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Throughout 2023, WUFT brought you the news you needed to stay informed. This week, we're bringing you the year in review.

Today, we're looking at the in-depth reporting coming out of our newsroom. These hard-hitting pieces dove deep into topics that matter, from community news to statewide stories.

Report for America

Report for America is a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. In 2021, RFA journalist Katie Hyson joined the WUFT staff, providing coverage of under-served areas in north central Florida. Her reporting often focused on equity and racial justice.

This year, Hyson moved on to San Diego to report on race and equity for the NPR and PBS affiliate station there, KPBS. Her passion for storytelling and connection to the community will be missed. Here are some of her final stories with WUFT.

• Alachua County School District makes changes to Camp Crystal Lake after last year’s scrutiny

• ‘This many Black folks have not been in Rosewood since the massacre’: Rosewood centennial events begin

• The University of Florida holds the remains of thousands of Native American ancestors – the 11th largest holding in the U.S.

• The ground of their practice field is too hard for tackling. The Hawthorne Hornets won the state football championship anyway

• East Gainesville neighbors fight the expansion of a landfill in their backyard – again

• Lawtey police threatened to arrest a traffic stop bystander. What we can learn from the incident

• A goodbye letter from reporter Katie Hyson

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Longform Projects

WUFT reporters often showcase their skills with special projects. From explaining the unintended consequences of unsecured guns to traversing the American Civil Rights Trail, re-read these outstanding pieces from our newsroom.

• Unintended: Unintentional shootings affect hundreds of U.S. children each year. From foolish teenage games to curious children finding a guardian’s guns, nearly one child per day is injured or killed in such a case. Unintended takes a deeper look at three of these cases.

• Behind the Bet: In states where sports betting is illegal, many people are forced to turn to bookmakers, or bookies for short, to wager on the outcome of a sports event. Some students estimated that at least 20 percent and perhaps as high as 65% of sports fans at the University of Florida participate in illegal online sports betting. For this three-part series, Alexis Ashby of WUFT News talked with betters, bookies and experts to understand why and how sports betting is so prevalent on college campuses.

• Slept on Eastside: “Slept on Eastside” follows the journey of Eastside High School alumni Harold “Gator” Hoskins as he returns to his alma mater to revitalize the football team. Hoskins and company laid a firm foundation as the Rams would shock north central Florida. With new expectations, the team will have to try and follow up their best season since 2018. But for now, enjoy this look back at what you probably missed – when you “Slept On Eastside.”

• Bitter Taste: Nearly 20 years after citrus greening appeared in Florida, exhausted farmers and researchers struggle to survive a disease destroying the state’s quintessential crop. This is the tale of the modern orange, the tiny bug killing it and the conflicts that have arisen in a once-dominant industry—now fighting for its life.

• The Price of Plenty: A special report on the fertilizer industry by student journalists from the University of Florida and the University of Missouri. Funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative, the team spent 16 weeks reporting on fertilizer from Florida’s farm fields and phosphate mining region to agrichemical plants along the Mississippi River and the communities that live in their shadow.

• Living on the Edge: For the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Ian’s strike on Southwest Florida, environmental journalism students in the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications reported on the state’s barrier islands — including the first interactive public map detailing the islands; whether they are inhabited; and a trend of increasing population growth despite increasing risks.

• UFxFAMU1963: 1963 was a pivotal year in the Civil Rights Movement. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of those events, 11 students – seven from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications in Gainesville and four from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University School of Journalism & Graphic Communication in Tallahassee – spent their 2023 spring break reporting from across the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.
Kristin Moorehead curated today's edition of The Point.