Subscribe to The Point, arriving in your inbox Monday through Friday at 8 a.m.
The stories near you
• WCJB: The city of Gainesville released its financial auditing reports, which were approved unanimously. "The city of Gainesville's 2020-2021 fiscal report was late by almost six months."
• Gainesville Sun ($): Does Gainesville's city manager have $1M tax lien against her former company? "Despite multiple news reports and concerns from an anonymous caller to the city's fraud hotline, there is no active IRS tax lien against Cynthia W. Curry or her former company."
• Mainstreet Daily News: UF Health to open neighborhood hospital in Ocala. "The 150,000-square-foot hospital will include 10 emergency department rooms, 10 inpatient rooms, a medical imaging center, four surgical operating rooms and other features."
• WUFT News: Montbrook Fossil Site volunteers unearth pieces of life millions of years old. "In a ditch in Levy County, about 15 people are digging in the dirt. Five to 6 million years ago, the area was likely a river. Now, it’s the Montbrook Fossil Dig site."
• WUFT News: Infamous Diamonds dance competition team dazzles Gainesville crowds. "The Infamous Diamonds are a competition team consisting of dancers of all ages, sizes and backgrounds. And they aren’t afraid of a challenge."
Today's sponsored message
We focus our legal attention on these practice areas: • Family Law • Business Law • Estate Planning • Probate • Guardianship
Visit lawyergainesville.com or call 352-373-3334 today to learn more.
Around the state
• Florida Politics: Looking to stabilize market, Senate passes property insurance overhaul. "After nearly five hours of discussion and debate, the Senate on Tuesday passed a bill with major changes to property insurance laws."
• Florida Politics: Gov. DeSantis calls for grand jury to investigate COVID-19 vaccines and possible fraudulent claims. "The Governor wants the grand jury to examine including a law that prohibits fraudulent practices, including the dissemination of false or misleading advertisements of a drug and the use of any representation or suggestion in any advertisement relating to a drug that an application of a drug is effective when it is not."
• WGCU-Fort Myers: Rates of uninsured children in Florida and around the nation decreased in the COVID-19 pandemic, but gains could be short-lived. "The report, from the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, a nonpartisan policy and research center, finds the rate of uninsured children nationally improved from 5.7% to 5.4% between 2019 and 2021, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. Those percentages translate to about 200,000 more children having health coverage."
• WFTS-Tampa Bay: IIHS changing the way it evaluates vehicle safety to include backseat passengers. "(Crash dummy) tests primarily focused on the safety of the driver and front passenger, and while many cars received a good rating in that department, many of them did not rate well at all when it came to the protection of the people in the back seat."
• WMFE-Orlando: After the Storms. "After the Storms, a special news presentation from 90.7 WMFE News, looks back at those affected by the storms and what's ahead for the region."
• Miami Herald ($):See how many school counselors are in Florida. "Across the country, counselors are facing a more challenging workload than ever before."
• Fort Myers News Press ($): Ho, ho, no: TSA says holiday travelers can/can't carry on these seasonal items. "Just like Santa Claus, people who will travel with gifts and other holiday goodies this month need to check their carry-on list twice."
From NPR News
• Business: Amazon launched a driver tipping promotion on the same day it got sued over tip fraud
• National:El Paso receives thousands of migrants before Title 42 ends
• National: Criminal referrals could be announced sooner than expected by the Jan. 6 panel
• National: Male prison employees assault women in at least two-thirds of U.S. prisons
• Science: Scientists announce nuclear fusion breakthrough
• Health: How did COVID warp our sense of time? It's a matter of perception
Kristin Moorehead curated today's edition of The Point.