data.

The website showed Florida with 16,267 COVID-19 deaths, four more than New Jersey.

The Florida total does not include 203 non-residents who have died of COVID-19 in the state, according to numbers from the Florida Department of Health.

New York has had the most COVID-19 deaths, with 33,377, the Johns Hopkins website shows.…

Timber Creek High School in Avalon Park abruptly ceased in-person instruction on Wednesday afternoon. The school switched over to the virtual learning platform [email protected] on Thursday, after a coronavirus spike on campus in which there were 14 positive tests for COVID-19.…

Exquisitely named Orlando punks Caffiends this week premiered a timely new music video for political anthem "Rise of Thrashism." And it's a really satisfying callback to bands like Dead Kennedys and Government Issue, with no punches pulled.

"Rise of Thrashism" crams a hell of a lot into its one minute (!)…

British dance music titan Paul Oakenfold is coming to Orlando to play an outdoor show next month. Not in 2021, but 2020.…

Orange County has three Florida Senators, representing Districts 11, 13, and 15, all of them Democrats. State senators serve four-year terms, and are term-limited to eight years — the better to ensure lobbyists and political parties can replace them, rather than letting the citizens keep senators they like.…

A Change.org petition started circulating on the various social medias Thursday night, imploring Orlando's powers-that-be to allow those wanting to take in the sights and sounds of the Milk District the ability to use nearby Festival Park's parking area, instead of continually clogging the residential roads behind Robinson.

As of Friday morning, "Petition to City of Orlando: Allow Milk District businesses to use Festival Park Parking" has already gathered 254 virtual signatures, with a goal of 500 total.

With the endgame of allowing "the businesses within the Milk District to use the Festival Park Parking lot for Milk District patrons," the idea sounds like a win for Milk District businesses and area residents.

This writer has certainly cruised guiltily up and down those narrow neighborhood roads looking for a tiny scrap of street parking.

Sign – or read the fine print on – the petition here.


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