It’s Monday, August 17th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - The family of a young mother who went missing in South Florida last month confirmed that an arrest was made in connection to their daughter's disappearance.
Curtis Cavett, the father of 21-year-old Leila Cavett, said law enforcement had informed him that 38-year-old Shanon Ryan was arrested Saturday night. According to Curtis, he was told that Ryan was the last person seen with Cavett at a RaceTrac gas station the night of her disappearance. Ryan recently posted an hour long Facebook video where he claimed he was with Cavett and her 2-year-old son Kamdyn in a Hollywood RaceTrac gas station. But, he says she and her son left with other men.
No. 2 - Ahead of Tuesday’s primaries elections across the state, Florida voters have already exceeded the last presidential election year when it comes to voting by mail.
As of Friday, 1.9 million people had already voted by mail and more than 370,000 people had cast ballots at early voting sites. The vote by mail totals far exceed the 2016 primary, when fewer than 1.3 million people voted by mail, and ballots will continue to arrive at election offices through Tuesday. Nearly 2.4 million requested vote-by-mail ballots had not been returned. Tuesday’s primary will largely involve legislative and congressional seats and contests for local office.
No. 3 - Joe Biden is poised to unveil his vision for the modern Democratic Party in the first presidential nominating convention of the coronavirus era, an all-virtual affair that will test the former vice president’s ability to overcome unprecedented logistical challenges in an urgent mission to energize a winning coalition.
The party will make history by unveiling the nation’s first Black and South Asian American vice presidential nominee, Kamala Harris. The theme for this year's convention is "Uniting America," a message that is apparent in the diversity – racial and ethnic, gender and ideological – of each night’s headliners. NBC News will provide live coverage of the four day event starting Monday at 10 p.m.
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No. 4 - FIU said Sunday night that wide receivers coach Aubrey Hill, a standout player at Florida before becoming a longtime coach at Miami and other places, has died after a lengthy bout with cancer. He was 48.
Hill was entering his fourth season on FIU’s staff. He starred at Florida in coach Steve Spurrier’s “Fun ’N Gun” offense with 18 touchdown catches as a member of the Gators, where he served as a captain as a senior in 1994. He eventually took over as head coach at his alma mater, Miami Carol City High, leading that school to a state championship in 2016 before joining Davis’ staff at FIU.
No. 5 - Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced this wekeend a series of "emergency steps" taken to address the recent fish kill in Biscayne Bay.
The mayor's announcement followed a week that saw thousands of dead fish wash ashore from North Miami to Virginia Key. In a tweet, Suarez said one of the steps being taken included the deployment of emergency pumps in an attempt to aerate the water. The process of aeration increases, or maintains, oxygen levels in water. Scientists found that low oxygen levels and high water temperatures may have been what caused the deaths, although what triggered the event has still not been determined.
No. 6 - Weatherwise, rain chances will pick up by Monday afternoon in South Florida ahead of what looks to be a wetter work week across the area. Keep your NBC 6 app handy for push alerts on any severe weather as well as First Alert Doppler 6000.
