Evans Road remains closed due to contractor error.
A portion of Evans Road in Melbourne is shut down again after recently reopening. WFIT’s Terri Wright tells us why:
A recent inspection of the finished drainage project at Evans Road and Hibiscus Boulevard found that temporary fixes failed, forcing another closure as crews address cracks in the precast slabs. The contractor is now redoing the work, impacting an estimated 20,000 vehicles that pass through the intersection daily. The closure is expected to last until early November.
Rocket rumble coming Wednesday and Thursday.
SpaceX’s launch of three orbiting observatories for NASA and NOAA has slipped to Wednesday morning. A space telescope will study Earth’s halo. An orbiter will document the sun’s activity. And a solar telescope will monitor space weather. The Falcon 9 is slated to liftoff at 7:30AM Wednesday.
Then two rocket launches are possible for Thursday. SpaceX may send more Starlink satellites to orbit during a four hour launch window that opens at 4:36AM. And ULA will launch another batch of Amazon’s Kuiper satellites at 8:09AM Thursday.
Bear hunt attracts 100,000 hunters.
It remains unclear whether legal challenges will halt Florida’s bear hunt, but one thing is certain: there’s a lot of interest from hunters. December’s culling of Florida’s bear population has drawn more than 100,000 applications from hunters for just 172 permits. Supporters say the hunt is needed to manage the black bear population, while critics warn it threatens an already vulnerable species.
Minimum wage to increase September 30th.
The minimum wage in Florida is $13 an hour for non-tipped employees. But that will increase on September 30th by a dollar. Minimum wage will keep going up until it reaches $15 an hour in 2026. Also on September 30th, the minimum wage for tipped employees will increase to $10.98. The federal minimum wage is still $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 2009.
Car thefts drop in Florida.
Vehicle thefts across the Sunshine State dropped by a whopping 30% in the first half of 2025. That puts Florida at No. 6 among the top 10 states with the biggest year-over-year declines in auto theft. It’s a sign that the post-pandemic spike in car thefts is finally reversing. But if you own a Hyundai Elantra or Sonata, you’re more likely to get your car stolen. Those two models were the most commonly stolen vehicle in Florida.
New leader for Educated We Stand.
The group organized to counter Moms for Liberty, Educated We Stand, has a new leader. Karla Hernández-Mats, ex-president of the country’s third-largest teachers’ union and a former Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. She takes over for Jennifer Jenkins of Brevard County, who‘s running as a Democrat to unseat U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody. Hernández-Mats says she believes public schools are the cornerstone of democracy.
Private astronaut goes public.
NASA named 10 astronaut candidates for its new class of astronauts, including one person who has already been to space. Anna Menon was a SpaceX engineer from Houston. She flew on one of Jared Isaacman’s private flights from KSC last year. Menon is now one of the six women and four men announced to join the NASA astronaut corps.
Florida creates snitch line for political violence.
Less than two weeks after political activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced yesterday his office has launched an online portal where people can report anyone making threats of political violence. People can report videos, images or text messages that they feel reference “violent extremism.” The president of the United Faculty of Florida, a union that represents faculty at state universities, said the political violence portal could be the latest effort to intimidate professors and other faculty.
