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Tampa’s treasured ‘Cigar City’ culture enjoys revival as tourists, newcomers flock to Florida

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Cigar culture is deeply ingrained in Tampa, Florida, and enjoying a sudden spirited revival amid the city’s wider ascendancy in recent years. 

“Cigar City” produced more than 500 million cigars annually in the 1930s, making Tampa the center of global manufacturing.

By the 1970s almost all of Tampa’s scores of cigar makers had vanished. 

Like other sectors of American industry, the cigar makers found cheaper labor and more inviting business and tax environments overseas. 

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However, signs of Tampa’s new embrace of the cigar lifestyle are everywhere in Tampa today. 

J.C. Newman Cigar Co., which dubs itself American’s oldest family-owned cigar maker, recently underwent a major overhaul to turn itself into a center of tourism and hospitality in historic Ybor City.

Sydney Elliott of J.C. Newman Cigar Co. in Ybor City, Tampa, displays dried tobacco leaf. J.C. Newman is the last major cigar-maker in Tampa. The Florida city was once the center of the cigar-making world, producing 500 million cigars each year. 

Sydney Elliott of J.C. Newman Cigar Co. in Ybor City, Tampa, displays dried tobacco leaf. J.C. Newman is the last major cigar-maker in Tampa. The Florida city was once the center of the cigar-making world, producing 500 million cigars each year.  (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

Local cigar cafés such as Tabanero Cigars are expanding both their retail and online business amid a wave of new tourists and new residents flocking to the region. 

Hockey fans, meanwhile, can smoke cigars at the Diamond Crown Lounge at Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa — home of the 2020 and 2021 Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

“We believe in the enjoyment of craftsmanship.” — Tampa cigar maker Yanko Maceda 

It’s the only space in an NHL arena where fans can smoke cigars and watch live hockey action, according to Cigar Aficionado.

Tampa’s unique pro-sports amenity is a tribute to the importance of cigars in local culture. 

“We believe in the enjoyment of craftsmanship,” Ybor City entrepreneur Yanko Maceda of Tabanero Cigars told Fox News Digital.

Cigar culture still thrives in Tampa. Tabanero Cigars is one of several Ybor City cafés that serve hand-rolled cigars and strong Cuban coffee in a relaxed, civilized environment. 

Cigar culture still thrives in Tampa. Tabanero Cigars is one of several Ybor City cafés that serve hand-rolled cigars and strong Cuban coffee in a relaxed, civilized environment.  (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

Guests visit his cigar café, and many others like it in Tampa’s historic district, to smoke hand-rolled robustos seated on faux-leather couches, sipping rich, dark Cuban coffee while reading Hemingway or making new friends. 

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Tampa’s cigar culture suggests a quiet and Old World sophistication — the Good Life — missing in many parts of a digital society that moves with breakneck speed today.

“This is how civilized men should live.” — patron at Tabanero Cigars in Ybor City, Tampa

“This is how civilized men should live,” said a visitor from Toronto, sitting outside Tabanero beneath palm trees smoking a cigar and drinking a cortadito (espresso with steamed milk) on a recent sun-splashed and warm winter day. 

Nearby, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. in Ybor City dubs itself American’s oldest family-owned cigar maker. 

Founded in 1895, it stands proudly as the last of Tampa’s glory-era cigar makers. 

Hand-rolled cigars placed between a press, where they will be set in shape before they're finished with Connecticut-grown tobacco wrapper. 

Hand-rolled cigars placed between a press, where they will be set in shape before they’re finished with Connecticut-grown tobacco wrapper.  (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

Newman spent the last several years refurbishing its stately brick factory into a tourist and hospitality destination and museum.

Guests can learn about local history, host wedding receptions or business meetings — or learn to roll their own cigars in Friday night classes. 

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It plans to open a working tobacco farm in Ybor City, a living museum of American agriculture, by the end of the year. 

Tampa, and its historic Ybor City neighborhood specifically, earned the nickname Cigar City as the center of global cigar-making in the late 19th and into the 20th centuries. 

Tampa, and its historic Ybor City neighborhood specifically, earned the nickname Cigar City as the center of global cigar-making in the late 19th and into the 20th centuries.  (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

It will be built around a post-Civil War tobacco barn recently found and reclaimed from the Florida panhandle. 

“People can come down here, plant [tobacco], pick it, hang it in the barn, put it in bales, age it and roll their own cigars with tobacco we’ll grow right here in Tampa,” Bobby Newman, the third-generation co-owner with brother Eric of J.C. Newman, told Fox News Digital.

He cites agro-food tours such as the Kentucky Bourbon Trail as inspiration for what the Newmans hope to build in Ybor City. 

Renewed interest amid COVID

Several factors have fueled Tampa’s cigar resurgence, say local aficionados. 

COVID-19 inspired renewed interest in hand-crafted cigars as people locked in at home sought leisurely pursuits and comforts.

J.C. Newman Cigar Co. was founded by Julius Caesar Newman in 1895 in Ybor City, Tampa. Third and fourth generations of the family run the cigar maker today. 

J.C. Newman Cigar Co. was founded by Julius Caesar Newman in 1895 in Ybor City, Tampa. Third and fourth generations of the family run the cigar maker today.  (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

“Cigars, premium cigars, have never been more popular,” said Neman. 

He said that, during COVID, “Who knew that so many people would stay home and drink their favorite beverages while smoking a ton of handmade cigars?”

An influx of tourists and new residents, meanwhile, have flooded Tampa from big northern cities where cigars are frowned upon — or even banned. 

They look at cigars, and the ability to smoke them openly in Tampa, as a taste of American tradition and Florida freedom. 

The trend has been buoyed by a rediscovery of City Cigar legacy and lore. 

A mural in Ybor City, Tampa, celebrating the neighborhood's American pride.

A mural in Ybor City, Tampa, celebrating the neighborhood’s American pride. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

Ybor City is one of America’s great historic neighborhoods — one of only three National Historic Landmark Districts in all of Florida. 

It was built, quite literally to make cigars.

Neighborhood namesake Vicente Martínez Ybor was born in Spain in 1818 and became a cigar maker in Cuba before fleeing for Key West in 1869. 

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He purchased 40 acres of land northeast of downtown Tampa and moved his cigar-making operation there in 1885. 

Scores of cigar makers followed, giving Tampa its well-earned reputation as Cigar City.  

A great cigar is “well-balanced, like a craft beer or a good bourbon,” Maceda, of Tabanero Cigars, told Fox News Digital. 

Tampa cigar maker Luis Gonzalez hand-rolls cigars at J.C. Newman Cigar Co. in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, in February 2023. 

Tampa cigar maker Luis Gonzalez hand-rolls cigars at J.C. Newman Cigar Co. in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, in February 2023.  (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

“From the first sip to the end of the glass, you’ll always have a rush of flavors.” 

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A great cigar, he added, should also be “well constructed, so you have a really slow burn. And definitely aging … makes a huge difference.”

He added, “A well-aged cigar will give you a beautiful experience.”

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/tampas-treasured-cigar-city-culture-enjoys-revival-tourists-newcomers-flock-florida

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Black conservative father and faith leader homeschools 6 kids to ‘get God in’: ‘What could be more important?’

The Bible says the fear of the Lord, meaning a reverence for and an awe of God, is the beginning of knowledge and understanding.  

So Abraham Hamilton III of the American Family Association, headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi, says that begs a vital question about the public school system.

He asks, “What kind of system of instruction can you have, calling it education, but intentionally and systematically denies the knowledge of God?”

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Hamilton is general counsel and public policy analyst for the American Family Association. He’s an African-American conservative — which makes him a huge target for liberals.  

He’s a husband and father of six, all of whom he homeschools, because in researching the history and intent of the public school system, he discovered what should scare any parent who’s trying to mold and shape their child spiritually and intellectually.

Abe Hamilton of American Family Association

Abraham Hamilton of the American Family Association shared his story of how and why he and his wife have chosen to homeschool their six children. It’s not just the indoctrination today that worries Hamilton.  (AFA)

Says Hamilton, “The thing that led us to start homeschooling was first my wife and I began delving into a more solidified biblical worldview — and we began to learn a bit about the history of the modern public education system.”

It was a history that looked at the intent of such lauded educators as Horace Mann and John Dewey, who crusaded for a public school system to bring education to the masses to strengthen the nation. 

This has been a centuries-long effort to transform the United States of America, said Hamilton.   

But Hamilton said there was a more fundamental intention lurking behind the “good of the nation.”    

On a recent episode of “Lighthouse Faith” podcast, Hamilton talked about how education by its very nature is a form of discipleship. And that the public school system was designed to disciple young minds into the faith of secular humanism. It’s a man-centered religion. 

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Secular humanism refers to a philosophy that “replaces a worship of the transcendent or supernatural deity with the deification of man and humankind,” according to an article in the Loyola Law Journal.

So secular humanism is the very definition of what the Bible calls sin — man putting himself in the place of God, believing that humanity is the measure of all things rather than God.

Hamilton said this has been a centuries-long effort to transform the United States.  

kids at Portland Public Schools

Students are shown arriving at a public high school in Apr. 19, 2021. It’s no sudden occurrence, writes Lauren Green, that parents today are seeing their kids subject to indoctrination of liberal group think on gender ideology, the environment and critical race theory.  (Carlos Delgado/AP Images for Portland Public Schools)

“We did not just arrive where we are accidentally,” he said. “It has been the product of an intentional plan using the school system, by and large as a primary mechanism to accomplish it.”

The book by Fox News’ Pete Hegseth, “Battle for the American Mind,” wholeheartedly affirms Hamilton’s accusations. 

The book is an exegesis of how secular, Enlightenment-based and Marxist forces took hold of and promoted the idea of public schools for the purpose of controlling the country.  

Writes Hegseth, “American progressives knew that social control was far more powerful than economic control. As such, they set out to gain direct national control of the ‘commanding heights’ of American schools. A project set in motion more than 100 ago is today leveraged through 16,000 hours of government instruction.”

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So it’s no sudden occurrence that parents are seeing their kids subject to indoctrination of liberal group think on gender ideology, the environment and critical race theory. 

The COVID-19 shutdown that forced millions of children to receive class instruction via Zoom also let parents see and hear what their children were being taught. The backlash resulted in parents showing up at school board meetings in protest.

Public school students are denied the knowledge that “the reason why Isaac Newton experimented was because of what he read in the Bible.” 

But it’s not just indoctrination that worries Hamilton. If the Bible is true, that knowing God is the beginning of all knowledge, then millions of children sitting in public school classrooms for six to eight hours a day, five days a week, are not getting the full breadth of education.

For example, regarding the great scientist Isaac Newton, the 17th century physicist, astronomer and mathematician whose laws of universal gravitation transformed the scientific landscape and our understanding of the motion of the planets, Hamilton says, “What most children don’t realize is that Isaac Newton was a passionate Christian. He could be rightly described as a theologian who dabbled in science.”

He says that what public school students are denied is the knowledge that “the reason why Isaac Newton experimented was because of what he read in the Bible.”  

woman daughter pray

A woman and her daughter pray together over a Bible. While Abraham of the American Family Association says that we do have “godly teachers, wonderful teachers, wonderful administrators, wonderful principals — the system itself has been calcified in opposition to God” to the point where you have to figure out a way to get God in.  (iStock)

So they are denied the ability to connect the dots of what makes this world the way it is.

Newton and other scientists of his ilk like Copernicus were inspired by Scriptures such as Psalm 19, which says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”  

Says Hamilton, “Mathematics is an opportunity to peer into the mind of God. The discipline of mathematics only exists because we have a creator who is immutable. He doesn’t change, and he has established a fixed universe that creates an environment for us to be able to have the disciplines of science, the discipline of mathematics.”

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But why not try to fix the public school system, like those parents showing up for board meetings and running for the school board themselves?

Hamilton applauds their efforts. 

But while he says we do have “godly teachers, wonderful teachers, wonderful administrators, wonderful principals, the system itself has been calcified in opposition to God” to the point where you have to figure out a way to get God in. 

Lauren Green

Lauren Green of Fox News Channel, the network’s chief religion correspondent, recently spoke with Abraham Hamilton of the American Family Association in Mississippi, who says he cannot entrust the intellectual development of his six children to America’s public school system.  (Fox News)

In other words, the system is geared to exclude God.

The recent court battles are evidence. 

A high school coach is fired for praying on the football field and a substitute teacher is fired for opposing a same-sex themed book; a school board in Maine rejects a church’s application to hold worship services at a high school because of the church’s beliefs on abortion and gay marriage; and a Utah School district removes the King James Bible from its elementary and middle school shelves because a parent complained it contained “vulgarity and violence.”

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For Hamilton, the bottom line is that he cannot entrust the intellectual development of his children to a system whose aim is to disconnect God from knowledge. 

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Says Hamilton, “We are endeavoring to disciple our children in a holistic sense and doing so from our home as a basis for it for that endeavor. What could be more important than that when it comes to our children?”

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Ohio firefighters find 118-year-old time capsule buried in fire station: Here’s what was inside

A team of firefighters has uncovered treasure hidden in their fire department that’s nearly 12 decades old.

Captain Ryan Redmon and a group of six firefighters from the City of Marion Ohio Fire Department were on a mission to retrieve an old department cornerstone from a retired fire station that was about to be demolished, but they ended up finding something truly unexpected.

The Marion Fire Department (MFD) has recently been researching the history of their department, going back to 1848, by digging up some information — both figuratively and literally, Captain Redmon told Fox News Digital.

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On May 25, Redmon and the firefighters went down to the old Marion Fire Department Station No. 2, which was built in 1905, to excavate their department’s cornerstone for preservation purposes before the building was scheduled to be torn down.

MFD cornerstone 2

Captain Ryan Redmon and a team of six firefighters from the Marion Fire Department in Marion, Ohio, discovered a hidden time capsule dating back to 1905. Firefighter Andrew Niles is pictured above removing a brick. (City of Marion Ohio Fire Department)

After spending nearly 30 minutes on the excavation, Redmon and his men quickly realized the cornerstone was deeper into the building than anticipated, so they called in professionals to complete the removal.

As Redmon and his team were about to leave, they pulled out one last brick and saw a copper box fall out of the sandstone, Redmon shared.

Redmon and the other firefighters on the scene took it back to the station excited to show everyone their new discovery.

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“Obviously, everybody wanted us to open it right away, and we wanted to, trust me. It was killing us to see what was in there,” Redmon commented.

copper time capsule

The 118-year-old time capsule was hidden near the cornerstone of the retired fire station building that was set to be demolished. (City of Marion Ohio Fire Department)

The MFD has been working on the written history of their department, but nothing in their prior research led them to believe there would be a time capsule hidden in the 1905 fire station.

“We’ve done so much history work around the station and I feel like we’ve got a pretty good grasp on our past and where we’ve been, and [to] discover something like [this], there’s no written record of it,” Redmon stated.

“We scoured newspapers, we scoured old records [and] there was never any mention of a time capsule in there, so it was very exciting,” he added.

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The time capsule was placed near the cornerstone of the old MFD station on July 20, 1905, according to a letter found in the capsule written by the fire chief at the time, Redmon added.

men opening time capsule

Chief Chuck Deem (left) looks on as Captain Redmon (center) and Andrew Niles (far right) pry open the time capsule during a public ceremony on May 31.   (City of Marion Ohio Fire Department)

“Firemen aren’t exactly known for being gentle, delicate creatures with things,” Redmon joked. “So we took it to the historical society in town.”

The copper box had been soldered shut on the edge and wasn’t easy to pry open, according to Redmon.

On May 31, the MFD invited the residents of Marion to be a part of a public opening of the time capsule.

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Inside the 118-year-old copper box were dozens of well-preserved memorabilia referencing the department including: nine MFD badges from the “turn of the century,” an invitation to the 1878 “Northwestern Ohio Volunteer Fireman’s Association Fireman’s Games” (which is still held today), four newspapers from July 1905 and so much more, according to the City of Marion Ohio Fire Department Facebook page.

Redmon took note of the differences between the “turn of the century era” badges that had been found in the time capsule, detailing the difference in style and size.

“There has been talk about trying to back to that style now that we know that’s our history and that’s kind of where we came from. In the future, maybe we can go back to that,” Redmon commented.

One of Redmon’s favorite discoveries in the box was the letter from Chief McFarland, the department’s fire chief for almost 40 years, he added.

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“He has kind of got his touch on everything. To have an actual letter from him was very [exciting].”

Ohio time capsule split FINAL

Redmon is looking forward to making a new time capsule for the new fire station which will include an item from the newly found 1905 capsule. (City of Marion Ohio Fire Department)

Redmon gave a lot of credit to Andrew Niles, a firefighter on his team, who has been heading up the department’s historical research and was the one to open the time capsule.

One of the biggest takeaways for Redmon is knowing that he now has a tangible place in the history of the MFD.

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“I was becoming a part of history because I was involved in this opening and this finding,” he shared.

The MFD is planning on taking an item from the 1905 time capsule, most likely one of the badges, and placing it in a new time capsule that will be buried in the construction of the new fire station, Redmon added.

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The hope is that another 118 years will pass by before the new capsule is opened and someone will be able to discover a 236-year-old badge, paying homage to the history and legacy of the Marion Fire Department, Redmon said.

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On this day in history, June 7, 1942, Battle of Midway ends in decisive US victory

On this day in history, June 7, 1942, the Battle of Midway — regarded as one of the most decisive U.S. victories in its war against Japan — came to an end.  

The Battle of Midway was an Allied naval victory and a major turning point in World War II. 

The battle was fought between Japanese and American carrier forces near the Midway Atoll, a territory of the United States in the central Pacific, from June 4-7, 1942.

On June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway began. 

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Midway Island is a fairly isolated atoll, so named because it is midway between North America and Asia in the North Pacific Ocean, according to National Geographic.

Midway’s importance grew for commercial and military planners, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

Battle of Midway

In this June 4, 1942, file photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the USS Astoria (CA-34) steams by USS Yorktown (CV-5), shortly after the carrier had been hit by three Japanese bombs in the Battle of Midway.  (William G. Roy/U.S. Navy via AP, File)

In the 1930s, Midway became a stopover for Pan American Airways’ “flying clippers” — seaplanes crossing the ocean on their five-day transpacific passage, the same source indicates.

Midway was an incredibly strategic location, multiple sources say. 

“The Imperial Japanese Navy planned to use it to secure their sphere of influence in the Pacific theater of the war,” according to National Geographic. 

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“The Japanese had not lost a naval battle in more than 50 years, and had nearly destroyed the American fleet just six months earlier in a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.” 

The American success at Midway was a major victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy. 

Pearl Harbor is about 1,300 miles east of Midway, says the same source.

In preparation, American military and intelligence forces worked together to defeat the Japanese. 

Battle of Midway Island

The Battle of Midway Island, which resulted in a major victory for the U.S. fleet. The USS aircraft carrier ‘Yorktown’ received a direct hit from a Japanese plane, which got through despite the heavy barrage put up by American destroyers.  (Keystone/Getty Images)

Code breakers were able to decipher Japanese naval code, allowing American leaders to anticipate Japanese maneuvers, notes National Geographic. 

Because of this, the U.S. Navy was then able to launch a surprise attack on the larger Japanese fleet in the area and the Battle of Midway turned the tide of the war, says the same source. 

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The American success at Midway was a major victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy as all four Japanese carriers — Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga and Soryu — had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, says the National WWII Museum.

The Battle of Midway is often referred to as the turning point of the war in the Pacific.

“Sinking those Japanese carriers represented a resounding defeat over the enemy fleet which had wrought such destruction only six months before,” the same source says.

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The Imperial Japanese Navy would not be capable of overcoming the loss of four carriers and over 100 trained pilots — and with the loss at Midway, the Japanese offensive in the Pacific was overturned and the United States began offensive action in the Pacific, says the National WWII Museum.

The Battle of Midway is widely considered the most decisive U.S. victory of that period.

It is often referred to as the turning point of the war in the Pacific.

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Midway Atoll has since been designated as a National Memorial to the Battle of Midway, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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