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The Point, Aug. 7, 2020: Gainesville Commits $3 Million To Increasing Police Body Cameras

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The top stories near you

• WGFL: City of Gainesville commits $3 million toward increase in police body cameras. "The motion passed 5 to 2, but one commissioner was vocal about his disapproval of the contract."

• WUFT News: Alachua County Commissioners Discuss Grants For Community Services. "The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Gainesville and the Alachua County Health Care Advisory Board are requesting grant money from the county to fund physical and mental health services."

• Palm Beach Post: Health directors told to keep quiet as Fla. leaders pressed to reopen classrooms. "For frustrated school board members, it was a puzzling turnabout. Florida’s public schools have long depended on local health directors for recommendations on everything from reducing encephalitis risks at football games to how to test students during tuberculosis outbreaks."

• WMFE: Marion County NAACP leader, local churches want to provide working parents with option to in-school learning. "He said a dozen churches already plan to give them that choice — a safe place, with COVID-19 precautions, for 15 to 20 kids with a volunteer keeping an eye on them."

• The Alligator: Students receive SG rent relief funds months late, and some are still waiting. "I was contacting them because the whole point of rent relief is to help with rent, and now you’re delaying a process, and it’s not helping for the purpose it’s trying to serve."


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Around the state today

• Associated Press: DeSantis Pushes To Reschedule UF-FSU Football Game. "Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he will push to get the annual football game between Florida State and the University of Florida rescheduled, saying Thursday that keeping the famed rivalry going will be good for the state."

• News Service of Florida: DeSantis Lifts Travel Restrictions On New Yorkers. "Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had repeatedly disparaged New York as an example of how not to manage the coronavirus pandemic, quietly lifted travel restrictions Thursday on people coming to Florida from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut."

• NPR: How North Florida Is Becoming More Democratic. "In Florida elections, Republicans usually dominate in the north by amassing votes around Duval County. It hasn't voted for a Democratic president since 1976. But the political winds might be shifting."

• News Service of Florida: Florida Nursing Homes To Get Rapid COVID-19 Tests. "The move to increase testing comes as Florida officials are considering whether to end a temporary ban on visitors at nursing homes."

• Sun Sentinel ($): COVID-19 threatens 169,000 maritime jobs; Florida’s ports seek federal aid. "Florida’s seaports are asking Washington for at least $3.5 billion in aid for U.S. ports after the coronavirus pandemic all but brought the state’s maritime industry to a halt, eliminating thousands of jobs."

• Tampa Bay Times ($): Florida Democrats aimed to register 1 million voters by now. They didn’t come close. " ... Florida Republicans are closer to parity in voter registration than they’ve been in decades — a dynamic that may portend yet another hard-fought, narrowly decided presidential election."

• NPR: Gov. Says Florida's Unemployment System Was Designed To Create 'Pointless Roadblocks'. "By April 20, just 6% of Floridians who had applied for unemployment benefits had received a check. Gov. Ron DeSantis says that result was by design."

• Tallahassee Democrat ($):  Explosion, fatalities in Beirut evoke anger, sadness among Lebanese in Tallahassee. "Jessika Malo was returning from a visit with her daughter to an animal farm in Tallahassee when some of her Lebanese friends started circulating early videos from a horrific explosion in Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon."

• Palm Beach Post: New ‘Harvest of Shame:’ Most younger people dying from coronavirus are Black, Hispanic. "While two-thirds of those 60 and older dying from COVID throughout Florida are white, the reverse is true for those younger: two-thirds are Black or Hispanic. In Palm Beach County, the pattern is even more pronounced — 70 of the 78 deaths under 60 have been people of color."

• Sun Sentinel ($): Unhappy with school options, parents team up to form learning pods to educate their kids. "The learning pods aren’t cheap; many will cost each family more than $1,000 a month. Educators fear the pods will exacerbate inequalities in the public school system, as parents who can afford them will pay to supplement their children’s online schooling, while those with fewer resources will have to make do with the public school systems’ distance offerings."


From NPR News

• Politics: New York Attorney General Moves To Dissolve The NRA After Fraud Investigation

• World: Death Toll Rises in Beirut As Rescue Efforts Continue After Explosion

• National: 'End Of Asylum': Using The Pandemic To Turn Away Migrants, Children Seeking Refuge

• Health: Prices For COVID-19 Vaccines Are Starting To Come Into Focus

• National: Magnolias, Beer Cans and Football: Mississippi Is Designing A New State Flag

• National: Louisiana Supreme Court Won't Review Life Sentence For Man Who Stole Hedge Clippers

About today's curator

I’m Katie Hyson, a journalist at WUFT. Originally from Lutz, Fla., I’m obsessed with true stories, creatively told. I graduated from UF with a master's degree in mass communications and am part of a team searching for local and state news each week that’s important to you. Please send feedback about today’s edition of The Point or ideas for stories we may have missed to khyson@ufl.edu.

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