Statewide

Volunteers with Operation Christmas Child in Florida pack shoeboxes full of gifts and necessary items for children in need in India and Ghana. The goal for this year is to surpass last year’s total of 16,000 shoeboxes and collect 16,900.

A new bill proposing the use of emergency locator devices known as beacons on boats will offer a 25 percent discount on annual registration fees if boaters purchase this device. The bill is targeting boating safety due to the boys lost at sea in the Jupiter Inlet.

UF College of Journalism and Communications alumni Jeff Klinkenberg will speak at the Matheson Museum on Nov. 13 about two things that go hand-in-hand: Florida and alligators.

Claims of illegal baiting during Florida's 2015 Black Bear hunting season stir controversy. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission plans to issue an in-depth analysis of the hunt in a few weeks.

Data released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement shows that 11,000 rape kits have gone untested, including those that were never submitted by county sheriff's offices.

A proposal that would allow concealed-weapon permit holders to bring handguns onto college and university campuses moved forward Wednesday in the state House. The measure is one of several proposals that would expand the rights of people who have concealed-weapons licenses. Leaders of the state university system have opposed the campus-carry proposal.

The Bob Graham Center and the George A. Smathers Libraries sponsored a panel of scholars that discussed the work they have done to preserve Old St. Augustine. The panel included experts on archaeology, history and architecture.

Marion County resident Cynthia Wilson-Graham's new book “Remembering Paradise Park: Tourism and Segregation at Silver Springs" tells the story of a once-segregated park in Florida. She worked on the book with author Lu Vickers.

A state appeals court Friday rejected arguments by a gun-rights group that sought to overturn a University of Florida ban on firearms in residence halls and other university housing.

Jerry Correll, sentenced to death after committing four first-degree murders, spent 30 years on death row. On Thursday evening, he was executed.