{"id":356333,"date":"2026-07-29T15:31:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/356333\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:31:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:31:45","slug":"the-scoop-wed-july-29-2026-tampa-bay-and-florida-headlines-by-wmnf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/356333\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scoop: Wed. July 29, 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-264160 size-264160 wp-post-image\" alt=\"WMNF The Scoop\" large=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Florida executes two prisoners, including an 80-year-old<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James Aren Duckett and octogenarian Dominick Anthony Occhicone were put to death in a rare <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/florida-executes-two-inmates-one-day\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.wmnf.org\/florida-executes-two-inmates-one-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">double execution in Florida<\/a>. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty described the twin executions as an \u201cunprecedented escalation\u201d of the state\u2019s use of the death penalty.<\/p>\n<p>More people are now eligible for Polk County\u2019s health care plan<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Income eligibility has gone up from 200% to 300% of the federal poverty level with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polkfl.gov\/news\/income-limit-increase-for-polk-healthcare-plan-eligibility\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.polkfl.gov\/news\/income-limit-increase-for-polk-healthcare-plan-eligibility\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Polk raising its income limit to 300%<\/a> of the federal poverty level. The program is funded by a half-cent sales surtax, not property taxes, and county officials say they do not expect the November homestead tax exemption amendment to directly affect it.<\/p>\n<p>Hillsborough is among the top ten Florida counties in reducing childhood poverty<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A new report shows Hillsborough County is among the top 10 Florida counties making the most significant progress in reducing childhood poverty. WMNF\u2019s Chris Young reports there is still more work to be done.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli activists cross the border to settle in Syria<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The settlers are part of a group called the Pioneers of Bashan. The Israeli military says it has repeatedly condemned the group for diverting troops\u2019 attention from military operations and compromising their security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the BBC, he died in a motorcycle crash this morning in his home city of Dublin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Scoop, produced by Lisa Reuter<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WMNF anchors Juanita Hurtado Hu\u00e9rfano, Se\u00e1n Kinane, Lisa Marzilli, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Megan Fair.<br \/>WMNF News Director Se\u00e1n Kinane<br \/>WMNF reporters Juanita Hurtado Hu\u00e9rfano, Lisa Marzilli, Se\u00e1n Kinane, Daria Mironova, Megan Fair, Luiza Medeiros de Campos, Hannah Lau Gleciano, Joeniyah Carter, Jaelin Diehl, and Chris Young.<br \/>Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 the News Service of Florida, the Associated Press, and Florida Public Media was used in this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida executes two prisoners, including an 80-year-old James Aren Duckett and octogenarian Dominick Anthony Occhicone were put to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[69880,408,145431,6584,145432,30415,135,137,136,416,417],"class_list":["post-356333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-childhood-poverty","tag-death-penalty","tag-glen-hansard","tag-health-care","tag-israeli-activists","tag-news-and-public-affairs","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-the-scoop","tag-wmnf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356333","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=356333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356333\/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=356333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}