And just like that, we turn the page on to a new calendar year.
As we look ahead to what 2026 may bring, here’s a look back to what 2025 did in fact bring us.
Working together to bring awareness to homelessness
Of the number of new Florida laws passed during the 2024 Legislative session that went into effect Jan. 1, 2025, one of the most controversial statewide was House Bill 1365.
In simple terms, the bill voted in by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis prohibits camping or sleeping on public property, at public buildings, or on public rights-of-way, and makes it illegal for local governments to permit it—or what some with service organizations called “criminalizing homelessness”.
Osceola County and the cities of St. Cloud and Kissimmee all passed local ordinances to get in line with the state law. Public records requests throughout the year show that exactly one arrest was made in the county for violating that law, and no complaints were made to the county attorney’s office.
The topic was the impetus for the News Collaborative of Central Florida, a group of about 10 Central Florida news organizations, including the News-Gazette, that collaborated to cover the issue on a regional level. The News-Gazette contributed a number of stories that ran with those other publications, running 18 total stories during the year.
In 2026, the News Collaborative will work together to raise awareness of, and encourage residents and voters to participate in, the 2026 midterm elections.
St. Cloud turns light out on ‘Sundown Town’ decree
In an effort to denounce St. Cloud’s century-old reputation as a “Sundown Town,” City Council Jennifer Paul, elected in 2024 as the city’s first Council member of color, sponsored a proclamation denouncing the historical reputation and proclaiming its “renewed commitment to positive unity” as a “vibrant, diverse community that embraces inclusivity and welcomes all residents, businesses, and visitors.”
Millions more at Mecum
With latest Mecum Kissimmee auto auction primed to begin again on Jan. 6, it’s a good time to look back at the reported $224 million in total sales at the 2025 show, including a green 1966 Ford GT40 Mk I Road Car which went for over $7 million. In all, nine autos were sold at $1 million or more. A high bid of $25 million for the featured 1969 Porsche 917K, owned and driven by screen legend Steve McQueen in the racing movie “Le Mans,” was rejected. Approximately two dozen other cars at this year’s event received unsuccessful bids of over a million dollars.
Saga of Madeline Soto’s killer closes with life sentence
The legal defense team for Stephan Sterns, the man charged with the murder of Kissimmee 13-year-old Madeline Soto in February 2024, filed dozens motions to the court in his defense. Some asked to suppress evidence they say police acquired through an illegal search, to eliminate the death penalty, and even asked the court to close all pretrial hearings to the public and median and remove newspapers from the courtroom so potential jurors wouldn’t see them.
The defense asserted at one of those hearings hoped to close, it would pursue “Other motions… which could include a motion for a change of venue if the media coverage of this case continues as it has so that Mr. Sterns cannot receive a fair trial in Osceola County and most of the state of Florida.”
In the end it all was for naught; Sterns never went to trial. Two days before the scheduled start of a trial regarding 60 counts of sexual battery and possessing child sexual assault materials, Sterns pled no contest to the first-degree murder charge and guilty to the other charges on July 21. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“He’s not getting out. Ever,” said Deborah Barra, a former prosecutor and Osceola Sheriff ’s Office legal counsel who advised Tyler Wallace, Soto’s biological father. She noted the plea saved Soto’s family from dealing with a gruesome trial with evidence depicting the sexual assault.
Neither Sterns’ parents, nor Madeline’s mother Jennifer Soto—that side of the family was represented by the girl’s grandmother and aunts— attended the plea hearing.
Speed limit drops as downtown Kissimmee thoroughfare gets a ‘diet’
In March the city of Kissimmee reduced the speed limit on Main Street, Broadway and Emmett Street between Vine Street (at “the archway”) and John Young Parkway to 25 mph.
The stretch from Vine (U.S. Highway 192) to Neptune Road previously had a 40 mph speed limit.
Felix Ortiz owns Three Sisters Speakeasy at the corner of Broadway and Dakin Avenue, part of where the speed limit dropped from 30 to 25, and where his and neighboring customers are on sidewalks eating, drinking and gathering.
“That’s a big drop on the other side of Neptune, but for our corner, I think it’s fine,” he said. “Some people drive a little crazy and I hope it gets them to pay more attention. I’m all for making it safer where everybody is walking.”
While downtown Kissimmee’s Broadway might be getting a “diet”, local businesses along the stretch hope changing the street from four lanes to two will fatten their wallets. It’s all part of the “Connect Kissimmee” plan, approved by commissioners to transform the stretch from John Young Parkway to Neptune Road and give it an identity, while enhancing the “curb appeal” for downtown businesses and enhance the safety for pedestrians.
It includes table-topped intersections from Magnolia Steet to Clyde Avenue, intended to slow traffic for safety concerns. Those table tops, which serve to slow traffic to help walkers and bikers be safer, will feature brick pavers to enhance the look.
And, in July, commissioners agreed on measures to make downtown safer and more livable: requiring businesses to obtain a $250 license to sell liquor after midnight, and polishing its noise ordinance to gradually drop the level of allowable noise later into nights.
“We’re saying, If we’re following the rules, we’ll be okay,” City Manager Mike Steigerwald said. “And it gives us the ability to crack down on those who don’t.”
Kissimmee Police gets new top cop
Just over five months after the Kissimmee Police Department was rocked by a grand jury investigation into its command staff handled—or didn’t—cases of excessive force by officers, one of which led to felony charges filed against one cop, Charles “Chuck” Broadway was named as its newest chief in March and officially sworn in on April 1.
Broadway made building a new culture, transparency and integrity pillars of his command. A more robust Internal Affairs review process has been put in place to review use of force incidents, with more personnel in the chain of command reviewing those incidents. A new Police Oversight Board, dissolved in 2024 when the state Legislature stripped such boards of any power, has returned, if nothing else to spur open discussion and transparency.
The officer implicated in the excessive force case that kicked off the grand jury investigation, Andrew Bassegio, was sentenced to nine months in jail on Oct. 13.
… and so does the Osceola Sheriff’s Office after sitting Sheriff exposed and arrested
By June, the story around Osceola County was the summer saga of Sheriff Marcos Lopez, who was arrested on federal racketeering charges on June 5. It was the end result of an investigation by the FSDLE and Homeland Security, who claim he helped shield an illegal gambling enterprise, run out of a building on West U.S. Highway 192, from law enforcement and “engaged the (illegal) operation for campaign contributions and personal payments,” according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said.
“Sheriff Lopez played a multifaceted role in expanding and protecting this illegal enterprise, using his office to shield the enterprise from law enforcement,” Uthmeier said in a press release issued soon after Lopez’s arrest.
According to the Attorney General’s report, an investigation led by the Department of Homeland Security and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began in 2023 and uncovered a gambling location, with slot-machine type games and a lottery, operating out of a restaurant and hookah bar. It billed itself as the “Eclipse Social Club” just west of Medieval Times, and a video published on its TikTok page that’s made its way around social media showed the machines and tables.
He was one of six people arrested connected to the operation. Each of them bailed out of jail—including Lopez after three weeks on a $1 million bond, made difficult by the amount and s stipulation that “ill-gotten funds” could not fund it. Investigators claim Lopez garnered as much as $700,000 from the illegal enterprise, with text messages and messaging app notes dating back to 2019, before he was elected Sheriff in November 2020.
Lopez’s estranged wife Robin Severance-Lopez (the couple is still in the midst of a divorce filing in Brevard County), was also arrested. Investigators said she helped move money from the operation across a number of shared bank accounts.
Gov. Ron DeSantis immediately issued an executive order suspending Lopez on June 5. Christopher A. Blackmon, a longtime Florida Highway Patrol region chief, was appointed to fill the Sheriff position for the duration of the suspension. Blackmon has taken the role and run with it, ingraining himself into the community just like Kissimmee’s Chief Broadway, and has said he would run for the post if a special election is held for it—something that can’t be accounted for until Lopez’s case is finalized.
That’s proven tricky. Lopez, who has pled not guilty to the racketeering charges, is currently the only one of the conspirators who hasn’t pled guilty and accepted some sort of sentence. He is scheduled for his next status hearing today (Jan. 8) in Lake County.
School District makes controversial changes to ESE program
To the dismay—and in some cases, outrage—the School District announced changes to the Exceptional Student Education (ESE) program. Those changes included placing those students in more blended or “inclusive” classes and creating “hub” schools to concentrate the district’s ESE-centric teachers. “We are not in a position to sustain where we currently are, because our students will fall further and further behind, and we cannot have that,” School Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff said. “We are clearly seeing that the rest of the state is passing us because we have not adapted to what our students need in ESE.”
“I get that inclusion is important. And it works when done correctly,” one parent said. “But these parents have worked so hard, taking two and three years to get the solid IEP started.”
Osceola Magic-al run
The Osceola Magic, the NBA G League affiliate of the Orlando Magic, came one win away from clinching their first league championship since 2021. The team went 10-3 in the month of March to secure the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, then crowds nearing 3,000 fans showed up for the Eastern Conference final and two games in the G League Finals. Osceola won the first game in the best-of-3 series against the Stockton Kings, but couldn’t find the clincher in Game 2 out west or Game 3 at the Silver Spurs Arena.
Out of chaos comes “Lillie” on the lake
After Toho Riverboat Adventures Captain Richard “Stitch” Lawrence and his fiancée were arrested in late 2024 and charged with sexual battery on a 17-year-old former employee, the Pearl of the Lake replica riverboat sat idle at the St. Cloud Marina. It took new life when Richard and Terry Weaver became its operations, renamed it the “Lillie” and put her back on the East Lake Toho as Old Florida Riverboat Adventures in the fall.
Need a downtown hotel room? Kissimmee’s fixing that
he city of Kissimmee started or approved three new hotel projects that will bring around 570 quality rooms and condominiums closer to downtown or city facilities. In July, ground was broken in July on a Hyatt Studios hotel that is slated to bring 122 rooms to a four-story facility on Martin Luther King Boulevard, across the street from Kissimmee Gateway Airport’s administration building. If construction begins soon, the hotel could open at the end of 2026 to serve travelers flying in and out of Kissimmee’s general aviation airport.
The city also approved a new upscale hotel and convention center on the site of the current Kissimmee Civic Center, and another hotel with a long-term housing component that would wrap about the current Toho Square parking garage. Ground is scheduled to bring on at least one of those in early 2026.
We took the hurricane season off
Despite another forecast of an above-average storm season, Florida—and the United States in general—was spared from a 2025 storm landfall. This came as welcome relief from a community that was directly impacted by Hurricanes Ian and Nicole in 2022, Milton in 2024 and glanced by Idalia in 2023 and Debby and Helene in 2024.
The community held numerous supply drives to send needed recovery items to Jamaica, as powerful Category 5 Melissa, one of the strongest landfalling storms ever in the Atlantic basin, struck the island with devastating force. Melissa was the third Category 5 hurricane to form in 2025, but luckily Erin and Humberto did not touch land, bringing only wave swells to the Atlantic coast.
Lastly …
The Osceola County School District broke ground on the county’s ninth traditional public high school, which will open this August. For historical perspective, Celebration High opened in 2003 as the fifth one.
Dozens of residents rather loudly opposed a planned tribute to those who died in the August 2016 Pulse nightclub attack. While providing some plans in 2024, there was no movement on the project in 2025.
In Memorium:
Jerry Lee “Ham” Brown, Osceola County legacy rancher, Jan. 3, age 88.
Chad Keller, former St. Cloud High basketball player and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University coach, July 24, 50.
Beverly Houghland, former Osceola Council on Aging CEO, Sept. 25, 82.
David Adam “The Woo” Williams, Celebration-based Youtube personality, Dec. 22, 51.
