The Laker/Lutz News

California

A conversation with Brian Calle, publisher of The Laker/Lutz News

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Brian Calle, the new publisher of The Laker/Lutz News, sat down with B.C. Manion, editor of the newspaper, to talk about the path that led him into newspaper ownership — and why he thinks print publications play an important role in today’s media landscape.

Editor’s note: The questions and the answers, presented here, have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Where did you grow up? Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood?
I was born in L.A. County, in Whittier, and shortly thereafter moved to the Inland Empire of California, to a city called Chino.

I was raised by a single mom — me and my sister, Breanna.

My sister and I are super close, 14-, 15-months apart — as  opposite as they come, but super close.

My sister, my mom and I also had a really tight relationship with my grandmother and my grandfather.

My grandmother was a very strong, fiery, full-blooded Italian, matriarch of the family.

My mom was struggling to raise two kids. She was on welfare and food stamps at one point, and then later, working three jobs. She studied while she worked and became a gemologist, building a small jewelry business.

My grandmother’s parents emigrated from Italy and she was born in Rome, New York, and then made her way to California. She only flew once in her life and that was back to Rome for her father’s funeral.

My grandfather was a bakery superintendent.

In my family, no one went to college. You graduated high school and then went to work with your hands.

I remember telling my grandmother and grandfather that I was going to work with my brains.

My grandmother loved it. My grandfather was not too fond of that conversation.

How did you discover your interest in journalism?
You know, that started when I was really young. I remember watching the presidential debates. I was more fascinated with the moderators and the journalists asking the questions than I was with the candidates themselves.

When he was studying the presidency of Richard Nixon, he recalls being particularly interested in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post investigative reporters who did much of the original reporting on the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation.

I don’t think it clicked for me at the time, that I would ever be a journalist. I actually always thought that I would be an actor.

I did theater growing up, and it didn’t come until later that I realized that I really loved journalism and that I could get the same kind of feeling, or energy, that I got from performing. That was especially true when I had my radio show and television show.

You’re still performing, but you’re performing in a different way.

The thing I learned that I loved most is that I could take really complex, difficult topics and make them entertaining and interesting to people.

I read that you worked for Sally Ride, the first American female sent into space. Tell us about that.
My first job out of college was working for Sally Ride Science. My best friend in high school — Whit — is Sally Ride’s nephew.

Brian Calle, left, is at Fox 11 Studio, in Los Angeles, where he was co-hosting ‘You Decide SoCal,’ along with Tony Ewing, who is not pictured.(Courtesy of Brian Calle)

Sally was doing one of her first science festivals for girls at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). Her sister, “Bear” — Karen is her real name, but everybody calls her Bear — called me and said, ‘Hey, we’re doing the science festival for girls at UCLA. We need help. Can you come volunteer?’

He was happy to help, enjoyed the experience and volunteered to pitch in at other festivals. His efforts attracted Sally Ride’s attention.

After one of the festivals, Sally took me for a walk and said, ‘Hey, I’ve heard what you’ve been doing, I’d like you to come and work for me, full-time.’

I was in college. No one in my family had graduated college.

I was like, ‘I would love to do that, but I have to graduate college.’

She was like, ‘OK, can you consult?’

I didn’t know what the word consult was. Zero idea.

‘I was like, I don’t know what that means. But if you explain it to me, maybe.’

She was like: ‘It means I pay you a stipend to do a certain amount of work every month.’

Then she’s like: ‘Do you have classes on Friday?’

I was like: ‘No.’

Then, she’s like: ‘Do you have classes on the weekends?’

I said: ‘No.’

Sally Ride then asked him to come into the office on Fridays and to help at science festivals on the weekends. By the time he graduated from college, she offered him a full-time job as director of sales and marketing for Sally Ride Science.

Sally was a mentor to me. I learned so much from her. She was one of the most gracious and smartest people.

Sally would say, ‘Hey, can you do this? Can you do that? Can you write a press release. Can you write an editorial?’

And, I didn’t know what those things were — or I did know what they were, tangentially — but I’d never done it. So, I would Google: ‘How to write a press release.’

Have you had any turning points that presented an unexpected opportunity, or sent you in a surprising direction?
The decision that changed my life was taking the job at The Orange County Register. As an elder millennial, I never thought I would go work at a newspaper. I just never thought it.

It was around 2008-2009 and I was being recruited by the Orange County Register, and I said ‘No.’

I didn’t think that was my path.

Plus, everything I was reading at the time was about this newspaper going under, or that newspaper going under.

When approached by a friend from The Orange County Register about six months after the initial overture, he joined the staff. That led to a series of promotions. He became vice president at Freedom Communications, which owned The Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise. Freedom was acquired by Southern California News Group and he was appointed to oversee opinion editorial content for its 11 newspapers and websites. He also was the co-host of Fox 11’s “You Decide SoCal” television news broadcast and the host of the Catch-Up daily radio show on KABC.
During his career, his employers have gone through ownership changes, bankruptcy and other difficulties — which, he said, helped him develop a thicker skin to prepare for future challenges.

Flash forward to now. His company, Street Media LLC, owns the LA Weekly, the Irvine Weekly, and the Marina Times, all in California; The Village Voice, in New York; and, The Laker/Lutz News, in Florida.


Obviously, you’re optimistic about print’s role in today’s media landscape. When print is declining in so many places, what gives you faith in print’s future?
From a journalism perspective, a lot of people like the disconnecting — of putting their phone down — and being able to open a print product and not have any kind of distraction in the presentation. There’s something special about that experience.

Brian Calle is at KABC Studios, in Culver City, hosting the ‘Catch-Up Daily’ radio show. (Courtesy of Brian Calle)

From an advertiser perspective, advertisers are starting to look at newspapers more like billboards, and they’re putting that into their action plan for their budgets.

Historically, we would use the newspaper and we put in a coupon and we would track the coupon. A lot of that has moved to digital.

But we need awareness because if we don’t have a billboard and tell people here’s the logo and here’s where we are, then they’re never going to convert to a final sale.

So, I think marketers are starting to realize that ‘Oh, print is our own billboard.’ And, in many cases, it gets read more than the billboard, because it gets passed around.

I think print is part of the broader toolkit. It would be foolhardy not to do digital. All forms of digital — from obviously the typical website, but engagement on social media, too.

That’s something that’s cool about The Laker. There’s a young crew who is obviously passionate about social media, taking the stories and sharing them on the different platforms.

You have to tell the stories, where the eyeballs are. Some eyeballs are on print, some are on social, some are on the Web, and who knows what’s next.

The Laker/Lutz News is your most recent acquisition. Why invest here?
In addition to having a solid position in a dynamic market, The Laker/Lutz News has some specific strengths.

The print is so well-done, so well-supported by the community, and the team here is so dedicated and committed to it. I think that’s why it’s in the position that it’s in.

It’s in a rare position, compared to a lot of community papers, sadly, throughout the country.

One of the things that I love about The Laker — which was kind of the sealing of the deal for me — is the neutrality of the content.

It truly is a journalism operation. It is by the book. You don’t infuse politics. You don’t have an agenda, and, you know, I hate to say it, but that’s becoming rare in our industry.

We can have our perspective and we can have our opinion pages, that’s fine. But we can’t have a society where 50% operates on one set of facts and 50% operates on another set of facts.

Note: Brian Calle, the new publisher of The Laker/Lutz News, wants the community to know that he’s very accessible. If you’d like to touch base with him, email

Revised Nov. 25, 2021

Baldomero Lopez was more than a local hero

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When motorists drive past the Baldomero Lopez State Veterans Nursing Home in Land O’ Lakes, chances are they won’t know much about the history of the man for whom the facility is named.

That’s where Bill Dotterer comes in.

This iconic image was taken of 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez leading troops in an invasion at Inchon during the Korean War. Lopez died minutes after the photo was taken.
(Bill Dotterer)

He’s a volunteer with the Tampa Bay History Center and he shared the story of 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez’s life and his heroic actions during a talk earlier this year at the Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library. The history center and library jointly presented the free program.

Lopez may not be widely known in many circles, but he is in the U.S. Marine Corps, Dotterer said.

“Lopez is a very important person in Tampa Bay’s history,” the speaker added, noting Lopez was the first person who grew up in Tampa to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Dotterer shared details of Lopez’s early years.

Lopez grew up during a time when Ybor City and West Tampa were vibrant places, with a thriving cigar industry, with people living there who had come from Spain, Cuba, Italy and Sicily, Dotterer said. There were social clubs, baseball teams and dominoes, he noted, and Lopez grew up in that milieu.

“In the neighborhood where he lived, he was well known as a baseball player. He had a paper route. He was just an All-American kid,” Dotterer said.

Lopez also was interested in the military.

He attended Hillsborough High School, where he was in charge of the ROTC program. He marched in the Gasparilla Parade one year, leading all of the junior ROTC units, Dotterer said.

Baldomero Lopez
Company A, 1st Battalion
5th Marines, 1st Marine Division
Born: Aug, 23, 1925
Died: Sept. 15, 1950

The speaker noted that much of his talk was based on information he gleaned from a conversation he had with E.J. Salcines, a former judge and noted Tampa historian.

Lopez was third in his class when he graduated from Hillsborough High in 1943. He decided to enlist in the Navy, Dotterer said.

Initially, Lopez was sent to Quantico, Virginia, but he was pulled from that program and sent to Annapolis for an officer training program, Dotterer added. Next, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, as a second lieutenant.

By then, it was 1947 and the war had ended.

Lopez was sent to China, to lead a mortar platoon, and after that, he returned to Camp Pendleton, where he received orders to become an instructor at the Basic School in Quantico, Dotterer said.

Lopez was still at Pendleton when the Korean War broke out and his unit was assigned to go overseas, Dotterer said. Lopez wanted to go with them.

Dotterer then shared this account, which he said came from Salcines.

Lopez was a on a train, heading from California to Virginia, Dotterer said.

“Every place that the train stopped, he got off and called and said, ‘Please change my orders. I want to go with my unit.’

“When he finally gets to Quantico, they say, ‘OK, you can rejoin your unit.’,” Dotterer said.

Lopez heads back to California, but at that point, his unit is already gone. Somehow, he catches up with them, across the Pacific, Dotterer continued.

The Korean War began when the North Koreans attacked south of this 38th parallel, which is what divides North Korea and South Korea, Dotterer said.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur was the head commander of allied forces in Korea, and he decided to take back Seoul, Dotterer said.

The invasion is made at Inchon Harbor, near Seoul.

It wasn’t an ideal place to invade because it had the third-highest tides in the world, going from zero to 40 feet in a day. It also had 40-foot seawalls around it, which the Marines had to build ladders to scale, Dotterer said.

“The anchorage, itself, where all of the ships would end up for the invasion, was pretty small. It was pretty tight to get in there,” he added.

At the same time, however, the limiting factors at Inchon also may have made it a good place to invade because the enemy would never expect it, he said.

Lopez demonstrated courage
Lopez, who was 25, was on one of the landing ships.

Before the invasion, he wrote his parents a final letter, not knowing it would be his final letter, Dotterer said.

“Basically, he said, ‘Hey, I chose to do this, so if anything happens, I decided I wanted to be a Marine officer, so here I am. Secondly, please send me some good cigars.’

“On Sept. 15, the invasion begins. He is with Company A, First Battalion, Fifth Marines, and they’re going into Red Beach,” Dotterer said.

This historic marker in downtown Tampa commemorates the heroic actions that 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez took during the Korean War.
(B.C. Manion)

There were two hills, which meant the enemy was at the top of the hill shooting down.

An iconic photograph, taken during the invasion, shows Lopez leading his troops up a wooden ladder over the seawall, Dotterer said.

“Sad to say, this is minutes before he is killed. He’s leading his troops over the seawall. There’s a machine-gun, automatic type position here, that they are trying to take out.

“He had actually pulled a pin on a grenade to throw it into the pill box,” Dotterer said.

Instead, “he gets hit with automatic weapon fire. One in the shoulder. One in the abdomen or chest. He’s shot down. That grenade has the pin out.”

Within seconds, Lopez decided to save his troops. He scooped the grenade under his body.

“He took the full brunt of the grenade in the explosion. His troops were essentially saved. They went on to take that pillbox,” Dotterer said.

Since then, Lopez has been honored in various ways.

There’s a historic marker commemorating Lopez’s heroics in downtown Tampa and there’s a memorial for him at Hillsborough High School. There’s a public elementary school named after him in Seffner and there’s a memorial to Lopez at Veterans Memorial Park.

In 2012, the Tampa Bay History Center received a Korean War Veterans Medal on behalf of Lopez, presented by Jong-Hoon Kim, a member of the 19th National Assembly and Chair of the International Relations Committee, Saenuri Party. Kim was accompanied by Choi Young-Jin, the Korean Ambassador to the United Nations and other Korean Dignitaries.

Additionally, there’s Lopez Hall at the Basic School aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, a dining facility that was dedicated in 2013, and there’s a navy ship named in his honor.

And, the Marine Corps Association and Foundation, (MCA&F), bestows The Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez Honor Graduate Award to the Marine of each graduating company from the Basic School who demonstrates the highest potential for future leadership and responsibility in the Marine Corps.

In essence, Dotterer said, “he was an amazing hero.”

Published June 6, 2018

The Shops at Wiregrass sold to QIC

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The Shops at Wiregrass in Wesley Chapel is among 10 regional malls that will be sold by Forest City Realty Trust, Inc., for a total of about $3.2 billion, according to an announcement by Forest City.

The buyer is Australia-based QIC, an investment partner of Forest City. QIC currently owns about 49 percent of the Wiregrass mall, with Forest City holding 51 percent ownership, according to Greg Lenners, the mall’s general manager.

The Shops at Wiregrass is being sold, along with nine other regional malls, but it will be business as usual for shoppers and merchants. (File)

QIC has been a partner with Forest Realty for about two years, Lenners said.

“As far as merchants at Wiregrass and customers, nobody will notice anything different,” Lenners said. “You’re not going to see any changes other than ongoing improvements at center court.”

In other words, it’s business as usual.

The sale of six of the malls, including Wiregrass, is expected to close by the end of the year for about $1.24 billion. No information was provided on the value of the individual malls.

The remaining four malls will be sold for about $1.93 billion as Forest City “secures replacement assets,” according to a news release about the sale.

Many of the malls are in California, with others in Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Nevada and West Virginia.

Per the agreement, Forest City will transfer its retail operations, including most of its personnel, to QIC.

So far, leasing, marketing, tenant coordination, legal and human resources have been transitioned to QIC. Accounting, property management and other functions will transfer as closings are completed.

“We view the U.S. real estate market and the retail sector in particular as a strong investment opportunity,” said Steve Leigh, in a written statement. He is QIC’s managing director of global real estate.

QIC began its partnership with Forest City in 2013.

Once the sale of the 10 malls to QIC, and the company’s New York specialty retail centers to Madison International is complete, Forest City will no longer have shopping centers in its portfolio.

“We are very pleased to achieve this key milestone with our partner,” said David J. LaRue in a written statement. LaRue is Forest City president and chief executive officer. “This transaction is a win-win for all parties, as we continue to focus our business on urban residential, office and mixed-use assets, and QIC acquires full ownership of a U.S. retail presence with high quality regional malls in strong markets.”

For more information, visit Forestcity.net.

Published Oct. 11, 2017

 

Bayonet Point hospital CEO participates in Rose Bowl tradition

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The Rose Bowl football came on New Year’s Day will feature Florida State against Oregon, to see which college team will end up in the national championship game Jan. 12. But the Seminoles won’t be the only Florida representative showing up in Pasadena, California.

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point’s chief executive Shayne George prepares his 2015 note to be placed in the Donate Life Rose Parade Float. (Courtesy of Kurt Connover)
Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point’s chief executive Shayne George prepares his 2015 note to be placed in the Donate Life Rose Parade Float. (Courtesy of Kurt Connover)

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point has received an invitation to participate in the 2015 Donate Life Rose Parade Float Hospital CEO Rose Dedications. The Hudson hospital is part of a select group of hospitals in the area that have been asked to have its chief executive prepare a handwritten message honoring the patients and families who, with the support of hospital staff members, have saved and healed lives through the gift of organ, eye and tissue donation.

Shayne George, the chief executive of Bayonet Point, has shared the following message:

“In honor of Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point and our life-saving staff, we are honored and grateful to those who chose to donate a gift that can change a life.”

This handwritten dedication will be placed in one of the rose vials in the “dedication garden,” which is filled with thousands of roses in the Donate Life Rose Parade float.

The American Hospital Association has joined with the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations and the Eye Bank Association of America to offer this inspirational tribute to the donors of tissues and organs, according to a release.

For more than 10 years, dozens of organizations nationwide have collaborated to enter the Donate Life float in the Rose Parade. Originally envisioned by a lunch recipient who wished to thank organ, eye and tissue donors for their gifts of life, the Donate Life Rose Parade float has grown into a national tradition featuring dozens of participants each year.

The dedication garden is one of the trademarks of the float, with each vial carrying a unique personal message from an individual, family or organization.

Zephyrhills senior home gets new name

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Just two months after picking up a new owner, West Winds Assisted Living Facility in Zephyrhills is no more.

The 75-bed for-profit facility is now called Rosecastle of Zephyrhills, according to a posting on the facility’s Facebook page.

West Winds Assisted Living Facility on Eiland Boulevard is now known as Rosecastle of Zephyrhills. (File photo)
West Winds Assisted Living Facility on Eiland Boulevard is now known as Rosecastle of Zephyrhills. (File photo)

“West Winds Assisted Living is now Rosecastle of Zephyrhills, and yes, we still are an assisted living and memory care facility for seniors who find that ‘it’s never too late to continue celebrating life,'” the facility said on its social media page.

Rosecastle, located at 37411 Eiland Blvd., was sold Oct. 1 to Sabra Health Care Holdings III, which lists its address in Irvine, California, according to Pasco County property records. West Winds Prime LLC was the seller, and managed the property through various companies since West Winds opened in 2008.

Sabra is a real estate investment trust that acquires senior citizen housing, memory care and skilled nursing facilities around the country. It purchased West Winds for $10.2 million, adding it to six skilled nursing facilities and three senior housing facilities Sabra purchased through the first half of 2014 for $141.5 million, according to filings at the time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sabra is a real estate investment trust, or a REIT. They are financial securities that allow investors to buy ownership into a property or mortgage, rather than in a company like what would typically be found on the stock market. Investors in such projects usually earn a percentage of profit from rents or fees collected from tenants in those properties, and would receive a portion of any profits made with the REIT sells that project to someone else.

At the time of its sale in October, it was Pasco’s third-largest real estate transaction. Topping that list was the $36.1 million sale of the Arlington at Northwood apartment complex in Wesley Chapel, followed by the $16 million sale of more than 330 acres of land in Wiregrass Ranch to make way for a proposed 550-home subdivision. Both of those transactions took place in May.

Police body cameras coming to Pasco County

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While many law enforcement agencies around the country continue to debate whether they should have patrol officers wear body cameras or not, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office isn’t waiting any longer.

Pasco County sheriff Chris Nocco introduces body cameras deputies in his department will wear beginning in February. (Michael Hinman/Staff photo)
Pasco County sheriff Chris Nocco introduces body cameras deputies in his department will wear beginning in February. (Michael Hinman/Staff photo)

More than 400 deputies and investigators will be equipped with body cameras beginning in February, a move Sheriff Chris Nocco says will make neighborhoods safer for deputies, and the people who live in them.

“This is not the panacea,” Nocco said during a news conference Thursday. “This is not going to be the cure-all for all the issues of our world. But it’s a tool, just like any other tool that we use in law enforcement.”

The sheriff’s office will use Taser Axon cameras, which can be mounted on glasses, hats, shirt fronts, collars, lapels and other locations. They will record both video and audio, with each unit able to hold four hours of video with a battery that lasts 12 hours.

At the end of each shift, deputies will connect their camera to a docking station, which will upload each video. And once they are in the system, they cannot be manipulated, and deputies will not be able to edit them.

The entire program is going to cost $400,000 a year — far less than what other neighboring agencies like the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is considering, Nocco said. Initial funds will come from federal forfeiture dollars, but future years will require funding through the Pasco County Commission using taxpayer dollars.

While the cost will increase for the sheriff’s office, Nocco says the cost benefits everywhere else will more than pay for it — especially when it comes to the judicial system.

“If used properly, this is going to save taxpayer dollars,” Nocco said. “This is going to alleviate an already overcrowded judicial system, and this is going to respect victims and ensure that people are brought to justice.”

Nocco cited studies in the United Kingdom where such technology has been used for the last few years, including one in Scotland where more than 70 percent of cases that involved body cameras were less likely to go to trial. A study two years ago in Rialto, California, saw complaints against law enforcement officers from 24 to just three. Also, cases that involved use of force also dropped from 61 to 25.

Because Nocco won’t need county money to fund the cameras, he won’t need to seek any approval from the county commission. However, he will need commissioners’ backing next fall when he works to add the $400,000 cost to his overall budget. Based on his requested budget amount from this past budget cycle, the cameras would represent less than a half percent of his total money request.

For more on the body cameras and what it means for Pasco County, be sure to read the Dec. 17 print edition of The Laker/Lutz News.

To see the body cameras in action during the recent test run by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, click here.

Florida’s unemployment rate slips, but still mostly flat

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Florida’s unemployment rate has slipped a bit in September, bringing it to its lowest point since June 2008, but still remaining mostly flat since last December.

The rate, according to Gov. Rick Scott’s office, was 6.1 percent in September, down from 6.3 percent in August. That was the result of 12,800 new private-sector jobs in the month, but the percentage of unemployed people is still larger than the rest of the nation.

The rate peaked at 11.4 percent in late 2009 and early 2010, while Gov. Charlie Crist was still in office. It was during the same time as a national economic crisis, which Florida was particularly hit hard because of its dependence on homebuilding and tourism — which suffered during the economic downturn.

However, that rate started to drop in April 2010, and was down to 10.9 percent when Scott took office in 2011. The rate would then not drop below 7 percent until September 2013, and has essentially remained flat at around 6.3 percent since last December.

The rate is still significantly higher than what it was in 2006, where the rate hovered around 3.3 percent.

In August, Florida’s unemployment rate was ranked 26th in the nation, tied with Arkansas and Missouri, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Georgia that month had the worst rate at 8.1 percent, while North Dakota could be statistically labeled as “fully employed” with a 2.8 percent rate.

Of the top five most populous states, with Florida ranked fourth with 19.6 million people, California was ranked 44th nationally in August with a 7.4 percent rate, New York was ranked 29th at 6.4 percent, Texas ranked 16th at 5.3 percent, and Illinois ranked 36th at 6.7 percent.

The governor’s office did point out other positive trends in the economy, including a 33.7 percent backlog reduction in existing homes on the market since December 2011, as well as a 2.9-percent increase in home prices in August compared to the previous year.

In September, Florida’s 24 regional work force boards reported more than 43,800 people were placed in jobs. This number is based on those who seek employment and training assistance through the center and finds a job with 180 days. Of that number, nearly 9,400 of them had been receiving unemployment benefits.

West Winds in Zephyrhills sells to California group

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West Winds Assisted Living Facility is no longer locally owned.

The 75-bed for-profit facility, located at 37411 Eiland Blvd., in Zephyrhills, was sold Oct. 1 to Sabra Health Care Holdings III, which lists its address in Irvine, California, according to Pasco County property records.

West Winds Assisted Living Facility on Eiland Boulevard is now known as Rosecastle of Zephyrhills. (File photo)
West Winds Assisted Living Facility on Eiland Boulevard is now known as Rosecastle of Zephyrhills. (File photo)

West Winds Prime LLC was the seller. The Palm Harbor company’s ownership has essentially managed the facility through various companies since West Winds opened in 2008.

Sabra is a real estate investment trust that acquires senior citizen housing, memory care and skilled nursing facilities around the country. It purchased West Winds for $10.2 million, adding it to six skilled nursing facilities and three senior housing facilities Sabra purchased through the first half of 2014 for $141.5 million, according to its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

It’s not clear how many facilities purchased recently, but a newspaper in Nashville reported the REIT closed on a facility there around the same time for $21.1 million.

Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, are financial securities that allow investors to buy ownership into a property or mortgage, rather than in a company like what would typically be found on the stock market. Investors in such projects usually earn a percentage of profit from rents or fees collected from tenants in those properties, and would receive a portion of any profits made when the REIT sells that project to someone else.

Through the end of June, Sabra already owned six skilled nursing facilities in Florida, according to the company’s website. That includes a 107-bed campus in Fort Pierce the company purchased last March as part of a two-facility, $24.5 million deal.

West Winds did not respond to a request for comment.

This is the third largest real estate transaction in Pasco this year, behind the $36.1 million sale of the Arlington at Northwood apartment complex in Wesley Chapel, and the $16 million sale of more than 330 acres of land in Wiregrass Ranch to make way for a proposed 550-home subdivision. Both of those transactions took place in May.

Fact Check: Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera’s campaign visit to Zephyrhills

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Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera made a campaign stop on behalf of Gov. Rick Scott in Zephyrhills Sept. 22, speaking in front of the Conservative Club of East Pasco.

Throughout his stump speech, Lopez-Cantera attacked Scott’s Democratic opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist, but also made some other claims as well. 

For the complete story of Lopez-Cantera’s campaign stop, read the Oct. 1 edition of The Laker/Lutz News.

 “The high-speed rail was a project that is about $2 billion, but that would not have covered the cost of the project. And you know who would’ve been on the hook to cover the cost of the project? All of us.

“Look at California. They took the federal money, and they have not laid one inch of rail in their state for high-speed rail. They’re hundreds of millions of dollars in the hole. They raised the gas tax 6 cents just to cover the expense.

“And that is still not going to cover the cost, that is projected to be around $100 billion.”

President Obama announced construction of high-speed rail routes in several states, including Florida, in 2009 as part of his overall stimulus package to help jumpstart the nation’s lagging economy.

Florida was set to receive more than $2 billion, while California was gearing up to receive $8 billion in federal funds. However, while the federal dollars were expected to cover the cost of the Florida route’s first phase between Tampa and Orlando, the California contribution was just a fraction of the $68 billion needed to build the entire line in the state, that had been planned for decades.

The California project took a big hit last January, however, when a state judge there ruled the government could not sell billions of dollars in bonds that would’ve helped finance the project, according to the Washington Post.

In August, the New York Times called the high-speed rail project a failure, claiming the Obama administration spent $11 billion on the project, with nothing to show for it. However, Michael Grunwald from Time magazine disputed that report, saying just $2.4 billion has been spent nationwide, and that major construction of the first high-speed rail lines are just beginning after years of planning.

“In the next two years, you can expect another $1 million in tax cuts, and this is not a Charlie Crist rhetoric tax cut. Another $120 million will be cut in taxes if you have a cellphone. Your cellphone bill will go down.

“And we’re going to eliminate the manufacturing sales tax once and for all, so that we can continue to attract manufacturing jobs to our state, because those are good, high-paying jobs.

“We are going to get a constitutional amendment passed that if your (home) value does not go up, your property taxes will not go up. It is not fair.”

The Tax Foundation, a non-partisan research think tank based in Washington, D.C., has called some of these policies a “mixed bag.”

The constitutional amendment, for example, would require the approval of 60 percent of voters. At the same time, this would affect local government revenue, not state government revenue, said Lyman Stone of the Tax Foundation.

“Restrictions on property tax assessments can reduce local taxation, but only if there are also restrictions on property tax rates, effective standardization of tax-assessing practices, and strict limits on other local revenue sources,” Stone said. “Otherwise, if property taxes are ineffectively capped, localities will just raise the same revenues through less transparent means, like excessive fees, fines, or budget gimmicks that just push expenses further out.”

However, in the same analysis, Stone praised the proposed reduction in cellphone taxes. Florida, he said, has the fourth highest taxes on cellphone usage, and would bring the state closer to norms experienced elsewhere in the country.

 Drug testing those people receiving state funds “was passed in 2011, and has been challenged by liberal groups since then. We are still appealing it. There is an injunction in place that doesn’t allow (the state to enforce drug-testing) until it makes its way through the courts.”

A federal judge last December struck down the law forcing welfare recipients to be drug tested, saying the law violated the Constitutional protection against unreasonable searches. It was similar to a ruling made in Michigan in 2003 that put many proposed drug-testing policies on hold for several years.

The suit that led to the decision was put together by the American Civil Liberties Union, a group generally described as “liberal,” on behalf of a U.S. Navy veteran, Luis Lebron, who had filed for public assistance and was asked to submit to testing.

The New York Times reported late last year the program cost far more than it saved, finding less than 3 percent of those tested with positive results for narcotics.

“We talked about how we increased funding for education the last three years, and how Gov. Scott was a champion of a $480 million pay raise (for teachers). That was not a bonus but a pay raise.”

The raises, according to Scott, would amount to $2,500 per teacher, and up to $3,500 for those deemed “highly effective.” However, while the Legislature did approve a measure that would make an additional $480 million available to school districts, it’s still up to county school boards — not the states — on how that money will be distributed, if at all.

Also, the allocated money is not just for teachers in the classroom. It’s also for guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists, librarians, principals and assistant principals, according to the bill, which means at least some of the money is earmarked for those who aren’t in front of students.

Scott has pushed for increased education funding in recent years, but that came after he slashed the education budget in 2011 by $1.3 billion. In fact, despite his most recent increase, education funding per student is still below the levels under Crist in 2007, according to Politifact.

“Charlie (Crist) doesn’t want anyone to remember that he was governor for four years, and what the state looked like when he took it over. It had a 3.5 percent unemployment rate, and when he left, it was much higher. He is going to say it was the global recession, and that it would’ve happened to anybody. That is not true. The same time that Florida lost 830,000 jobs, there was another governor who focused on jobs, and they added 200,000 jobs. And that was Texas.”

Crist moved into the governor’s mansion in January 2007, enjoying an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent. However, by that July, it had climbed to 4 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As the Great Recession went into full swing, unemployment would rise to 4.8 percent after Crist’s first full year in office, and then 8.8 percent after his second.

Florida’s unemployment rate peaked at 11.4 percent in December 2009, and started to drop by April 2010.

When Scott took office in January 2011, the unemployment rate already was declining, dropping to 10.9 percent. It would take nearly three years for Scott to see unemployment rates drop below 7 percent, which it finally did in September 2013, but has plateaued around the 6.3 percent mark since last December.

In terms of what states weathered the recession better than others, Texas did gain attention for its job growth. However, many of those jobs, according to news reports, came in the oil and natural gas industries, which took only a minor hit during the recession.

Florida, on the other hand, was hit hard by the crash of the housing market, losing many jobs in that field — something Texas was able to absorb.

Last July, NPR reviewed job growth in all 50 states between January 2008 and May 2014, using data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During that time, North Dakota had the biggest job growth at 21.2 percent, followed by Texas with 8.4 percent — both taking advantage of growth in the petroleum industry.

In total, 18 states and the District of Columbia saw positive job growth since the time the recession was in full swing, but none of them are Florida. The Sunshine State is ranked 38th in job growth since January 2008, tied with Maine, showing it’s still short of reaching its pre-recession levels by 1.7 percent.

Of the 19 states and territories that have seen positive growth since the recession, eight are led by Democrats, and seven by Republicans. Two other states — Oklahoma and Iowa — went from Democrat to Republican governors during that time span, while two others — Minnesota and California — went from Republican to Democrat.

“The first two years, he was chasing the vice presidency and not focusing on the state. The second two years, he was running for a United States Senate seat.

“And he is the first governor in the history of Florida to not run for re-election.”

Charlie Crist was touring and campaigning with John McCain after the U.S. Senator won the Republican nomination in 2008, and many news outlets said Crist was one of the contenders to possibly accompany McCain on the presidential ticket, especially since that could help deliver Florida in the presidential election.

McCain, however, chose Sarah Palin instead, and would go on to lose to Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the November race.

Less than a year later, Republican Mel Martinez resigned from his U.S. Senate seat some four years after winning it, and Crist appointed his chief of staff, George LeMieux — who many largely saw as a placeholder for Crist — and Crist soon after announced his intentions to run for the seat.

When it became obvious Marco Rubio was going to win the Republican nomination two years later for the senate seat, Crist would stay in the race as an independent, eventually losing to Rubio in 2011.

Crist, however, is not the first governor in history to not run for re-election. Assuming Lopez-Cantera was only referring to sitting governors eligible to seek re-election (which would exclude the likes of Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush), C. Farris Bryant chose to serve just one term as governor, and did not seek re-election in 1964. He would be succeeded by another Democrat, W. Haydon Burns, in a two-year term in 1965.

Prudential commercial division takes Berkshire Hathaway name

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Prudential Commercial Real Estate FL is officially changing its brand, now becoming the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group Commercial Division.

The brokerage, which has served the Tampa Bay commercial and residential real estate markets since 1959, joins the HSF Affiliates company that now accounts for more than 31,000 agents and 907 offices in 46 states, according to a release.

The new Florida Properties Group Commercial Division is affiliated with popular businessman Warren Buffet and his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. It has 18 offices located throughout Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Hernando counties.  It offers residential, commercial, property management, relocation, home warranty, title, mortgage and insurance services.

Prudential Tropical Realty, which is based in Trinity, made the name switch to Berkshire Hathaway last January. Despite the new moniker, the company is still owned by Dewey Mitchell and Allen Crumbley.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is based in Irvine, California, and works in both residential and commercial real estate.