Two construction workers die after 'serious weather-related incident' involving crane
Officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are continuing their investigation of a crane collapse at a hospital construction site on Merritt Island that killed two people working on the project.
The accident occurred on the afternoon of June 4 on the site where Health First is building a new Cape Canaveral Hospital, off State Road 520.
In a statement, Health First called it "a serious weather-related incident."
According to the National Weather Service, the crane collapse likely occurred when the leading edge of a storm moved offshore leading to peak wind gusts of 45 to 55 mph.
The construction site "is secure, and work is currently suspended."
The new $410 million Cape Canaveral Hospital and Medical Office Building is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, and open to the public in early 2027. The new 268,000-square-foot hospital will replace the existing Cape Canaveral Hospital in Cocoa Beach
Parents fight dismissal of lawsuit on Florida’s book ban policies
Three public school parents in Florida are appealing a federal judge's dismissal of their discrimination lawsuit earlier this year, in which they argued the state violated their First Amendment rights by not allowing them to challenge school board decisions to remove books.
The case involves a law approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023 that allows parents to use a state review process to object to when school boards decide not to remove or restrict a book.
They're represented by advocacy groups Democracy Forward, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and the Southern Poverty Law Center. A request for comment is pending with a State Board of Education spokesperson.
Florida is known nationally for its laws on removing and restricting books in school districts. The Florida Department of Education released a list of about 700 books "removed or discontinued" from public schools from the 2023-2024 school year.
Judge won’t halt new restrictions on ballot initiatives.
Florida's strict new law on ballot initiatives will remain in effect for now. Rick Glasby tells us why:
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker on Wednesday said he will not block many of the new restrictions. Groups seeking to get amendments on the 2026 Florida ballot filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law. They had asked Walker for a preliminary injunction while the legal case proceeds. Walker said restrictions will remain in place.
Wildlife Corridor Foundation gets $1 million gift from Disney
Disney World has given one million dollars to a foundation that wants to preserve a wildlife corridor through the center of Florida. It will help complete what is planned as an interconnected network of natural habitat across nearly 18 million acres of the state
The gift will be used to help close bottlenecks between preserved areas in the wildlife corridor, which can be among the most difficult parcels of land to acquire.
Zak Gezon is with Disney Conservation. He's also a board member with the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation and spoke at the Corridor Connect Summit, held at Disney World.
There's a wonderful effort to protect areas and you end up with a series of biological islands, and that's just not as valuable because there's no gene flow among them and wildlife isn't able to migrate through it. So what we need to do is connect all of those dots.
He says the grant will also be used to create trailheads to get people into nature, so they can take advantage of the wildlife corridor.
More: www.floridatoday.com
