Retired land use & zoning attorney Ron Weaver (with mic in above photo), formerly with the Tampa-based firm of Stearns Weaver Miller, was the featured speaker at the Aug. 5 North Tampa Bay Chamber Business Breakfast held at Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch.
Weaver, showed off his encyclopedic knowledge of how both Hillsborough and Pasco counties developed. He began his presentation with an attention-grabbing look at some of the famous Tampa Bay-area “nudists,” because, he said, “Since 1941, we have been the nudist capital of the world.” He mentioned actress Lauren Hutton, actor Channing Tatum and pro wrestler/ actor John Cena, all of whom have done nude scenes on film, as among our area’s nudists.
Weaver also talked about how both Hillsborough and Pasco counties were named for British citizens. Wills Hill, the 1st Earl of (or “Lord”) Hillsborough, who was the Secretary of State for the Colonies prior to the American Revolution, which Weaver said Lord Hillsborough caused by ignoring the protests of the Colonists.
More than 100 years later, Samuel Pasco, who also was born in London but attended Harvard University across the pond, was recruited to help expand education opportunities in north Florida and ended up having a county spun off from Hernando County named for him after he served as Florida’s Speaker of the House. — GN
As you’re receiving this issue, the 2025-26 school year is about a week old, but because our deadline to finish this issue was the day before school started, we couldn’t get photos from the actual opening day of school onto these pages, so our amazing photographer Charmaine George went to as many “Meet the Teacher” events at as many of our area schools as she could.
Charmaine included shots from each of these events not only in the beautiful collage on this page, but also put together the best of the best photos she took and gave us dozens of options to fit on these pages.
A few things to note:
1) Neither Freedom nor Wharton high schools held their own “Meet the Teacher” events, so we have no photos from those schools on these pages.
2) Charmaine was careful to ask permission at each school, so the faces of children who are not allowed to be photographed were not included.
Charmaine was able to get photos at Clark, Heritage, Hunter’s Green, Pride and Tampa Palms elementaries and at Turner Bartels K-8 School. We apologize that she was not able to get pictures at Chiles Elementary, Benito or Liberty middle schools or Freedom or Wharton high schools. — GN
A lot of local businesses offer “Christmas in July” events, but very few that I’ve been to can match the free “Jingle Mingle” event hosted by the Hyatt Place Tampa-Wesley Chapel hotel (located at 26000 Sierra Center Blvd., just north and west of the S.R. 56 exit off I-75, Lutz) on July 31.
Sure, lots of places have had Santa Claus himself (bottom photo) on hand and available for free pictures at their events, and some may even have had some free food available, but the Hyatt Place management saw this as an opportunity to introduce the local community to the beautiful ballroom and delicious catering available at the hotel — in case you or someone you know wants to host a holiday event there.
Among the tasty treats served at the Jingle Mingle were small, plated samples of holiday-inspired dishes — like grilled orange salmon on a bed of tasty rice with fresh asparagus (top), oven-roasted chicken with house-made cranberry sauce and an addictive sweet potato mash and braised short ribs with red wine sauce, accompanied by a baby carrot medley and mashed potatoes. And, all of them were actually as appealing to the palette as they were to the eyes.
But of course, for yours truly, the highlight was the full-on s’mores station (above left), complete with graham crackers, Hershey’s chocolate bars and your choice of mini or huge marshmallows, plus skewers and “hot flames” to toast those marshmallows. Absolutely decadent!
Each adult attendee also received a ticket for a free holiday-themed cocktail (e.g., a “White Christmas Margarita,” “Tipsy Reindeer” and more), plus vendors like Florida Ave. Brewing Co. and Thirsty Buffalo gave away free beer samples. And, PopStroke, Main Event and Metro Lagoons were on hand, and there was a free photo booth, other desserts and more.
The event also helped remind attendees that the hotel also will again host a full-on Thanksgiving buffet and this year, a New Year’s Eve gala that hotel director of sales Lorna Petchey promises will not be cancelled this time.
For more information about the Hyatt Place, call (813) 803-5600, visit Hyatt.com or email Lorna.Petchey@Hyatt.com to book your own holiday party ASAP. — GN
I have been a fan of lead guitarist Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers since I first saw the group live when I was a student at the University of Florida back in 1981, when Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks joined the Heartbreakers on stage to sing “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and four or five Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks songs during the encores.
After the tragic passing of Petty in 2017, Campbell spent two years (2018-19) as the replacement for Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac, but then started his own band, The Dirty Knobs, in 2020. The new band — currently comprised of Campbell on lead guitar and most of the lead vocals, recent Eagles touring guitarist Chris Holt on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Lance Morrison on bass and former Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone — has put out three albums to date, “with a fourth one in the can,” according to Campbell last night.
The group’s next-to-last stop on their current tour (the Dirty Knobs play in Jacksonville tonight) was at Ruth Eckerd Hall last night and they put on a show much more laden with solo Petty and Heartbreakers tunes than most of the Dirty Knobs’ previous dates — eleven in all, in fact. Although it was amazing for this 45-year Petty fan to hear so many of those old favorites, I actually would personally have been happier to hear Campbell & Co. play more of the Dirty Knobs’ own catalog.
Considering that Campbell rarely, if ever, even had a mic to sing to on stage when he was with the Heartbreakers, I absolutely love the guy’s voice and his music, as always, is solid rock with many of these songs having that Petty-esque country twang. And, although Mike is credited as a co-writer on dozens of Petty’s classic tunes, my understanding was that Mike would usually write or co-write the music, but Tom handled the majority of the lyrics. So, it’s pretty startling to hear so many songs that Campbell has written and sings himself.
Among my favorites at last night’s show were the hard-rockin’ but melodic “Dare to Dream” and the country-infused rocker “Wicked Mind,” the super-fun “F–k That Guy,” plus “Irish Girl,” “Shake These Blues,” and “Angel of Mercy,” all of which are from the three Dirty Knobs albums. There were at least 7-8 more of those songs that I wish they played — including the almost Rolling Stones-ish title track, the funky rocker “Sugar” and the sweet “Anna Lee” from the first Dirty Knobs album, “Wreckless Abandon.”
Others they didn’t play that I love are the great lyrics and catchy beat of “Dirty Job,” the beautiful duet with Margo Price called “State of Mind” (which sounds like it could be Petty and Stevie Nicks together again), “It Is Written” and “Electric Gypsy” from the second album, “External Combustion,” and “Hands Are Tied,” “Innocent Man” (a completely different song than Billy Joel’s “An Innocent Man”), “Hell or High Water” and “The Greatest” from the newest album, “Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits.”
If you like Campbell’s “minimalist” guitar from the Petty days, many of these songs are equally as addictive — at least in one editor’s opinion.
But yes, it also was awesome to hear Campbell’s guitar riffs and belted-out, Petty-like vocals on all of the Petty and/or Heartbreakers tunes, especially on “Love Is A Long Road,” “A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me),” “Don’t Fade On Me,” “You Got Lucky,” “You Wreck Me,” “Runnin’ Down A Dream” and my favorite Heartbreakers song of the evening, “The Best Of Everything” (in duet with super-talented opening act Shannon McNally, a Grammy-nominated Long Islander from Jones Beach).
Overall, it was an wonderful show and most of the not-quite-sold-out crowd of over 2,000 people seemed to love it as much as Jannah and I did.
Whether you were at the concert or not, if you’re a fan of the Heartbreakers, you have to read Campbell’s recently released book, Heartbreaker: A Memoir — which I was surprised to not see on sale at Ruth Eckerd. It’s an incredible read, ghost-written by Ari Surdoval, and it tells all of the stories of how Campbell came from less than nothing in Jacksonville, to getting a scholarship to the University of Florida, where he met Petty (who wasn’t a student but grew up in Gainesville), who convinced Mike to drop out of U-F, to meeting the other members of the band then-called Mudcrutch, to heading out to Los Angeles and finding stardom with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers — and everything that came since then. I’m sure it must include Campbell’s thoughts on Tom passing away in 2017 — although I haven’t finished reading the book yet. Even so, it’s honestly already one of the best non-fiction memoirs I’ve ever read.
I don’t know what’s next for Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs or when they will return to our area, but all I can say — after literally eight of them last night — is “Encore!”
As I’ve written multiple times previously, North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) president & CEO Hope Kennedy and I didn’t know each other at all when she moved here from Pensacola nearly 14 years ago to take over the reins at what was then called the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber (which later became the NTBC under her leadership).
But since then, Jannah and I have both been proud to say that we have considered Hope to be among our closest friends. As the publisher and editor of this publication the entire time she’s had her job, I couldn’t help but interact with Hope on a regular basis and what I have always found her to be is a consummate professional who took over a floundering organization and transformed it into a true regional powerhouse. In addition to her Chamber duties, Hope has served on the Boards of Directors of local hospitals and business organizations and has been asked to speak on behalf of her Chamber and the North Tampa Bay community at the openings of too many development projects to mention them all here.
But, as a few short weeks ago, Hope now has national credentials to go along with the ever-growing influence she has earned locally.
At the 2025 Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) conference in Philadelphia from July 22-25, Hope was proud to be given the title of CCE — or Certified Chamber Executive — which fewer than 3% of the leaders of the 7,500+ Chambers of Commerce in the U.S. have earned.
“CCE isn’t an honorary title or an award,” Hope says. “To earn the CCE credentials, you have to go through an extensive application process and everything about your Chamber is put under a microscope — from financials to accomplishments. You have to have held your position for at least seven years and you have to be sponsored by another CCE in order to even be considered (Hope was mentored by Tampa Bay Chamber president & CEO Bob Rohrlack). It’s a pretty big deal for both me and our Chamber.”
Hope also had to submit multiple essays, including one about a major project she’s proud of and she wrote about helping what is now called the Greater Pasco Chamber (GPCC) — which previously had been a competitor of the NTBC — recover from nearly going out of business. Hope’s NTBC Board allowed her to also take over the GPCC leadership on an interim basis, in order to right what otherwise likely would have been a sinking ship — even though there were some GPCC Board members at the time who didn’t want Hope to be the one helping them.
Today, the NTBC and GPCC work hand-in-hand and Hope deserves much of the credit for keeping that one-time rival afloat.
She was one of 26 new CCEs named at the 2025 National ACCE Conference — the largest-ever group to receive those credentials at the same time — but that doesn’t diminish in any way her accomplishment. “Earning the CCE designation means that I’ve reached the absolute top of my profession,” Hope says. “It was a lot of hard work, to get here, but it was definitely well worth it!”
So, What About WC Incorporation?
If you remember, back in March, we reported that Hope and her NTBC Board had decided to lead a group of local business owners who wanted to look into the possibility of Wesley Chapel incorporating as its own city, with the goal of ensuring that the residents and businesses located in the area had their own local government overseeing future development and other decisions and to find out if the idea was even economically or logistically feasible.
Through its nonprofit Foundation, the Chamber began asking for donations from individuals and businesses to fund two $75,000 studies — the first to determine the economic impact of the area known as Wesley Chapel and the other, if the results of the first study warranted moving forward, an incorporation feasibility study.
However, the possible start of the first study was put on hold when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed ending property taxes, which would have made incorporation a lot more difficult to achieve. But, the State Legislature rejected the governor’s idea when its session ended in June.
“That at least revived the idea of exploring Wesley Chapel incorporation,” Hope says. “We have restarted our fund-raising efforts, so anyone who wants to make a tax-deductible donation for the study (or if you have questions about it) should call the Chamber office at (813) 994-8534.”
“We hadn’t actually started collecting any money before,” Hope says. “But, we did have commitments for about a third of the amount needed for the first study.”
