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• WUFT News: Alachua County to hold emergency meeting Tuesday as potential Hurricane Helene approaches. "The Gainesville area could see tropical storm force winds as early as Wednesday night as Potential Tropical Cyclone 9 heads to Florida, according to the National Weather Service."

• WUFT News: State of emergency declared for Florida-PTC #9 impacts are expected in a matter of days. "Because there is a relatively short window before PTC 9 could impact Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 41 of Florida's 67 counties. Watches or warnings could be up for parts of Florida as soon as Tuesday."

• WUFT News: Alachua County commissioners to vote on additional funding for West End park project. "The Parks and Open Space department will recommend the commissioners to approve $500,000 of Tourist Development Tax reserves for capital improvements and to revise its 10-year master plan to make the site a community park, which would allow the use of $400,000 in impact fees."

• WUFT News: Police: Ocala man arrested after shooting woman, fleeing across UF campus. "The incident about 3:30 a.m. set off alarms in the middle of the night across UF's campus, with warnings sent by text, email and app to tens of thousands of students and professors. The alerts said at least two suspects, possibly armed, had fled the shooting."

• WFLA-Tampa: Hernando County schools to close ahead of anticipated storm. "All after-school activities, events, Boys & Girls Club and The Y will also be canceled, the school district said."

• Mainstreet Daily News: Hawthorne to host sustainability summit with four Alachua County mayors. "The mayors of Micanopy, High Springs and Archer will also participate as moderators for different panels that discuss heat, health, food, energy and water."

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Around the state

• WFSU-Tallahassee: A Florida agency says abortion is legal to save the mother's life. "Florida health regulators on Thursday sent an 'alert' telling physicians that abortion is permitted “at any stage in pregnancy” to protect the life and health of the mother and that 'failure to do so may constitute malpractice.'”

• Central Florida Public Media: U.S. plan doubles the acres designated as critical habitat for manatees in Florida. "The proposed revisions also include a new designation of 78,121 acres in Puerto Rico for the Antillean manatee."

• News Service of Florida: Judge will hear a Florida abortion amendment dispute. "The case stems from a controversial website and ads that the the state Agency for Health Care Administration has used to disseminate information about Amendment 4, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution."

• Miami Herald: IVF-like breeding helps corals conceive hardy babies for rebuilding reefs, study finds. "Millions of these nursery-grown coral have replenished natural reefs to date and they’ve been the primary method of restoration efforts in South Florida. But some also worry that these clones do not add the genetic diversity that could result in the more heat-resistant coral that’s necessary to continue protecting our coasts."

• NYT FL ($): New State Laws Are Fueling a Surge in Book Bans. "About 8,000 of those bans came just from Florida and Iowa, where newly implemented state laws led to large numbers of books being removed from the shelves while they were assessed."

From NPR News

• Culture: The 'alpaca' haircut teenage boys and young men are obsessed with — explained

• Politics: Trump says he wouldn't run for president again in 2028 if he loses this time

• Business: Motel 6 is sold to an Indian hotel company for $525 million

• Race: Pennsylvania college investigates swim team after racial slur is carved on student

• Law: Crime in the U.S. fell in 2023, FBI data show

• National: Southwest is changing how it boards planes, but don’t expect it to be faster

• Law: California sues ExxonMobil for misleading the public on plastic recycling

• National Security: How neo-Nazi groups reacted to Trump’s false claims about Haitians in Springfield

Aileyahu Shanes curated today's edition of The Point.