CITRUS CRUSADER

By John Labriola - The fallout from Citrus County Commission candidate Jennifer Grogan's report of a death threat to the sheriff's office last month spilled over into Tuesday's commission meeting, with commissioners saying they may ask Sheriff David Vincent to publicly address the issue after Grogan and other residents brought it up at the meeting. Grogan, who owns a small business and helps run a Christian ministry, received a call from an unidentifed number on July 27 from someone claiming to be the police. She was told she had to come to the sheriff's office to pay a $5,000 fine or go to jail, but when she arrived, the caller made a death threat. Grogan immediately asked to speak with a sheriff's deputy. She sat down with Deputy Daylon Rogers, who took her report. In the video of their interaction, which can be found HERE , Grogan tells the deputy that the caller told her "we just got you out of the house to kill you," to which Rogers responds, "T...

By John Labriola - You may have heard I will not be a candidate for Inverness City Council this November. I filed my paperwork last week when I learned that nobody else was running. Although I knew I would not have much time to devote to a campaign, I felt that one of the incumbents deserved a challenger. I gave the city a check for the qualifying fee but asked that it not be deposited until the Friday qualifying deadline when there would be enough money in my account. Instead, the check was immediately deposited without my knowledge, and it bounced. I was informed about this after the deadline and was told I was disqualified. For residents who were looking forward to a race, I'm sorry that there won't be one, but the truth is that even if I had won, I would not have been able to give the position the attention it deserves. My job takes me out of town several months out of the year, and I would have had to miss many meetings, which isn't fair to the public. Residents deser...

By John Labriola - How would you feel if you were running for county commission and someone threatened to kill you? What if, after you reported this incident to the police and announced it to the public at a county commission meeting, the local newspaper decided to ridicule you and even claim you lied about reporting it — all because you're a conservative? That's not a hypothetical situation. Our local newspaper, the Citrus County Chronicle, just did it to Jennifer Grogan, a candidate for the District 4 commission seat. It began on July 27, when Grogan, who owns a small business and helps run a Christian ministry, received a call from scammers from an unidentified number claiming to be the police. They knew her Social Security number, her maiden name, and her home address and told her she had to come to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office to pay a $5,000 fine or go to jail. When she arrived, they explained they just wanted to lure her out of the house to kill her. Clearly s...

By John Labriola - Thanks to a new state law requiring supermajorities to raise taxes, the Citrus County Commission for the first time in years last week adopted the rollback rate of 6.7382 mills for the 2026-27 general fund budget.  Commissioner Jeff Kinnard initially moved to adopt the 2025-26 tax rate of 6.9898 mills, the rate recommended by the county administration, which still would have raised taxes on most homeowners because of rising property values. The motion failed because Commissioners Rebecca Bays and Janet Barek voted no, denying it the supermajority it would have needed to pass. Bays then moved to adopt the rollback rate, which was approved 4-1, with liberal Commissioner Holly Davis voting no. The rollback rate is the property tax rate that would generate about the same amount of tax revenue as the previous year, leaving out revenue from new construction and other additions to the tax roll.  But because of all the new construction, the county will still co...

By John Labriola - The Aug. 18 primary elections are around the corner, and with mail-in ballots having already arrived in voters' hands, it's time for recommendations. The marquee election this year is the governor's race, with Ron DeSantis stepping down after eight highly successful years due to term limits. Several qualified candidates have entered the race to replace him, so the Citrus Crusader will hold off on recommendations for governor until the general election. In the contest for Chief Financial Officer, our former state senator Blaise Ingoglia has done an excellent job of exposing financial irresponsibility in local government as he builds support for this November's constitutional amendment to eliminate most homesteaded property taxes. The Crusader recommends keeping BLAISE INGOGLIA . In the race for state representative, it was disappointing to hear Tod Cloud come out against the property tax amendment at a recent candidate forum. Although Cloud has taken c...

By John Labriola - Inverness has joined the rest of Citrus County in banning new marijuana dispensaries. The Inverness City Council last week voted 4-1, with Councilwoman Jacquie Hepfer opposed, to adopt on final reading an ordinance that prohibits future marijuana dispensaries from locating within city limits. The ordinance, which takes effect immediately, won't affect existing dispensaries, which will be allowed to remain. The move came several months after the Citrus County Commission voted to ban new marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated Citrus County, and two years after the Crystal River City Council voted to keep future dispensaries out of Crystal River, as the county has become saturated with medical marijuana "treatment centers" over the last several years. There are currently nine in the county, including two in the city of Inverness, two immediately outside Inverness city limits, four in the city of Crystal River, and one in Homosassa. It's the second t...

By John Labriola - Nearly 10 months ago, Charlie Kirk was murdered by an LGBT extremist for expressing his Christian beliefs while answering students' questions on a university campus. The assassination shocked the nation and prompted President Donald Trump to award Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for his courage. Many communities around the country – including Sumter, Marion, Hernando, Lake, Collier, Manatee and Walton counties in Florida – also honored Kirk by naming roads after him, and more Florida counties are moving to declare Oct. 14 the Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance in honor of his birthday, including Gilchrist County, which also plans a week-long library display of Kirk's books. But because of leftist political pressure, Citrus County, which at least on paper is overwhelmingly conservative, has so far avoided honoring Kirk in any way. Last October, the Citrus County Library Advisory Board (LAB) rejected a motion by board member Rhys Campbell to crea...