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• WUFT News: In the crosshairs of the climate and housing crises. Manufactured homes are a crucial part of the solution to Florida’s housing woes. But can they survive the state’s worsening storms? WUFT marks the start of the 2024 hurricane season with an investigation of the climate and housing crises and a look back at Hurricane Idalia's strike on the Big Bend, where nearly a third of FEMA claims involved mobile homes.
• WUFT News: Van life-line: Living in RVs can be affordable but perilous given severe weather in Florida. "Soaring RV ownership in the United States is often linked to 'VanLife' glamor and the envied lifestyle of digital nomads. But full-time RV living in Florida also looks like Ron Elrod and his family of four, who live in their camper at Coastal River RV Resort by the coastal town of Steinhatchee. It’s not so much VanLife, as VanLifeline."
• WUFT News: ‘I just reacted’: Rachael Wilks testifies that panic caused her to kill her boyfriend. "Wilks, 32, testified for two and a half hours on the second and final day of testimony before Judge William Davis in Eighth Judicial Circuit Court."
• Florida Storms: Hurricane Season: the terminology you must know. "As the 2024 hurricane season threatens to be a very active one and possibly with more chances of tracks shifting a bit more west, due to La Niña’s presence, it is crucial to be familiarized with the season’s terminology and what everything means as soon as advisories are issued."
• Ocala Star-Banner ($): No bail for man charged in fatal shooting at North Marion Middle School parking lot. "The man accused of shooting another man numerous times and then repeatedly punching his lifeless body in front of multiple witnesses, including children, at a school parking lot last week will continue to be held without bail, a judge decided on Thursday."
• Mainstreet Daily News: Memo: GRU Authority ballot initiative could cost $28 million. "Gainesville Regional Utilities’ (GRU) financial advisers warned in a memo this week that the fiscal cost of the city’s ballot initiative could total $28 million and would likely be met with immediate action by credit rating agencies."
• The Alligator: Dialysis treatment center opens in Gainesville. "As a long-term care facility, the Terrace Center services a population of over 130 geriatric patients with 24-hour care, short-term rehab and outpatient therapy."
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Around the state
• News Service of Florida: Florida Republicans criticize the Trump verdict, while Democrats say nobody's above the law. "A 12-member jury returned the verdict more than a month after the criminal hush-money trial began in New York and after just one day of deliberations. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime after leaving office."
• Politico: There’s a real possibility Trump can’t vote in November. "As a convicted felon in New York and now resident in Florida, Trump’s ability to cast a ballot there depends on the sentence imposed by the judge in his hush money case — and when or if he completes it."
• WUSF-Tampa: Florida school voucher applications are rolling in already at record numbers. "More than 386,000 applications for the upcoming school year have been submitted, surpassing the number of vouchers awarded last school year."
• NPR: Hurricane Ian walloped Cape Coral, Fla. Two years later housing costs have spiked. "On Florida’s southwest coast, more than a year and a half after Hurricane Ian’s high winds and flooding caused more than $117 billion in damage, the fallout continues. Housing costs and insurance have spiked, prompting many to put their homes up for sale."
• Associated Press: Lab-grown meat isn't on store shelves yet, but some states like Florida have already banned it. "Earlier this month, both Florida and Arizona banned the sale of cultivated meat and seafood, which is grown from animal cells. In Iowa, the governor signed a bill prohibiting schools from buying lab-grown meat. Federal lawmakers are also looking to restrict it."
• Associated Press: Power conferences join ACC in asking a Florida court to keep the league's TV deals with ESPN private. "The filing was a response to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s complaint last month. Moody accused the ACC of breaking Florida’s public records law by not providing a copy of the league’s TV contracts."
• Central Florida Public Media: Hurricane season continues to bring short-term benefits and long-term costs to Florida’s economy, says Rollins Professor. "Overall, NOAA reports that 2023 broke the record for weather and climate disasters across the country with losses more than $1 billion. That’s why Gunter said it is important to prepare for the worst but hope for the best during hurricane season."
• NPR: A 12-year-old from Florida has won this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee. "Bruhat Soma, a 12-year-old from Florida, bested the competition Thursday with his spelling of 'abseil,' a word used to describe descending a vertical surface area with a rope attached to one’s body."
From NPR News
• Politics: Former President Trump is found guilty in historic New York criminal case
• Health: A 3rd human case of bird flu detected, this one with respiratory symptoms
• Technology: In a first, OpenAI removes influence operations tied to Russia, China and Israel
• Media: 'Wall Street Journal' layoffs continue, despite lucrative AI deal and record profits
• National: Boeing promises big changes as the plane maker looks to rebuild trust and quality
• Health: Girls are getting their first periods earlier. Here's what parents should know
• World: This airport has never lost a bag. For one chief handler, it's all about respect
• Animals: A silky shark named Genie swam 17,000 miles, a record-breaking migration
Kristin Moorehead curated today's edition of The Point.