The Point

The Point, May 8, 2023: Special report: Exploring the latest in the battle against citrus greening

WUFT | By WUFT News

Published May 8, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

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Today's Florida stories

• WUFT News: Bitter taste: The 20-year fight against citrus greening in Florida has farmers and researchers exhausted. "UF’s shrinking orchard is an emblem of the statewide groves its researchers are trying to save. Last year, Florida citrus inventory stood at 361,656 acres of orange and grapefruit trees statewide. That’s less than half the 1996 acreage, when more than 800,000 acres of sweet-smelling trees stretched across the state."

• News Service of Florida: Florida lawmakers pass a $117 billion budget to end the 2023 legislative session. "While (Gov. Ron) DeSantis has line-item veto power, the budget passed Friday would be 6.4 percent higher than the spending plan for the current fiscal year, which will end June 30."

• WFSU-Tallahassee: Florida lawmakers send two bills to Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting Disney. "Now, two bills are heading to the governor, and one of them requires state inspections of Walt Disney World’s monorail system. No transportation system would be impacted by the bill except Disney’s monorail."

• Politico: How DeSantis gave Democrats the 'session from hell.' "The relatively lightweight final day was in contrast to the frantic and emotionally charged moments that had dominated the 59 days of the annual session — one of the most productive stretches of right-wing lawmaking any state’s seen in years. Week after week, legislators pushed through measures dealing with abortion, guns, the death penalty, immigration, schools and gender identity, sometimes amid protests inside the capital."

• WLRN-Miami: In Miami, U.S. Education Secretary blasts 'Don't Say Gay' law expansion. "Florida students deserve to feel safe at school — that was U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona's message during a stop in Miami on Thursday."

• WUSF-Tampa: Food, fertilizer, fuel? The hunt is on for solutions to the Caribbean’s exploding seaweed problem. "The floating brown seaweed known as sargassum has exploded in record-setting mass throughout the region. There is increasing commercial and research interest in developing ways to put it to use."

• New York Times ($): Submerged Island Off Florida Reveals Secret: Civil War-Era Cemetery. "The site, discovered by marine archaeologists about 70 miles from Key West, Fla., once held a quarantine hospital and cemetery for those stationed at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas National Park."

• Mainstreet Daily News: One dies in downtown Gainesville shooting. "According to a Gainesville Police Department (GPD) release, officers on foot patrol in downtown Gainesville heard gunshots around 1:07 a.m. (Saturday) and responded to 100 S. Main Street where they located a male victim located on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound."

• WUFT News: Ben Sasse attends his first graduation as UF president. "As his first semester leading the university came to a close, he spoke mainly of Tom Petty, whom the school awarded a posthumous doctoral degree in music."