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WUFT Special Report: The Last Straw
As North Florida’s timber industry faces new challenges, some landowners turn to pine straw. Are the human and environmental costs worth it? In part two, 'Baling pine straw for pennies,' crews disproportionately made of young, Mexican men bale pine straw by hand. They're not always fairly compensated.
The stories near you
• WUFT News: Teacher facing felony grooming charge in Ocala over texts with student. "Police in Ocala arrested a high school teacher after detectives who were investigating a student who brought a gun to school uncovered an 18-month relationship between the student and his teacher."
• WUFT News: Gainesville exhibit chronicles Oct. 7 Hamas attack aftermath. "To commemorate those affected, UF Hillel opened an art exhibit from Feb. 18 until Feb. 20, displaying works by 25 artists. Each one capturing their experiences during and after the Hamas attack."
• WUFT News: Late-night house fire leaves homeowner dead in Citrus County. "Firefighters found the home nearly completely burning. The fire caused the home’s roof to collapse. They stayed on the scene until about 3:30 a.m. to make sure the fire didn’t spread to nearby homes."
• WUFT News: Photo gallery: Alachua County students face off in spelling bee. "Cooper Campen, a 13-year-old who's homeschooled, won the Alachua County Public Schools District Spelling Bee for the second year in a row at Idylwild Elementary School."
• Mainstreet Daily News: Alachua County Animal Services searches for women who dumped dog. "Julie Johnson, director of animal services, said staff saw it happen and ran out to get the dog. But the dog ran after the car, zigzagging across NW 53rd Avenue, and nearly caused a collision."
• Mainstreet Daily News: Collision with school bus kills 2 in Levy County. "The pickup then crossed over the northbound lanes through the intersection and entered the southbound lanes, directly into the school bus’s path of travel. The school bus crashed with the pickup’s right side in a T-bone-type collision."
• WCJB: Gators, bats, and other animals adapt to urbanization by dwelling in Gainesville’s sewers. "A newly published study revealed thousands of animals in Gainesville using the sewer system as a home and as a mode of transportation to combat urban environments. More than 3600 different animals were captured on camera, with 35 different species being represented."
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Around the state
• Fresh Take Florida: Florida appeals court backs DeSantis in legal battle over records of migrant flights. "The three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeals sided with the governor in a legal fight over the records with the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a Sarasota, Florida,-based nonprofit watchdog group. The decision means the group can’t recover its attorney’s fees in the two-year legal fight, which it expected the state to pay."
• WUSF-Tampa: EPA faces lawsuit after allowing Mosaic to build Polk test road with phosphate waste byproducts. "Center for Biological Diversity, an environmentalist group, claims the use of phosphogypsum in the road would increase levels of radon gas, posing a cancer risk to workers and residents."
• WGCU-Fort Myers: Fort Myers woman impersonated her mother in $300,000 VA fraud scheme, gets federal prison term. "U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber's sentence of one year and one day in federal prison for Laurie Ann Roszelle includes an order of forfeiture in the amount of $338,364.66, the proceeds of the fraud. Roszelle pleaded guilty on December 5, 2024."
• WUSF-Tampa: Most Florida students' reading and math skills are still below grade level. "Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, students are still recovering when it comes to learning reading and math. A new report that combines scores from The Nation's Report Cardwith state test results tells us how each district is doing and how they can recover."
• WLRN-Miami: Black chefs want to diversify palates at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. "Overtown’s Red Rooster celebrates Miami’s Black heritage and the cuisine that developed alongside it. For Samuelsson, highlighting other chefs in the community is what makes it special."
• WFSU-Tallahassee: Senate President Albritton unveils Florida "Rural Renaissance” package. "It is focused on creating 'opportunities for rural communities to expand education offerings, increase health care services, and modernize commerce' according to a release announcing the bill's filing."
• WLRN-Miami: 'Haiti On The Line': WLRN call-in show will feature community voices, experts. Have your say. "To better understand the story, public radio stations in the three cities with the largest Haitian populations in America are teaming up to open the phones and hear from Haitian listeners."
From NPR News
• Politics: DOGE released data about federal contract savings. It doesn't add up
• Politics: The USDA fired staffers working on bird flu. Now it's trying to reverse course
• Agriculture: Black farmers among those left in limbo amid federal funding freeze
• National: Military doctors prepare to deploy to Guantánamo for extended stay
• National: A gold-framed Trump mug shot is hanging just outside of the Oval Office
• Animals: Hurricane, the hero Belgian Malinois who protected the Obama White House from intruder, has died
• Books: First known cookbook by a Black American woman gets new edition 160 years later
Kristin Moorehead curated today's edition of The Point.