GAINESVILLE, Fla. – One had been a homeless, high school dropout. Another overcame a serious disability. Another just learned English a few years ago. Graduates of Florida’s universities share their inspiring personal stories as they walk across the stage with their diplomas this month. Here are the stories of a …
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – On the last day of college classes after her freshman fall semester, Maggie Paxton began drinking with friends in the dorms at the University of Florida – students call it “pre-gaming” – before hitting Gainesville’s popular Midtown bars across a busy street from campus. She was 18. …
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With Florida making it easier for juries to impose the death sentence, two formerly condemned inmates who are still behind bars are warning that the change gives too much power over life and death to elected prosecutors. Their concerns are at odds with some families of murder …
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Shredding on a roller skating rink might seem like a thing of the past, but the estimated 37 rinks surviving in Florida say their businesses are at the mercy of insurance companies and liability lawsuits. They found allies in the Legislature. The House voted 117-0 on Tuesday …
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Darius Jermaine Ned Thomas Jr. was driving west on the Florida parkway in Jacksonville that runs along the St. Johns River, listening to music on a Friday afternoon in August in his Chevrolet Malibu sedan, when a sheriff’s deputy in a marked SUV pulled him over. “When …
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Nearly two years after both her sons were killed by her estranged husband, a surviving mother is picking up the pieces of her life to move forward as untold storylines about the murders are just emerging. Minde O’Sullivan, 44, of Gainesville said her new marriage to the …
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CLEARWATER, Fla. – With a scanner like ones used at grocery stores plugged into her computer, Paula Stephens spent her 30-minute planning period scanning two boxes of books from her classroom library. Those two green boxes had roughly 55 books, and her first-grade classroom at Eisenhower Elementary has about 40 …
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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. What was new to Thomas was the COVID-19 …
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When McKenzie McAliley, a senior at Atlantic Community High in Delray Beach along Florida’s East Coast, took the bus to school, she would wake up at 5 a.m. and walk to the bus stop in the dark. McAliley, 18, now drives to school but must wake just …
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Florida removed nearly eight years’ worth of crime data online without public notification, leaving only limited details about crimes that occurred on or near campus during the past 60 days. UF reported its highest number of rapes and sexual battery cases last year. There …
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WUFT News News and Public Media for North Central Florida from the University of Florida in Gainesville