The Point

The Point, June 12, 2025: GRU Authority meets amid rising political, legal pressure

WUFT | By WUFT News

Published June 12, 2025 at 8:00 AM EDT

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Donald Shepherd speaks passionately in support of the GRU Authority during public comment, defending the board’s leadership and urging continued resistance to political opposition. (Screenshot from meeting on June 11, 2025).

• WUFT News: GRU Authority faces divided future amid legal and political pressures. "The Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority met Wednesday night with the five-member board, utility staff and residents to conduct business and confront questions about the authority’s role, legitimacy and future. The evening featured contract votes, legal maneuvers and pointed exchanges with the public."

• News Service of Florida: State leaders approve $118 million north Florida land deals for conservation. "The conservation easement on the larger property, 61,389 acres in Baker and Union counties, will cost $93.617 million. The land, which is used for tree farming and recreation, is owned by Weyerhaeuser Forest Holdings."

• WUFT News: Bradford County to get new pedestrian trails. "The segments are part of the Florida National Scenic Trail which spans over 1,500 miles throughout Florida. The project is being funded by the Florida Department of Transportation."

• Citrus County Chronicle: Independence sidewalk project tops MPO priority list. "Despite the MPO prioritization, securing funding remains a challenge. The MPO receives its funding primarily through federal and state transportation dollars, along with local matching funds in some cases."

• WCJB: ‘We needed to cut $64 million’: Marion County Interim Superintendent addresses budget cuts. "'The budget challenges that we have right now will impact everyone. We are incredibly sensitive to those that will be impacted by a possible layoff,' said Interim Superintendent, Danielle Brewer."

• WCJB: Live Oak family pleads for answers after loved one deported back to Mexico; ‘I want to be stronger for her’. "The Isidro family says Maria Isidro, a wife and mother, was detained by ICE last week. On Wednesday night, her daughters got the call that she was no longer being held at a detention center in Texas, but had been taken back to Mexico."

• Mainstreet Daily News: Archer city commission approves $193,000 for unpaid invoices. "The invoices cover multiple projects, including work that was done to secure Federal Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) permitting for a wastewater project Archer partnered with the city of Newberry on."

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Around the state

A Silver Airways turboprop is seen on the tarmac at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

• Associated Press: Silver Airways says it's shutting down operations. "Regional carrier Silver Airways announced Wednesday it is shutting down operations after a failed attempt at restructuring through bankruptcy, leaving some passengers stranded at airports in Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean."

• NPR: Live in a hurricane-prone area? Here's how to prepare your home for flooding. "Researchers at NASA say the number of people living in flood-prone areas globally has increased by up to 24% since 2000 — that's 10 times greater than previous models predicted and is a direct result of climate-fueled storms."

• WUSF-Tampa: Florida drops to 35th in child well-being in Kids Count survey as education ranking plummets. "Norín Dollard, director of Kids Count and a senior analyst for the Florida Policy Institute, said the rankings are relative, but they do reveal areas that can be improved."

• Central Florida Public Media: Gov. Ron DeSantis signs bills targeting sexual offenders and AI deepfakes. "The final bill DeSantis signed was House Bill 1161. Dubbed “Brooke’s Law,” it will require platforms that primarily host user-made content to have a process that lets people report nonconsensual altered images of themselves. Altered images include deepfakes and other AI generated depictions of people."

• Jacksonville Today: Undocumented immigrants shouldn’t benefit from city grants, Jax Council votes. "The ordinance also requires the mayor’s office to show that state and federal dollars received by the city are not going toward diversity, equity and inclusion programs."

• Miami Herald: The unseen flooding risk in South Florida: Rising water beneath our feet. "Broward County has just completed a ground-breaking study combining what hydrologists and engineers call “compound flooding” — the triple whammy of rain, rising tides and swelling groundwater levels."

• WUSF-Tampa: Freshwater flows from North Florida rivers may have intensified Hurricane Idalia. "Hurricane Idalia was one of the most destructive storms of 2023. It underwent rapid intensification in one day -- which may have been influenced by warmer fresh water rushing into the Gulf from North Florida rivers. That's according to a new study led by researchers at USF's College of Marine Science."

• WGCU-Fort Myers: Florida highway safety office issued alert over scam texts. "The scam claims the recipient has an unpaid traffic ticket and threatens to suspend their driver license and vehicle registration if payment is not made immediately through a fraudulent link."

• WLRN-Miami: Hockey hotbed: How the Florida Panthers helped South Florida love the NHL. "The Florida Panthers are taking on the Edmonton Oilers, in their third straight Stanley Cup final. Almost as impressive as the team’s success is the growing fanbase in the National Hockey League’s southernmost outpost. Carlton Gillespie looks at how Broward got hooked on hockey."