Subscribe to The Point, arriving in your inbox Monday through Friday at 8 a.m.

Today's top Florida stories

• News Service of Florida: State Ends Appeal in Health Worker Vaccine Case. "After a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this month that backed the Biden administration, Florida has dropped its appeal in a legal fight against federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements for health-care workers."

• USA Today Network ($): Florida Senate considering expanding anti-immigrant law blocked by court. "The latest strike by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-led Legislature against undocumented immigrants is taking shape, even though it builds on an earlier approach already blocked by a federal court as unconstitutional."

• WUFT News: Gainesville Housing Authority seeks city partnership for affordable housing amid concerns of exclusivity. "Gainesville took another step toward its bid to solve the affordable housing crisis with the City Commission voting to support creating a partnership with the local housing authority. The agreement would make it the city’s official housing partner, despite some local leaders and experts questioning the need to make the arrangement formal."

• WLRN: Century-old canals ripped open Florida's southern cape and ushered in rising seas. Now there's a plan to fix them. "Hacked by hand and excavated by a steam-powered dredger in the 1920s and 30s, the 15-foot wide canals were intended to drain the vast marshes and make way for farms and cattle. Palm trees planted by early homesteaders still mark where they intended to defy the mosquitos and the muck."

• Florida Politics: Bills to boost rural broadband service get Senate panel approval. "One bill (SB 1800) would put $400 million of federal stimulus funds into a grant program run by the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), and require DEO to seek an additional $100 million in federal grants. Another bill (SB 1802) would set up a trust fund to store the funds."

• News4Jax: Attorney for activist Ben Frazier says client’s trespassing charge was dropped. "Frazier, of the Northside Coalition, was arrested following a confrontation with members of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ staff prior to a news conference by the governor in Jacksonville. Frazier arrived to the news conference, where he and other activists planned to confront the governor on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and other issues. Frazier was confronted by members of the governor’s staff, refusing to budge when asked repeatedly to leave."

• Miami Herald ($): Florida inspector general reviews possible bid-rigging case at Department of Education. "In a reversal from the office’s previous statement, DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske confirmed Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel is reviewing how the Department of Education and its inspector general handled the bid for a multimillion-dollar contract."

• Florida Times-Union ($): September retrial scheduled for ex-U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown to face fraud, tax charges. "Brown, a Jacksonville Democrat who spent 24 years in Congress, was convicted in 2017 on 18 counts that included conspiracy and mail and wire fraud charges involving money pulled from a sham charity."

• Space.com: SpaceX Dragon splashes down off Florida coast with nearly 5,000 pounds of science on board. "The SpaceX cargo ship returned nearly 5,000 pounds (2,267 kilograms) of science to Earth, including a "cytoskeleton" that studies cell signaling in humans, and returning a 12-year-old light imaging microscope being retired after more than a decade of use in orbit. Those experiments and more will be returned to NASA's Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida to be delivered to scientists, SpaceX said in a statement."

Today's sponsored message

We focus our legal attention on these practice areas: • Family Law • Business law • Estate Planning • Probate • Guardianship

Visit  lawyergainesville.com or call 352-373-3334 today to learn more.

From NPR News

• Business: Stocks are in the midst of a wild ride as the U.S. gets ready to fight inflation

• World: Tired of forever wars, the U.S. weighs options if Russia invades Ukraine

• Health: What an omicron hospitalization looks like

• Health: Billionaire Mark Cuban launches online pharmacy aimed at lowering generic drug prices

• Politics: A special grand jury has been granted in Fulton County's Trump investigation

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.