About 100 people attended Gainesville’s second Freedom Fest June 17 at Bo Diddley Plaza. The festival was a part of the third annual “Journey to Juneteenth,” which is a month-long celebration of the federal holiday.
NKwanda Jah never obtained a degree or had Black female role models throughout the majority of her life. Yet today, she leads the non-profit organization Cultural Arts Coalition, which serves disadvantaged Gainesville residents' needs through summer employment, cultural enrichment programs and after-school programs.
Efforts to combat Gainesville Regional Utilities’ rising debt could come at the expense of homeowners as well as public service initiative funding, according to state decisions and the city’s 2024 fiscal year budget proposals.
In light of pressure from state lawmakers, the Gainesville City Commission heard proposals for drastic cuts for the 2024 fiscal year budget at a special meeting Wednesday.
For the 12th consecutive year, local families have an opportunity to change their future trajectory and access affordable mortgages, largely due to Santa Fe College and Alachua County Habitat for Humanity.
City Commission plans to bring a cultural arts center to East Gainesville as an effort to support at-risk youth and Black residents. The proposed center aims to provide arts and cultural programming, workforce development, skill cultivation and after-school activities resources, according to a January 2022 General Policy Committee meeting presentation.
Gainesville City Commissioner Casey Willits and Alachua County Commissioner Mary Alford represent Gainesville as the only two elected officials in the county who are openly a part of the LGBTQ community. The two commissioners have followed contrasting paths to their positions today — both professionally and personally.
A Gainesville man was arrested June 5 after an underage victim said she had sex with the man the night before, according to a Gainesville Police Department arrest report.
At the beginning of May, Target released its 2023 Pride collection in anticipation of Pride Month. Due to backlash, threats and protests of the different products included in the collection, Target decided to remove some of the collection items from displays and relocate displays to less trafficked areas of the store in select locations.
The panel highlighted laws restricting discussions of LGBTQ themes in K-12 classrooms, transgender healthcare, transgender individuals’ ability to use the restroom aligning with their gender identity, minors’ attendance at drag performances and the defunding of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Sheriffs are looking for two people who stole several firearms from Big Daddy Guns in Gainesville early Thursday morning.
After months of complaints and investigation, several Gainesville Police Department officers were found inappropriately searching gentlemans’ club performers, including grabbing their underwear while on their body.
A 2023 report by Gainesville Free Grocery Store, a mutual aid food pantry and garden, described East Gainesville neighborhoods abounding with poor-quality food as “food swamps." To combat this, a variety of local activists and organizations have launched efforts to feed food-insecure East Gainesville residents.
A Gainesville woman was arrested on suspicion of shooting her boyfriend in The Polos Apartments parking lot.
Nathaniel Chan, 24, is a gay, Chinese American dedicated to using city planning to serve the community he loves. While his determination got him a position with the city, his path there was not always clear.
Han Yi, who immigrated to the U.S. from China, feels betrayed by the state she’s called home for roughly 10 years due to a bill restricting Chinese citizens from purchasing real estate in Florida. Yi, the vice principal of the HuaGen Chinese School in Gainesville, is one among the many frustrated Asian American and Pacific Islander locals speaking out against three bills signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis aimed at limiting the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on the state.
While attending local farmers markets, Kate Yeung noticed the lack of representation of Asian American business owners among the vendors. The 23-year-old Gainesville resident left her 9-to-5 banker job to start her own business, Coterie Market, empowered by her family’s experience owning businesses in Hong Kong and Singapore.
A Gainesville man was taken into custody May 17 on charges of 11 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of distribution of child pornography.
A new bill signed into Florida law could allow Asian American students to see their efforts reflected on a statewide level with the introduction of AAPI history into the public school system.
A Gainesville man was arrested Saturday night on suspicion of his gun discharging and striking a victim in his apartment’s parking lot.
Solutions by The State News
