WUFT News News and Public Media for North Central Florida from the University of Florida in Gainesville
Subscribe to The Point, arriving in your inbox Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. Special Report: UFxFAMU1963 1963 was a pivotal year in the Civil Rights Movement. The Children’s Crusade and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Gov. George Wallace trying to block efforts to integrate the University …
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 »The Point, April 20, 2023: House committee approves GRU control bill
Subscribe to The Point, arriving in your inbox Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. The stories near you • WUFT News: GRU control bill gets House committee approval. “The House State Affairs Committee approved Representative Chuck Clemons’ bill giving the state of Florida control of Gainesville Regional Utilities on Wednesday.” • …
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 »FBI, sheriff’s offices in central Florida team up to help prevent elder fraud
Federal data show Florida’s older population is susceptible to internet scams. In 2021, the state ranked second in the nation with 9,645 victims of elder fraud. Combined, those individuals lost $224,205,716. The FBI, along with state and local law enforcement agencies in Central Florida, are joining forces to educate local …
Read More »Two former Gainesville mayors died in last week
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Two former Gainesville mayors died in the past week. James “Jim” Painter died Thursday from cancer at the age of 71, and Craig Lowe was found dead Saturday morning at the age of 65. Lowe’s cause of death remains undisclosed. From 1993 through 1996, Painter was Gainesville’s …
Read More »Kat Cammack, Neal Dunn, and Daniel Webster emerge victorious in their U.S. House races
Liberal Gainesville voting majority unable to outweigh U.S. House District 3’s rural votes as Republican Congresswoman Kat Cammack defeats Democratic challenger Danielle Hawk With liberal Gainesville votes being swallowed by the surrounding conservative rural stronghold, incumbent Congresswoman Kat Cammack was able to cruise to victory in U.S. House District 3 …
Read More »District 11 incumbent expected to retain his seat after a contested primary
Daniel Webster has represented Central Florida in the House since 2010, but a contested primary and displeased voters might hint at a shrinking support base. A Democratic and an independent candidate will face the 11th Congressional District incumbent in the Nov. 8 general election. Webster is expected to retain his …
Read More »Marion, Putnam and Union counties’ 2022 midterm election races
For more information about statewide and national races, check out WUFT’s election coverage on: State House and State Senate races U.S. House races U.S. Senate race Florida’s gubernatorial race What will my ballot look like? On a midterm election ballot, Florida voters will be asked to vote on local school …
Read More »More than 1.8 million Florida utility customers without power
Earlier in the day, Gov. Ron DeSantis had called an initial 200,000 outages a "drop in the bucket" compared to total number of Floridians who will be affected by power outages by the time the storm passes.
Read More »