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• There are at least two new reminders of the particular geology underneath parts of western Alachua County, as a pair of sinkholes have opened near the Haile Plantation recreation trail. County officials say the holes are not yet serious enough to deserve a full engineering study, but the area has a history of sinkholes and it's being monitored. (Separately, there's a lengthy discussion on r/GNV this week about the new western subdivision known as Oakmont, an area that a commenter says is also prone to the problem.) (WUFT News)
• The controversy from earlier this week over Westwood Middle School's purpose as "swing school" site in Alachua County is on hold for now. (WUFT News, Gainesville Sun)
• An insurance company is helping to cover the $700,000-plus that Ocala lost to a scammer earlier this year. (WCJB)
• The Marion County Commission is funding a study about the viability of building and owning a recreational water park. (Ocala Star-Banner)
• Bronson's Town Council this week declared the town a "Second Amendment Stronghold." (Spotlight on Levy County Government)
• Ocala Fire Rescue had to respond after an Elf on the Shelf ended up too close to a hot bulb. (Facebook)
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Around the state today
• One of Florida's more high-profile criminal cases of the past decade now has a civil component. George Zimmerman has decided to file a lawsuit against the family of Trayvon Martin and others over his prosecution. (NPR News)
• People whose South Florida yards are already starting to flood from sea level rise got bad news yesterday. A new round of projections and the current reality send a clear message, a University of Miami professor says: "If you look out the window, like the areas in the Keys that are flooding for weeks on end, this is not something that might happen, this is something that is already happening." Keys government leaders may have to decide what parts of their communities cannot be saved from the oceans. (Miami Herald, New York Times)
• As many as 200,000 Florida students might lose access to free school lunches due to a change in the federal food stamp program. (Bay News 9)
• We reported at the outset of this year's hurricane season the success of most nursing homes in our area complying with the state's generator requirement. The same doesn't hold true across Florida. (WUFT News, News Service of Florida)
• The final Florida Executive Clemency meeting yesterday had a man sobbing and collapsing in front of the governor and the rest of the cabinet. He did not receive a pardon. (Florida Phoenix)
• St. Petersburg's mayor shut down the idea of the Tampa Bay Rays splitting the baseball season between his region and a Canadian city. (WUSF)
From NPR News
• Politics: Giuliani, Nunes and '-1': A Look At What The Impeachment Report Phone Records Mean
• Politics: Law Professors Testify On Constitutional Grounds For Impeachment
• Science: Probe Gets Close To The Sun — Finds Rogue Plasma Waves And Flipping Magnetic Fields
• Science: Research Raises Concerns About Safety Of Hair Dyes, Chemical Straighteners
• Science: Europe Is Burning U.S. Wood As Climate-Friendly Fuel, But Green Groups Protest
• Business: 'The Best Thing You Can Do Is Not Buy More Stuff,' Says 'Secondhand' Expert
• National: Carbon Monoxide Poisonings Spike After Big Storms. Portable Generators Are A Culprit
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.