News Briefs

+ School employee charged in cyber attack
Deputies arrested a Sarasota County School District technology support employee Tuesday morning for allegedly disrupting the school system’s computer network in a cyber attack last month.

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office charged 28-year-old Michael Levanti with two second-degree felonies for installing malware that affected the district’s email system, online learning portals and security, which spread across 50,000 users and more than 350 servers, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Levanti, who earns roughly $29,000 annually, is on paid administrative leave until the investigation is complete, according to Deputy Superintendent Scott Lempe.

School officials discovered the problems Oct. 21, and hired technology consultant the Sylint Group to investigate the incident, leading to Levanti’s arrest.

Levanti, who has been a school district employee since July 2012, is being held on a $30,000 bond at the Sarasota County Jail.

+ City, county plan closures for Thanksgiving
On Thursday and Friday, government offices in the city and county will close for Thanksgiving. Several government services will also be impacted by the holiday.

All city and county offices, including county libraries, will close Thursday and Friday. County libraries will reopen Saturday, while all other offices will reopen Dec. 1.

Trash collection will be affected in both the city and county. Waste collection scheduled for Thursday will occur on Friday, and trash collection scheduled for Friday will occur Saturday. The county announced that, because collection times will vary, residents should place trash at the curb by 6 a.m. on the day of pickup.

Sarasota County Area Transit buses will not run on Thursday, but full service resumes Friday.

Payne Park and the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex will both close Thursday before reopening Friday. In addition to its sixth-annual Thanksgiving “Turkey Shoot,” Bobby Jones Golf Club will have nine-hole play available for those arriving before 11 a.m. Thursday. Lido Pool will be open from 10 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

+ Sarasota County Area Transit hires new director
Sarasota County Area Transit will be under new leadership five months after its previous director, Glama Carter was fired.

Rocky Burke of Lexington, Ky., accepted the county’s $103,000 annual salary offer. His first day is tentatively set for Dec. 29.

Sarasota County attracted 36 candidates for the SCAT director position.

Burke is the general manager of the Lextran transit system in Lexington and has served in that position since 2008. The program had 75 routes, more than 200 employees and a $21 million budget.

One of Burke’s major accomplishments in Lexington was increasing ridership by 15% and installing a trolley downtown, according to a press release from Sarasota County.

Besides Lexington, Burke worked for transit industries in Arizona, Kansas and Mississippi. He earned his master's degree in public administration at the University of Daytona in Ohio. He also retired from the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant colonel after 28 years of service.

Burke replaces Glama Carter at SCAT. Despite positive scores on her November 2013 evaluation and a 3% pay increase, Carter was fired from her position in July for reasons undisclosed by the county. Burke will make the same salary that Carter was paid before her termination.

+ Herald-Tribune parent firm sold for $280 million
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the largest daily newspaper in the Sarasota-Bradenton market, has a new owner for the second time in less than three years.

The new owner, according to a release, is New Media Investment Group, a New York City-based firm that publishes 450 community publications and 370 related websites in 27 states. New Media paid $280 million for Halifax Media Group, which publishes the Herald-Tribune and 35 other newspapers, including 24 dailies and the connected websites. Halifax Media Group, which also owned the Daytona Beach News-Journal, bought the Herald-Tribune from the New York Times Regional Media Group in December 2011.

New Media is managed by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, an industry giant with $66 billion of assets under management. The chairman of the board of New Media is Wesley Edens, a onetime partner and managing director of Lehman Bros. and BlackRock Financial Management who co-founded Fortress in 1998. Edens bought the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks in May with a business partner for $550 million.

Most of Halifax’s publications are in the Southeast United States, a market where New Media had no presence. The portfolio of Halifax publications, in total, has total daily circulation of around 635,000 and 752,000 on Sunday, according to the release. New Media has made other purchases over the past 15 months, including the Providence Journal in Rohde Island and the Dow Jones Local Media Group, which includes eight daily publications formerly owned by News Corp. New Media says its publications reach 14 million people a week.

The deal is expected to close in the 2015 first quarter.

Meetings & agendas
Regular Sarasota City Commission meeting— 2:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, Commission Chambers, City Hall, 1565 First St., Sarasota

Siesta Key Village Association meeting — 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, Daiquiri Deck, 5250 Ocean Blvd., Siesta