The Point

The Point, Sept. 18, 2023: East Gainesville gets a half million-dollar HUD grant

WUFT | By WUFT News,

WUFT News

Published September 18, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

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The stories near you

• WUFT News: HUD grant money to go toward improvements in East Gainesville. "Gainesville is one of the 14 cities nationwide that will receive a Housing and Urban Development neighborhood planning grant."

• WUFT News: Newly released video shows police with assault rifles searching inside Walmart for rogue excavator driver. "Carrying assault rifles through a local Walmart, police officers can be seen on newly released video moving past startled shoppers looking for a shirtless man who they said just crashed a stolen excavator into the building and caused $2 million in damages across the popular shopping district."

• Florida Storms: Two weeks later, cleanup underway in Levy County after Hurricane Idalia. "The recovery efforts extend beyond restoring power and removing downed tree limbs. Receiving financial assistance from FEMA is now at the forefront of survivors’ minds."

• Ocala Gazette: New appointment for county commission. "McClain will fill the vacancy left by former commissioner Jeff Gold’s resignation in May and unexpected last day in June of this year."

• Mainstreet Daily News: GNV funds another $250K for lawsuit. "The Gainesville City Commission voted to continue funding its legal action against the state of Florida with another $250,000 on Thursday."

• Gainesville Sun ($): Ejections/arrests triple from a week ago as Florida Gators top No. 9 Tennessee Volunteers. "Police arrested or ejected 48 people from the game, including one fan that ran across the field. He was peacefully taken into custody near the Tennessee bench after seemingly running out steam."

• WUFT News: Beware bears: Florida wildlife officials renew warnings about encounters. "Florida wildlife officials are renewing warnings about how to prevent encounters with the state’s population of black bears – and how to survive such encounters when they happen."

• WUFT News: Cuban art exhibit at Harn Museum connects Gainesville’s Hispanic community. "The exhibit visitors came to see allowed them to take a deep dive into the lives of the people who lived under an authoritarian regime and their journeys crossing the sea in hopes of finding freedom."

• WUFT News: Chomp the Block brings smiles to Gainesville despite the early rain. "The event is an official Gators celebration, occurring throughout the football season on nights before home games. While the event was intended to run from 6 to 10 p.m., a rainy drizzle at around 8 p.m. halted the celebration."

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Around the state

• WFSU-Tallahassee: More than 1 million Floridians could lose food assistance by end of month. "SNAP is the largest federal assistance program in the country and according to World Population Review, Florida ranks fourth among all states with households receiving food stamps. Most of the recipients are living below the poverty line."

• Associated Press: Uncertain and afraid: Florida's immigrants grapple with a disrupted reality under new law. "Some try to drive as little as possible and make fewer trips to the supermarket. Others no longer take their children to the park and worry about allowing them to attend school. Others still are hiding out — avoiding travel to other states, not getting regular medical check-ups, or closing their businesses and leaving town."

• WMFE-Orlando: Study finds statewide civics tests don't improve voter turnout, including in Florida. "The Florida Civic Literacy Exam is a computer-based assessment that measures students’ civics know-how. Since 2021, all students in U.S. Government classes in the state must take and pass the exam."

• Florida Politics: After avoiding Joe Biden post-Idalia, Ron DeSantis requests storm relief from feds."Now DeSantis is seeking a USDA Disaster Declaration for the counties affected by Idalia along with 'any and all' other assistance from other USDA programs, including those administered by the Farm Service Agency."

• News Service of Florida: COVID-19 death toll continues up; Fl. near 91,000 dead since 2020. "As of Thursday, 90,740 resident deaths from COVID-19 had been reported, according to Florida Department of Health data released Friday. That was up from 90,232 reported deaths two weeks earlier."

• Florida Politics: Gov. DeSantis suspends Alex Diaz de la Portilla from Miami City Commission. "Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an order Friday evening removing Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla from office following his Thursday arrest for a host of corruption charges. The order is effective immediately, it says."

• WMFE-Orlando: Sick frogs in Central Florida worry scientists. "UCF researcher Anna Savage said this tiny microbe is responsible for some massive frog die-offs including here in Florida. In their sample, about a third of the frogs had it. Most of the sick frogs were gopher frogs."

• WUSF-Tampa: Two Floridians are working to preserve the legacy of the state's civil rights movement. "A new Florida Civil Rights Museum makes national history as the first-ever virtual gallery of its kind."

• WGCU-Fort Myers: A sea-going drone zipped through a hurricane's eyewall and into the Guinness Book of World Records. "The vehicle, known as Saildrone Explorer SD 1045, made global headlines when it spent 24 hours inside category 4 Hurricane Sam in September 2021, delivering the world’s first video footage from inside a major hurricane as it surged across the Atlantic."