The Point

The Point, Oct. 22, 2019: Tropical Storm Nestor May Have Brought Red Tide Inland

WUFT | By Jasmine Dahlby

Published October 22, 2019 at 12:00 PM EDT

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Today's top stories

• Tropical Storm Nestor brought high winds, rain bands and a few tornadoes to the Southwest Florida area as it barreled through the northern Gulf of Mexico over the weekend. It's likely that the storm carried a red tide bloom inland toward Sanibel, Naples and Marco Island as well. (Fort Myers News-Press)

• One of the soldiers killed Sunday in a crash at Fort Stewart in Georgia was Sgt. 1st Class Bryan Jenkins, 41, of Gainesville. (AP)

• Florida For A Fair Wage — the political committee backing a proposed constitutional amendment that would increase Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over a five-year span — needs to submit 766,200 signatures by February to get the cause on the November 2020 ballot. It has submitted 763,330 valid petition signatures to the state as of Monday. (News Service of Florida)

• Thanks to an $8.5 million reconstruction project, South Main Street in Gainesville from Depot Avenue to 16th Avenue has newly planted trees, remarked bike lanes and crosswalks, repaved sidewalks and new medians and roundabouts. (WUFT News)

• After an almost 10-hour hearing, the Florida Senate Rules Committee voted 9 to 7 to not reinstate suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, whom Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to remove from office following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The full Senate will tomorrow vote on the issue. (Miami Herald)

• The Alachua County Supervisor of Elections is looking for election workers to volunteer for the three countywide elections in 2020: the March 17 presidential preference primary, the Aug. 18 primary election and the Nov. 3 general election. Officials expect a historic turnout. (Gainesville Sun)

• The Florida Department of Environmental Protection will give Port St. Lucie $2.3 million in state grants to not only improve water quality in the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon but to help prevent flooding, restore wetlands, provide habitat for fish and wildlife and control invasive plants. (TC Palm)

• The second phase of the Virgin Trains railway construction from Orlando to Miami will cause Beachline Expressway nighttime closures next week in Brevard County. (Florida Today)

• According to the Lakeland Ledger, parks and recreational employees there removed downed trees and debris from city-owned facilities on Monday as a steady stream of damage reports continued to roll in in the wake of the tornado that tore through the city on Friday.

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