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The Point, Oct. 20, 2021: Confessed Parkland shooter expected to plead guilty Wednesday morning

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The stories near you

• Fresh Take Florida: UF could receive $50 million to keep climbing the national rankings. "The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees all public universities, is requesting an additional $150 million from the Legislature to fund efforts to improve three Florida universities’ national rankings. ... If approved, the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of South Florida would each receive $50 million."

• WUFT News: Increasing gun violence prompts Gainesville Police Department special meeting with city commission. "Gainesville has seen violent crime continually increase over the past few years, according to reports kept by GPD. In 2015, the department reported 930 cases of violent crime. Last year, it counted 1,042 such cases. As of Oct. 12, the department logged 881 violent crimes in 2021. At the current pace, the city would reach 1,128 offenses by Dec. 31, resulting in an 8% increase from 2020."

• Mainstreet Daily News: Friends of the Library book sale starts new chapter. "The biannual book sale, a fall and spring ritual in Gainesville that helps support the Alachua County Library District, has been on hiatus since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it restarts Saturday with some new rules as well as a new way to pay for all the book sale treasures, said Sue Morris, the publicity chair for the Friends of the Library (FOL)."

• WCJB: City of Ocala to pay nearly $80 million to common fund as court deemed fire service fee unconstitutional. "Since February of 2010, the city collected the money for (its) fire service fee. After a court ruling that the fee was unconstitutional, the city now has to put that money back into a common fund, but over the years the city spent the money."

• WUFT News: A beloved Gainesville co-op is moving locations downtown, local creators reflect on how it started. "The How Bazar is a worker- and artist-owned company made up of five people who have been working together on smaller projects for years. The Seagle Building was their first official location for the business, which they began renting in August 2020. The co-owners said they always knew the location would be temporary but were excited to have their time in the building."

• News Service of Florida: Judge clears way for case over campus shutdown. "An Alachua County circuit judge has refused to dismiss a potential class-action lawsuit that contends the University of Florida should refund fees to students who were forced to learn remotely last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic."


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Around the state

• WLRN: The Parkland shooter may face the death penalty, here's how that process could play out. "The change in Cruz's plea in the capital case this week would spare relatives and survivors from the stress and trauma of a long, public criminal trial. Instead of going to trial, the case would enter the penalty phase, where a jury of 12 people would decide if he receives life without parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty."

• News4Jax: As supply chain issues continue, DeSantis says Florida ports are open for business. "DeSantis and the CEO of JaxPort said Florida ports are not dealing with the same type of log jams as other ports in places like California."

• News Service of Florida: A federal judge sides with DeSantis and dismisses a challenge to the Seminole gaming compact. "Dealing a win to Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe, a federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit challenging a gambling agreement that allows the tribe to have control over sports betting in Florida."

• Spectrum News: UF growing high quality cascade hops in Bay Area. "University of Florida researchers said new data shows they're growing higher quality cascade hops at their center in Wimauma than the number one variety from the Pacific Northwest."

• Florida Politics: Obscurity stalks another African American cemetery. "Even as a statewide task force now underway seeks forgotten African American burial sites, a proposal to develop land in a Pompano Beach historically Black cemetery has raised fears that more unmarked graves are about to slip into further obscurity."


From NPR News

• World: What we know about the 17 missionaries kidnapped in Haiti by a notorious gang

• Health: Expert helps untangle vaccine misinformation that has followed Colin Powell's death

• Health: The great vaccine ... bake off ... has begun

• Planet Money: Why are so many Americans quitting their jobs?

• Business: Here's why Zillow won't be buying any more homes to renovate and resell this year

• Business: Dollar stores have boomed during the pandemic, which concerns some communities

• National: Are you ready for some volleyball? A new women's pro league hopes the answer is yes

• Politics: House panel on Jan. 6 votes to hold Steve Bannon in contempt for defying subpoena

• World: A drone company is working to airlift dogs stranded by the volcano in La Palma

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.

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