🌱 Clearwater Stairwell Victim Fundraiser + Clearwater Enterprise Dog Park Renovations

Morning, people of Tampa! It's me again, Carlos Hernandez, your host of the Tampa Daily. Let's get this last week of 2021 started off right.

First, today's weather:

Fog in the a.m.; mostly sunny. High: 78 Low: 63.

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Here are the top stories in Tampa today:

1. A fundraiser has been set up for the victim of the Clearwater stairwell collapse, 23-year-old Mitchel Klock. He was a graduate of Riverview High School and would have celebrated his one-year anniversary on January 24th with Alexis Klock if he would have lived. (Tampa Patch)

2. Hundreds of more flights were canceled on Sunday just one day after major airlines announced nearly a thousand flights were canceled across the nation and a Christmas weekend filled with chaos at airports. One traveler from South Carolina was stranded in Tampa despite his flight status showing it was on time. (WFLA)

3. A woman was taken into FBI custody two days before Christmas after she caused a disturbance on a Tampa to Atlanta flight that resulted in injuries, according to Atlanta Police. The injuries suffered by passengers and employees were not released. (Tampa Bay Times)

4. Enterprise Dog Park in Clearwater will be closing on January 3rd, 2022 for several months of renovations. Dog owners will need to change their routine during the work. The city will improve drainage, repair and replace the shell paths, rebuild the bridge, replace water bowls, and bring in new sod. (ABC Action News)

5. The holiday weekend saw massive lines at COVID-19 testing facilities in Hillsborough County. More than 32,000 cases of COVID-19 were reported in Florida on Saturday and 31,000 cases on Friday. (Bay News 9)

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Today in Tampa:

• Happy Snowman - Family Friendly At Painting With A Twist Carrollwood. $38 per person. (2:00 PM)
• River Of Lights Holiday Cruises By Pirate Water Taxi. (6:00 PM)
• WWE At Amalie Arena. (7:30 PM)
• A Drag Queen Christmas 2021 For Straz Center For The Performing Arts. (8:00 PM)

From my notebook:

• Tampa Bay Lightning's Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, goaltenders Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brian Elliott, and assistant coach Rob Zettler have entered COVID protocols as of Sunday. (Twitter)
• Over the next nine months, Abacode plans to hire eight to 10 more staffers in the areas of compliant readiness, program management, and security. (Twitter)
• CL has a list up of Tampa Bay's 30 worst intersections according to Florida Department of Transportation crash data. (Creative Loafing Tampa)

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That's it for today. See you all tomorrow for another update!

— Carlos Hernandez

About me: Hello my name is Carlos Hernandez and I am a food writer with over 10 years of experience in the industry. I write the food blog Carlos Eats (http://www.carloseats.com) and also contribute to several newspapers and magazines with food-related blogs and articles.