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Brandon Drivers Beware

What Florida’s proposed hands-free driving law could mean for Hillsborough County roads

Florida lawmakers are taking another run at distracted driving, and this time they’re aiming straight for the phone in your hand.

A proposed hands-free driving bill would make it illegal for drivers to hold a cellphone while operating a vehicle anywhere in Florida. That includes sitting at a red light, creeping through traffic, or rolling down the road, thinking a quick glance does not count. If the phone is not mounted or being used through hands-free technology, it could soon be a ticket.

Right now, Florida law focuses mainly on texting while driving and limits phone use in school and work zones. Supporters of the new bill say those rules have not kept up with how people actually use their phones. Navigation apps, social media, videos, emails, voice notes, and everything else now fit neatly into one glowing rectangle that keeps pulling attention away from the road.

If this bill passes, the expectation is simple. Eyes up. Hands on the wheel. Phone out of your hands.

For drivers in Brandon and across Hillsborough County, that could mean a real change in daily habits. The quick check at a stoplight. The phone resting in your lap. The one-handed scroll while traffic crawls along Bloomingdale or Lumsden. All of that would be off limits.

Supporters argue the goal is safety, plain and simple. Distracted driving continues to cause crashes across Florida, and they say a clearer hands-free rule would be easier to understand and enforce. Critics worry about enforcement fairness and whether drivers will truly change behavior or just get better at hiding their phones.

Either way, this is one of those laws that sounds straightforward on paper but hits close to home in practice. If it passes, Brandon drivers may need to invest in phone mounts, learn their voice commands, or finally accept that the text can wait.

Because no matter how confident someone feels behind the wheel, the road usually wins when attention slips.

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The Rays Are Looking for a Home

What the latest Rays stadium talks could mean for Hillsborough County fans

The conversation about where the Tampa Bay Rays might land next is picking up again, and while the latest development is not quite in Brandon, it still matters to everyone who calls this area home.

Next week, Hillsborough Community College’s board is expected to vote on whether to begin formal talks with the Rays about using land near the Dale Mabry campus in Tampa. This vote would not approve a stadium or lock anything in. It would simply open the door for discussions and planning to see if a deal even makes sense.

There are still a lot of unknowns. No finalized location, no funding plan, and no construction timeline. But after years of false starts and stalled ideas, even the idea of progress feels significant.

And here’s why Brandon residents should care. The Rays are not just a Tampa team or a St. Pete team. They are a Tampa Bay team. Fans from Brandon fill the stands, sit in traffic on game nights, and wear the gear year-round. Where the stadium ends up affects how easy it is to get to games, what kind of development follows, and how the entire region grows around it.

So while this vote happens a few miles west of Brandon, the outcome reaches much farther than one campus or one neighborhood. Wherever the Rays eventually land, they belong to all of us. And like it or not, the next chapter of that story is starting to take shape right now.

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Bread of Refuge

Bread of Refuge is a local nonprofit with a simple but powerful mission: feed hungry neighbors and bring a bit of hope to anyone who needs it. Each week, they serve hot meals to folks in need and operate a food pantry that gives out groceries so families can put food on the table. The heart of the organization is compassion, offering not just food but dignity to people facing tough times. Whether you’re volunteering, donating, or picking up a meal, Bread of Refuge is one of those community efforts that quietly reminds us how much we can do when we look out for each other.

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A Final Note

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