5 things you need to know happening in Florida on Friday, April 1

TAMPA BAY, Fla. - Here are five things you need to know happening in Florida on Friday, April 1.

(1) Tampa Oath of Office ceremonies

The City of Tampa will get a new mayor and three new city councilmembers during a swearing in ceremony at the Tampa Convention Center on Friday.

Mayor-elect Bob Buckhorn and City Council Members-elect will take an oath of office at 2:00 p.m. today.

Immediately following the ceremony, the Tampa City Council will hold their first organizational meeting at the Convention Center.

Buckhorn beat out Rose Ferlita in a runoff election on March 22 with more than 62 percent of the vote. He will become the city's 58th mayor.

Buckhorn replaces Pam Iorio who in eight years as mayor saw the crime rate drastically fall, a number of city beautification projects be built, and helped Tampa win the right to hold the 2012 Republican National Convention.

If you are unable to attend the ceremony, you can watch it streamed live on abcactionnews.com .

For more information, visit www.tampagov.net .

(2) Rays season opener

The Tampa Bay Rays open their 2011 regular season campaign Friday night.

This year's version of the Rays will look vastly different than the squad that won the American League East in 2010.

The Rays traded away starting pitcher and 2008 ALCS MVP Matt Garza and lost outfielder Carl Crawford, first baseman Carlos Pena and six relievers to free agency.

Tampa Bay management filled the offensive void by signing former A.L. East rivals Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez and rebuilt the bullpen with the acquisitions of Joel Peralta, Adam Russell, Cesar Ramos, Kyle Farnsworth and Juan Cruz.

Despite winning division titles in two of the last three years, the Rays are not expected to win more games than either the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees this year.

Florida Governor Rick Scott will throw out the ceremonial first pitch. He becomes the second governor to do so at a Rays home opener. Former Governor Charlie Crist did the honors in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. For more information or tickets, call (888) 326-7297 or visit raysbaseball.com .

(3) 18th annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race

Five teams from Florida begin competing at the 18th annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on Friday.

More than 80 high school and college teams spent months designing and building a lightweight human-powered rover to compete in the two-day event.

The competition is designed to teach students to troubleshoot and solve problems while getting them interesting in pursuing careers as scientists, engineers and space explorers.

Two teams from Jupiter High School, one team from North Florida Community College and two teams from the University of Central Florida will be racing their "moonbuggies."

The top three teams in both the high school and college categories receive prizes based on fastest finish with fewest penalties. The buggie riders traverse a half-mile course of rock, gravel, sand and other materials which simulate the harsh lunar surface.

You can watch the live stream of the competition at www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc .

For more information on the competition, click here .

(4) Gulf grouper recreational season opens

The Gulf of Mexico recreation grouper season opens on Friday.

For the past two months, shallow-water grouper fishing in federal and state waters during the fish's spawning season. This helps rebuild the species' population so larger annual harvests may be possible in the future.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wants to remind fishermen this recreational harvest is only for the Gulf of Mexico, except for waters in Monroe County.

All kinds of shallow-water grouper (including black, red, scamp, red hind, rock hind, coney, graysby, yellowfin, yellowmouth, and tiger) can be caught in both federal and state waters beginning today. The exception is gag grouper which may only be harvested in state waters up to nine miles from shore.

For more information regarding grouper fishing regulations, visit myfwc.com/fishing .

(5) April Fools Day

Friday is April 1st and that means you had better watch out for pranks, hoxes and practical jokes.

The holiday is celebrated around the world as a day when you play good humored jokes on family, friends, co-workers and neighbors.

In some countries such as New Zealand, Ireland, Australia and South Africa, the pranks only last until noon. Anyone who plays a joke during the afternoon is called an "April Fool."

That is not the case here in the United States when tricks are played all day long.

For some of the best April Fool's Day jokes in history, click here .