Emery Gainey, a Republican veteran of sheriff’s duties across Florida, will ascend into the role of Alachua County Sheriff Monday following his appointment to the position by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Residents suspect dogfighting is what’s causing this surge in mysterious pitbull and mixed breed deaths around the city of Archer.
Nash Cooper doesn’t want his $10,000 donation to be about him. Instead, the 59-year old veteran hopes his contribution to Helping Hands Clinic raises awareness about suicide prevention, especially for youth and those who, like him, have experienced homelessness. Cooper made the donation to the volunteer-based clinic, which delivers health care to the poor and homeless in Gainesville, in honor of former volunteer Eric “Thomas” Anderson.
Robert Godwin, 70, was arrested Thursday morning after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a “CyberTip” from Microsoft Wednesday, according to a Gainesville Police Department arrest affidavit.
The Gainesville man who was mauled by a Gainesville Police Department K-9 in July 2022 while fleeing a traffic stop changed his not guilty plea Tuesday and was sentenced to a year in prison.
Alachua County holds 606 short-term rental units. In The Magnolia Plantation owner Cindy Montalto’s words, “You can’t swing a dead cat in Gainesville without hitting an Airbnb.” Short-term rental (STR) units are residential spaces usually rented for under 30 days at a time and managed through online platforms like Airbnb. The industry is growing in Gainesville. AirDNA, a STR data analysis platform, ranked Gainesville among the top 15 best U.S. cities to invest in vacation rentals in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
A Gainesville mother was arrested after her child had 69 unexcused school absences and nine tardies during the 2021-2022 school year. Forty-two of the absences occurred from August to April of 2021, according to a truancy affidavit from Alachua County Public Schools.
Terwilliger is Alachua County’s first and only public school to offer dual language immersion as a magnet program, with that language being Spanish. The program is in its second year, with its first class of students starting first grade.
Parker Siegel, 19, was charged with sexual assault of a person between the ages of 12 and 18. The woman was 17, according to court records. Siegel previously pleaded not guilty.
Marty Jourard, a musician raised in Gainesville, lived in the city during some definitive times. Between the Civil Rights Movement, Brown v. The Board of Education and the Vietnam War, Gainesville was not necessarily a peaceful place in the 1960s and 1970s. It was a place of civil unrest — protests, beatings and riots, but not entirely because of the hippies.
Since 2011, 19 licensed abortion clinics have closed in Florida. Three were in the year following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Increased clinic closures in Florida echo a national trend.
A school administrator emailed the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office about a bomb threat made at Buchholz High School, according to an ACSO press release. ACSO was then made aware of another bomb threat at Kanapaha Middle School.
Substance use is common at EDM events, which are popular among college students. While universities across Florida have established Narcan distribution programs to provide students with free and easy access to the vital drug safety resource, UF has not.
The City Commission voted 4-3 Thursday to reinstate the open-container alcohol ordinance, which prohibits public consumption of alcoholic beverages. In addition to the first ordinance, which will bring back open container restrictions prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City Commission voted 6-1 to create an entertainment district for downtown Gainesville.
James Link, Alachua County stormwater engineer, gave a stormwater update to the Alachua County Commission Tuesday afternoon on the effects of pump installations and future stormwater management projects. It’s been almost two years since the last stormwater update of this kind, Link said.
A Trenton man stole an excavator and crashed it into several different properties, including the Walmart on Southwest 42nd Street, according to a police report. Nobody was injured.
Michelle Castronover wasn’t keen on owning chickens. But when her husband and daughter asked to build a coop as a “COVID project,” the 49-year-old Shell Elementary teacher agreed. Three years later, the Castronovers own 10 chickens — the maximum allowed to residents by Gainesville’s Fowl, Chickens or Livestock Code — and share their eggs with the neighborhood through the “fresh eggs” box standing on the edge of their front lawn, which they restock regularly with six- and nine-egg-sized boxes. The coop is just one of the family’s backyard sustainability projects, along with a greenhouse and butterfly garden.
Teachers across Alachua County Public Schools and throughout the country spend from hundreds to thousands of dollars each year buying school supplies, class decorations, cleaning supplies and snacks for their students — most of which can’t be purchased using district-allocated supply funds. Among the ACPS teachers who talked to The Alligator, the average amount spent out-of-pocket was between $1,460 and $2,500, with the lowest estimate being $100 and the highest being $10,000.
A few weeks into the Fall semester, countless UF students are getting sick with various viruses, including the common cold and the latest COVID-19 strain, resulting in an outbreak of what has been dubbed as the 'Gainesville Plague.'
Only a 10-minute drive from UF lies one of Gainesville’s hidden gems: the historic bed-and-breakfast district. With a rich history and eclectic aesthetics, these inns have provided a unique travel experience to Gainesville visitors for 32 years. Ghosts, hippies, Tom Petty and some members of his first band, Mudcrutch, have inhabited these inns long before they became temporary homes to travelers passing through.
Solutions by The State News
