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Today's top Florida stories

• WUFT News: Gainesville Police Advisory Council Continues Conversation On Body Camera Usage. "Gainesville Police Advisory Council members brought up concerns over the Gainesville Police Department’s body camera usage during their meeting Wednesday night."

• WUSF: Positivity Rate For New Coronavirus Cases Drops To Lowest Mark Since October. "The state's positivity rate for new coronavirus cases dropped to 3.54%, the Florida Department of Health Reported on Wednesday. That's the lowest it's been since Oct. 11."

• Florida Politics: Gainesville doubles down on ‘voluntary’ proof of vaccine for city employees. "Gainesville’s public information officer, Rossana Passaniti, stressed that showing proof of vaccination is completely voluntary. Still, those city employees who do show proof of vaccination will have fewer COVID-19 restrictions to follow."

• News4Jax: DeSantis touts open schools, $1K bonus for teachers, principals in Baker County visit. "The governor said about 174,000 teachers and principals in school districts and public charter schools statewide are expected to receive the one-time checks. According to his proposal, the bonuses would be funded by $216 million from the third round of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER), funds that were passed by Congress in response to the pandemic."

• WMFE: NTSB: Firefighting Helicopter Crashed In Leesburg During Test Flight For New Bucket System. "A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman says the firefighting helicopter that crashed in Leesburg Tuesday with four people on board was on a test flight for a new bucket water release system. The UH-60 Blackhawk belonged to Firehawk Helicopters, a private contractor that helps battle wildfires."

• News Service of Florida: Visit Florida Looks To Boost International Tourism. "Florida drew 26.162 million domestic and international visitors from Jan. 1 to March 31, down from 30.4 million tourists during the first quarter of 2020, when the pandemic took hold in Florida as theme parks closed and Major League Baseball cut short spring training."

• WINK-Fort Myers: Collier County issues burn ban. "The decision came after a meeting between the Collier County Bureau of Emergency Services, Florida Forest Service, Collier County Fire Chiefs’ Association and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. The group jointly identified a need to have a burning ban become effective immediately after certain environmental conditions were met, including lack of rainfall in May."

• Orlando Sentinel ($): Cruise ships could start test sailings by late June, Port Canaveral leader says. "The many puzzle pieces of the return of cruising look to be falling into place with Port Canaveral officials optimistic that cruise lines will get the OK to start test sailings from the Central Florida port as early as late June or early July."

• Programming note: The Point will return to your inbox on Tuesday, following the holiday weekend. We hope you have a safe and relaxing Memorial Day.

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From NPR News

• National: 'A Horrible Tragedy': At Least 9 Killed in Mass Shooting at San Jose VTA Rail Yard

• Business: A Moment Or A Movement? Black Bookstore Owners On Business One Year Later

• Business: Standoff Between Farmers And Tractor Makers Intensifies Over Repair Issues

• Business: Amazon Makes A Deal To Buy MGM For Nearly $8.5 Billion

• Science: Earth Is Barreling Toward 1.5 Degrees Celsius Of Warming, Scientists Warn

• Books: Eric Carle, Creator Of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar,' Has Died

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.