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The Point, May 19, 2020: Guidelines Coming Soon For Reopening Florida University Campuses

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Today's top Florida stories

• WUFT News: Town Hall Meeting Held to Examine COVID-19 Impact On Gainesville’s Minority Communities. "The meeting aimed to address concerns Gainesville City Commissioner Gigi Simmons had heard from the community regarding proper education on COVID-19 related topics. She also wanted to discuss how to ensure vulnerable communities have the resources they need to get through the pandemic successfully."

• News Service of Florida: Florida Eyes Plans For Reopening University Campuses. "Along with students, parents, faculty members and administrators facing uncertainty, decisions about fall semester also will have major financial implications for universities. Some university officials have pointed to a need to announce decisions by early to mid-July to be prepared for the start of the semester."

• Politico: Florida throws open its doors — and holds its breath. "The 'Full Phase 1' reopening is an experiment with life-and-death consequences for people, the health of the Florida economy and, potentially, President Donald Trump’s chances of winning the nation’s biggest swing state and therefore his reelection."

• Florida Today: How the youngest 25 in Florida died of COVID-19. "Florida health officials do not want the public to see the details of how the first 25 people age 40 or younger died, as described in the Florida Medical Examiners Commission database, or details of any of the state's COVID-19 deaths, for that matter. The Florida Department of Health had blocked the commission from releasing the data, saying they were concerned about privacy."

• Florida Today: As Florida re-opens, COVID-19 data chief gets sidelined and researchers cry foul. "The site was created by a team of Florida Department of Health data scientists and public health officers headed by Rebekah Jones. She announced last week her removal as of May 5 in a heartfelt farewell note emailed to researchers and other members of the public who had signed up to receive updates on the data portal."

• Pensacola News Journal ($): NAS Pensacola shooter had ties to al-Qaeda dating back to 2015, FBI says. "The FBI has determined Alshamrani spent years preparing for the attack on NAS Pensacola and that he communicated with members of the al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, who encouraged the attacks."

• Florida Politics: Ashley Moody takes on Orlando pet store selling sick puppies. "Attorney General Ashley Moody took legal action Monday against an Orlando pet store that allegedly sold sick puppies that were misrepresented as healthy and fit for sale."

• Orlando Weekly: Epcot is quickly becoming one of Disney's biggest coronavirus headaches. "Capital spending across Disney parks worldwide has been cut back by $900 million. This doesn’t mean most of these projects have been outright canceled. Instead, many have been delayed while Disney looks to keep offsetting the dramatic losses they’re currently facing. Even once construction in the parks does resume, some projects will be postponed for various reasons. No park has more currently in the works than Epcot."


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From NPR News

• Health: Vaccine Developer Reports Early Results

• Science: Traffic Is Way Down, Due To Lockdowns, But Air Pollution? Not So Much

• National: What Is The Future Of Cities?

• Business: Businesses Are Reopening, But Customers May Not Be Ready To Go Back

• Politics: Mnuchin And Fed's Powell Set To Brief Senators On $2 Trillion Coronavirus Act

About today's curator

I'm Ethan Magoc, a news editor at WUFT. Originally from Pennsylvania, I've found a home telling Florida stories. I’m part of a team searching each morning for local and state stories that are important to you; please send feedback about today's edition or ideas for stories we may have missed to emagoc@wuft.org.

Contact WUFT News by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news @wuft.org