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The stories near you

• WUFT News: Gainesville’s special runoff election will feature Cynthia Chestnut against Matt Howland. "Tuesday’s election result for Gainesville’s City Commission At-Large Seat B means another round of voting lies ahead in January for city voters. Neither of the two leading vote-getters, Cynthia Chestnut and Matt Howland, captured 50.1%, triggering a runoff in early 2022."

• WUFT News: Eight Florida cities join Gainesville in suing Gov. Ron DeSantis over ‘anti-riot’ law. "Eight Florida cities have joined Gainesville’s lawsuit challenging HB 1, the controversial law Gov. Ron DeSantis called the 'strongest anti-rioting, pro-law enforcement piece of legislation in the country.' Lauderhill, Lake Worth Beach, Miramar, North Bay Village, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Tallahassee and Wilton Manors all signed on to the legal challenge."

• WUFT News: Three more professors join lawsuit against University of Florida officials. "On Monday, the attorneys representing UF professors Sharon Wright, Michael McDonald and Daniel Smith submitted an update to their complaint in a lawsuit over the university’s current conflict of interest policy. Three more professors, Jeffrey Goldhagen, Teresa J. Reid and Kenneth B. Nunn, joined the lawsuit."

• Mainstreet Daily News: Alachua 30th in state for per capita property tax. "The Department of Revenue (DOR) 2020 Florida County ad valorem tax profile ranks Alachua County as 30th in the state for taxes levied per capita at $561. It's Martin County that tops the ranking at $1,404 per capita and Union County coming in 67th as the least in per capita taxes levied at $170."

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Around the state

• News Service of Florida: At special session, lawmakers move to exclude health-care providers from vaccine requirements. "Florida lawmakers sped Tuesday toward passing a plan to prevent COVID-19 vaccination requirements and rejected an attempt to exclude hospitals, nursing homes and other health-care providers from the measure."

• NPR News: Florida's health care providers are caught between federal and state vaccine rules. "Hospitals in Florida are in a tight spot. They will soon have to choose between obeying a federal rule requiring healthcare workers to be vaccinated or a state law banning vaccine mandates."

• WFSU: Hundreds protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates at Florida Capitol. "The rally took place on the second day of a special legislative session to pass a package of bills that target a federal rule to require workers at businesses with 100 employees or more to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit weekly negative coronavirus tests."

• Florida Politics: Ron DeSantis says protecting jobs main point of Special Session, not ditching OSHA. "Gov. Ron DeSantis noted Florida’s decision to leave OSHA, should it happen, would not be unprecedented."

• Associated Press: Attorneys For Parkland School Shooter Tried To Have State’s Death Penalty Ruled Unconstitutional. "(Nikolas) Cruz, 23, faces trial starting in January to determine if he will be executed or receive a life sentence without parole for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre. He pleaded guilty last month to murdering 14 students and three staff members and the attempted murder of 17 others who were wounded."

• Miami Herald ($): Former UM professor Bagley gets six months for laundering ‘dirty’ Venezuelan money. "A once-prominent University of Miami professor was sentenced to six months in prison Tuesday for committing the kind of crime — washing millions of “dirty” dollars reaped from corrupt Venezuelan government deals — that he frequently commented on as an expert on Latin American drug trafficking and money laundering."

• News4Jax: Jacksonville waking up under a horrible stench. "News4Jax is making calls and sending emails to the City, JEA, police and fire department, trying to get to the bottom of the infiltrating smell that has us holding our noses."

From NPR News

• Health: All vaccinated adults could soon be eligible for a Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot

• Health: U.S. COVID cases start to rise again as the holidays approach

• World: Here's what it's like for migrants trapped between Belarus and Poland

• Climate: How one California city cut its water use in half

• Health: Colleges are turning to science to limit suicide contagion and help heal campuses

• National: Ghislaine Maxwell jury selection begins for her trial on sex-trafficking charges

• National: As the nation awaits a Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, some raise eyebrows at the judge

• National: Times Square will welcome back vaccinated revelers this New Year's Eve

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.