{"id":257753,"date":"2026-05-04T14:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257753\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T14:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:36:10","slug":"the-scoop-mon-may-4-2026-tampa-bay-and-florida-headlines-by-wmnf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257753\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scoop: Mon. May. 4, 2026 Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2048\" height=\"2048\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/The-Scoop-color-2048x2048-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-258600 size-258600 wp-post-image\" alt=\"WMNF The Scoop\" large=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>USF\u2019s Marine Science Lab is considered a total loss after a fire<\/p>\n<p>The University of South Florida\u2019s Marine Science Lab in St. Petersburg went up in flames on Saturday evening and is considered a total loss, but no injuries were reported.<\/p>\n<p>Pinellas County is moving its headquarters<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/county-property-in-downtown-clearwater-faces-unknown-future\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/county-property-in-downtown-clearwater-faces-unknown-future\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Pinellas County\u2019s headquarters<\/a> is moving out of downtown Clearwater, and residents advocate for the land not to be sold but leased.<\/p>\n<p>The Tampa Bay History Center will extend its run of the America at a Crossroads exhibit<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/america-at-the-crossroads-the-guitar-and-a-changing-nation-extended-through-summer\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/america-at-the-crossroads-the-guitar-and-a-changing-nation-extended-through-summer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">The Guitar and a Changing Nation exhibit<\/a> will continue its run at the Tampa History Center through the summer due to popular demand.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis signs bill increasing membership requirements for public union certification<\/p>\n<p>Governor Ron DeSantis has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/senate-bill-1296-threatens-security-of-floridas-workers\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/senate-bill-1296-threatens-security-of-floridas-workers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">signed a new bill<\/a> that forces public-sector unions to meet much higher membership and voting requirements or risk decertification.<\/p>\n<p>The Scoop: Tampa Bay &amp; Florida headlines by WMNF<\/p>\n<p>The Scoop, produced by Mackenzie Queen<\/p>\n<p>WMNF anchors Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Hu\u00e9rfano, Se\u00e1n Kinane, Lisa Marzilli, Josh Holton.\u00a0<br \/>WMNF News Director Se\u00e1n Kinane<br \/>WMNF reporters Chris Young, Juanita Hurtado Hu\u00e9rfano, Lisa Marzilli, Se\u00e1n Kinane, Leah Burdick, Sofia Caballero, Josh Holton<br \/>Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.<\/p>\n<p>Theme music, Fresh06, by Stian via archive.org \u2013 CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/jamendo-001084\/02.mp3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/jamendo-001084\/02.mp3<\/a><br \/>The Scoop logo by Robin Milcowitz \/ Greener Pixels \/\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/greenerpixels.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">greenerpixels.com<\/a>\u00a0\/ WMNF<\/p>\n<p>information from News Service of Florida, the Associated Press and Florida Public Media was used in this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USF\u2019s Marine Science Lab is considered a total loss after a fire The University of South Florida\u2019s Marine&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[30415,596,412,36512,135,25708,137,136,416,111221,19123],"class_list":["post-257753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-news-and-public-affairs","tag-pinellas-county","tag-ron-desantis","tag-state-government","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-history-center","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-the-scoop","tag-usf-st-petersburg","tag-wmnf-88-5-fm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257753","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=257753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}