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The stories near you
• WUFT News: Judge orders fine, community service for defendant on the run following deadly 2023 crash. "A traffic judge ordered a fugitive during an online court hearing Thursday to pay a $2,000 fine and perform 75 hours of community service for driving over a bicyclist and dragging her lifeless body into a utility pole."
• Mainstreet Daily News: Gainesville OKs ballot initiative for second time, building code changes. "The Gainesville City Commission voted Thursday to reaffirm its ballot initiative, appoint seven members to a new Downtown Advisory Board and loosen building standards for single room occupancy residences."
• WUFT News: GPD to host anonymous gun buyback on Saturday. "The Gainesville Police Department will purchase firearms no questions asked this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m."
• WCJB: Columbia County officials taking steps towards a unified CAD system. "Columbia County officials are taking steps to join several other counties in North Central Florida by implementing a unified dispatch system to help with emergency response times."
• Ocala Gazette: Funding secured, bid awarded for Heagy-Burry Boat Ramp project. "After 14 years of waiting, the Heagy-Burry Boat Ramp in Orange Lake is getting some much-needed improvements now that Marion County has secured funding and awarded a bid for the project to move forward."
• WCJB: Irish pub to replace Gainesville’s The Social at Midtown. "A month after the owners of The Social at Midtown announced the popular sports bar was 'ending,' an Irish pub announced it would take over the location."
• Mainstreet Daily News: Alachua County Library District to host Reader Palooza. "More than 20 community partners will be on hand at the event, which will feature games, music, information and entertainment."
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Around the state
• Spectrum News: Florida Supreme Court upholds DeSantis' suspension of State Attorney Monique Worrell. "In a nearly unanimous decision, the court denied Worrell's petition to be reinstated to her post. Justice Jorge Labarga was the only dissent on the opinion."
• News Service of Florida: A Leon County judge orders changes in a Florida abortion amendment statement. "A Leon County circuit judge on Wednesday ruled a 'financial impact statement' that would accompany a proposed constitutional amendment about abortion rights needs to be revised, finding that the statement is 'inaccurate, ambiguous, misleading, unclear and confusing.'”
• Associated Press: Slightly more Americans apply for jobless benefits, but layoffs remain at healthy levels. "Unemployment benefit applications for the week ending June 1 rose by 8,000 to 229,000, up from 221,000 the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday."
• Politifact FL: Donald Trump is likely able to vote in November despite felony conviction. '"In Trump’s home state of Florida, where he is registered to vote, the Department of State website says that 'a felony conviction in another state makes a person ineligible to vote in Florida only if the conviction would make the person ineligible to vote in the state where the person was convicted.'"
• News4Jax: Latest drowning report shows 12% increase in child deaths. "Deadly drownings among children under age 15 increased by 12% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) annual drowning and submersion report."
• WFTS-Tampa: Clearwater Civil Air Patrol Squadron participates in D-Day commemoration ceremony in France. "The squadron participated in the commemoration ceremony at Brittany American Cemetery in honor of the lives lost at Normandy."
• Central Florida Public Media: Parents sue Florida School Board over book challenge policy. "Parents of Florida public school students sued the state board of education Thursday, June 6 over a state law that makes it easier to ban books."
From NPR News
• National: Safety investigators want more technology to prevent close calls on runways
• National: First responders in Phoenix are using a new treatment during heat emergencies
• World: Israel used a U.S.-made bomb in a deadly U.N. school strike in Gaza
• National: Black workers sue General Mills over alleged racial discrimination at a Georgia plant
• Politics: The dramatic story of Pointe du Hoc, the backdrop to Biden's D-Day anniversary speech
• Business: Why the Sweden-based company IKEA has cut prices 3 times in a year
• World: The Paris Olympics is already facing cybersecurity threats
• Animals: A fungus is turning cicadas into horny zombies — but don’t panic
Krista Jensen curated today's edition of The Point.