{"id":158288,"date":"2026-02-17T12:09:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158288\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:09:41","slug":"morning-briefing-tampa-february-17-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158288\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Briefing Tampa February 17 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, Tampa Bay.\u00a0Here’s what you need to know today.<\/p>\n

Your Weather Planner<\/p>\n

It will be a cool start to Tuesday, but we will warm to near 80 in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

A sea breeze will keep the coast a bit cooler.<\/p>\n

We will see mostly clear skies at night with lows falling to the low 60s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get the full forecast here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

High:\u00a080<\/p>\n

Low:\u00a061<\/p>\n

Rain Coverage:\u00a00%<\/p>\n

Check your hour-by-hour forecast here<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Share your weather photos<\/a><\/p>\n

Around Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Polk County urges public to follow burn ban amid brush fire uptick<\/a>
Polk County leaders are urging the public to follow its countywide burn ban after experiencing a recent uptick in brush fires.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Stronger seawalls: St. Pete wants community input before launching master plan<\/a>
The City of St. Pete wants input from the community before moving forward with creating a plan that would strengthen 15-miles of city-owned seawall.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Sarah Branyan helps fellow veterans with her personal story of recovery<\/a>
A Bay Area veteran is using the personal trauma she suffered and her resulting downward spiral to help other vets at the C.W. Bill Young Veteran’s Medical Center in Bay Pines.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Polk County looking for alternative water supplies as community grows<\/a>
Polk leaders\u00a0recently approved a nearly $2-million contract for a new water well supply in the northeast part of the county.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Florida A&M University awarded stewardship of historic Chinsegut Hill<\/a>
A new partnership is reshaping the future of one of Hernando County\u2019s most historic landmarks during Black History Month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Is it cheaper to rent or own across Tampa Bay?<\/a>
Data from the U.S. Census compares the price of renting and buying in eight Florida counties.<\/p>\n

Around the Nation & World<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who led the Civil Rights Movement for decades after King, has died at 84<\/a><\/p>\n

2.\u00a03 killed, including suspect, in shooting during Rhode Island youth hockey game<\/a><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Nancy Guthrie kidnapping investigators work with Walmart after identifying suspect’s backpack<\/a><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Epstein files fallout continues<\/a><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Obama clarifies comments about extraterrestrials, saying ‘no evidence’ of contact during his presidency<\/a><\/p>\n

Quote of the Day
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

For years, it was a daily McDonald’s trip for a cup of coffee with 10 sugars and five creams<\/a>. Later, it was Starbucks caramel macchiatos with almond milk and two pumps of syrup.<\/p>\n

Coffee has been a morning ritual for Chandra Donelson since she was old enough to drink it. But, dismayed by rising prices, the 35-year-old from Washington, D.C., did the unthinkable: She gave it up.<\/p>\n

“I did that daily for years. I loved it. That was just my routine,” she says. “And now it’s not.”<\/p>\n

Years of steadily climbing coffee prices have some in this country of coffee lovers upending their habits by nixing caf\u00e9 visits, switching to cheaper brews or foregoing it altogether.<\/p>\n

Coffee prices in the U.S. were up 18.3% in January from a year ago,\u00a0according to the latest Consumer Price Index released on Friday<\/a>. Over five years, the government reported, coffee prices rose 47%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning, Tampa Bay.\u00a0Here’s what you need to know today. Your Weather Planner It will be a cool…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2126,275,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-158288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-morning-briefing","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}