The Point

The Point, Jan. 14, 2025: DeSantis calls special session

WUFT | By WUFT News

Published January 14, 2025 at 8:00 AM EST

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Today's Florida stories

• News Service of Florida: DeSantis calls special session to address immigration, hurricane recovery and other issues. "Saying the issue can’t wait for the regular legislative session in March, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday he’s calling lawmakers into a special session this month to mesh Florida’s immigration policies with a crackdown planned by President-elect Donald Trump."

Mickey Disgdiertt, 75, cares for around 30 feral cats every day in his Gainesville neighborhood. This one is named Tinker. (Kimberly Blum/WUFT News)

• WUFT News: ‘They give me purpose’: Gainesville man explains why he feeds feral cats. "Mickey Disgdiertt awakes at 4 a.m. each day with the same mission: Feeding feral cats near his house not far from Hogtown Creek Headwaters Nature Park in Gainesville. Three hours later, he gets on his bicycle to feed other cats elsewhere in his neighborhood."

• WCJB: Archer city commissioners receive audit report, overspent previous budget by $311k. "The city spent $311,257 more than budgeted in their general fund. Perla says based off his findings, they meet the conditions to declare a financial emergency."

• WUSF-Tampa: Fewer Florida children are receiving routine vaccinations. "High vaccination rates can help prevent the spread of severe illnesses like measles and polio. But pediatricians say they're encountering more parents hesitant to get their kids immunized."

• WUSF-Tampa: What you need to know about Florida's classroom cellphone bans and a new social media law. "If you have kids in public school, your district might be one of several in Florida that banned cell phones in classrooms. Florida was the first in the nation to institute such bans. And now a new law requires social media platforms to ban kids in Florida who are younger than 14."

• Central Florida Public Media: DeSantis says more than 500,000 Florida students are on school vouchers. "Speaking at a Christian school in Gainesville Friday, Governor Ron DeSantis said Florida students now account for about ⅓ of all students throughout the country who are enrolled in school choice programs."

• Miami Herald ($): How Anita Bryant’s Miami anti-gay campaign pioneered today’s parental rights movement. "Nearly half a century after Anita Bryant made Miami the crucible in the fight for gay rights, she has died of cancer in Edmond, Oklahoma, at age 84."

• WGCU-Fort Myers: Water Quality Report: Red tide and blue-green algae at the same time; what happens if they touch? "Has a red tide bloom ever drifted into blue-green algae outbreak? What would happen if they touch? Would the water fizz like a Mento dropped into a soda? Would there be some sort of explosion? Or would one act like oil and the other like water and they'd repel each other as they glide by?"

• MediaLab@FAU: The sentences after sentencing: South Florida’s incarcerated students share their stories. "With the collaboration of Florida Atlantic University (FAU) students and English Professor Wendy Hinshaw, the program’s latest achievement is Don’t Shake the Spoon: A Journal of Prison Writing, which offers a moving collection of work that sheds light on the lived experiences of incarcerated individuals."