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The Point, April 18, 2022: What the school bus driver shortage has meant for students and their parents

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The stories near you

• WUFT News: North central Florida schools and parents face challenges due to bus driver shortages. "School districts across north central Florida – and across the nation – are dealing with an urgent lack of bus drivers, which means each morning many students are left alone or in groups hoping their bus comes. Often, they are stranded at busy traffic intersections, and too often, their parents say, families must scramble to get them to their schools."

• Gainesville Sun ($): Controversial development project planned for Suburban Heights area. "Real estate agents for Colliers International are now leasing mixed-use space for a project that’s planned for the corner of Northwest 23rd Avenue and 43rd Street, on what was once the St. Michael’s Episcopal Church property. The plan has been hotly debated for at least the past four years, as residents complained it would lead to more noise and traffic in the Suburban Heights neighborhood — an already densely populated part of town."

• Mainstreet Daily News: UF announces advisors for presidential search. "Morteza Hosseini, chair of the UF Board of Trustees, announced the 13 advisors who will assist UF’s Presidential Search Committee in a Friday announcement. While not members of the committee, the advisors will offer their expertise to Hosseini and the chair of the search committee, Rahul Patel."

• WUFT News: Operation Green Light succeeds in helping people get their driver’s licenses reinstated. "The program allows Florida residents to pay overdue fines, traffic tickets and court-ordered obligations, while saving on additional fees."

• WUFT News: Gainesville church’s donations make their way to Ukraine. "The University City Church of Christ in Gainesville is among the area churches mobilizing to send material goods and money to the war-torn country. It prepared five-gallon buckets filled with antiseptic supplies and snacks that are being shipped with the help of Healing Hands International. The ministry raised $30,000 in one Sunday alone to put together 25,000 buckets."


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Around the state

• Miami Herald ($): Florida targets school math textbooks over critical race theory objections. "The Florida Department of Education on Friday said the state will not include dozens of math textbooks in a list used by school districts to buy books for classrooms because their content included references to critical race theory and other 'prohibited topics' and 'unsolicited strategies.'"

• Fresh Take Florida: Here’s what Florida’s lawmakers didn’t do: notable failed bills in 2022. "In the House and Senate, lawmakers proposed 3,685 pieces of legislation, but only about 285 passed in both chambers, slightly higher than the number since at least 2016, according to legislative records. Lawmakers passed a $112 billion state budget, as the session ended after votes on controversial legislation aimed at cultural issues unsettled between conservatives and progressives."

• New York Times ($): Disney, Built on Fairy Tales and Fantasy, Confronts the Real World. "...the entertainment giant has also found itself dragged into the fray, as with the recent imbroglio over a new Florida law that among many things restricts classroom instruction through third grade on sexual orientation and gender identity and has been labeled by opponents as 'Don’t Say Gay.'"

• Florida Today ($): Will Florida dodge a major hurricane strike again in 2022? Forecast shows increased risk. "Odds of a major hurricane striking within 50 miles of Florida in 2022 are 44% amid a busier-than-normal Atlantic season, Colorado State University's Tropical Meteorology Project predicted last week. During an average season, CSU forecasters peg the odds of a major hurricane strike within 50 miles of Florida at 29%, based on the 1880-2020 climatological average."

• WFLA-Tampa: Tampa Bay has dodged Florida’s catastrophic hurricanes, but for how much longer? "It’s been over a century since a major hurricane (category 3 or greater) has made landfall in the Tampa Bay Area. That was the 1921 Tampa Bay Hurricane. And while the area has been hit by multiple damaging storms since then, Tampa Bay has somehow avoided the big one."

• Fort Myers News-Press ($): Humans make red tide worse, nitrogen flows 'systematically intensify blooms' study says. "For years there was an ideological tug of war: Some argued that red tide is a natural phenomenon for which people aren’t responsible. After all, they said, mariners in the 1700s documented the toxic overgrowth, long before the state was densely populated. That may be, said others, but dense population definitely makes it worse."

• WFSU: Brandes questions whether a lawmaker poll can be done in time for an insurance special session. "A poll of lawmakers is underway to determine if they will consider property insurance in addition to redistricting. A three-fifths majority is needed in order to move forward. The results are due Tuesday when the session begins, and outgoing Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican, suggests the state took its time surveying members, who got the surveys Thursday."

• WFTS-Tampa Bay: More convicted sex buyers added to Florida's public database following I-Team report. "Florida's Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database currently lists 28 convicted sex buyers. The update comes after the I-Team revealed that one year after its launch the database listed a grand total of one sex buyer for the whole state."


From NPR News

• World: Russia-Ukraine war: What happened today (April 17)

• National: 2 people are dead, 8 others shot and injured at a house party in Pittsburgh

• Health: It's time to screen all kids for anxiety, physicians' task force recommends

• Business: Even home appraisers are doing their jobs remotely

• Business: The Ever Forward is finally free from the Chesapeake Bay — one month later

• Business: How to make customer service interactions work in your favor

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.

Contact WUFT News by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news @wuft.org