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 …
Read More »Underage drinking in a college town: How strictly should police, prosecutors enforce laws?
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. …
Read More »Former death row inmates slam new Florida law making it easier to impose capital punishment
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 …
Read More »Florida’s skating rinks look for insurance relief from Legislature
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 …
Read More »‘Stop being racist:’ Tickets for loud music nearly 3 times more likely for Black drivers under new Florida law
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 …
Read More »After family murders, suicide, Florida nears passage of bill to shield kids’ autopsy details
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 …
Read More »Behind the scenes of Florida’s efforts to purge schools of books deemed improper
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 …
Read More »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. What was new to Thomas was the COVID-19 …
Read More »Hit snooze: Bills would delay middle, high school start times
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 …
Read More »University of Florida removes years of campus crime data online
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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