 and the Veterans Expressway. Just a reminder, if you're heading north, some of that rain is onshore now at Cedar Key. There are a bunch of thunderstorms lined up in that area, so eventually that rain could make it over into that area on US 19. The detour is still there again today. State Road 50 is still closed in Ridgematter at 301.  If you're in the market for a new or pre-owned vehicle, Jenkins has it all. They have Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Chevy, Nissan, Ford, and Kia with sales, service, and selection and all the inventory at JenkinsCars.com. I'm Chuck Whitaker on 99.9 WXJB.  From Spectrum Bay News 9, I'm meteorologist Julie Marquez. Here's your nature coast forecast from 99.9 FM WXJB. Partly cloudy skies today with scattered then numerous showers and thunderstorms. Some of us will have some heavy downpours and a strong storm is possible later on. Temperatures will reach the low 90s today then drop down to the low 70s overnight. Wednesday will be a little hotter as our chance of rain will be later in the day as scattered storms move in. Join us for the latest from Klystra 9.  Hey there, this is Lance Lowry of Lowry's True Value in Brooksville and Bushnell. We're the largest volume gravely dealer in Florida. If you're looking for a gravely zero turn, we have the largest selection of gravely models to choose from. At Lowry's True Value, we have a program called the Lowry's True Value Advantage. If you purchase a gravely from us, we'll give you free pickup and delivery for the lifetime of the warranty of your machine, free pickup and delivery for your lawnmower for the first oil change, and free pickup and delivery for your machine during the off-season for service. We repair and service only the machines you purchase from us.  Keeping our turnaround times within one week. You can purchase a lawnmower anywhere. It's the service after a sale that makes the difference. Stop in our Brooksville location on Highway 50 just east of Spring Lake or our Bushnell location just east of I-75 on Highway 48. Let us show you the Lowry's True Value Advantage. Oh boy, oh boy, football coming and I've got chips and I've got pretzels and I'm going to set in my favorite chair. Honey. What is it? My chair, my side table, my beverage koozie cradle. Where are they?  I donated them to Friends of Citrus and the Nature Coast Thrifting Gift Shop. What? You lost your mind? You gave away my favorite chair? No time for comfort food. Find the best deals on the best stuff every day at Friends of Citrus and the Nature Coast Thrifting Gift Shops in Homosassa and Lakanto. Now don't be that way. Someone will really enjoy that chair.  Yeah, well, I should be enjoying that chair. It's mine. Stop it. Besides, if you're good, I'm sure you will get a brand new chair and side table for your birthday. And beverage koozie cradle? I didn't donate your koozie cradle. I threw the nasty thing out. Oh, no. Hand me that snack bag. Find out what's in store at Friends of Citrus and the Nature Coast thrifting gift shops open Monday through Saturday 9 to 5. Follow them on Facebook.  Hey there, have you heard about Ron Schuster Pest Control? They've been serving the nature coast since 1983 and are experts in keeping your home and lawn pest free. Don't forget to take advantage of their summer special with 15% off your annual service. Give them a call at 352-683-4003 to schedule your appointment. Remember, when it comes to lawn treatments, the grass is always greener at Ron Schuster Pest Control.  This is Fox News 99.9 WXJB. Good morning. I'm Richard. He's JW. I just saw on the news. We have a TV here in the studio where Elizabeth Warren came out and endorsed Kamala Harris. I got to tell you, I think her getting the Native American endorsement is pretty heavy.  Okay. Wait a minute. I know. Oh, all right. It's a joke. Okay. We're learning to bite to the sarcasms, you know. It's a fascinating stuff. Welcome to Tuesday, the 23rd of July, 105 days left until we get to the election. 70% chance of rain today. It's going to start and get nasty about 3 o'clock. You know the drill in Florida. Well, here we are. I mentioned this story earlier, and if you were wondering, here it is.  It's fascinating. This guy covered, I see, how Trump beat a motion to dismiss his Pulitzer defamation claim. President Donald Trump has won a court battle during his defamation lawsuit against members and staff of the Pulitzer Prize Board. It's a lawsuit stemming from an award that was given to the New York Times and Washington Post for their stories about Russia and his 2016 campaign.  The former president has alleged the board members and staff conspired to publish a defamatory statement in 2022 affirming the veracity of the reporter's prize-winning journalism. Now, we spent $54 million as taxpayers to investigate that with the Mueller. And it's obviously been debunked. I mean, there was... And we found out... You know the drill. You know the story. Most all of us do. I don't want to have to repeat it again. But...  So he's, rightfully so, he's suing. And so the Florida State judge, he denied the defense motions. They tried to dismiss the complaint, which lets the case move forward. What they were trying to do, the Pulitzer Prize board, they were trying to get that dismissed so the court case couldn't go on because it was not legitimate. His name is Robert Pegg.  He's from Florida, and he found that the statement wasn't pure opinion.  as the defense argued, meaning what the defense says, it's Trump's opinion that the Russian collusion thing was a fake story. And so the judge said, no, actually it's not an opinion, which wouldn't be actionable. If it's an opinion, it's not actionable, right? Rather, the judge said the statement withheld information from their audience. This is important. This is for the Washington Post and the New York Times and the Pulitzer Board.  that they withheld information from their audience, and whether the award reporting that in fact had been discredited by facts that emerged from the Mueller report or other government investigations that had been made public since being given those prizes, because generally, like, okay, I'm going to dumb this down a little bit. Didn't Milli Vanilli have to give back their Grammys?  Yeah, you're right. You know, once you see it's a fraud, then you kind of got to you can't still have the award. You can't boast about it. All right. So basically, the judge ruled the defendants couldn't escape the case in this stage of litigation. The bottom line now is that Trump's complaint survived a motion to dismiss. But whether it ultimately prevails or who knows. But of course.  That's a big story, but of course, all big stories are kind of pushed out, even the plane falling out of the sky, this story. That's actually a big story. You'd think that they would be hammering on that, but people are in generally a big rush to make it known that they were not forthright in their reporting or awarded reporting.  Something to a reporter who actually didn't tell the truth. So they're not getting out in front of that one. But that's actually big. If you want to read that story, I just read it from The Hill, along with the other storylines that we're covering today, all day long.  You've got the hearings against day two of the congressional hearings of the failure of the Secret Service. So, so much going on, but let's get local real quick, shall we? It's 20 minutes away from 9 o'clock, and welcoming her to the airwaves once again, Shirley Anderson. She is the Supervisor of Elections at, let me get this right, Hernando Supervisor of Elections. Hi, good morning, Shirley.  Good morning. How are you? So nice to meet you. Richard, right? That's me. Yes. And you're Shirley? All right. Hi, Shirley. So you've been supervisor of elections for three terms? Yes. Okay. And you're not running for reelection? I am not. I am retiring at the end of this term. Okay. Now, as you get ready for election season, what does this do? Is this a busy time in your office?  Absolutely. We are less than 30 days away from our primary election, which will be on Tuesday, August the 20th. Very important election to get out and vote for in local races. All parties will have a ballot, Republican, Democrat and nonpartisan. So there are three ballots and everybody has an opportunity to get out and cast their ballot. We just had our book closing yesterday. Book closing is where our books officially closed.  for this election. So that means no more party changes that will go into effect for the August 20th primary. And anybody that registers after yesterday, they will not be eligible to vote on August 20th, but they will be eligible for our presidential election.  Okay, so just the primaries. So your last day to change was, you said yesterday, change parties or get registered, is that right? Okay, so early voting. How do the ballots, the ballots going out? How can you have early voting when there's not, well, these are for the primaries, I got you. So the ballots have already been distributed for early voting? Right, we have already mailed out over 20,000 vote-by-mail ballots.  to voters who have requested that ballot. And we are currently processing those ballots as they come back in. If you visit HernandoVotes.gov, you can see we have an unofficial voter turnout, and that just shows you how many ballots are coming in daily by party and type and by the date and everything. So people can track that to see how many ballots are coming in.  We will also be, as you mentioned, early voting begins on Saturday, August the 10th and runs through Saturday, August the 17th. So people have an opportunity to vote in person early before election day. And remember, that includes Saturdays and Sundays. So plenty of opportunity to get out and vote. Those polling places. So how many different polling sites are in Hernando County set up?  For Election Day, we have 32 precincts that vote at 29 polling locations. Early voting, we have five early vote locations. Five. Okay, I got you. Our guest is Shirley Anderson, Hernando County Supervisor of Elections. And so this will be your last election. Have you ever seen such craziness? And has there been any ballot confusion that has been brought on by all the craziness? And I'm just asking because I don't know.  Well, I think every election has its own quirks or characteristics, I guess you could say. So this one we do anticipate for November to be very high turnout. There's a lot of interest in that in the presidential election.  So versus a primary where, unfortunately, where a lot of races will be decided here locally, a lot of our people don't get out and vote. So we certainly would encourage people to participate in our August 20th primary that will elect. There are two universal primary contests on the ballot, and those will be decided in August.  So that's our sheriff's race and one of our county commission races. Right. So there's not a presidential primary for the Democrat Party. Is that correct? Right. At all. No, sir. We will get a name. We will get our ballot certification for the general election early part of September. The state will send us the ballot certification.  I got you. What are the big non-presidential votes that you can cast this year? What are the big things that are out there? I know about Amendment 3, but can you give us a rundown of things that people need to look into before they go into the ballot box or get their ballot?  Well, we will have – now, remember, you're looking ahead to November. So I'd like for our voters to kind of stay focused on August and familiarize themselves with our local candidates. For our general election, we're going to have, I believe it's nine initiatives on the ballot. Okay.  So that will be a lot to focus on for November, a lot of voter education. Right now, voters can pull up a sample ballot for whatever party they are registered with.  And that's located at HernandoVotes.gov on our homepage of our website. They can do that, or they can look themselves up and pull up a ballot that way as well. We will be mailing sample ballots out next week, so everyone will have a sample ballot. But I encourage people, no matter what kind of election it is, it is the voters' responsibility to  to look up and research the candidates and the initiatives that will be on the ballot. So it's all very important. Again, we're focused mainly right now on our August 20th primary. We will have our logic and accuracy testing of our machines. That's a public meeting that we have where we test, we randomly draw candidates.  our precinct-level machines and an early vote machine, and we test them with a test deck, and we will be doing that tomorrow. That pretty much lasts all day tomorrow. It begins at our Forest Oaks office and concludes at our main office on Spring Hill Drive, and that is where we accurately test our machines to show that they are accurately tested  tabulating the results and then those machines get locked and they'll be ready for election day. 20,000 ballots being requested is that a normal number? No that's about half of where we were. What really so we have what do you attribute that to? What do you attribute that to? State law changed and so at the end of 2022 we lost everybody all the vote by mail requests got wiped out.  And so everyone now has to re-request a ballot for each election cycle. So we have people that hopefully are fully committed in voting by mail because this is your tax dollars that you're spending. So we have cleaned up our vote by mail. And we would encourage anybody, though, that still would like to order a vote by mail, they can certainly do so.  So please call our office at 754-4125, or you can visit our website, hernandovotes.gov, to request that ballot. And we will continue to mail out ballots daily.  So there's still plenty of time. And also, I would really strongly encourage people. This is very important. If you have any changes to your address or a name that you need to make prior to Election Day, please do so. That causes significant delays, and we're certainly anticipating that for November with a lot of address changes.  name changes, that sort of thing. It's so much easier if you do that prior to going to the polls, because I'm the government, and once you walk in, I have a piece of paper you've got to fill out. So do it online, make a phone call, get yourself ready. Like I said, voter responsibility in preparing for the primary election as well as the general election.  And just one more thing. For people who may not have requested a vote-by-mail ballot, they want to vote in person. I understand that. But we are anticipating, as I said before, probably close to 80% voter turnout for the general election. You need to have a plan of how you can vote.  whether that's early voting or vote by mail or on Election Day. You need to have a plan because I am anticipating lines at the polls for the November election. So please have a plan. If you're not able to stand or you need assistance at the polls, please make a plan. You might want to consider vote by mail.  Gotcha, and they still have some time to request a ballot by mail. Interesting. Early voting just around the corner starts on August 10th and goes to the 17th. That's correct. And you can still do it. Shirley Anderson, thank you so much. The Hernando County Supervisor of Elections. We'll talk to you next week, all right?  All right. Thank you so much, Richard. Have a beautiful day. All righty. Well, there you go. The voting season is upon us and probably the craziest year of any of our lives. And of course, that follows up after the craziest three and a half, four years. And then, of course, before that. OK, never mind. We can go back to 2016 and start talking about how crazy the world has become. It is something else. But have you ever voted mail in at all? Never mail in.  only early i voted early you will vote early yes okay all right yeah i i generally do that too i like to go to the poll convenience you know it is as long as you can do it i like it because you just kind of walk up and go and and and it fits in and it's kind of amazing that they have the um if they're open you know saturday and sunday as well because you know you can you can get there and there's not a soul when you walk in one of the  The little polling places and the polling precincts for early voting. And it does make it convenient. I don't know. I had no idea that they had changed such laws with the mail. And I guess before they just automatically, I guess I could have asked Shirley about that.  But, yeah, so you vote and you always vote in person. I do that, too. But you don't wait until Election Day, right? It depends. I mean, I have in the past. Because? I voted earlier. I voted on Election Day. I guess the opportunity. Logistics. Okay. Understood. All right. Well, let's up around the corner. We're 105 days out. That's interesting. We still have not seen Joe Biden. Really? No appearance. Wow.  He showed up for a telephone interview, from what we understand, to endorse or whatever. But this is probably, as we looked at a week ago, after the attempted assassination on Donald Trump,  It couldn't get any weirder, you know. But it's also important that it couldn't get any weirder with what we've seen the last week or so. So, again, there's plenty of time to get more weird. But it's also very important to realize that we have local elections. It's so easy. Like Blaze was talking about earlier. It's caught up in these storylines. And it's easy to take your eye off the ball the way you really affect people.  Your life, the strongest and the easiest and the quickest, I should say, is to vote in your local elections and know what those issues are. A great example was Brian Lincoln talking to her going, oh, we got those amendments and stuff. That's not until the general. So this is primary stuff right now. And there's a lot of places. It's really incumbent upon you to find out as a voter.  uh who's actually running and how it's contested and and if just my opinion if you don't know anything about the candidates if you know nothing about the issues then why don't you just skip it on your ballot it might and save it for people who've done some looking into it oh yeah or do your research  Yeah, but if you don't know, especially the amendments, the way they word those things can be confusing. So yeah, if you don't know, don't vote on that. Do you think that's by design, by any chance? Some of it is, I believe. And that's why the county commission here in Hernando County has worked on that over the years, especially with the one, the amendment that's... Well, their tax...  What is it called that's coming up today on the ballot this year? Their their tax agenda. But real quick, you're talking about local elections. Casey Casey Therion has announced his resignation from the Brooksville City Council. It seemed Therion Mayor Blake Bell and council members Thomas Bronson, Krista Tanner and David Bailey represented something of a youthful movement on the council. But Bell, after winning reelection to his council seat, recently announced he's stepping down at the end of the year. Of course, Bailey was seven minutes late in filing his reelection papers.  effectively handing his seat to John Walter McKeithen II. Now the city is seeking letters of interest from Brooksville residents interested in serving as a member to fill part of the unexpired term of Therion's seat for council members, of course, will review any letters of interest in an upcoming meeting and vote to select an eligible resident to fill that seat for until December 2nd. And then it'll be on the county ballot November 5th. Wow. Yeah, that's kind of big news. It is. It is. Especially for Brooksville city residents.  Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen this confusion like this before. Yeah, I know. During election year. All right, we're getting up. Brian, kill me. It's coming up after 9 o'clock. We're going to see you tomorrow. Also, JR's coming in, and JW is going to get us on out of here. This is Nature Coast Morning News. I'm Richard Spires. This is Fox News 99.9.  And a good Tuesday morning, everybody. Wrap-up check brought to you as a service of the Jenkins Automotive Group on the Nature Coast. Nothing major right now. The Suncoast and the Veterans Expressway clear. Some minor slowing as we get down around the airport on the bottom end of the Veterans Expressway. Just a reminder, if you're heading north, some of that rain is onshore now at Cedar Key. There are a bunch of thunderstorms lined up in that area, so eventually that rain will  could make it over into that area on US 19. The detour still there again today. State Road 50 still closed in Ridgematter at 301. If you're in the market for a new or pre-owned vehicle, Jenkins has it all. They have Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Chevy, Nissan, Ford, and Kia with sales, service, and selection and all the inventory at jenkinscars.com. I'm Chuck Whitaker on 99.9 WXJB.  All right, part of the cloudy for today. 70% chance of showers for this afternoon and probably lingering into the evening hours. Looking at the low 90s for the high. Low 70s tonight, then a 50-50 shot of rain for your Wednesday and into Thursday. Highs in the low to mid-90s. Nights in the mid-70s. Let's talk real estate. Robert Buckner, Buckner Real Estate, Inc., downtown Brooksville. Good Tuesday morning, sir. Good Tuesday morning. What have you for us today?  Well, in downtown as we speak, but working on a project. But we do have about 2150 square feet of lease space that's going to be available in the downtown area right on Fort Dade Avenue. So anybody looking for downtown space, this may be one to look at. But just had a price reduction yesterday on 10 acres out on...  Pleasant Grove Road, which is the extension of Snow Memorial Highway, $15,000 reduction down to $325,000. Super nice, high and dry. 10-acre track that has a great view to the west, kind of sits up on a little knoll. So if you're looking for a really nice 10-acre parcel, this is one you should definitely take a look at, especially with the price reduction. Still have some other nice acreage tracks available, whether you're looking for...  place for a home site or commercial properties right across from the entrance of Southern Hills. We just recently listed a parcel that should get a lot of activity. So please give us a call at Buckner Real Estate for any and all of your real estate needs. We hope everyone has a great Tuesday. Thank you, Robert. Robert's website, he has revamped that website. It's easy to navigate the site at BucknerRealEstate.com. BucknerRealEstate.com. Give it a look. They give his office a call at  Downtown Brooksville, 352-796-4544. Buckner Real Estate.  Sharice Rivers of Retirement Coffee Talk. I want you to have five sources of income in retirement. Five. Five. You need to have five. Wow. You need to be diversified. We always talk about this tool belt and having the tools in this tool belt to be all a little bit different. You know, instead of having one basket with 12 eggs, we have 12 baskets, one egg in each basket. This is what we're talking about. You may be ready for retirement, but is your money? Tune in to Retirement Coffee Talk with Sharice Rivers. Saturdays at 9 here on 99.9 Fox News.  Summer's here and we need to clear. Kia of Wesley Chapel is overstocked and needs to move out the lot with over 300 vehicles priced to sell. Drive a new Kia Forte LXS just $179 per month or a new Kia Sportage LX for $295 per month. Backed by Kia's 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty. Don't wait. These deals won't last long. Visit Kia of Wesley Chapel today, your hometown Kia dealer.  For complete details, call 813-419-0641. Bonjour. At One of a Kind Jewelry, we believe every moment should shimmer with perfection. We offer lab-created diamonds of unparalleled quality that boast flawless clarity and brilliance.  Indistinguishable from mine diamonds, Lab Created Diamonds offer you the beauty you desire and at a fraction of the cost. Discover the perfect piece for you. Visit One of a Kind Jewelry on Spring Hill Drive, just off 19 in the Access Plaza. One of a Kind Jewelry, springhill.com.  All right, just a couple minutes shy of the top of the hour of 9 o'clock. Of course, the Brian Kilmeade Show, Fox Studios New York, standing by for your Tuesday morning. Good morning to you. Thanks for joining us on this beautiful Tuesday morning. Little hot for you. National hot enough for you day.  Let's find out. What day is it? Today is National Hot Enough For Ya Day. Hot enough for ya? Hot enough for ya? Why would you ask that? I'm sweating through this blazer. Hot enough for ya? Why would you ask such a ridiculous question? It's too hot. I'm sweating. I'm completely so cold. Happy National Hot Enough For Ya Day. It's showtime.  Yeah, National Hot Enough for Ya Day. That's Y-A. That's how you spell you. National Hot Enough for Ya Day on this Tuesday, July 23rd, as we enter into the hottest time of the year, especially here in Florida. But you know what? Keep the hurricanes away. We would appreciate that.  Thank you very much. In the meantime, we're getting closer and closer to the top of the hour. One last thing for you this morning. Rice sold in seven states, including Florida, has been recalled due to the possibility of contamination by a foreign object that appears to be of a rodent origin. We'll have more on that and more tomorrow on 99.9 WXJB, the news and talk of the nature coast. God bless you folks.  Thanks for joining us. We'll be back bright and early, 6 a.m. every Monday through Friday, 6 to 9 a.m. on 99.9 Fox Radio. 99.9 WXJB Homosassa. It's 9 o'clock on the news and talk of Florida's nature coast. 99.9 Fox News.  She'll hold her first rally today as the presumptive Democratic nominee. I'm Dave Anthony, Fox News. Vice President Harris will campaign in Milwaukee. It is my intention to go out and earn this nomination.  and to win. That was at what was Biden campaign headquarters in Delaware the day after the president dropped out of the 2024 race. Her team says they've raised more than $100 million in the last roughly 48 hours. The president called into that meeting as well, where he told the staff to embrace Harris.  And I want you to know you've always had my back, and I promise you I will always have your back. The president returns to the White House this afternoon. He has no public events on his schedule as he recovers from COVID-19. Fox's Madeline Rivera, former President Trump's calling his new November opponent, Vice President Harris, dumb as a rock. His running mate, J.D. Vance, at a rally in Virginia called President Biden. Not just a quitter, which he is, but one of the worst presidents of the United States of America. But my friends, Kamala Harris is a million times worse.  There's a bipartisan task force being set up in Congress to investigate the Trump assassination attempt. As calls grow from lawmakers in both parties for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle to resign, Democrat Ro Khanna just told Fox. She simply doesn't have the confidence of the nation. There are a lot of people who do not trust her, so she needs to step aside. In an hour, the House Homeland Security Committee holds another hearing into the Trump rally. Security lapses in Fox's C.B. Cotton reports from Butler, Pennsylvania. Some members visited the scene of the crime.  Some of them even got on top of the roof that Thomas Crooks fired from without using any equipment. And the committee's chairman, Mark Green, told Fox he learned a water tower overlooking the area was not utilized by law enforcement for any security purposes, leaving him and other lawmakers absolutely stunned. The Transportation Department's opened an investigation into Delta, the airline affected most by Friday's global tech outage, with hundreds more flight cancellations today. America's listening to Fox News.  Hey guys, Donald Trump Jr. here. Let me ask you this. Does inflation feel worse than what we're being told in the news? That's because the official inflation rate doesn't tell the whole story. Since January 2021, the cost of living has increased by 17.9%. You can't get that money back.