Lexi Burks didn’t join law enforcement for the money. In fact, she grew up telling herself she’d never become a cop, despite her interest in criminal justice. After more exposure to the job of deputies, however, the High Springs native said she knew it was something she had to do, …

Tamari Davis took home the gold medal in the women's 4x100-meter relay at the World Championships held in Budapest in August. She joined teammates Gabrielle Thomas, Twanisha Terry and Sha'Carri Richardson to set a championship record with a time of 41.03.

B. Keith Councell is a beekeeper stripped of his bees – 2,800 of them spread across his farms in Arcadia, Cape Coral, Pine Island and Fort Myers. His honeybees were among the 400,000 Florida bee colonies in Hurricane Ian’s path in September. Ian decimated 100,000 total hives, which were toppled and drowned in 12-foot storm surges as high as eight beehives. The state’s surviving bees were left starving from the storm’s destruction of foliage, the bees' source of energy and protein. Deprived of bees, feed and equipment, beekeepers have found relief among themselves. 

A crushed Pepsi can, damp cigarette butts, a rusted tire wheel buried deep in soggy mulch. They’re part of the debris collected after a day’s work for Current Problems, an Alachua County-based waterway cleanup organization. By the end of the year, the junk-filled bags Current Problems hauls away at cleanups will reach a milestone: 1 million pounds of total trash collected.