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Today's top Florida stories

• NPR News: At Least 600 Tons Of Dead Fish Have Washed Up Along Tampa Bay's Shore. "For beachgoers in the Tampa Bay area, the last few weeks have been anything but normal. Discolored, soupy waters have been lapping the shore, and the beaches are laden with dead, rotting sea life."

• WUFT News: Preserving History Or Protecting A Confederate Monument? Putnam County Workshop Draws Vocal Crowd. "Putnam Board of County Commissioners workshops don’t usually have a line out the door. But on Tuesday afternoon, roughly 100 members of the public showed up for the last item on the agenda: a veteran’s memorial protection ordinance."

• WUFT News: Critical Section Of Northeast 100th Avenue Washed Out By Tropical Storm Elsa. "Alachua County spokesperson Mark Sexton said similar flooding issues have occurred in the Fairbanks area when heavier storms came through. But because this community resides on private property, Sexton said there is little the county can do."

• Miami Herald ($): Surfside search may be down to as few as five yet to be found. Toll stands at 95. "After authorities announced that crews recovered one more victim Tuesday morning and five more victims were identified, it appears there may be fewer than five people remaining to be recovered from the rubble, according to numbers released by Miami-Dade County. Still, officials cautioned that there’s no timeline for when the recovery effort is expected to conclude."

• Palm Beach Post ($): Retrieving belongings from Surfside condo collapse: A ring, a statue, a child's artwork. "Since shortly after a portion of the condominium complex collapsed on June 24, police officers, in conjunction with employees from the department's property and evidence department, have painstakingly collected, sorted, identified and labeled all sorts of items from clothing to kitchen utensils."

• News Service of Florida: House Leader: Legislature May Examine Changes To Building Codes. "Rep. Paul Renner, a Palm Coast Republican set to take over as House speaker following the 2022 elections, pointed to the inability of the Champlain Towers South condo association to quickly address safety and structural repairs needed for the once 12-story building."

• Miami Herald ($): Is Cuban-Americans’ highway protest in Miami breaking Florida’s new anti-riot law? "Dozens of people supporting the growing anti-government protests in Cuba clogged one of Miami’s busiest highways all afternoon and well into rush hour Tuesday, a show of solidarity that could put them in violation of a new law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis."

• WMFE: Nesting Sea Turtles In Florida Are Smaller. Researchers Don’t Know Why. "Researchers think juvenile turtles might be growing more slowly because they are having a harder time finding food as a result of habitat degradation or competition from other turtles."

• WUFT News: FDEO and Enterprise Florida Inc. Award Over $30 Million In Grants To Small And Rural Florida Communities. "Here’s how the majority of the funding breaks down in our coverage area..."

• Florida Politics: What is Disney World actually worth? Tax assessment battle heads to court. "Disney is arguing its property tax assessments are too high for the Magic Kingdom and the other three Orlando theme parks, its hotels and other facilities that make up the company’s sprawling Central Florida real estate portfolio, according to a dozen lawsuits Disney filed last month in Orange Circuit Court for the 2020 tax year."

• WFLA-Tampa: Saharan dust helping keep tropics quiet. "Although most of this current batch of dust will likely miss Florida, we could still see some enhanced sunrises and sunsets."

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From NPR News

• Politics: Senate Democrats Announce $3.5 Trillion Budget Agreement (via AP)

• National: The Nation's Courthouses Confront Massive Backlogs In Criminal Cases

• Health: COVID Cases In Parts Of Missouri And Arkansas Surge To Levels Not Seen Since Winter

• Sports: Why People Call Shohei Ohtani A 'Once In A Century' Baseball Player

• Education: The Pandemic Changed Medical Education In Potentially Lasting Ways

• Books: Reporters Reveal 'Ugly Truth' Of How Facebook Enables Hate Groups And Disinformation

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.