Sarasota FL

VENICE — Just two weeks after the Sarasota County Commissioners praised the Hermitage Artists Retreat nonprofit for maintaining its campus amid a possible property sale, one county official is tossing up a red flag.

Jonathan Simos has a checklist of challenges he wants to conquer—eight or nine in all, each chosen because it plays to his lifelong strength. At 37, the Sarasota native has already dead-hung with 300 pounds strapped to his body for a Guinness World Record. On Sept. 6, he added another: most weight lifted by dumbbell...

BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners discussed an Aug. 28 letter sent to the three Island mayors from State Rep. Will Robinson Jr. (R-Bradenton) and State Sen. Jim Boyd (R-Bradenton). The state legislators’ letter requested updates from all three Island cities on their efforts to consolidate similar services provided...

VENICE, Fla. (WWSB) — The city of Venice will host a free self-service sandbag station on Sunday, Sept. 14, to help residents prepare for potential flooding. The station will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 252 Seaboard Ave. Residents may receive free sand and empty bags, with a limit of 10 sandbags per vehicle.

The moment you step into Walt’s Fish Market Restaurant in Sarasota, you realize you’ve stumbled upon the kind of place that makes people cancel their dinner reservations elsewhere for the rest of their vacation. This isn’t just another seafood joint trying to lure tourists with plastic lobsters and...

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a Special Marine Warning until 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9. At 2:59 p.m., the NWS Tampa Bay Ruskin office said radar spotted a severe thunderstorm capable of producing waterspouts about 7 nautical miles southwest of Venice Inlet, moving east at 10...

In a state overflowing with seafood joints promising the freshest catch, there’s a humble dockside eatery in Cortez that doesn’t just make promises—it delivers maritime perfection on a paper plate. Star Fish Company sits unassumingly along the waterfront of this historic fishing village, looking more like someone’s...

RUSKIN, Fla. (WFLA) — PETA is now offering a reward for information that leads to the arrest of the person responsible for abandoning a dog whose back and front legs were tied up on a Ruskin road. According to PETA, a reward of up to $5,000 is being offered after a dog was abandoned near […]

A major grocery wholesaler has opened a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in southern Manatee County, on the border with Sarasota County. The new facility for UNFI, which stands for United Natural Foods Inc., is 35% bigger than its previous one in the area. Th UNFI facility is at 8380 21st...

The former CEO of a St. Petersburg-based company was arrested Monday after he was accused of embezzling over $191,000 in company funds.