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The Point, May 2, 2019: The Swamp Restaurant Has Planned Spot In New Property Development

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The top stories near you

• Though the building is destined for demolition, the owner of The Swamp Restaurant has reached an agreement with the property's developer to return the business to the same location once a new building with apartments and other retail space is complete. (WUFT News)

Thunderstorms the next two afternoons will have it feeling like summer in north central Florida. (Florida Storms)

• Virginia Grant is the publisher of a new magazine, SYNERGY, intended to bring more attention to the accomplishments of Gainesville's African-American professionals. “It gives a platform and opportunity for additional voices to be heard,” one attorney and supporter of the venture says. (WUFT News)

• Two local budget-related stories from the Gainesville Sun: Here's the full range of increases the Gainesville City Commission is considering asking utility ratepayers and/or property owners to pay during the next fiscal year and these are the projects for which the University of Florida is projected to get additional state funding.

• Gainesville Peer Respite is the only emotional support organization of its kind in Florida, but it's struggling. The nonprofit's funding since launch in 2015 has been up and down, and one staff member even reached out to Gainesville's mayor to ask for financial help from the city. (WUFT News)

Legislators passed on to the governor a plan to fund hundreds of millions of dollars in new road construction — including the Suncoast Parkway extension through north central Florida — though no one yet knows where the routes will go. (Florida Politics)

A new terminal at the Ocala International Airport should be complete in December. (Ocala Star-Banner)

• Programming note: The Point over the next 10 days will have a reduced publishing schedule. We'll return on Monday with a monthly Weird Florida roundup, then feature an edition every other day through May 14. Thank you, as always, for your continued readership and support as we head into summer.


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Around the state today

• We published a story two years ago this week about Sebastian Gil, a Hollywood teenager whose family members had been deported during a trip to Dania Beach. Much has happened in the interim — including his enlistment in the U.S. Marine Corps and an intense national debate about immigration enforcement — but Gil has yet to be reunited with his family. (WUFT News)

• An "unusual and compelling urgency" moved the federal government to give a company a $341 million no-bid contract to continue running a shelter for migrant children in Homestead. (Miami Herald)

U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist wants the nation's attorney general to resign. The former Florida governor doesn't think William Barr has been entirely truthful in his testimony to Congress. (Tampa Bay Times)

• About a dozen people were removed from the Florida Capitol rotunda yesterday after protesting the House's passage of an anti-sanctuary city bill. (Tallahassee Democrat)

“House would not accept,” was all a state Senator had to say after his sponsored bill to reduce prison terms for nonviolent offenders failed to cross into the other chamber as this year's session came to a close. (WUFT News)

• The state Senate needs to look once more at these proposed election reforms after the House made one more amendment. (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

• A six-month investigation culminated yesterday in the Brevard County Sheriff showing off a quantity of fentanyl large enough "to kill everyone in Brevard County." (Florida Today)

Publix's quarterly earnings report was "nothing but impressive," a retired business professor says, with profit up 44% from the first quarter in 2018. (Lakeland Ledger)

• A Floridian's right to grow front-yard vegetables is now a governor's signature away from becoming law. (Miami Herald)


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About today's curator

I'm Ethan Magoc, a news editor at WUFT. Originally from Pennsylvania, I've found a home telling Florida stories. I’m part of a team searching each morning for local and state stories that are important to you; please send feedback about today's edition or ideas for stories we may have missed to emagoc@wuft.org.

Contact WUFT News by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news @wuft.org