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1 week ago | 
yahoo.com | Alan Festo
The Alachua County School Board in a surprise move Tuesday voted 3-2 to end Rawlings Elementary School's participation in a year-round school state pilot program. Following a presentation to the board by Jim Kuhn, principal for K-12 school improvement, on attendance and academics at Rawlings, as well as the results of parent and staff surveys, board member Tina Certain made the motion to end the year-round school program. Board member Thomas Vu seconded the motion.
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1 week ago | 
golfweek.usatoday.com | Alan Festo
A proposed private golf course, Tomoka Hills, is planned for Alachua near the new Tower Hill Insurance headquarters. The course, intended for Tower Hill employees and guests, will span nearly 200 acres west of I-75. City staff recommends approval with conditions, including groundwater monitoring and a review process if public access is ever granted.
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1 week ago | 
yahoo.com | Alan Festo
Gainesville residents were battered early Friday evening with a mix of rain, hail and wind. "It's a lot of cold air aloft with pretty warm air at the surface and some drier air initially at the beginning and then moistening up at the surface really quickly, and that kind of sets the state for this type of situation," a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jacksonville said. A second line of storms with hail is expected around 8:30 p.m. Friday.
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1 week ago | 
usatoday.com | Alan Festo
• Plavac's listed address raises residency questions, as it falls within District 1, not District 5. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday appointed Janine Plavac, director of the Health Sciences Institute at St. Francis Catholic Academy in Gainesville, to fill the Alachua County School Board District 5 seat vacated in mid-December by Kay Abbitt. Abbitt, who was elected to the District 5 seat in 2022, resigned from the board on Dec.
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2 weeks ago | 
yahoo.com | Alan Festo
At least four people have applied to fill the Alachua County School Board District 5 seat vacated in mid-December by Kay Abbitt, including her husband, a former associate instructional professor at the University of Florida. Kay Abbitt, who was elected to the District 5 seat in 2022, resigned from the board on Dec. 17 to serve as interim director of Boulware Springs Charter School, the school she founded with her daughter, Megan Lane, in 2013.
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2 weeks ago | 
yahoo.com | Alan Festo
Two restaurants in Alachua County, one of which held its grand opening less than three months ago, have permanently closed. Wild Pie, a 100% plant-based pizzeria on the ground floor of The Hub on Campus Gainesville 3rd Ave, wrote in an April 3 Facebook post that the "difficult decision" to close had been made. "After exhausting all efforts, we've made the difficult decision to close our Gainesville location and bring Wild Pie to an official close.
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3 weeks ago | 
yahoo.com | Alan Festo
Gainesville residents whose daily commute takes them past National Vacuum on Northwest Sixth Street are accustomed to seeing the funny, quirky and sometimes political messages that have graced the business's marquee for decades. Those who have driven by this week have observed a somber but fitting tribute to the man behind those messages. "Rest in Peace Bob deRochemont / The Man Behind the Sign," reads the sign flanked by National Vacuum's two signature 1959 Cadillacs.
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4 weeks ago | 
yahoo.com | Alan Festo
(This story has been updated with additional information.)The Alachua County Sheriff's Office is warning those in the area of the Hills of Santa Fe neighborhood in northwest Gainesville to shelter in place and lock their doors while law enforcement searches for an armed suspect. According to an ACSO social media post, the suspect is described as a 14-year-old Black male, standing about 5-feet tall. He was last seen wearing a gray shirt and orange or red basketball shorts.
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1 month ago | 
yahoo.com | Alan Festo
The man convicted of killing a University of Florida student in a Walmart parking lot in September 2012 and then burying his body in a Levy County forest has died in prison while serving a life sentence. According to a news release from the Eighth Judicial Circuit, the death of Pedro Bravo, 31, at the Okeechobee Correctional Institution is currently under investigation by the inspector general of the Florida Department of Corrections.
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1 month ago | 
yahoo.com | Alan Festo
A 31-year-old Lake City man standing behind his disabled vehicle early Sunday morning was hit and killed by another vehicle in Columbia County, according to a report from the Florida Highway Patrol. Here's what we know:When did the crash take place? Sunday at about 5:20 a.m.Local news: Armed suspect taken into custody following standoff outside Gainesville WalmartWhere did the crash happen? State Road 100 near County Road 245A in Columbia County.
