(The Center Square) — The sale of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays to a Florida developer could be finalized by September, according to a report in The Athletic. 

The story says the $1.7 billion deal by a group led by Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby and prominent Tampa Bay investors will likely keep the team in the Tampa Bay area. The team announced sole negotiations with the consortium in June. 

Last month, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch both welcomed the possibility of a sale of the team by Rays’ owner Stuart Sternberg, who bought the team for $200 million in 2004. 

Castor said Tampa would “dust off” its previous stadium proposal, which possibly could result in the team moving across Tampa Bay to Hillsborough County. 

The Rays pulled out of a deal in March for a new $1.3 billion retractable roof stadium in St. Petersburg’s historic Gas Plant District as part of a larger $6.5 billion mixed-use development.

At the time, Welch said new ownership would be needed for the city to consider a new stadium deal. He said “that bridge had been burned.”

The Rays’ existing domed stadium, Tropicana Field, had its roof shredded by the Category 3 winds of Hurricane Milton in 2024. The City Council voted to repair the roof in April at a cost of more than $55 million and have it ready for baseball by the 2026 season.

Under the existing stadium agreement between the Rays and the city, each year Tropicana Field remains unusable adds another year to the agreement that was originally to sunset in 2027. Now it’s been pushed out to 2028, and depending on when repairs to the roof are complete, possibly longer. 

The Rays have gone through four unrealized stadium plans in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area and are playing their home games at George Steinbrenner Field this season in Tampa. Steinbrenner Field is the spring training home of the New York Yankees, the Rays’ American League East rival.

The team is one of two Major League clubs that are playing at minor league facilities. The Athletics are in Sacramento during a transition from Oakland to Las Vegas. 

As reported previously by The Center Square, Zalupski is based out of Jacksonville and is the founder, president and CEO of Dream Finders Homes, which has constructed 35,100 homes in 10 states.

He is also a member of the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees, appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis with a term that expires in 2028. Dream Finders went public in 2021. 

(The Center Square) – In 1990, Dan Apple was more than halfway through his undergraduate education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro when he decided to leave school for the workforce.

“I mistakenly thought that I knew everything and would be fine without finishing college,” Apple told The Center Square. “It didn’t take long to figure out that it wasn’t true. But by that time, I’ve had a wife, I had a kid, responsibilities. House payments.”

Apple, co-valedictorian of his high school class, did well in the business world without a degree, working first as a dispatcher for a trucking company and later owning a freight brokerage company. More recently, he has worked as a project manager for a precast concrete company.

As he grew older, Apple began to wish that he had finished college.

“Many of the people I deal with are engineers,” he said. “There are people with master’s in business administration degrees. There are lawyers. There is just a myriad of higher education that I am dealing with every day.”

He is not alone. There are an estimated 1 million North Carolinians who left college before earning their degree, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.

The University of North Carolina System is working with a company, ReUp Education, to help students like Apple return to college even decades after they left. Ten universities in the UNC System are participating, including UNC Greensboro, where Apple has reenrolled thanks to guidance from the program.

He expects to earn his degree by the end of this year at the age of 55.

“I sent in a request for information and within minutes I got an e-mail and we set up a time for a phone call,” Apple said. “It was a super easy process to get started. All my questions were answered immediately.”

His first class was a summer course in U.S. History. It was a lot different than the college classes he remembered.

“The world changed from 1990 to 2024,” he said. “There was no such thing as a laptop computer when I quit college. Now we are doing everything online.”

This time around, Apple has taken his college classes much more seriously than he did in the first round.

“I am a much better student than I ever was,” Apple said.

Shun Robertson, the system’s senior vice president for Policy and Strategy told the Center Square University System President Peter Hans has a “keen interest” in adult learners.

Since 2023, more than 600 North Carolina students have earned their degrees through the Reup program, Robertson said. The Legislature has funded financial aid options for the returning students as well.

“These are students who have already invested in their education but had to pause before completing their degree,” Robertson said. “ReUp gives us a proactive way to say, ‘We haven’t forgotten about you. We are going to help you finish what you started.”

(The Center Square) – The “big beautiful bill” passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump allocates an historic nearly $25 billion to strengthen the U.S. Coast Guard. The largest single funding commitment in Coast Guard history comes ahead of its 235th birthday.

The Coast Guard was founded on Aug. 4, 1790, after President George Washington signed the Tariff Act into law authorizing the construction of 10 vessels to enforce federal tariff and trade laws. It first operated as the Treasury Department’s U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and was renamed in 1915. It currently operates under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Coast Guard crew have been integral to maritime interdiction efforts under the Biden and Trump administrations, The Center Square reported. Last week, a single USCG helicopter crew rescued a record 165 people during the historic Hill Country, Texas, floods, The Center Square reported.

The nearly $25 billion investment strengthens every aspect of USCG operations to continue its role as the leading maritime drug interdiction and border security force.

Funding will enable the USCG to procure an estimated 17 new icebreakers, 21 new cutters, over 40 helicopters and six C-130J aircraft and modernize its shore infrastructure and maritime surveillance systems. It will also strengthen its ability to interdict maritime illegal border crossers and traffickers, strengthen search and rescue operations and enhance navigational safety and enable maritime trade, it says.

“This historic investment marks a new era for the Coast Guard,” Coast Guard Acting Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday said. “It reflects the strong support of the American people and empowers us to restore our Service and prepare for the challenges of today and tomorrow. With this level of support, and the dedication of our Coast Guard men and women, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. We are deeply grateful for this opportunity to build a stronger Coast Guard for the Nation.”

Key investments include:

• $4.4 billion for shore infrastructure, training facilities and homeports;
• $4.3 billion for Polar Security Cutters, extending U.S. reach in the Arctic;
• $4.3 billion for nine new Offshore Patrol Cutters;
• $3.5 billion for three Arctic Security Cutters;
• $2.3 billion for more than 40 MH-60 helicopters;
• $2.2 billion for depot level maintenance to sustain readiness;
• $1.1 billion for six new HC-130J aircraft and simulators;
• $1 billion for Fast Response Cutters;
• $816 million for light and medium Icebreaking Cutters;
• $266 million for long-range unmanned aircraft systems;
• $170 million for maritime domain awareness, including next-generation sensors;
• $162 million for three Waterways Commerce Cutters.

The investment will support the USCG Force Design 2028 plan to modernize operations and bolster USCG capabilities.

The Coast Guard “extends its appreciation for the leadership” of Trump and his administration and members of Congress “for recognizing the strategic importance of a ready, modern and resilient Coast Guard.”

U.S. Coast Guard crew patrol more than 95,000 miles of shoreline, 25,000 miles of navigable rivers and 4.5 million square miles of U.S. exclusive economic zone. More than 55,000 members operate an interoperable fleet of more than 250 cutters, 200 fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, 1,600 boats and a dedicated cyber command.

“We save lives. We protect the environment. We defend the homeland. We enforce Federal laws on the high seas, the nation’s coastal waters and its inland waterways. We are unique in the Nation and the world,” the Coast Guard says.