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‘Your doctor, your price’: Byron Donalds rolls out health care plan

Byron Donalds is laying out his health care policy platform as he runs for Governor.

Donalds is proposing the “Your Doctor, Your Price” initiative, which would require health care providers to post real cash prices for their top 20 services offered. Donalds’ plan would also align Florida’s prescription drug program with federal costs and promote the freedom to choose health care providers without pre-authorizations or surprise billing.

“When it comes to health care, one thing I’ve learned: The doctors are frustrated, the patients are frustrated,” Donalds said in The Villages at the Hotel Eastport.

“When you’re seeing the workers in that system and the users of that system, both, quite frankly, pulling their hair out … what it means is we have a responsibility to bring real reforms that will make this system and this process better.”

Phillies ask Pinellas for tourist tax funds to help renovate Clearwater spring training stadium

The Philadelphia Phillies want up to $85 million in Pinellas County tourist taxes to renovate their spring training stadium in Clearwater.

The $205 million renovation of BayCare BallPark is tied to a 20-year lease extension that would keep the Phillies training in Clearwater through at least 2047.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that the Phillies presented an updated term sheet to county commissioners on Thursday.

According to the Times, the team has agreed to pay $75 million and cover any cost overruns. The Phillies are also seeking a $20 million grant from the state and money from the city.

The Phillies have already invested $49 million into the renovation, and the first phase of work is underway.

Hundreds of high school seniors ponder what’s next in Tampa

As employment anxieties swirl with layoffs hitting technology companies, hundreds of high school seniors gathered in East Tampa this week and met with companies including Publix, TECO, BayCare and more. Some walked away with jobs.

At the Future Career Academy, students participated in the culmination of a year-long career readiness program and sat in sessions about life skills and how to up their pay once they’re in a job. They asked employers what it was like to work for their companies.

“A lot of times kids don’t know what’s out there and available,” said Stephanie Smith, a vice president of TECO. “What this program does is bring real life immediate opportunities. Not everyone’s going to go to a four-year university, maybe even not even a two-year. Maybe they go to a trade school. Some may go straight to work.”

Companies, Smith said, have a role to play, in helping young people find their next steps.

Florida’s Kirkpatrick Dam debate continues after session ends

During a rare reservoir drawdown this winter, hundreds of paddlers on the Ocklawaha River found themselves gliding past the remains of a centuries-old cypress forest drowned by a long-abandoned canal project, and into the center of a renewed debate over whether to remove the Kirkpatrick Dam.

Every four to five years, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection lowers the Rodman Reservoir, briefly allowing the Ocklawaha to return to its natural flow. The water level drops from roughly 18 to 11 feet above sea level, exposing submerged springs, clearing debris and revealing a river ecosystem that once flowed freely toward the Atlantic.

In February, 13 members of Climate Cafe GNV joined the ranks of those paddlers exploring the revived river with the guidance of Earth Kinship, an ecotourism company based in Elkton. The water, having returned to its original dimensions, revealed old scars along the riverbanks.

At one bend, a wooden scab more than 17 feet long sprawled across the waterway, the remains of a massive bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) that had likely stood for several centuries before it was cut down.