The Point

The Point, July 16, 2020: Kanye West Misses Qualification Deadline To Get On 2020 Florida Ballot

WUFT | By Gabriella Paul

Published July 16, 2020 at 12:00 PM EDT

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The top stories near you

• WUFT News: Alachua and Gainesville Officials Discuss UF Reopening Plan in Virtual Joint Meeting. "'For all of us, there is a significant degree of concern about what happens when, pick your city, 30 to 50,000 people come from all around the country and all around the world,' Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe said during the virtual meeting, which was streamed live online and on television."

• WUFT News: Town Hall Meeting Tackles Artistic Replacement For Former Site Of Former Confederate In Gainesville. "'I don’t want to disparage any of the artists here,' (County Commissioner Robert) Hutchinson said. “…but I do think that none of it quite for me captured the essence of what I think we’re looking for, both for that space and for the times that we’re in right now.'"

• WUFT News: Emerging Twitter Account Unveils Sexual Harassment Reports Of UF Students. "In its first two weeks online, the account garnered over 60 student reports."

• WUFT News: No GRU Rate Increase Coming In 2020, City Commission Decides."Gainesville City Commissioners on Monday nearly unanimously agreed to keep city utility rates where they are for another year."

• Gainesville Sun ($): College students expected to behave on and off campus this fall. "That’s the message that University of Florida and local government officials made clear Wednesday during a joint meeting between the Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission."

• The Alligator: Green card freeze disheartens immigrants in Gainesville. "Ricardo Alcalá has been a Gator for the past five years. Now, his future in the United States is in question."

• Citrus County Chronicle ($): Businesses rush to apply for county CARES grant."More than 200 business owners accessed the county's CARES website Wednesday..."

• Bay News 9: Citrus County Parents Express Concerns Over Masks, Social Distancing. "Citrus County parent Elizabeth Sandifer told Spectrum Bay News 9, 'If masks are optional then I believe we’re making their health optional as well.'"

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Around the state today

• Sun Sentinel ($): Florida surpasses 300,000 coronavirus cases. "Florida has hit another milestone by passing more than 300,000 COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic — the latest 100,000 being reported in just 10 days."

• Florida Times-Union ($): State and labs, including some in Northeast Florida, question accuracy of COVID-19 data. "Florida’s health department said Wednesday that some labs across the state have failed to report negative COVID-19 tests, while multiple labs and hospitals complained of inaccuracies in state data."

• From our Fresh Take Florida Team: Kanye West Fails To Make Presidential Ballot In Florida Amid Reports He’s Ending His Brief Political Campaign. "In other words, 'we over,' a line from his 2008 collaboration with John Legend." (WUFT News)

• Orlando Weekly: Hundreds of fake conservative 'news' websites pretend to be local, with more than a dozen around Orlando."Hundreds of bogus local news websites have popped up across the U.S., many with neighborhood-specific titles and purportedly offering local news...More than a dozen such sites are set up to represent the Orlando area alone."

• News Service of Florida: Reversal Eases Uncertainty For International Students."Shortly after Tuesday’s announcement, University of Florida International Center Dean Leonardo A. Villalón wrote to the school's international students to assure them that they would be able to continue their studies in the fall with the model that is 'deemed best in the context of the current pandemic.'"

• TCPalm ($): Gov. Ron DeSantis sued by Rights of Nature group over Clean Waterways Act."The lawsuit claims that provision 'strips counties and municipalities from creating local laws which protect the health, safety and welfare of their citizens from an infinite number of issues 'relating to the natural environment.'"

• Tallahassee Democrat ($): Florida DEO cancels call center contracts for poor performance on unemployment system."Citing poor performance, the Department of Economic Opportunity has canceled contracts with two South Florida companies hired to handle overflow calls from applicants trying to access unemployment benefits through the state's troubled system."

• Florida Politics: NASA extends Boeing partnership to 2024 with $915 million contract."Boeing works closely with the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral to engineer and advance technology in order to support the ISS, which currently has an international crew of six astronauts."