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• Fresh Take Florida: Republicans outspend Democrats for Florida House seat near Orlando in election next week. "The race affords the GOP an opportunity to extend its margins in Tallahassee to add an 85th Republican lawmaker in the House, compared to 35 Democrats. The Florida Senate is split 28-12 in favor of Republicans."

• Mainstreet Daily News: School board moves rezoning timeline back to 2025. "Alachua County Public Schools staff has been working on comprehensive rezoning for nine months, but community members have consistently attended meetings to air concerns about whether the proposed maps accomplish what they were meant to do."

• Mainstreet Daily News: Gainesville commission votes 6-1 for inclusionary zoning. "Thursday’s proposal would require developers of rental projects to reserve 10% of their units as affordable, meaning for people earning 80% of area median income. This would apply to all developments of 10 or more units."

• WUFT News: Harn Museum features queer students’ art in installation. "The installation featured art in a plethora of mediums, ranging from linocut prints to AI-generated art pieces. Some art pieces dealt with themes of queer identity, while others displayed discontent with new Florida laws like the one critics termed the 'Don’t Say Gay' bill."

• Mainstreet Daily News: Law enforcement apprehends fleeing homicide suspect. "Area law enforcement captured a suspect who allegedly shot and killed a man in Gainesville Thursday morning and then led police on a high-speed pursuit that ended in Columbia County."

• WCJB: What were the strange clouds above North Central Florida? Meteorologist explains. "Strange clouds over North Central Florida had people turning to social media for answers. TV20 Meteorologist Scott Gagliardi explains the unusual cloud formations known as Mackerel Skies."

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Around the state

• WFSU-Tallahassee: "It sounded like a freight train": Bay County residents recover from devastating tornado. "Residents in Bay County are working to bounce back from Tuesday's storm that left hundreds without shelter. WFSU visited the area Wednesday, just 24 hours after multiple tornadoes ripped through it, and other parts of the Florida Panhandle."

• News Service of Florida: A school deregulation package has passed the Florida Senate. "The Florida Senate on Wednesday passed a suite of bills aimed at 'deregulation' of public schools, with one measure undergoing a significant change that nixed a provision related to the state’s third-grade literacy policy after it was heavily criticized by former Gov. Jeb Bush."

• PolitiFact: Fact-checking the Iowa debate between Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley. "The race to win the quickly approaching Iowa caucuses ran through a CNN debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in which the front-runner was again absent and only two candidates made the debate cut: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley."

• WLRN-Miami: Investigators: Former school board member charged $100,000 to district credit cards for personal use. "Over the course of her last year in office alone, she allegedly racked up more than $100,000 in charges to school district-issued credit cards to pay for her own personal expenses, and running up bills to purchase clothes, home appliances and beauty products, as well as trips to the Dominican Republic, Las Vegas and Disney World."

• WUSF-Tampa: TECO withdrew a petition to avoid a survey that advocates say ensures rate hikes are assigned fairly. "Advocates said they drove hundreds of comments to the Florida Public Service Commission requesting it do a full and balanced cost of service study, including individual letters from two Hillsborough commissioners."

• WLRN-Miami: ‘Designed to intimidate’: Bill would make it costly to lose environmental lawsuits. "A Florida Senate committee advanced a wide-sweeping bill that would require someone who loses an environmental court case to pay up to $50,000 to cover the winner's legal fees."

• WUWF-Pensacola: Is screening leading to cancer over-diagnosis? "Dr. Gilbert Welch is not so sure. He says that massive screening for cancer has the potential to find abnormalities that are not life-threatening which overestimates the true survival rate of certain cancers and falsely inflates the number of cancer survivors. He calls this ‘cancer over-diagnosis.’"

• Associated Press: Proposed legislation in Florida would honor the late Jimmy Buffett. "Looking to waste away with a cheeseburger in paradise? You could soon do so while driving down Jimmy Buffett Highway with a Margaritaville license plate."

From NPR News

• Elections: How the Iowa caucuses work, why they're first — and why they're significant

• World: U.S. and U.K. strike Houthi targets in Yemen

• World: Another layer of misery: Women in Gaza struggle to find menstrual pads, running water

• World: What to know about France's young Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who's causing a stir

• Sports: Bill Belichick is leaving the New England Patriots after 24 seasons and 6 NFL titles

• National: TSA found record number of firearms at airport checkpoints in 2023. Most were loaded

• Law: eBay will pay a $3 million fine over former employees' harassment campaign

• Economy: The gumbo inflation index: Join a New Orleans chef on an ingredients shopping trip

Kristin Moorehead curated today's edition of The Point.