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Today's top Florida stories

• WUFT News: Five inmates indicted on voter fraud charges following jailhouse registration drive in Alachua County. "All the men charged this week had listed the county jail on their voter forms as their home address, according to registration records. At least four voted in the 2020 elections. Each owed a few hundred dollars in unpaid court fees in prior felony cases when they registered as voters or cast ballots in the last presidential election, according to court records, which would have made them ineligible under Florida law."

• WUFT News: University of Florida students, professors hold teach-in on academic freedom. "Professors and students began protesting the university in November for infringing academic freedom after three UF political science professors were barred from testifying in a voting rights lawsuit against Florida. The professors were later allowed to testify but filed suit against UF for the conflict-of-interest policy that originally stopped them from testifying."

• News Service of Florida: Florida’s Board of Governors is at odds with the state universities’ accreditor over ‘undue influence.' "During a meeting Tuesday, Alan Levine, chairman of the Board of Governors’ Strategic Planning Committee, suggested that tensions with the current organization have been building for some time. 'I’ve held my tongue on this for a year now,' Levine said, before listing examples that he said gave him 'grave concern' about the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACSCOC. Levine pointed to SACSCOC writing letters to higher-education officials on three issues at Florida State University, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida."

• WMFE: Manatee feeding program ends Friday after serving up 96 tons of lettuce. "A supplemental feeding program that served up more than 193,000 pounds of lettuce to hungry manatees in the Indian River Lagoon is expected to end on Friday. A record 1,101 manatees died in Florida last year, many from starvation in the sprawling lagoon. In winter, they gather near power plants. But excess nutrients from homes and farms have clouded the water with algae and killed much of the sea grass they eat."

• News Service of Florida: DeSantis expects legislators to make changes in property insurance system this year. "The governor did not include property insurance issues as part of a special session that he called Tuesday, but said more legislative action is needed after lawmakers passed a property insurance bill in 2021."

• St. Augustine Record ($): St. Augustine receives more than $26.5M for flooding, other resilience projects. "The city of St. Augustine has been awarded more than $26.5 million in federal grants for seven resilience projects, and a study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on flood mitigation is moving forward."

• Miami Herald ($): Judge hears passionate arguments from Surfside victims but OKs $83 million settlement. "Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Michael Hanzman listened to emotional arguments on both sides and ruled that an agreement reached in mediation would stand, paying owners of the 136 units of Champlain Towers South in proportion to the size of their units but substantially less than the appraised or market value."

• WUSF: Cruises leaving from Florida are getting more crowded as bookings are twice as strong as last year. "AAA’s research shows that over 20% of Americans are considering a cruise in the next two years, with 41% of those people claiming that they better understand the COVID-19 risks presented by cruises. Additionally, Americans are more confident in cruise lines and their responses to the pandemic."

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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.