Browsed by
Month: August 2023

Rep. Amesty leaves trail of falsehoods, unpaid taxes and bills, records show

Rep. Amesty leaves trail of falsehoods, unpaid taxes and bills, records show

Rep. Carolina Amesty, who touted her success as a business owner and educator in her campaign for the Florida House last year, filed false information with the state about her family’s small Christian university, claimed to run a thriving restaurant that actually was closed and failed to ensure taxes were paid on the $1.3 million home she lived in, an Orlando Sentinel investigation found.

The first-term Republican lived for nearly three years with her parents in a five-bedroom pool home near Windermere purchased last year by Central Christian University, an arrangement that prompted controversy during her campaign.

Central Christian, an unaccredited school in Pine Hills, is run by Amesty, 28, and her father. It operates out of a former church building that seemed nearly deserted during four visits by Sentinel reporters and had a broken window on their last visit in mid-July.

The university has not paid the 2022 property tax bill on its upscale Mediterranean-style house where Amesty lived and now owes Orange County more than $18,000 in taxes and late fees. read more

SeaWorld blames 2% attendance drop on bad weather, wildfires

SeaWorld blames 2% attendance drop on bad weather, wildfires

Attendance was down 2% at SeaWorld Entertainment’s theme parks during the second quarter, a drop that officials attributed primarily to “significantly adverse weather” and effects from Canadian wildfires.

SeaWorld’s parks saw 125,000 fewer visitors in 2023’s second quarter, which ended June 30, than they did in 2022, according to the earnings report released Tuesday by the Orlando-based company.

“Some combination of unusually hot and cold weather, rain and/or the fallout from Canadian wildfires impacted most of our markets during the quarter,” Marc Swanson, CEO of SeaWorld Entertainment, said in a news release.

SeaWorld operates 12 attractions in the United States, stretching from San Diego to Pennsylvania. In Florida, it owns SeaWorld Orlando, Discovery Cove resort, Aquatica water park, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay theme park, and Adventure Island water park. The company did not report attendance for individual attractions.

Among the company’s recent additions was Pipeline, a surfing-inspired roller coaster that debuted at SeaWorld Orlando in May, and a coral-rescue center that opened in the park’s former Turtle Trek space in June. read more