Subscribe to The Point, arriving in your inbox Monday through Friday at 8 a.m.
Today's Florida stories
• WUFT News: ‘It’s Wakanda’: Inside a Gainesville public charter school defying the achievement gap. "Alachua County has the widest achievement gap between Black and white students in the state. Caring and Sharing Learning School’s students, nearly all Black, earned the highest learning gains in the district this year, outperforming the county’s white students on the state assessment."
• WUSF-Tampa: With kids back in Florida schools, doctors stress the importance of vaccines. "The pandemic caused some kids to fall behind on routine immunizations, and Florida has some of the lowest child COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country."
• WFTS-Tampa Bay: Experts say modern-day Hurricane Andrew could cost Florida $120 billion. "Wednesday marks 30 years since Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida as the worst storm to hit in the state’s history, but experts say with the rapid population growth, a current-day storm the magnitude of Andrew would cost about four times as much in damages."
• Florida Storms: Close to average temperatures for Florida this past month, below-average precipitation. "Tropical activity in the Atlantic remains unusually low this season. Currently this period ranks second in the longest streak between named tropical cyclones during an Atlantic hurricane season. As of publishing, there has not been a named cyclone in 51 days, since Tropical Storm Colin in early July. There has not been a streak of inactivity this long since 1999, which reached a record 61 days without a named storm."
• The Alligator: AuBroncee Martin and Sean Brewer advance to runoff in 8th Judicial Circuit judge race. "AuBroncee Martin and Sean Brewer will go to a runoff for the 12th seat in Florida’s 8th Circuit Court Tuesday night, beating out Dan Weisman and Nathan Skop. Martin led the race with just under 34% of the vote, followed by Brewer coming in at just under 30%. Weisman finished outside the runoff threshold at roughly 20%, while Skop finished last with about 17%."
• Politico: Money isn’t everything: Demings hauls in cash but Rubio holds firm. "If Florida’s Senate race was only about money, Democratic Rep. Val Demings would be way ahead of Sen. Marco Rubio. The 65-year-old former Orlando police chief, a rising star who President Joe Biden considered for his running mate, has raised significantly more money in the race — $48 million to Rubio’s $36 million."
• Florida Times-Union ($): Beloved but in declining health, Steve the cheetah humanely euthanized at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. "Described as a unique cheetah, Steve came to the zoo in 2014 from The Wilds Conservation Park, a private, non-profit safari park and conservation center in Cumberland, Ohio. Steve had a limp caused when he broke his foot at an early age. He also suffered from diabetes, the zoo said."
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
• World: 6 key numbers that reveal the staggering impact of Russia's war in Ukraine
• National: Biden is canceling up to $10K in student loans, $20K for Pell Grant recipients
• National: Uvalde school police chief fired 3 months after botched response to school shooting
• Health: New York counties gear up to fight a polio outbreak among the unvaccinated
• Health: Young adults are using marijuana and hallucinogens at the highest rates on record
• Politics: Tuesday brought more evidence abortion rights could help Democrats in November
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.