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BUDDY DYER

Florida mayor urges water limits because of COVID-19 surge

The mayor of the Florida city of Orlando asked residents on Friday to stop watering their lawns and washing their cars for a least a week, saying water usage needed to be cut back because of the recent surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations. The Orlando Utility Commission treats the city's water with liquid oxygen and supplies that ordinarily go toward water treatment have been diverted to hospitals for patients suffering from the virus, Mayor Buddy Dyer said. “We acknowledge that the No. 1 priority for the liquid oxygen should be for hospitals," Dyer said at a news conference.

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Magic to open arena to voters, as NBA election push grows

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. The Orlando Magic announced Wednesday that their home arena will serve as an early voting site for the upcoming general election, continuing the rapidly growing movement from across the NBA to open buildings to voters in the coming weeks. Voting to me is the most American thing you can do for a democracy to work, said Magic center Mo Bamba, who will be working at the arena as a volunteer during early voting. I think the idea originated with the NBA and the players, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said. Multiple other teams, including Miami, are pushing local and county officials to allow their facilities be early voting sites starting next week as well. Top NBA players such as LeBron James have been promoting the need to vote this fall for some time.

Virtual learning sites sprout up to help working parents

These and other places are taking on a somewhat unlikely new role this fall welcoming children for supervised distance learning while their parents go to work. The sites provide a lifeline for families that struggled through virtual learning last spring, but organizers acknowledge they are a poor substitute for schools with professional educators. Its creating the same situation as we would for having the children in school, said Florida International University epidemiologist Dr. Aileen Marty. San Francisco is creating community learning hubs at 40 sites across the city to assist with distance learning for children who are poor, homeless, in foster care or learning English as a second language. In Kansas City, Missouri, the parks department is working with the Boys and Girls Club and the group Camp Fire Heartland to offer virtual learning to hundreds of students.

From police chief to VP? Inside Val Demings' unlikely path

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)ORLANDO, Fla. Val Demings has already been vice president. We created an environment of inclusion, Hartley said, recalling how she and Demings invited white students to join. In sixth grade, she was part of a group of black students bused to a predominantly white school 15 miles from home as part of desegregation. Being the first Blacks to integrate Loretta Elementary School wasnt always the best, most fun experience, Demings said. One lady called my district office and said, Well, why is she trying to dress like a white woman?" Demings said.

Virtual ceremony for 4th anniversary of nightclub massacre

A pre-taped, online ceremony was being held to remember the 49 people who were killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June 2016. The area around the club was closed to the public Friday, though survivors, family members of victims and first-responders were being allowed to visit. Ron DeSantis ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff Friday for Pulse Remembrance Day, and he asked Floridians to pause for a moment in the morning to remember the Pulse victims. At the time, the massacre at the Pulse nightclub was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history until a gunman opened fire on Las Vegas concertgoers in 2017. A memorial is being developed at the nightclub and a museum is being planned at a location several blocks away.