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The stories near you
• Florida Storms: Francine forms: How and when could it impact parts of Florida? "This is the sixth named system of the season it is forecast to make landfall in the United States, specifically in Louisiana either late Wednesday night or very early Thursday morning, as a hurricane."
• WCJB: Judge dismisses lawsuit claiming GRU Authority Board is unconstitutional. "An activist group said the formation of the GRU Authority Board violates their 1st and 14th Amendment rights because they cannot vote for board members. However, a U.S. District Judge said the board is a separate legal agency from the City of Gainesville and dismissed the case."
• Mainstreet Daily News: Teen arrested for social media threats to Columbia, Madison county schools. "The CCSO stated that since the school threat was directed to multiple schools, the Lake City Police Department will assist CCSO with providing extra law enforcement around both public and private school campuses throughout Columbia County on Monday."
• Florida Storms: The National Weather Service is experimenting a flood hazard outlook, with valuable info ahead of Francine. "It highlights the flash and urban flooding risks from current conditions to the next 7 days. It will work in conjunction with current products, like the Excessive Rainfall Outlook."
• Gainesville Sun ($): Florida historic marker unveiled Sunday at Cotton Club Museum in southeast Gainesville. "The ceremony unveiling the state of Florida’s historic site designation marker for the building that houses the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center featured the telling of the history of the building and those involved with making the restoration of the building a reality."
• Associated Press: Battery-powered devices are overheating more often on planes and raising alarm. "Devices powered by lithium-ion batteries are overheating more often during airline flights and passengers often put them in checked bags that go into the cargo hold, where a fire might not be detected as quickly."
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Around the state
• Associated Press: Police are questioning Florida voters about signing an abortion rights ballot petition. "State police are showing up at Florida voters’ homes to question them about signing a petition to get an abortion rights amendment on the ballot in November. And a Florida state health care agency has launched a new website targeting the ballot initiative."
• WFSU-Tallahassee: Florida state senators push back on Gov. Ron DeSantis's opposition to pot proposal. "The senators held a virtual press conference Monday to make their arguments, which ranged from too many Floridians being wrongly arrested to the chance to create large numbers of jobs."
• News Service of Florida: Feds appeal judge's block of a rule on gender-related health care discrimination. "Tampa-based U.S. District Judge William Jung issued an injunction in July to halt the rule, which was designed to help prevent discrimination in health care programs that receive federal money."
• WUSF-Tampa: Sarasota Bay is still recovering from Hurricane Debby, which dropped record-breaking rain. "Debby set a new one-day record for rainfall as a tropical storm on Aug. 4 of more than 11 inches at the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport."
• News Service of Florida: DeSantis says action on the condo crisis can’t be ‘put off’ in Miami Lakes roundtable. "Suggesting no-interest or low-interest loans to help condo owners being hit with large assessments for such things as repairs, DeSantis said lawmakers before the end of this year can tweak laws passed after the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside that killed 98 people."
• NPR: Bodycam footage shows Miami-Dade Police forcibly handling Dolphins star Tyreek Hill. "A traffic stop involving the Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill escalated rapidly on Sunday, as officers forcibly removed Hill from his car less than a minute after pulling him over and ultimately detained him in handcuffs for nearly 20 minutes, as footage released by the Miami-Dade Police Department shows."
• Associated Press: Tom Brady takes awkward first steps in transition to the TV booth. "Brady’s commentary was knowledgeable, as expected. But he also played it pretty straight, and there were a few hiccups."
• NPR: How Medicare fraud became Miami's vice. "In 2019, Philip Esformes went on trial for one of the biggest Medicare fraud cases in history. His longtime family rabbi said Philip Esformes was an upstanding citizen ... when he lived in Chicago."
From NPR News
• Politics: Trump and Harris will meet face-to-face for the first time on the debate stage
• Law: Ex-Memphis officers face trial in death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols
• World: U.S. urges Israel to swiftly investigate killing of American woman in West Bank
• National: With pedestrian fatalities mounting, regulators propose tougher vehicle design rules
• Sports: Team USA finished 3rd in the Paralympic medal count. Here are the highlights
• Business: Bank of America raises minimum hourly pay to $24, as tellers flee the industry
• Health: Whatever happened to ... the Brazilian besties creating an mRNA vaccine as a gift to the world
Kristin Moorehead curated today's edition of The Point.