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The stories near you

• WUFT News: Report: Florida Department of Corrections needs $2.2 billion to fix ‘dire’ infrastructure issues. "According to the institute, these include improvements to roofs, heaters and furnaces, water treatment, lighting, air conditioning units and chiller/boiler systems. The department also faces aging incarcerated populations and high staff turnover, which the non-partisan think tank said has only added to the budget crisis."

• Florida Storms: Tropical disturbance could develop this week. "We are monitoring a tropical wave located over 2,500 miles away from South Florida. The National Hurricane Center gives it a medium chance to develop once it moves closer to the Greater Antilles late this week."

• Gainesville Sun ($): Alachua County School Board candidate removes nine endorsements from campaign website. "Alachua County School Board Chair Diyonne McGraw, who is up for reelection next month, has removed multiple endorsements from her campaign website after numerous groups said they did not endorse her."

• WCJB: University of Florida, Jacksonville Jaguars announce partnership. "For the next 4 years, UF and UF Health brands will be displayed at Jaguars games, both in the U.S. and overseas. The university and the football team will also work together on marketing campaigns."

• WCJB: Cases of horse virus reported across North Central Florida. "19 horses have been infected with Triple E so far this year. Only 17 tested positive all of last year, according to Florida Health. Symptoms include fever and depression, horses pressing their heads into walls or corners, and the inability to stand."

• Ocala Gazette: Home sale prices show little change in Florida and Ocala area. "The Florida Realtors agents’ association recently released its June 2024 market report, showing that statewide the median single-family home sale price in Florida rose slightly to $427,000, a 1.7% year over year increase, and townhouses and condo median sales price decreased to $324,900, virtually unchanged from June 2023 at $325,000."

• Mainstreet Daily News: Gainesville author‘s memoir published on her 99th birthday. "The book had been in the works, at least in her mind, for decades, but life happens, and she never really got around to publishing it. Carter died on July 22, but her book still saw the light."

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Around the state

• Florida Center for Governmental Accountability: Public official Moran spent $36,000 in taxpayers’ money on lavish travel, steak dinners, and booze. "According to the records, Moran spent more than $36,000 of taxpayers’ money during a recent 18-month period on lavish trips to Las Vegas, New York City, and California, indulging in expensive steakhouses, wine, and tequila shots."

• News Service of Florida: Death warrant signed in 1994 murder of Florida State University student. "Cole would be the first inmate executed in Florida since October, when Michael Duane Zack was put to death by lethal injection for a 1996 murder in Escambia County."

• WFTS-Tampa Bay: FWC targeting speeders, diver-down flag violations during scallop season. "Scalloping has surged in popularity and become a tourism mainstay along Florida’s Nature Coast, Pasco County, and Big Bend region. However, that popularity has caused problems."

• News Service of Florida: Florida Supreme Court will move quickly on an abortion ‘financial impact statement’. "The Supreme Court issued orders that said it has 'expedited' proceedings in the cases, which involve a battle between Floridians Protecting Freedom and state officials about the financial impact statement."

• News Service of Florida: Judge rejects most of a union law fight. "A federal judge has rejected much of a lawsuit challenging restrictions that Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature placed on public employee unions — but a fight will continue about a ban on deducting union dues from workers’ paychecks."

• WTSP-Tampa: 3 arrests, 2 with a warrant in connection with shooting that killed rapper Julio Foolio in Tampa. "During the conference, law enforcement showed video surveillance footage during the early morning shooting that shows five people dressed all in black carrying guns around the hotel, waiting for Jones. They start shooting at the car where Jones is in the passenger seat and keep shooting as the car tries to drive away."

• WFLA-Tampa: ‘Never going to own another animal’: Tiger King’s Joe Exotic hopes for new trial or presidential pardon. "He is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence for hiring two men to kill his rival, Carole Baskin, and for illegally killing tigers in his car. Exotic is hoping for a new trial or a presidential pardon in order to be released from prison."

• WLRN-Miami: No bull: South Florida's next professional sports team is bull riding. "Considered the most dangerous eight seconds in sports, it's not like riding a mechanical bull at your local honky tonk. Riders mount bareback bulls weighing thousands of pounds trained to buck."

From NPR News

• Culture: JD Vance went viral for ‘cat lady’ comments. The centuries-old trope has a long tail

• World: Hope was in the air for Venezuela's election, but it ended in dispute and uncertainty

• Sports: U.S. men's gymnastics team breaks 16-year Olympic drought with a team bronze

• Media: Washington Post CEO accused in court of deceiving police about U.K. hacking scandal

• National: Amid lawsuits, new autopsies link Texas prisoner deaths to extreme heat

• Politics: Harris is leaning into her history as a prosecutor. It's not the first time

• Sports: U.S. women’s basketball team opens the Olympics with dominant win over Japan

• World: Ozempic's biggest side effect: Turning Denmark into a 'pharmastate'?

Kristin Moorehead curated today's edition of The Point.