Early Voting locations in Wesley Chapel

Wesley Chapel Apartments are Built to Code. That Is Why the Whole Building Burned.

A half-second lightning strike destroyed 90 apartments and displaced more than 200 people in a building two years old. Nothing about it violated code. Here is exactly how a four-story wood-frame building dies, and why Pasco County has not used the authority it has to change that.

Election Day: Wesley Chapel's Pultorak Takes On Maggard in a Closed Primary That Likely Decides the House 54 Seat

Polls are open until 7 p.m. today in the Republican primary for Florida House District 54, where Wesley Chapel firefighter Michael Pultorak is challenging two-term incumbent Randy Maggard on growth and infrastructure. Because a write-in candidate qualified in June, only registered Republicans can vote, and the winner is almost certain to take the seat.

Analysts Warn Florida’s Property Tax Amendment Could Squeeze Pasco County Services

Florida voters will decide in November whether to dramatically expand the homestead exemption — a change backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that supporters call overdue tax relief and that state analysts, county groups and local officials warn could pull billions of dollars out of the budgets that pay for fire trucks, deputies and roads. In fast-growing, property-tax-dependent Pasco County, the stakes are unusually high.

How Much Could Pasco Homeowners Save Under DeSantis’s Property Tax Plan? We Ran the Numbers