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Today's top Florida stories
• WFSU: Property insurance companies are struggling. Some say a special session isn't out of the question. "House Speaker Chris Sprowls said he’d like to give legislation lawmakers passed last year more time to work. 'Everybody in the insurance space that you talk to always say reforms take 18 months, you know, we’re not 6 months in,' Sprowls said."
• Miami Herald ($): UF investigation finds no merit to allegations COVID-19 data were suppressed. "The allegations were made anonymously and included in a December 2021 report from the UF Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Freedom. The faculty report alleged that some researchers said they felt pressure to destroy COVID-19 data for fear of upsetting state officials. But the UF staffers who made the accusation refused to cooperate with the investigation, forcing the university to rely on documents and the testimony of others familiar with the situation, said UF Vice President for Research David Norton, who helped lead the probe."
• Mainstreet Daily News: Gainesville receives $10 million to update transit. "Gainesville will buy 12 new buses and build a new Eastside transfer station as part of a $10.6 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration."
• Politico: Poll: Americans split over Florida's controversial bills on gender identity and race. "A slim majority of U.S. voters who were polled — 51 percent — support 'banning the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade' while 35 percent are opposed, according to the poll results."
• WFLA-Tampa: 420 manatees dead in Florida, supplemental feeding trial likely ‘in its last weeks.’ "Manatees are dispersing from the site at the Florida Power and Light electric plant as water temperatures continue to rise."
• WLRN: South Florida's coral reef is being overfished. Nearly a dozen species are nearing unsustainable numbers. "A new study has found that 85 percent of popular grouper and snapper species have been overfished and fallen below sustainable numbers. The study, by researchers from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, modeled 20 years' worth of survey data on 15 species to determine levels needed for the fish to survive."
• NPR News: Families of Parkland shooting victims are awarded $127.5 million. "The United States has agreed to pay the families impacted by the 2018 Parkland mass school shooting millions of dollars, years after attorneys first filed claims against the government alleging an FBI agent's negligence prior to the shooting."
• New York Times ($): Voters Oust Mayor of Florida Town Where Condo Tower Collapsed. "The mayor who led the seaside town of Surfside, Fla., through the traumatic aftermath of the collapse of a condominium tower in which 98 people were killed last year was voted out of office on Tuesday night. The mayor, Charles Burkett, who was elected in 2020, placed third in the three-way race and lost by 33 votes to the winner, Shlomo Danzinger, according to an unofficial tally."
• WUFT News: ‘That was amazing’: Gainesville eyebrow threader breaks her own Guinness World Record. "With onlookers nervous and thrilled amid the chaos, (Ziba) Ahmadi threaded 102 pairs of eyebrows within the allotted hour, breaking her official tally of 90 she set at the salon on June 16. The prior record was 62 pairs and set by a woman named Pratiksha Bharati of India in 2018."
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From NPR News
• World: Biden pledges $800 million to Ukraine after Zelenskyy's plea for more U.S. aid
• World: Biden calls Putin a war criminal
• World: A Russian oligarch's superyacht is stuck in Norway because no one will sell it fuel
• World: Russia's strike on Ukraine maternity hospital is part of a terrible wartime tradition
• Science: The James Webb Space Telescope is working as well as astronomers dreamed it would
• Business: Netflix plans to start charging for password sharing, and customers aren't happy
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.