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The top stories near you
• U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho will not seek another term in Congress. (News Service of Florida)
• Alachua County commissioners last night received data about the proposed phosphate mine that would border Bradford and Union counties but that could impact water quality within Alachua County limits. They're concerned. (WUFT News)
• One man now has managed to accumulate more than $500,000 in code enforcement fines and liens on his two properties in the City of Gainesville. His neighbors are no longer amused. “I am embarrassed to have visitors to come to my home and drive by what is actually a junk yard," one of them told us. (WUFT News)
• UF Health is expanding south into The Villages area. (Gainesville Sun)
• University of Florida researchers are in the midst of using $6.9 million in grants to research the effects of kratom, a drug that has more than one Florida mother fighting to better educate the public about the impact they say it had on their children. (WUFT News)
• There are two more days to offer food and another week for money donations for Alachua County Schools' Holiday Food Drive. (WUFT News)
• Almost a year to the day after we reported about the declining number of juvenile arrests in Gainesville, a fight at Eastside High School resulted in the arrest of 15 students. A similar incident transpired this week in Brevard County, too. (The Alligator, Florida Today)
• A Levy County sheriff's deputy has rescued two injured owls in as many weeks. (Facebook)
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Around the state today
• The Orlando Sentinel (and a former WUFT reporter) is out with a multipart investigation into the impossible struggles of tourism workers in "America's most visited city."
• The three airmen killed in Friday's shooting at NAS Pensacola were honored with Wings of Gold. And here's the story of those who helped to respond to the shooting. In the shooting's aftermath, there is a suspension of operational training for Saudi military students. (Pensacola News Journal, New York Times)
• Family members of the UPS driver killed in Friday's violence in South Florida held his funeral yesterday. (Miami Herald)
• WLRN explains how the prickly sea urchins might help save Florida's coral reefs.
• Orlando followed Gainesville this week in becoming the next Florida city to allow electric scooters. (Orlando Weekly)
• A powerful state senator wants to see the revival of Florida's film industry. (Florida Phoenix)
• "I don’t know how many plagues were going to fight, but we’re getting very close to biblical proportions." Stark language bounced around a state Senate committee room yesterday as citrus representatives warned of a possible industry freefall. (News Service of Florida)
• Politifact labeled as false U.S. Rep. Greg Steube's comparison of the impeachment inquiry's treatment of President Donald Trump to that of terrorists in Iraq.
• Much needed after the week this state has had: "15 moments in 2019 that made us proud to live in Florida." (Florida Today)
From NPR News
• Politics: House Democrats Move Forward On Impeachment While Advancing Trade Deal
• National: Police Officer, 5 Others Killed In Jersey City Shootings
• Health: He Started Vaping THC To Cope With Chronic Pain. Then He Got Sick
• World: Meteorologists Can't Keep Up With Climate Change In Mozambique
• Education: University Of Phoenix Reaches $191 Million Settlement With FTC, Including Debt Relief
• Politics: Facing Scrutiny, Pete Buttigieg Releases List Of McKinsey Clients
• National: Bill Cosby Loses Appeal Of Sexual Assault Conviction
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.