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The stories near you

• Tampa Bay Times ($): Proposal would weaken protections for tenured faculty at Florida universities. "The draft document, said to be written by a university provost, proposes rules that would make it easier for veteran faculty members to be dismissed. It has circulated among faculty at the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, Florida State University and the University of Central Florida."

• Florida Storms: Flooding and heavy rains are possible from a weekend storm moving across Florida. "A storm system moving in from the Gulf of Mexico will soak most of Florida to start the weekend, and in a few spots could produce significant flooding and strong thunderstorms before it exits the state Saturday."

• WUFT News: Ocala’s airport has a new runway maintenance contract. "The last time the Ocala International Airport was repaired was 2009. Since then, cracks along the outskirts of the runway have gone through the pavement and the accumulation of rust has caused the runway paint to become discolored."

• WUFT News: Child safety program radKIDS could expand to High Springs and Newberry. "radKIDS, a nationwide children safety education class, may be implemented in more elementary schools around Alachua County following new proposals in Newberry and High Springs. The program teaches children skills like bullying prevention, defense against abduction and drug prevention. In Alachua County, the Micanopy Area Cooperative School is currently the only elementary school that has this program."

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Around the state

• Fresh Take Florida: Felon who won GOP congressional primary never applied for right to hold political office. "The winning Republican in this week’s congressional primary in South Florida is a convicted felon who did not go through the state’s process to restore his civil rights after his imprisonment, interviews and records show. That step is required under Florida law for a candidate to hold political office."

• Fresh Take Florida: Pandemic led to booming housing prices, including home owned until recently by Florida’s governor. "The waterfront home near Jacksonville that DeSantis owned for nearly a decade until selling it after he moved into Florida’s governor’s mansion has climbed in value by an estimated 50 percent since the deal. That means DeSantis effectively lost $232,000 by selling it just a year before the pandemic caused housing prices to surge across the United States."

• Florida Politics: Florida nursing homes, VA facilities, get 3-month, $104 million bump to cover increased nursing costs. “Florida nursing home occupancy rates are plummeting, meaning nursing homes have less revenue coming in. Additionally, nursing care costs are increasing in Florida, and nationwide, due to a tight labor market.”

• Spectrum News: State nursing home leaders calling for emergency funding to ease staffing shortage. "Nursing home industry leaders said the staffing shortfall is leading to many facilities in Florida turning to 'temp' workers, contributing to nearly half of all of the additional money nursing homes have been forced to spend during the pandemic, more than $600 million."

• CBS Miami: State Sen. Tina Polsky Continues Getting Threatening & Vulgar Messages Over Mask Confrontation With Florida Surgeon General. "The controversy started when Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo refused to wear a mask during a meeting in Polsky’s office even after she informed him she’s battling cancer."

• Fresh Take Florida: Bill would require Asian American & Pacific Islander education in Florida schools. “The bills, HB 281 and SB 490, were intended to better represent understanding of Asian American & Pacific Islanders in statewide lesson plans in American history.”

• Florida Politics: ‘This rule is absolutely going down:’ Gov. DeSantis rebukes vaccine mandate. “Under the rule, employers with more than 100 workers must ensure employees are fully vaccinated or provide weekly COVID-19 testing. The mandate, officials say, will impact roughly 84 million workers, or two-thirds of private sector jobs. The rule will take effect Jan. 4.”

• First Coast News: Gov. DeSantis claims murder suspect was dumped in Jacksonville by Biden administration. “He says these ‘middle of the night flights’ are happening without notification to the state, and that the Biden administration is hiring private contractors to bring undocumented individuals here.”

• WINK-Fort Myers: Fort Myers Police Department Major William Newhouse retires amid scrutiny. “Newhouse was accused by the Fort Myers Police Department’s inspector general of ordering a subordinate to mislead city officials about the cost of constructing a new police headquarters at the site of the former News-Press building, at the corner of MLK Boulevard and Fowler Street.”

• CBS Miami: Miami Proud: How Cooking For The Community Became One Couple’s Pandemic Pivot. “Putting Ken’s chef skills to work they decided to combat both food waste and food insecurity: cooking donated items that are good to eat -but past the sell-by date – and delivering ready-to-eat meals.”

• WFLA-Tampa: Snowcat Ridge, Florida’s first snow park reopening next week. "Last year, the attraction opened in Dade City as Florida’s very first snow park. Unfortunately, Snowcat Ridge announced soon after opening that operators had to shorten the hours when they couldn’t produce enough snow."

From NPR News

• World: The U.K. approves Merck's COVID-19 antiviral pill, calling it a world first

• Science: The U.N. says climate impacts are getting worse faster than the world is adapting

• Health: COVID is still crushing parts of the U.S., as the holiday season approaches

• Health: A doctor spread COVID misinformation and renewed her license with a mouse click

• Business: Biden’s vaccine rules for 100 million workers are here. These are the details

• Business: Why Christmas trees may be harder to find this year (and what you can do about it)

• National: A key source for the infamous Trump-Russia dossier is charged with lying to the FBI

About today's curator

I'm Mikayla Carroll, a journalist at WUFT. Originally from West Palm Beach, I'm eager to share the top stories in my home state. I am a senior journalism major 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 mikaylacarroll@ufl.edu.