It’s a goddamn sad summer indeed, and Destroy Boys are headed to the City Beautiful to soundtrack it. These Bay Area punks are opening up the Sad Summer Fest package tour in amphitheaters and outdoor spaces around the country, headlined by pop-punk stalwarts All Time Low and also featuring the Story So Far, the Maine,…
UPDATE: Headline updated to better reflect future ride concepts. With the announcement by Disney that thousands of Imagineering jobs would soon be heading to Central Florida, the region garnered international attention as a magnet for the amusement industry well beyond just hosting the world’s busiest theme parks. Hundreds of local companies play an outsized role…
Fans of the crooner behind Fine Line will need to fine a line to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Harry Styles just announced that all dates on his tour will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for entry. Styles, who is set to play the Amway Center on October 7, announced the move…
Disney-area eatery Chevys Fresh Mex is moving out of its current Buena Vista location to a brand new home a bit northwards on Conroy. Chevys is relocating to 4158 Conroy Road near the Mall at Millenia at the end of the month, with a projected (re)opening in early fall. The current Buena Vista staff will be making…
Grady Judd is an archconservative little troll who threatened the non-MAGAfied residents of his county with arrest for voting the wrong way. And even he has seen the light on coronavirus vaccines. The Polk County Sheriff urged Floridians to get vaccinated after 32-year-old PCSO deputy Christopher Broadhead died this week from COVID-19 complications. “This virus…
Orlando Fire Chief Benjamin Barksdale was arrested on an assault charge from North Carolina on Tuesday. According to department officials, Barksdale turned himself in to authorities in Mecklenberg County, North Carolina. The city of Orlando suspended Barksdale upon being made aware of the warrant for his arrest earlier this month. Barksdale is accused of assault…
All Elite Wrestling has announced its first-ever event in Orlando, a big television taping set for October. The upstart professional wrestling federation, founded in 2019, has made big moves during its relatively short existence, securing a television deal with TNT/TBS, and building a strong roster of recognizable veterans — Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Sting — and young talent…
Orlando’s Renaissance Theatre Company has found a new headquarters in Ivanhoe Village, transforming a warehouse on Princeton Street into a new theater space. And they’re going to christen it with a dramatization of the seminal vampire flick Nosferatu. As reported by Bungalower, the purchase of the warehouse at 415 E. Princeton St. is set to…
Disney Cruise Line on Tuesday joined other lines that dock in Florida in planning to require COVID-19 vaccinations for most passengers ages 12 or older traveling to the Bahamas. The announcement came after Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis last week said cruise ships will only be allowed to enter ports, including those on private islands…
Orange County Public Schools voted to impose a 60-day mask mandate on all students at their school board meeting on Tuesday. The decision came the day after OCPS saw its single highest day of new COVID-19 cases yet. August 23 saw 382 new confirmed coronavirus cases among students and 37 cases among faculty. The district’s…
A House Republican on Tuesday filed a proposal that would prevent the Florida surgeon general from ordering people to get vaccinated during public health emergencies. Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, filed the proposal (HB 6009) for consideration during the 2022 legislative session, which will start in January. Under state law, the surgeon general has broad powers…
Orlando Legals Legal Public Notices CRISTA HAYNES, ESQ. (SBN 278600), THE HAYNES LAW FIRM, A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORP., 631-B West State Street, Redlands, California 92373, Phone (833) 526-5197, Facsimile (909) 287-3031, Email crista@cristahayneslaw.com, Attorney for Petitioners, Becki and Christopher Pearlman. SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN BERANRDINO Š FAMILY LAW DIVISION.…
Sanford will get a little louder and snottier for a third year this weekend, as the Sanford Punk Fest takes over West End Trading Co. The Punk Fest will boast a big lineup of local rabble-rousers dealing in punk, hardcore and ska including: Debt Neglector, 430 Steps, Yellow Day Union, You Vandal, the Longest Hall,…
Unlike the bitey logs that call their park home, venerable roadside zoo Gatorland is upping their visibility. The Orlando attraction will sponsor a car in the upcoming Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 28. Along with swamp tour company Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures, Gatorland have thrown in to wrap B.J. McLeod’s…
The long-awaited Hunger Street Tacos outpost in Winter Garden is this close to opening, with a soft-opening trial run starting this week. Hunger Street will be working out the kinks at their new restaurant starting Tuesday, Aug. 24 (hey, that’s today!) from 3 p.m.-8 p.m. Hunger Street has set up shop in the Plant Street…
Orange County Public Schools’ teachers union plans to hold a protest before Tuesday’s school board meeting. The Orange County Classroom Teachers Association will gather in front of the school district’s main office to demand a mask mandate in area schools. In a post shared to Facebook, the union said that the board’s “lack of urgency…
Forty-nine Florida hospitals reported critical staffing shortages on Monday and 51 hospitals were anticipating shortages within the week as the state continues to lead the nation in the percentage of inpatients with COVID-19, according to data posted by the U.S. Department of Health Human Services. Florida had 17,143 COVID-19 hospital admissions reported by 257 hospitals.…
The Frontyard Festival will be hosting a big-time headliner this autumn of the reggae variety: Ziggy Marley. Ziggy Marley headlines the Frontyard Festival in downtown Orlando on Thursday, Oct. 7. The eight-time Grammy winner and CBD entrepreneur Marley will be presenting a musical tribute to his late father, the iconic Bob Marley. This is not the…
A Leon County circuit judge began hearing arguments Monday in a high-profile lawsuit about whether Florida school districts should be able to set student mask requirements as COVID-19 continues to surge across the state.. Attorneys for a group of parents began calling witnesses whose arguments were geared primarily toward proving the delta variant of the…
It’s not often our hometown breweries get an international stage, but we’re getting one at the Craft Beer Festival at SeaWorld, which runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from now through Sept. 12 (though we’re likely to see an extension through October). New to the festival this year is a Craft Beer Dinner Series, the brainchild…
SeaWorld’s Ice Breaker coaster will officially open in February. The Orlando theme park announced the opening date of its long-awaited roller coaster on Monday, noting that the first launched roller coaster in park history will begin taking riders early next year. The park went all in on launches with their first foray into the high-speed…
Busch Gardens has finally set an opening date for its long-awaited update to their ancient Gwazi coaster. Iron Gwazi, a hybrid steel-wood coaster that will become the tallest of its type on this side of the world upon opening, will begin allowing passengers in March of 2022. The announcement comes after years of buildup and…
The Florida State Conference of the NAACP and two Palm Beach County families are asking an appeals court to review a state health department rule aimed at allowing parents to opt out of local school mask mandates. Plaintiffs are seeking to invalidate an emergency rule by the state Department of Health that, in part, requires…
The Florida Department of Health added 1,483 deaths to state’s cumulative toll of coronavirus in their weekly report, bringing the total to 42,252. While 346 new deaths were reported for the reporting period running from August 13 to August 19, the FDOH’s overall death toll climbed by nearly 1500 as the numbers were adjusted to…
Thirty-four percent of the patients hospitalized Friday in Florida had COVID-19, the highest percentage in the nation, according to data posted on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. Florida had 17,198 inpatient beds filled by people with COVID-19. Overall, 86 percent of the state’s hospital beds were occupied. Hospitals report information to…
The State Board of Education on Friday followed up on its threat to financially penalize local school officials who impose student mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, detailing how it is targeting salaries of school board members in Alachua and Broward counties. State board Chairman Tom Grady and Vice Chairman Ben Gibson signed orders that…
The city of Orlando has declared a water shortage and, oddly enough, it’s due to COVID-19. At a press conference on Friday, Mayor Buddy Dyer and the Orlando Utilities Commission shared that their supply of liquid oxygen used to treat the city’s water is expected to be lower than usual. OUC shared that they might…
The number of newly reported COVID-19 infections in Florida dipped Thursday, but the number of hospitalizations increased, according to data maintained by two federal agencies. Florida reported that it had 15,402 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, down from 23,533 the day before, according to numbers posted Thursday on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
AdventHealth officials shared several striking stats during their Thursday briefing on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Central Florida hospital group noted that half of their record-breaking 1620 COVID-19 hospitalizations were under the age of 40. “Relatively healthy individuals… are getting quite sick. Some of them have to be on ventilators and some have died,” said…
Orange County Public Schools took the first step toward a full mask mandate on Thursday, with school board members asking district lawyers to research the best way to impose a mandate under Florida’s restrictions. “I am fully in support of putting mandates back in place,” said school board chair Teresa Jacobs during the board’s work…
A section of Lee Road that runs under I-4 will be closed over the weekend for bridge construction work. The Florida Department of Transportation shared that the section of Lee just past Wymore Road would be closed, with traffic being rerouted along Fairbanks Avenue, N. Orlando Ave and Webster Ave. depending on their direction of…
A photo of a woman lying on the floor of a North Florida COVID-19 antibody treatment center has gone viral, with many people using the image to characterize and criticize Gov. Ron DeSantis’ response to the pandemic. NEW: COJ confirms picture was taken at downtown library monoclonal antibody center yesterday. Woman who posted picture to…
Chick-fil-A will open a new location inside Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, which is the first time the popular chicken sandwich chain will open within a theme park in Florida. In a Thursday press release, the new spot plans to debut sometime this fall, taking over the former Bengal Bistro in the Jungala area of the…
Domu Lab, the chef incubator and culinary component of the Neighbors at East End Market, will launch its eight-seat rotating chef’s table with a concept called Camille. It’s the brainchild of chef Tung Phan, a Le Cordon Bleu graduate who’s held the chef de partie position at Victoria & Albert’s and who currently serves as…
Management at the Marketplace at Avalon Park had their hearts set on debuting their new food hall concept in the spring, but they’re pushing hard to make it in time for a revised September opening. And with 11 restaurants on board, it should be worth the wait. That’s right, te 8,000-square-foot food hall at 3801…
Walt Disney World finally scrapped their FastPass system in favor of a new paid option that allows guests to schedule ride times and skip lines. As we predicted, the newly unveiled Genie app will turn Disney’s longstanding line-skip system (which only required advance planning) with a paid add-on to the cost of a Disney ticket.…
A federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Wednesday shows the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have become less effective in keeping nursing-home residents safe as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus has spread and that booster shots might be needed. The report came as the White House announced that booster shots…
The long-awaited debut of Gatlin Hall Brewing is nigh. The brewery promised an opening date by the end of August on social media this week and that puts it within the next two weeks, roughly. “OPENING UPDATE: We are working through our final inspections and expect to be open by the end of the month,”…
Madame Tussauds is going to get a very fresh new face in and amongst its menagerie of wax celebrities, with Latin pop megastar Maluma (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) set to make the museum his home next year. Maluma’s upcoming addition to Tussauds’ Icon Park location seems to be part of an overall strategy to…
The Miami-Dade County school district on Wednesday joined Alachua and Broward counties in mandating students wear masks in schools, with exceptions only for medical reasons. Students in the Miami-Dade district, which is the fourth-largest in the country with 334,000 students, are set to begin the school year on Monday. Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho addressed the…
President Joe Biden’s administration is poised to announce an ultimatum for the the nation’s nursing home workers: requiring that all nursing home workers get vaccinated against coronavirus. Biden plans to leverage the federal government’s control over Medicare and Medicaid funding to force vaccinations. According to a report from CNN, he has asked the Department of…
With a judge set to hear arguments Thursday, attorneys for a group of parents are pushing back against the state’s attempt to scuttle a lawsuit challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to prevent mask mandates in schools. In a 28-page court document filed Tuesday, the parents’ attorneys wrote that the governor’s power “is not absolute; it…
The Orlando arts festival Immerse is returning in 2021, with several new installations and three days of performances. The fest, put on by Creative City Project and sponsored by Orlando Health, will feature acrobatics shows, live performances and several immersive art installations. The first of these kicks off on September 17. “Joybox” is a series…
In light of the raging coronavirus pandemic in Florida and the effect its had on Central Florida schools, several districts have opted to move toward a stricter mask policy. Osceola and Marion County announced new rules for their public schools this week. Osceola County is following in Orange County’s footsteps. Like Orlando schools, the district…
Orlando is offering people who get vaccinated at mobile sites in Orlando the opportunity to win tickets to a host of events ranging from the Citrus Bowl and the Florida Classic to Jimmy Buffet and Enrique Iglesias concerts. As part of their ongoing plan to boost vaccination rates, they plan to offer free entry into…
Due to several hundred new cases of coronavirus being reported in the school district, more than 3,000 Brevard Public Schools employees and students are currently in quarantine. The total number of individuals currently being held in quarantine in the second full week of school in the county is 3,049, per the district’s “dashboard.” Of those,…
Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor passed away yesterday, according to an announcement from DBPD Chief Jakari Young. Raynor had been hospitalized since June, when he was shot in the head while on duty. DBPD shared body cam footage of the incident, which showed Raynor approaching a man in his car. The two got into…
Florida reported another 21,669 new COVID-19 infections and seven deaths on Monday, according to data posted Tuesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, Florida has had 2,955,098 COVID-19 infections and 41,130 deaths. The state has seen a major spike in cases and hospitalizations…
The State Board of Education on Tuesday ratcheted up pressure on officials in two school districts who want student mask mandates with exceptions only for medical reasons, floating the possibility that district leaders who defy state directives could be removed from office. The board, during an emergency meeting, voted to direct state Education Commissioner Richard…
Heads up, TLU will be on pause next week, but only because it’ll be our blockbusting annual Best of Orlando issue. Oh, the tingles! LOCAL RELEASES: Although not a music group per se, the Jonesy Collective recently debuted their first music compilation. The Orlando organization is actually a nonprofit that was formed to honor Alex…
Can’t respect everyone else’s safety? Stay the fuck home. The Tremolords and the Chotchkies: This one-two punch of garage-minded Orlando rock bands is worth more than the price of admission alone. But the fact that it’s a chance to enjoy live music at the Veranda Live again makes it an even bigger deal. When this…
More than 23,000 Floridians tested positive for coronavirus in a single day over the weekend. That topped the previous one-day record (set the day before) of 22,783 positive tests. Hospitalizations also hit a new high. The spike in cases came as children in Florida return to school in-person. State leaders have barred local school districts…
Flavor by the numbers
Our editors’ selections of the best things to do this week. Friday, Aug. 20-Sunday, Aug. 22Fanboy ExpoWith MegaCon now in the books despite some pretty heavy odds, we guess it’s time for another fandom convention to go down in the City Beautiful. Fanboy Expo is a smaller affair than MegaCon — probably not a bad…
OPENINGS: The long-awaited Yummy House Seafood Clubhouse, with its menu of live seafood, Hong Kong-style dim sum and modern Cantonese cuisine, is going through final inspections and should open at Phillips Crossing by summer’s end … Nearby, New York-based Carolina barbecue chain Brother Jimmy’s has opened in the former K-Town Cafe space in the Marketplace…
Meet Mellow! Mellow (A351910) is 5 years old. He was adopted from our shelter five years ago and now the owner is moving to a place that does not allow pets. According to Mellow’s previous owner, he is housebroken, knows basic obedience commands, is friendly with men, women and dogs, but does not get along…
After all the recent drama involving Mad Cow Theatre and CFEA, it was a refreshing change to cover a major local cultural organization that’s not only made it through the pandemic, but has done so while demonstrating their commitment to diversity and inclusion within one of the most tradition-bound arts. I recently caught up with…
Dear Dan: Is it ever OK to stop being GGG? I’ve been with my husband for 26 years. Shortly after we got together, my husband disclosed a major kink: MFM threesomes. I was young and a virgin and up for anything then, but we didn’t start hooking up with other men until around year six…
Let the squabbling begin. Last Thursday’s delayed release of 2020 census data kicked off the once-a-decade redistricting process, setting the stage for Florida lawmakers to begin configuring congressional and legislative districts in advance of next year’s elections. But politics will play as big a role as population when the Republican-controlled Legislature starts drawing maps that…
