The Point

The Point, June 18, 2025: RTS bus route cuts leave Gainesville riders stranded

WUFT | By WUFT News

Published June 18, 2025 at 8:00 AM EDT

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The stories near you

Lilly Hunter shuffles through her wallet to take out her RTS bus pass provided by GRACE Marketplace. (Priscilla Osorio/WUFT News)

• WUFT News: RTS bus route cuts leave Gainesville riders scrambling for alternatives "Community members say UF funding decision hurts more than just students as service reductions take effect June 30."

• WUFT News: Florida Panthers fans watch the Stanley Cup final at The Swamp Restaurant in Gainesville. "Over 100 people showed up at The Swamp Restaurant to watch the game, including Gainesville local Walter Alaman, who has been a Panthers fan for about 20 years."

• Main Street Daily News: Gainesville will need another $3 million to reopen Thelma Boltin Center "With final estimates in hand, the city of Gainesville may face a worst-case scenario for renovating the Thelma Boltin Center, the city’s longest-running Wild Spaces Public Places (WSPP) project."

• WCJB: Commissioners ask Florida lawmakers for help covering weather radar gap in Marion County "The issue gained attention in April 2021 when a tornado ripped through the Ocala area along State Road 40, causing significant damage. An official tornado warning wasn’t issued because meteorologists couldn’t see rotation in the radar data due to the coverage gap in Marion County."

• Main Street Daily News: Hawthorne swears in Martin, re-elects Randall, Bouie-Hutchinson "All three officials were incumbents as Martin, who first joined the commission in 2022, clinched Seat 2 by 36 votes over opponent Mary Clawson during an election this month."

• WCJB: Alachua County, Gainesville leaders to research alternative venues for Hoggetowne Medieval Faire in 2027 "In a joint meeting Tuesday afternoon, commissioners voted to have staff research alternative venues for the 2027 event, including the Gainesville Raceway."

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Around the state

FILE - Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks during a meeting between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state cabinet at the Florida capitol in Tallahassee, Fla., March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

• Associated Press: Judge finds Florida attorney general in contempt over immigration law. "Uthmeier had sent out a memo saying the judge was legally wrong and that he couldn’t prevent police officers and deputies from enforcing the law. A contempt hearing was held two weeks ago in Miami."

• WUFT News: Florida manatee deaths on the rise, boat strikes a leading cause "Boaters urged to stay vigilant as collisions, not propellers, drive fatalities."

• WUSF-Tampa: Funding is slashed for the Florida Forever land preservation program "But more money has been allocated in this year's state budget for a program that pays farmers and ranchers in the Florida Wildlife Corridor not to develop their land."

• News Service of Florida: 'We deserve to be protected': Florida lawmakers' addresses could be shielded "The issue of lawmaker safety has drawn national attention after a gunman murdered former Minnesota Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband early Saturday at their home and shot Democratic Sen. John Hoffman and his wife at their home"

• Florida Trident: Floods are worsening but engineers worry national rainfall database won’t be updated "A cadre of engineers and planners who design America’s roads, bridges, hospitals and other critical infrastructure fear that an emerging tool that would replace the nation’s out-of-date rainfall and flood data is on the Trump Administration chopping block."

• WLRN-Miami: 'Alligator Alcatraz': Florida Attorney General proposes immigrant detention center in Everglades "If approved, Uthmeier told Fox Business, it would become the state’s largest immigration detention facility and help ease the pressure on local jails and federal facilities used to hold immigrants accused of being illegally in the country."