Republican Florida House of Representatives Bobby Payne, Palatka, and Tyler Sirois, Merritt Island, are cosponsoring HB 1543, which proposes to reduce the minimum age at which a person may purchase, sell or transfer a firearm from 21 to 18. The measure is headed to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee for discussion March 13.
Read More »Only in Florida? Family’s pool shaped like six-shooter gun
ODESSA, Fla. – The swimming pool in the backyard of Louis Minardi’s home near Tampa may be distinctive to Florida: The custom-built pool is shaped like a six-shooter revolver, in a state made famous – sometimes infamous – by guns, gun politics and gun culture. “Neighbors that have bought houses …
Read More »The Point, Feb. 16, 2023: Florida school board races could become partisan
Subscribe to The Point, arriving in your inbox Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. The stories near you • WUFT News: Residents asked to review Santa Fe Watershed Flood Risk maps. “The Suwannee River Water Management District has completed a flood-risk review of the Santa Fe River Watershed.” • WUFT News: …
Read More »The Point, Feb. 14, 2023: New study reveals “forever chemicals” in freshwater fish
Subscribe to The Point, arriving in your inbox Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. The stories near you • WUFT News: Why women and racial minorities are underrepresented in the US Foreign Service. “WUFT’s Report for America Corps Member Katie Hyson spoke with two African American women in the service – …
Read More »A tale of two cities: How two Florida towns are handling the tiny home movement
Want to live in a tiny house? Barb Diaz suggests marking off an 8-by-20-foot area in your garage – or some space similar – and living in it for 24 hours. Put a TV in it. Put a dresser in it. Set aside an even smaller space for a “bathroom.” …
Read More »Legal question: Are police officers victims when they shoot someone in line of duty?
The Florida Supreme Court will consider arguments Wednesday in Tallahassee in a case that considers whether the identities of police officers who kill civilians in violent encounters can be withheld from the public. Law enforcement is among one of the only civilian professions in which the use of deadly force …
Read More »Gainesville residents call on city commission to abolish K9 unit
The Gainesville City Commission's special meeting on the K9 unit largely pitted law enforcement officers pleading to preserve the unit against community members calling to dismantle it.
Read More »Bats are on the move on the UF campus
The last few months have been a hectic move-in process for thousands of Gainesville residents. Just in time for Halloween, the bats at the University of Florida’s Field and Fork gardens have finally relocated into their new bat barn. UF facilities staff tore down the oldest of the three bat …
Read More »Despite economic hardships, a few Archer hunting preserves thrive
Swaddled in the arms of his owner, a seven-month-old German Shorthaired Pointer contests a ride-along in the bed of Jacob “Huck” Huckabee’s white Chevrolet truck. At Emerald Creek Kennels in Archer, Dude is the youngest of Huckabee’s 14 hunting dogs that he trains alongside his wife, Logan, and their four-legged …
Read More »Gun trafficker, former jail guard avoids prison time in controversial sentencing
Despite illegally selling nearly a dozen firearms, including one to a stranger who used it to kill a young man and injure a mother of two at an Ocala Pilot gas station in May 2021, gun trafficker and former Alachua jail guard Kenyari Brewton, 27, will avoid a prison term, …
Read More »