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• The NASCAR season opens this Sunday with the 62nd annual Daytona 500. The race is big business for the local economy. There’s an extra buzz around the speedway this year with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in attendance.
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• Today marks the second year since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Students at the University of Central Florida will hold a vigil to remember the 17 lives lost.
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• Nineteen cows are dead after a truck hauling 83 of them crashed and overturned on Interstate 75 in Sumter County Thursday morning. The driver, a Plant City man, was cited for careless driving. Florida Highway Patrol troopers say the driver fell asleep in the northbound lanes just south of the Florida Turnpike. The truck veered into the median and hit a guardrail. The driver was not hurt. But some of the cows got loose, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. I-75 was shut down in both directions for hours.
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• February 2nd marked one year since the suicide of Transportation Security Administration officer Robert Henry at Orlando International Airport. In the 12 months since Henry’s death, TSA has instituted changes to address those concerns, both across the agency and at MCO. But have those changes been enough?
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• More than a thousand students skipped school at Belleview Middle and Belleview High in Marion County Tuesday after a threat on social media. And a 14-year-old Belleview High student has been arrested, accused of threatening a school shooting on Snapchat. Detectives say he posted a message Monday saying, “Belleview Middle and High shooting tomorrow.” The student created a new account, posted the threat, then reported it to the Sheriff’s Office. Marion County sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Bloom says the teen did not have access to guns and his motive isn’t clear. But the consequences are — dozens of worried parents called the Sheriff’s Office. “It had a big ripple effect,” Bloom said. “At Belleview High School alone, there were 470 students …
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• When it comes to public hearings to ban simulated gambling houses, the Lake County Commission knows when to hold ’em. And when to put them off until April. Sheriff Peyton Grinnell is urging commissioners to outlaw the game rooms in unincorporated Lake County. He says it would reduce crime, citing numerous break-ins, thefts, robberies and drug offenses. But Jacksonville attorney Kelly Mathis, who represents a company that provides software for internet cafes, told the commission there are other ways to address safety, like using off-duty deputies. “We think there are a lot of better solutions to closing down 15-plus businesses, with landlords not receiving rent, with 50 employees losing their jobs, but even more so, the hundreds and hundreds of …
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• A new mission to study the sun launched this week from Cape Canaveral. For the first time, scientists will get a look at the poles of the sun, thanks to the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The mission is a joint venture between the European Space Agency and NASA and will join other spacecraft studying the sun like the Parker Solar Probe.
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