The Point

The Point, April 25, 2023: COVID-19 made tracking elder abuse harder

WUFT | By WUFT News

Published April 25, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

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The stories near you

• WUFT News: The Rise of the Red. "The Williston Middle High School Red Devils football team went 1-8 in the 2021 football season. They also averaged about 30 fans a game according to Reyce Knauff. Since then, a lot changed."

• Fresh Take Florida: Hidden violence: Elder abuse was already hard to track – then a pandemic made it more difficult. "Amy Thomas wasn’t new to social work. She had been helping vulnerable children and adults for more than 20 years when she started working at Elder Options, a Gainesville-based nonprofit designated by the government to serve elders in 16 north-central Florida counties."

• WUFT News: Plans move forward for construction of meat processing facility in Newberry. "The plans for the county to build and own this meat processing facility stemmed from concerns about the nationwide supply chain issues that occurred since the beginning of COVID-19."

• WUFT News: Gainesville stocks public restrooms with free menstrual products. "After facing initial supply shortages, the City of Gainesville now says it has 85% of public restrooms stocked with free menstrual products."

• WUFT News: Upcoming General Policy meeting to provide updates on Thelma A. Boltin Center. "In December 2020, the roof over the auditorium of the Boltin Center was found partially collapsed. A structural engineering firm recommended that either the entire building be demolished or the auditorium be demolished and replaced causing the building to potentially lose its historic charm."

• Mainstreet Daily News:Floridians flock to Newberry to discuss Farm Bill. "From across the state, Floridians impacted by the Farm Bill flooded into Newberry on Monday in order to speak to congressional members of the House Committee on Agriculture."

• The Alligator: UF says goodbye to oldest campus tree. "UF’s first resident wasn’t a person, but a tree. Sprouting before the university was founded, a longleaf pine near Keene-Flint Hall has watched UF grow into what it is today. In April, the tree was declared dead."

• WUFT News: The Brazilian community in Gainesville: bringing culture and investment into the area. "Brazil is one of the largest sources of immigrants that live in Alachua County. There are a little under 1,000 foreign-born Brazilians in Gainesville, making Brazil the 9th country with the highest number of immigrants in the city."

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Around the state

• Politico: Florida surgeon general altered key findings in study on Covid-19 vaccine safety. "Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo personally altered a state-driven study about Covid-19 vaccines last year to suggest that some doses pose a significantly higher health risk for young men than had been established by the broader medical community, according to a newly obtained document."

• Florida Politics: Senate committee OK’s conservatives to state Board of Education. "Members of the Ethics and Elections committee gave their OK to Esther Byrd of Neptune Beach, who has supported Q-Anon and Jan. 6 insurrectionists in the past, and Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, a Miami radiologist who has spoken out forcefully against trans care for children."

• WFSU-Tallahassee:A Florida Senate committee recommends the confirmation of New College trustees. "Despite some controversy, a Florida Senate committee has recommended the confirmation of seven trustees recently appointed to guide New College. But those trustees didn’t receive broad support from parents and students who spoke during the hearing."

• NPR: The 2-year-old boy who was found in an alligator's mouth was drowned, police say. "Taylen Mosley was found dead in Lake Maggiore in St. Petersburg on March 31. A search for the young boy had begun the day before, when his mother, Pashun Jeffery, 20, was found stabbed to death in her apartment."

• WLRN-Miami: Flipping the script: Will Floridians now travel to Latin America for abortions? "Some of the region’s largest countries have recently legalized abortion, now allowing it up to 14 weeks of pregnancy in Argentina and 24 weeks in Colombia, for example."

• WMFE-Orlando: Bill would strip Orlando of the power to make its contractors pay workers a higher minimum wage. "The House Commerce Committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would strip Orlando and other local governments of the power to make their own contractors pay workers more than the minimum wage."

• WLRN-Miami: Caribbean comeback: The region's post-pandemic tourism rebound leads the world. "Few regions saw their tourism industries suffer more during the COVID-19 pandemic than the Caribbean did. But the region is now rebounding more strongly than any other — and for some surprising reasons."