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The Point, June 2, 2022: What to expect in Florida as the Atlantic Hurricane Season begins

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The stories near you

• WUFT News: Hurricane season begins with potential Gulf threat. "WUFT's Morning Edition host, Glenn Richards, spoke with Florida Public Radio Emergency Network (FPREN) and Florida Storms Meteorologist Megan Borowski about the start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season including Florida's Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday, the outlook for North Central Florida and the Nature Coast, and the possibility of the season's first system forming in the Gulf of Mexico from the remnants of the Pacific's Hurricane Agatha."

• Gainesville Sun ($): Report blasts Malcom Randall VA hospital's delay in emergency care of veteran who died. "The safety of patients taken to the emergency department at Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Gainesville has been called into question by federal investigators who say delays in a patient's care two years ago preceded his death."

• WUFT News: Alachua County Public Schools activates summer feeding program. "The last two years of this program allowed students to take to food home to eat, said the school district’s Food Service Department Supervisor Caron Rowe, but this year the USDA Summer BreakSpot Program requires the meals to be consumed on-site."

• WUFT News: Gainesville Veterans for Peace say goodbye to annual Memorial Mile event. "On Monday, the Gainesville chapter of Veterans for Peace held its final Memorial Mile Memorial Day event – opting for an informational table rather than temporary tombstones. The table stood on the corner of Northwest Eighth Avenue and Northwest 31st Street, where a portion of the tombstones would normally be. The table, this year, served to educate the public while honoring service personnel who lost their lives serving in Afghanistan and Iraq."

• Atrium Magazine: A spark in the night: Laila Fakhoury hustles nonstop to redefine Gainesville’s arts community. "Laila Fakhoury co-founded the How Bazar two years ago. It has blossomed into a beacon of creativity in downtown Gainesville. Her watchful eye, careful preparation and unbreakable tranquility allow the business to run its locally loved markets."


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Around the state

• WUFT News: Congress passes legislation to address toxic algal blooms in South Florida, bill to target manatee restoration. "Congress passed legislation in May, aiming to focus federal responses to South Florida’s harmful algae blooms, but local officials worry the bill may not be a timely enough effort to combat the decreasing manatee population. The South Florida Clean Coastal Waters Act of 2021 would create a federal task force responsible for reducing and controlling harmful blue-green algal blooms in specific areas of South Florida and addressing hypoxia, or low oxygen conditions, in surrounding bodies of water."

• NPR News: Hurricane season begins in Mexico Beach, Fla. "Mexico Beach, Fla., was leveled more than 3 years ago by Hurricane Michael. As hurricane season begins, a major business, a hotel, is reopening and the real estate market is hotter than ever."

• Miami Herald ($): ‘We led the charge.’ Miami-Dade passes building safety reforms on heels of state changes. "Buildings taller than three stories in Miami-Dade County will fall under a newly tightened set of safety and inspection requirements after county commissioners unanimously passed the changes during a Wednesday afternoon hearing. The changes, which will, among other tweaks, require buildings to be inspected and recertified earlier in their lifespan — 30 as opposed to 40 years after construction — are the culmination of county-led safety reforms that began in the aftermath of the Champlain Towers South collapse, which killed 98 people nearly a year ago."

• News Service of Florida: A lawsuit over a Florida university's response to the pandemic can go forward. "An appeals court Wednesday refused to dismiss a potential class-action lawsuit against the University of South Florida over fees that were collected from students for on-campus services that were not provided because of the COVID-19 pandemic."

• WFLA-Tampa: Tampa mayor: ‘Masking mandates didn’t work,’ encourages COVID vaccination & boosters. "Tampa Mayor Jane Castor held a virtual discussion event with Dr. Charles Lockwood, Senior VP, USF Health and Dean of the Morsani College of Medicine on the current state of affairs regarding COVID-19 in the city of Tampa and surrounding communities. They discussed the latest variant of the virus and how to handle infections and the current levels of severity."

• WMFE: What’s in a name: officers learn how to avoid misgendering and other microaggressions. "The Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Orlando Police Department completed training Tuesday on how to interact with members of the LGBTQ+ community. The three-hour Safe Zone training was put on by the University of Central Florida Police."

• Tallahasee Democrat ($): 'It's all about the kids': Florida high school raffles off rifles, handguns. "James Madison Preparatory High School in Madison, a charter school, raffled off fishing and hunting gear and firearms, including handguns and semi-automatic rifles, in a $100-per-ticket raffle that started May 2. The raffle went on largely unimpeded despite two horrific, national tragedies: mass shootings at a Buffalo supermarket and an elementary school in Texas that left nearly three dozen people dead last month."

• News Service of Florida: Will high gas prices affect Floridians wanting to evacuate ahead of hurricanes? AAA survey suggests maybe. "With the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Florida at a record $4.65 on Wednesday, American Automobile Association (AAA) survey results show that 42% of Floridians might be hesitant about getting out of harm’s way because of fuel prices. Overall, 25% of Floridians would ignore evacuation warnings, the survey found."


From NPR News

• National: Investigators say the Uvalde school district police chief isn't talking to them

• World: Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee comes at a challenging time for Britain's monarchy

• Business: In surprise move, Sheryl Sandberg leaves Facebook after 14 years

• Business: The Biden administration has announced new funding to help food supply chains

• National: Depp is awarded more than $10M in defamation case against Heard and she gets $2M

• Books: Here are 100+ books to learn about all 50 states (and then some)

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