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Today's Florida stories
• WUFT News: NASA astronaut defends Artemis scrub. "NASA offered astronaut Victor Glover for comment after the decision to scrub the launch. He flew on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and spent nearly six months in space. Glover underscored the importance of proceeding cautiously into a mission like this one. He emphasized the difference between testing the equipment on the ground and testing it all in unison on a launch."
• NPR News: NASA won't try to launch the Artemis 1 moon mission again for at least a few weeks. "A recurring leak of liquid hydrogen fuel forced NASA on Saturday to postpone a scheduled launch for the second time this week. The earliest possible launch date is Sept. 19."
• The Alligator: UF Health pauses COVID-19 booster shots, new shots on the way. "New COVID-19 booster shots will arrive at UF next week following the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of updated vaccines targeting Omicron subvariants Wednesday."
• Palm Beach Post ($): Florida leads nation in COVID deaths even as cases continue to decline. "For the third month in a row, Florida logged more COVID-19 deaths than anywhere else in America. The state’s COVID death toll grew by 1,614 people in August, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. As coronavirus omicron subvariants swept the state this summer, Florida fatalities topped the nation from June through August."
• WFSU-Tallahassee: Florida’s primary election results were certified amid some voting hiccups. "State leaders say the primaries went smoothly, but they’re still talking about work for the state’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security."
• NPR News: Florida Gov. DeSantis leads a nationwide shift to politicizing school board races. "Something is happening to school board races. What used to be small, local contests are now attracting outside money and attention from groups and political leaders. That's especially the case in Florida."
• Spectrum News: Women slow to return to workforce in Florida. "According to Florida Tax Watch, nearly 170,000 women left the work force since the COVID pandemic began, and over 100,000 have yet to return."
• New York Times ($): Lawsuits Over Tragedies Can Drag On. Not in the Florida Condo Collapse. "The collapse killed 98 people and left 135 unit owners dispossessed. There was no public fund like the one created for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Lawyers braced their clients for years of litigation, but instead, the Surfside checks are expected to be cut by the end of September, just 15 months after part of the Champlain Towers South came crashing down."
• Tallahassee Democrat ($): 'Casanova Scammer' sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for romance scheme. "Brian Wedgeworth, a man accused of swindling more than $1 million from nearly two dozen women in eight states, has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison Thursday."
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From NPR News
• Health: Omicron boosters: Do I need one, and if so, when?
• World: Liz Truss will succeed Boris Johnson as the U.K.'s next prime minister
• Law: What a special master does, as told by a special master
• National: It's the first day of school in Uvalde since May's mass shooting
• National: Avoiding the tap water in Jackson, Miss., has been a way of life for decades
• Health: Catholic health care's wide reach can make it hard to get birth control in many places
• Politics: Historians advise the president. The problem? The scholars were all white
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.