Drought keeps watering limits locked in for the summer

Planning to set off fireworks for the Fourth? The state isn't banning them despite the drought, but officials are urging restraint. Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said in a statement this week that Florida will not prohibit Independence Day fireworks, while advising responsible use of everything from backyard sparklers to larger displays, plus care around outdoor cookouts and campfires.

The advisory ties directly to the dry conditions driving the region's water restrictions: parched lawns and brush catch easily. If you're celebrating at home, keep a hose or water bucket close, soak the launch area, and steer clear of dry vegetation. The official Fourth at the St. Pete Pier remains the lower-risk way to see a show.

Florida's largest LGBTQ+ Pride celebration returns this weekend as St. Pete Pride wraps the month with its three-day "Here Comes the Sun" weekend. The lineup runs from the parade to a street festival and a full slate of parties, drawing what is typically one of the biggest crowds the city sees all year to the waterfront and downtown.

If you're going, plan for road closures, packed parking and shifted traffic patterns around the parade route and festival grounds. Arriving early — or skipping the car entirely — will save the most aggravation. (The next item covers a free transit option built specifically for the weekend.)

Whether you're marching, watching or just trying to navigate around it, expect downtown to run busy and celebratory from Friday into Sunday.

Getting to and from the Pride parade should be easier this year. The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority is once again running free park-and-ride service for the weekend, letting attendees leave their cars at designated lots and shuttle in rather than fighting for a downtown space near the route.

It's the kind of detail that decides whether a big-event day feels manageable or maddening. With parade-day closures and heavy crowds expected, the free shuttle is the simplest way to avoid circling for parking. Check PSTA's announcement for the lot locations, pickup points and hours before you head out.

A viral candy shop is bringing its Scandinavian sugar rush across the bay. The Pirate Candy Shop — which became a sensation after opening in Tampa's Hyde Park Village last year — is opening a St. Pete location this week, expanding the pick-your-own Swedish candy concept that built lines at its first store.

The draw is the format: walls of imported Scandinavian sweets sold by weight, the fill-a-bag experience that's turned similar shops into social-media destinations. For families hunting a low-stakes weekend outing — or anyone with a sweet tooth — it's a new downtown stop to fold into a Saturday stroll.

There's a hopeful coda to the fire that gutted USF's Marine Science Laboratory in St. Petersburg. Researchers say they've recovered irreplaceable samples from the wreckage of the roughly 80,000-square-foot building, whose roof was consumed in the blaze next to the Knight Oceanographic Research Center on the downtown waterfront campus.

For scientists, those recovered specimens can represent years of fieldwork that no insurance check can replace. The recovery doesn't undo the loss of the lab itself, but it salvages part of the research mission at one of the region's marine-science anchors — a piece of good news from a campus that's spent recent weeks assessing the damage.

If you want something quieter this weekend, the Morean Arts Center has its annual Fresh Squeezed exhibit on view, spotlighting emerging Florida artists in a show the Morean has mounted each summer since 2017. It's a free, easy way to spend an hour downtown — and a reminder that the city's arts calendar doesn't slow down just because it's June. The exhibit is open through the weekend.