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The stories near you

• WUFT News: High Springs restaurant donates “piggy bags” after major food loss from Hurricane Helene. "Without a generator, the pizza dough, meats, cheeses, vegetables and desserts, were no longer safe to eat or sell to humans. Instead of throwing it away, Potter took to Facebook to invite farmers and pig owners to pick up bags of food to give to their animals for whom the food would still be safe to eat."

• Mainstreet Daily News: School board clashes over projected low fund balance. "The School Board of Alachua County had its first budget workshop since approving its final budget last month, addressing a drop in the general fund balance, below what is acceptable under board policy."

• Central Florida Public Media: More than 430,000 Milton survivors already registered for FEMA aid. "As of Sunday, FEMA had received about 437,000 registrations for individual assistance for that storm and approved $11.7 million dollars in aid."

• WUFT News: New Margaritaville license plate honors Jimmy Buffett. "As of Oct. 1, Floridians can purchase a “Margaritaville” license plate for an additional $25 a year on top of their regular registration fees. The Florida Legislature passed the bill permitting Buffet’s honorary plate during the 2024 legislative session. House Bill 403 authorizes the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to create the specialty license plate."

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Around the state

• News Service of Florida: Hundreds of gas stations are still shuttered despite state generator law. "Florida law requires most stations to be able to run on generators, while requiring gas-station chains to have at least one portable generator for every 10 fuel outlets they own in a county."

• WUSF-Tampa: EPA gives tentative approval to a plan to build test road project using a phosphate waste product. "Federal environmental regulators have given preliminary approval to a plan to use a slightly radioactive byproduct of phosphate mining in roadway construction. But there is a lot of opposition to the plan."

• Politico: Florida universities are culling hundreds of general education courses. "Florida’s public universities are purging the list of general education courses they will offer next year to fall in line with a state law pushed for by Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting “woke ideologies” in higher education."

• WFTS-Tampa: Mold remediation services in high demand after two hurricanes. "One of the biggest concerns people are now dealing with is the possibility of mold in their homes."

• Associated Press: NASA spacecraft rockets toward Jupiter's moon Europa in search of the right conditions for life. "Scientists are almost certain a deep, global ocean exists beneath Europa’s icy crust. And where there is water, there could be life, making the moon one of the most promising places out there to hunt for it. Europa Clipper won’t look for life; it has no life detectors. Instead, the spacecraft will zero in on the ingredients necessary to sustain life, searching for organic compounds and other clues as it peers beneath the ice for suitable conditions."

From NPR News

• National: Petroleum drilling technology is now making carbon-free power

• Politics: Lilly Ledbetter, the activist who inspired Fair Pay Act, dies at 86

• National: A USDA program may be killing wild animals that they're not supposed to, records show

• Politics: As fears about election security grow, military veterans are filling as poll workers

• Science: Neighborhoods in Boulder aim to harvest fruit trees before bears have a go at it

• Science: It's Short Wave's 5th birthday! Here are science questions 5-year-olds asked us

Krista Jensen curated today's edition of The Point.