It’s Wednesday, June 23rd - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - Hours after the body of a young girl was discovered floating in a canal in Lauderhill, investigators found the body of another girl in the same canal Tuesday night.
Lauderhill Police received a 911 call about the second body in the 2200 block of NW 59th Way at around 8:45 p.m. Officers did not have a description or identification. The first discovery was made in a canal in the 5900 block of Northwest 21st Street. Officials said officers responded around 12 p.m., shortly after receiving a 911 call about the body. Police said the girl was between the ages of 10 and 13 and was wearing short jean shorts with a gray shirt reading "Dance" in rainbow colors. Officials said they don't know how long she had been in the water.
No. 2 - Nearly a month after three men opened fire on a crowd of people outside a banquet hall in northwest Miami-Dade, the 911 calls documenting the chaos have been released.
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The 911 recordings released Tuesday were made in the moments after the May 30 shooting outside El Mula Banquet Hall that left three people dead and 20 others wounded. "I’ve been shot and I feel myself dying," a victim says in one of the calls. As the injured lay on the ground, some had trouble giving dispatchers the address, while others drove themselves to local hospitals and knew little of the scene they'd left behind.
No. 3 - The order is in. A South Florida judge has ruled the Clevelander on South Beach will be able to sell alcohol until 5 a.m.
The iconic hotel sued after the City of Miami Beach voted to roll back last call until 2 a.m. The move, according to the mayor, would help crack down on what he has called disorder and crime. “This little part of our city has become a magnet for disorder and crime, in part, because of the sort of entertainment-only atmosphere, party atmosphere. So the way we think to diminish that is to roll back liquor hours,” said Mayor Dan Gelber. The city of Miami Beach has already filed its appeal, so the battle will continue at the appellate court level. However, for now, the Clevelander can continue selling alcohol until 5 a.m.
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No. 4 - If you are applying for unemployment benefits for the first time, or if you get locked out of Florida’s online unemployment portal, you are asked to verify your identity using a third-party site called ID.me.
But some viewers told NBC 6 Responds their accounts remained locked, even after completing the identity verification process. “Sent everything in and I was like great, it comes up as like, proof of success,” Ronald Resnick told NBC 6. Resnick said it’s been more than a month since he applied for unemployment benefits. After verifying his identity using the ID.me site, he said his account appeared locked in the CONNECT portal.
No. 5 - Walt Disney World is planning an 18-month celebration in honor of its 50th anniversary.
All four parks at the Lake Buena Vista, Florida, resort will take part in “The World's Most Magical Celebration," beginning Oct. 1, Disney announced Tuesday. On Oct. 1, 1971, the resort opened to guests, culminating years spent planning and developing Walt Disney's “magical dream," officials said in a statement announcing the celebration. Since then, the vacation destination has expanded from Magic Kingdom, to include EPCOT, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The resort also includes multiple themed hotels, water parks and Disney Springs, a shopping and restaurant venue.
No. 6 - Royal Caribbean's "Freedom of the Seas" returned to PortMiami Tuesday morning after embarking on a “simulated” cruise Sunday night with hundreds of fully-vaccinated employees serving as volunteer guests.
The cruise returned with around 650 employees that made part of the test run. In accordance with CDC guidelines and requirements, the purpose of the simulation was to observe the cruise line's multilayered health and safety measures, more than a year after COVID-19 brought the U.S. cruise industry to a halt. The “Freedom of the Seas" is scheduled to set sail on a paid cruise July 2nd.
