The Point

The Point, Aug. 11, 2023: New NOAA prediction, school starts, California robo-taxis

WUFT | By WUFT News,

WUFT News

Published August 11, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

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The stories near you

• Florida Storms: NOAA predicts ‘Above-Normal Level’ activity for 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. "Current ocean and atmospheric conditions like record-warm Atlantic sea surface temperatures have the potential to counteract El Niño conditions."

• Gainesville Sun ($): State pulled history books from Alachua County high schools a week before school started. "For a second year in a row, students in Alachua County schools didn't have the correct textbooks at the start of the school year despite a plethora of books being approved by the school board and ordered by the district."

• WCJB: 16-year-old shot in Gainesville neighborhood, dies in hospital. "This comes days after Gainesville city leaders hosted a gun violence summit. One of the goals organizers proposed was a youth-led task force to offer support and plans to end gun violence."

• Mainstreet Daily News: GNV preps for housing discussions, changes. "The neighborhood meeting will inform residents and collect feedback on minimum lot dimension standards, changes to single-family zoning and subdivision standards that restrict cottage neighborhoods."

• WCJB: Firefighters work to improve safety after another blaze at Southern Fuelwood. "In just over two years, Southern Fuelwood has experienced 12 fires. After the June fire, Theus expressed concerns about sending more of his men back to the business but was more positive about the way his firefighters handled the situation."

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Around the state

• News Service of Florida: Central Florida's top prosecutor reacts to DeSantis' order suspending her. "DeSantis’ suspension of Worrell, elected in 2020 as state attorney for Florida’s 9th Judicial Circuit in Orange and Osceola counties, marks the second time in a year the Republican governor has acted to strip an elected Democratic prosecutor from office."

• WMFE-Orlando: More than 7,000 teaching positions remain open in Florida. "There are thousands of teaching positions in Florida that still haven’t been filled despite the fact that most kids in the state went back to school this week."

• WUSF-Tampa:School starts this week for some Florida students. Here's more about the new rules in effect. "Many of the new rules are a result of the expansion of the state 'Parental Rights in Education' law."

• News4Jax: Duval jail inmate dies in custody; second death in 4 days. "More than a dozen people have reached out to the News4JAX I-TEAM to say they’re worried about poor healthcare at the jail, including Faircloth’s husband. Multiple sources have also said that drugs are circulating inside the jail."

• WMFE-Orlando: Undocumented students face new challenges under Florida's immigration law. "Florida’s new immigration law has been in place for a month now. As part of our series Central Florida Seen and Heard: Immigration Divide, WMFE’s Danielle Prieur takes a look at the impact on undocumented students."

• WLRN-Miami: Off Miami, scientists put corals to a heat-stress test. It’s survival of the fittest. "Some likely won’t survive the high ocean temperatures off the state that threaten to devastate much of the natural reef tract. But if some do — and that’s the hope — it could help identify coral types more likely to endure future climate change."

• WLRN-Miami: South Florida's cruise business is, well, cruising again. "Passenger demand to sail is stronger than it was before the COVID-19 virus shut down the industry, costing tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenues."