Cover Story
Orlando artist Ben Van Beusekom’s ‘Bombshell: Masquerading Warfare’ exhibit is more timely than ever
Bombshell: It’s a word that brings to mind the glittering, larger-than-life stars of classic Hollywood, before conjuring images of trench warfare, chemical warfare, drone strikes. Both sides of this American coin form the basis of the “couture gas masks” of local designer and artist Ben Van Beusekom’s Bombshell: Masquerading Warfare exhibit at downtown’s CityArts, running…
Legal Public Notices 9/23 issue
Orlando Legals Legal Public Notices ADVERTISEMENT FOR PROPOSALS Date: August 26, 2020 Request for Proposal: RFP-025-C-2020 (P) Pursuant to Chapter 23, Title 31 of the Virgin Islands Code, the Department of Health, Division of Behavioral Health, Alcoholism & Drug Dependency Services Office is requesting proposals from Qualified and Licensed Adult Step-Up, Step-Down (ASUSD) Mental Health…
Op-ed: Mask-free Christian gatherings that claim ‘freedom to worship’ are in fact a demonstration of self-centeredness
Over the weekend, nondenominational Christian praise musician Sean Feucht made a stop on his current revival tour in Orlando. At Lake Eola Park, “thousands worshipped in the rain” (headcount unconfirmed). No one visible in the video is wearing a mask. Orange County is still under Mayor Jerry Demings’ Executive Order 2020-25, issued June 20, which…
DeSantis’ anti-protesting proposal sparks furor in Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Tuesday that the Republican-dominated Legislature could consider a controversial proposal aimed at cracking down on disorderly protests when lawmakers return to Tallahassee in November for an organization session, as Democrats declared war on what they decried as a racially motivated election-year ploy. DeSantis’ law-and-order package, backed by incoming GOP legislative leaders,…
Orlando’s Stonewall Jackson Middle School to receive a new name
Orlando’s Stonewall Jackson Middle School looks set to receive a new name on Tuesday evening, an overdue change several years in the making. The school, currently named after Confederate general Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, will get a new, better moniker from a pool of three names under consideration: Diversity Middle School, Roberto Clemente Middle School or…
Orlando Taco Week starts Wednesday with $5 taco specials across the city
Orlando Taco Week starts Wednesday, Sept. 23, and runs all the way through Oct. 7 – that’s right, it’s a 14-day week! (Just to add to this year’s temporal weirdness.) As always, Taco Week features $5 taco deals at restaurants across the city, but this year, in addition to the $5 specials, chefs are encouraged…
‘RBG’ documentary to screen at Enzian this weekend
As a tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Enzian Theater will be screening the 2018 documentary RBG this weekend. Ginsburg – who passed away last week – was the subject of Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s affectionate and exhaustive cinematic portrait, which our own Cameron Meier lauded as “the documentary she deserves.” “The film is nothing…
Despite being more than 150 years old, Ripley’s latest acquisition is more timely than ever
As Confederate statues topple across the nation, these past few months have highlighted how far we as a nation still have to go in the pursuit of racial equity. The contextualizing of previously celebrated figures exposes those who rise above the crowd in their successes. In those regards, few stand taller than Abraham Lincoln. Now,…
Disney’s Orlando theme park apps get new video content, and take on Quibi and BuzzFeed in the process
With Disney’s California parks still closed until further notice, and the Florida parks operating at a decreased capacity, many Disney fans are still unable to visit their favorite places. It looks like Disney is hoping a new update to its Disney resorts apps will help keep these fans under the spell of the pixie dust.…
Orlando’s Leu Gardens will immerse visitors in a million lights at ‘Dazzling Nights’ holiday event
The Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando will become a bit of a holiday phantasmagoria this December, with Monday’s announcement of the monthlong ‘Dazzling Nights’ event. An outdoor wonderland of lights and music masterminded by the Creative City Project – who’ve been very busy of late – Dazzling Nights promises fantastical and interactive entertainments in the fresh air, including:…
Florida-based Carnival, losing more than $17,000 a minute, offloads 18 ships in effort to stay afloat
With losses of $770 million per month in the last quarter, or roughly $287 every second, Carnival Corporation is looking to cut expenses during the pandemic. That means an unprecedented 18 ships are leaving the company’s fleet. The Miami-headquartered cruise company, home to nine cruise lines, is responsible for 45 percent of the global cruise…
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio supports vote on Ginsburg replacement to Supreme Court
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Monday the Senate should consider President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday at age 87 of cancer. The death has touched off a political firestorm because the Republican-controlled Senate in 2016 refused to take up Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination…
DeSantis calls for tougher Florida laws on protesters
Brandishing a law-and-order approach to civil unrest, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s incoming Republican House and Senate leaders rolled out a legislative package Monday aimed at cracking down on protesters by creating a host of new crimes, as the GOP tries to keep the battleground state in President Donald Trump’s column in November. The proposal…
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried lashes out on eve of awaited cabinet meeting
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried teed off Monday on a wide range of economic, health and election issues that she says the state Cabinet and lawmakers should have addressed throughout the coronavirus pandemic. On the eve of a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Fried said Gov. Ron DeSantis shouldn’t have been allowed to solely address issues such as…
Op-Ed: Judicial Nominating Committee needs reform after botched Florida Supreme Court Appointment
Leave it to an uber-partisan and ideological governor to politicize what should have been an apolitical process: selecting a qualified black jurist for a seat on the state’s highest court. So, for the first time in 41 years, the Florida Supreme Court has no black justice. The Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Gov. Ron…
Floridians battling dementia get new tools for end-of-life decisions
Today, in honor of World Alzheimer’s Day, a new online tool makes its debut to help people decide whether they want doctors to prolong their life, in the event they are diagnosed with dementia and then get a terminal illness. Doctors are trained to save lives at all costs, but a 2018 poll about dementia…
‘John Lewis: Good Trouble’ coming to Orlando’s Dr. Phillips Center
Former U.S. Representative and civil rights activist John Lewis passed away this year on July 17, and although he is gone, he is not forgotten. His legacy continues to live on. Lewis has invested over 60 years of his life to fearlessly fight for racial equality and the effects of his efforts still help the black…
Biden’s support among Hispanic Florida voters could be stronger, and community leaders are calling for action
In a year of disease, unrest and chaos, the 2020 general election is being called the most important election of our lifetimes, and politicians are looking to gain favor with a new voice of participation at the polls. The Latino vote is no doubt a coveted asset in this race. Hispanics currently make up over…
Leslye Gale’s O-Town Lowdown on Magic 107.7 for Monday, Sept. 21, 2020
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. “One Dew-Garita Please” Said Everyone Not that most of us needed a reason to head back to Red Lobster, but now you can pair your cheddar biscuit with…
National cable networks join effort to aid Florida felons voting effort
An effort to pay court-ordered costs for felons who have served their time behind bars is getting a $250,000 boost from MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central, the cable networks announced on Friday. The money will go to a “Fees and Fines” fund created by the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition in response to a controversial state…
DeSantis signs new Florida laws on license plates and shark fins
Floridians will get a chance to buy new specialty license plates, including three for out-of-state universities, while efforts to prevent shark “finning” got a boost Friday, as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed 14 bills into law. DeSantis also vetoed a measure (HB 789) that would have imposed a $1 fee for people with developmental disabilities who…
Select Central Florida Red Lobster restaurants to roll out the Dew-garita cocktail in September
Yesterday MegaFoodCorps Pepsi and Red Lobster announced that they are “teaming up to create exciting new ways to enjoy great seafood along with the great taste and variety of PepsiCo products.” (In other words, you can’t get Coke at Red Lobster anymore. Enjoy informing your tables for the next year, Red Lobster waitstaff!) The first…
Today is National Black Voter Day, a reminder that the registration deadline is looming
Black Entertainment Television has pioneered a nonpartisan campaign called #ReclaimYourVote with the intent of recognizing today, Sept. 18, as National Black Voter Day. The campaign aims to mobilize Black voters to make their voices heard. National Black Voter Day helps make voting more accessible, so everyone can exercise their right. The day will highlight voter…
Sister Hazel to play October drive-in concert at Central Florida Fairgrounds
Sister Hazel are getting a piece of the drive-in entertainment action locally with Friday’s announcement of an Orlando show at the Central Florida Fairgrounds on Saturday, Oct. 24. That’s when the Gainesville 1990s rock favorite is taking over a good chunk of the Fairgrounds, located at 4603 W. Colonial Drive, for what amounts to the first…
Orlando Philharmonic to invite 200 Parramore students free to opening night stadium performance
The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra is set to play their season opener Saturday, September 26, at a new, physically distanced locale – Exploria Stadium, usually home to the Orlando City and Orlando Pride soccer teams. And on Friday, the Phil announced that they will be welcoming 200 children from the Parramore community – where the stadium is…
The Orlando Forum to offer Halloween-themed dinner show and ‘Tunnel of the Damned’ maze in October
International Drive dinner-theater destination the Orlando Forum is set to undergo a Halloween makeover to become the Forum of Fear in October. With Halloween Horror Nights on ice (kind of), smaller attractions are stepping up with new spins on haunts in the age of COVID. So starting Oct. 1, the Forum of Fear will offer…
A Florida bar is banning customers from wearing masks
Despite Florida registering 3,255 new coronavirus cases and 147 deaths yesterday, a Florida bar is now kicking out customers who want to wear face masks. “We find it completely unnecessary to have face masks at all. We do not support them; we do not believe in them,” said Westside Sports Bar and Lounge owner Gary…
McDonald’s is giving away its new spicy McNuggets this weekend
You probably respect your intestinal tract, so you probably don’t know that McDonald’s now has spicy McNuggets (even this writer, whose eating habits resemble those of a trash panda, had no clue). Well, the fast food chain wants you to be very aware of the first flavor change since the classic McNugget debuted in 1983,…
DeSantis says ‘boots on the ground’ needed to assess Florida hurricane damage
Gov. Ron DeSantis said expeditious recovery efforts were underway Thursday afternoon, with power restored to about 40,000 of the 250,000 Northwest Florida homes put in the dark Wednesday by Hurricane Sally. After an aerial tour of the storm-drenched western Panhandle, DeSantis said he expects the impacts to be more severe than what he could see…
New Florida law will shrink Medicaid waiting list
Nearly 60,000 poor, disabled and elderly residents are on a waiting list for placement in Florida’s Medicaid managed long-term care program. But the number of people on the list will be drastically reduced in the coming months. The Legislature this year passed a law to ensure that the list only includes the names of residents…
Winter Park’s Albin Polasek Museum announces ‘Robert Reedy: Revival’ exhibition set for November
Winter Park’s Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens on Thursday announced their next exhibition, Robert Reedy: Revival, set to open on Nov. 3. The exhibition will be a broad sampling of the work of longtime Orlando artist and academic Reedy across a range of media – painting, sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, collage – and the pieces are idiosyncratic,…
Jobless claims in Florida dip, as companies face sustained problems
Florida continues to see a steady decline in first-time unemployment claims, even as several large hospitality and entertainment companies have extended and imposed large-scale layoffs because of the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday reported 33,821 first-time unemployment claims in Florida during the week that ended Sept. 12, down from a revised…
Florida’s top business regulator says bars and breweries will ‘do a better job’
After many establishments were closed for months amid the coronavirus pandemic, Florida’s top business regulator believes bar and craft-brewery owners will do a better job this time of self-enforcing state safety restrictions. But Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Halsey Beshears said Wednesday his agency won’t go easy on bars and breweries that violate…
Holiday event Light Up UCF canceled this year
The annual holiday celebration Light Up UCF is canceled this year due coronavirus-related health and safety concerns. A brief statement posted to the Light UP UCF website on Thursday read: We regret to inform our Orlando community that due to ongoing public health and safety concerns and uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the tough decision…
Florida Senators Rubio and Scott pushing to keep daylight-saving time
Florida’s U.S. senators are making a new push for year-round daylight-saving time, this time tied to the coronavirus pandemic. Two years after backing a state legislative effort to put Florida on year-round daylight-saving time, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott introduced a bill to skip the change to standard time this fall…
Florida considers hiring same firm behind state unemployment website to build Medicaid system
A battle about whether Deloitte Consulting LLP should receive a major state Medicaid contract is ready to start playing out before an administrative law judge. The technology contract, which could be worth $135 million, has drawn scrutiny because the state Agency for Health Care Administration decided to award it to Deloitte this summer amid an…
Florida man misquotes ‘A Bug’s Life,’ after getting booted from Disney World for not wearing a mask
A guest at Disney’s Hollywood Studios was seen attempting to rally onlookers for support by incorrectly quoting the movie “A Bug’s Life,” while security escorted him out of the park for refusing to wear a face mask. In a video originally posted to social media on Sept. 15 by Disney fan site WDWT, a man…
SeaWorld to screen scary seasonal cinema at ‘Flicks and Frights’ drive-in events
SeaWorld Orlando is continuing the drive-in movie nights it has been hosting since earlier this summer, but with a Halloween twist. The new ‘Flicks & Frights’ series will be a regular weekend occurrence starting this Saturday and running through Halloween night, with scary movies screened in the SeaWorld parking lot. F&F airs a more family-friendly…
Leslye Gale’s O-Town Lowdown on Magic 107.7 for Wednesday, Sept. 17
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. This Drive Thru Haunt Is Everything in 2020 While there will be a limited Halloween Horror Night’s run at Universal Orlando and Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens, your best…
This week, readers were pro-ranked choice voting, anti-LGBTQ+ blood donation
Letters to the editor
Henry’s Depot in Sanford engineers some fine fare out of an old railroad station
C’mon, do the Locomotion
Orlando’s Global Peace Film Festival is mostly online this year, but there’s no change in its commitment to the value of dialogue
Orlando’s Global Peace Film Festival, now entering its 18th year of presenting thought-provoking cinema, will be a very different experience this year, with virtual screenings and panels. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the GPFF’s commitment to the values of access, equity, inclusivity, independence and encouraging dialogue through film. A carefully curated selection of…
Trump rejects democracy, scapegoats immigrants, and is consumed by grievance. But is he a fascist?
There’s a plausible argument that the first recognizably proto-fascist campaign appeared in the southern United States in the late 1860s with the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan: white-robed men, in league with conservative elites, using extrajudicial violence to enforce their vision of racial purity. Scholars are more likely to look for fascism’s protean DNA in the…
This Central Florida drive-through haunt will satisfy seasonal craving for scares and social distancing
For the past 15 years, I’ve been covering the evolution of Orlando’s haunt industry, at both Universal Orlando’s acclaimed Halloween Horror Nights and the independent haunted attractions – from 2006’s Nights of Terror to last year’s Dark Horizon – that have dared challenge its dominance. This year, the coronavirus pandemic managed to do what no…
Robert Pattinson’s latest creep turn is in Netflix’s ‘The Devil All the Time’
Streaming premieres this week
Adoptable dog Shakes is fearful of skateboards, but otherwise loves to spend time outdoors!
Meet Shakes! Sweet boy Shakes (A458050) is 3 years old and was surrendered to our shelter because his owner wasn’t able to care for him any longer. According to the previous owner, Shakes is an adventurous boy – he enjoys swimming, riding in cars, boats and kayaks. He is friendly with women, men, children, cats…
Leslye Gale’s O-Town Lowdown on Magic 107.7 for Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020
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. Icon Park Employee Dies After Falling From Starflyer Tragedy early yesterday at Orlando’s popular Icon Park. A young worker testing the Starflyer was more than 200 feet in…
