It’s Monday, August 9th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - Florida has broken COVID-19 case records three days in one week, marking a new period in the fight against the coronavirus.
"Let’s get this pandemic under control before we start acting like nothing is going on," CDC Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on NBC’s Meet The Press, making another push for unvaccinated people to get vaccinated. According to Nomi Health, while testing volumes in Miami-Dade County continue to grow by up to 10 percent at most sites, the volume of vaccinations remains relatively flat. There are currently seven sites in Broward specifically for testing and 28 testing sites in Miami Dade and the County is looking to add more as cases keep shooting up. For more on the story, click here for a report from NBC 6’s Laura Rodriguez.
No. 2 - A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction, which paves the way for the Norwegian Cruise Lines to require documentation confirming a guest’s vaccination status prior to boarding.
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This order will now allow the company to operate with 100% vaccination of all guests and crew when sailing from Florida ports. Norwegian's first scheduled departure from Florida is Aug. 15, 2021 on Norwegian Gem. The ship will depart from Miami. Norwegian contends the “vaccine passport” ban, signed into law in May by Gov. Ron DeSantis, jeopardizes the health and safety of passengers and crew and is an unconstitutional infringement on the First Amendment's free speech guarantee, among other things.
No. 3 - Ready to party at one of South Beach's most glamorous nightclubs? Then roll up your sleeves because these shots won't get you buzzed.
LIV is offering free COVID-19 vaccines outside the Miami club where high rollers spend up to $20,000 just for a table. The start-studded nightclub, where Super Bowl champs celebrate at parties so legendary they've inspired lyrics from Drake and Kanye West, set up pop-up COVID vaccine sites over the weekend at LIV and club Story to entice the young demographic that is rapidly filling up Florida hospitals as the delta variant rapidly spreads across Florida.
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No. 4 - The owner of a martial arts studio in Pembroke Pines is behind bars after a student found hidden cameras inside the bathroom, police say.
Pembroke PInes Police said the owner may have had the cameras up and recording inside the bathroom since March. Master Franco’s Taekwondo Academy is just a few blocks from the police department in Pembroke Pines. 64 year-old Robert Franco is now charged with video voyeurism and tampering with physical evidence. Police said a 17 year-old female student noticed two hidden camera’s inside the martial art’s studio bathroom. According to police, the student snapped a picture and then confronted Franco, who destroyed the cameras right after.
No. 5 - Team USA secured the most total Olympic medals won in Tokyo, with 113 overall -- 25 more than second-place China after 15 days of competition.
On the last day of the competition, Team USA took the lead in total number of gold medals, too, by winning the 39th overall gold thanks to the women's volleyball team. Li Quan of China had a chance to ie the U.S. in a gold-medal boxing match, but lost to Laurent Price of Great Britain and settled for silver. The last time American athletes left the Summer Games without a claim on most gold medals won was at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
No. 6 - Bobby Bowden, who led the Florida State Seminoles football program for over three decades and turned the team from one of the worst in college football to a national power, has died at the age of 91.
Bowden died Sunday just after 5 a.m. at his home in Tallahassee, where he remained after retiring following the 2009 season - his 34th campaign leading the garnet and gold. On July 21st, Bowden announced he has been diagnosed with a "terminal medical condition." One of Bowden's sons, Terry, revealed the next day his father had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Bowden quickly became one of the top coaches in college football history during a 14-season run from 1987 to 2000, where the ‘Noles never finish ranked lower than fifth nationally. Over that span, FSU won two national championships along with 11 bowl games (including three Orange Bowls) and nine straight ACC titles.
