The Point

The Point, July 28, 2023: State Supreme Court to hear UF COVID shutdown case

WUFT | By WUFT News,

WUFT News

Published July 28, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

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The stories near you

• News Service of Florida: Florida Supreme Court will hear case stemming from UF’s 2020 COVID shutdown. "The state Supreme Court on Thursday said it will take up a dispute about whether the University of Florida should return fees to students because of a campus shutdown early in the COVID-19 pandemic — one of numerous similar cases filed in Florida and across the country."

• Mainstreet Daily News: GNV to repeal rental inspection program. "The city of Gainesville rental unit inspection program has been invalidated by a new state law and will need to be repealed, city staff told the City Commission on Thursday."

• Gainesville Sun ($): Need school supplies in Alachua County? Here's where to find some local giveaways. "School starts on Thursday, August 10 in Alachua County. If your soon-to-be student is still in need of supplies, there are a host of upcoming giveaways where you can find supplies for free."

• Mainstreet Daily News: Gainesville gas prices jump 18 cents. "According to Thursday’s AAA release, Florida’s 20-cent hike in price per gallon to $3.65 ranked third nationally."

• WCJB: What’s Growing On?: UF tries growing coffee in the Sunshine State. "While orange juice is the official beverage of Florida, the University of Florida is working to make state-grown coffee a reality."

• Ocala Star-Banner ($): Ocala's Horse Fever horses need repair and refreshing. Meet the man who helps them out. "Local artist Mark Hershberger has a "crazy" workshop for damaged and wayward horses — not the ones that can eat you out of house and home, but the fiberglass ones."

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Around the state

• WLRN-Miami: PolitiFact FL: Do school standards say ‘enslaved people benefited from slavery,’ as Kamala Harris said? "Although the new standards include many conventional lesson points about the history of slavery, they also include a sentence that enslaved people developed skills that "could be applied for their personal benefit" — and this has drawn heated rebuttals from historians, who consider it factually misleading and offensive for seeming to find a silver lining in slavery."

• Associated Press: After 30 years, an arrest is made in the Jennifer Odom cold case. "For three decades, nobody knew for certain what happened to 12-year-old Jennifer Odom after she got off a school bus on a typical day in 1993. The girl was found dead in a Hernando County orange grove not long after."

• News Service of Florida: College athlete pay continues to evolve following laws passed in Florida and other states. "The Economic Club of Florida on Thursday hosted a discussion about laws in Florida and other states that allow college athletes to be paid for use of their names, images and likenesses."

• Bradenton Herald ($): Florida tomato grower will lay off 120 workers, citing competition with Mexican imports. "Ag Mart Produce this month notified state officials that it will be conducting a mass layoff of employees at its Plant City office/warehouse and at its farms in Myakka City and Duette."

• News Service of Florida: Special district appointed by DeSantis considers cut in tax rate for Disney properties. "As a feud continues between Gov. Ron DeSantis and The Walt Disney Co., property owners in a special district that includes Walt Disney World could see a reduction in their property-tax rate."

• WFTS-Tampa Bay: Florida made phone robocall law more business-friendly leaving voters asking why. "But just when Florida’s new robocall law was proving to do everything it set out to do for consumers, earlier this year that changed. State lawmakers brought back the issue. Only this time their focus seemed to be less on protecting Florida consumers and more on helping big businesses get back in the robocall game."

• WUSF-Tampa: What the Fed's interest rate hike means for car shoppers. "The Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday to increase interest rates means consumers will pay more for new- and used-car loans."

• Palm Beach Post ($): 'Lo siento.' 104-mph baseball smashed USA TODAY freelancer's camera at Marlins game. Now he wears a helmet. "Stunned, Rassol examined his $13,000 lens, noticed a video camera was focused on him, grabbed the ball and lightly tossed it in the air and caught it, to let fans watching that while his camera was shattered, he was not."