It’s Thursday, March 3rd - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - A Lyft driver was arrested after authorities said he raped an intoxicated Miami Beach tourist in his car.
Kevyn Rojas, 28, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of sexual battery of a helpless victim, an arrest report said. Rojas appeared in court Wednesday where a Miami-Dade judge set his bond at $500,000. He was represented by a public defender. According to the arrest report, the tourist was visiting from Texas and staying at a hotel on Collins Avenue but had gone to a bar in Wynwood with a friend. After drinking at the bar, the woman started to feel sick and ordered a Lyft to take her back to the hotel. Rojas arrived and the victim got in the back seat of his car and fell asleep. She said she woke up at one point and saw her hotel, but Rojas drove away and kept driving around, the report said. He eventually parked the car and got in the back seat with the woman, where he sexually battered her, the report said.
No. 2 - A visibly annoyed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis admonished a group of students for wearing face masks at an indoor news conference Wednesday, saying it was time to stop what he called “this COVID theater."
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DeSantis, a fierce opponent of virus mask and vaccine mandates, approached the students and asked them to remove their masks as they awaited the Republican governor at the news conference at the University of South Florida in Tampa. “You do not have to wear those masks. I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve got to stop with this COVID theater. So if you wanna wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous," he said, letting out an audible sigh and shaking his head. DeSantis is running for reelection and is considered to be a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate. His opposition to masks and vaccines has drawn national attention, and his administration has banned mask mandates in schools.
No. 3 - Russian forces laid siege to two strategic Ukrainian seaports Wednesday and pressed their bombardment of the country's second-biggest city, while the huge armored column threatening Kyiv appeared stalled outside the capital.
After seven days of Russian assault, the United Nations refugee agency announced that 1 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion, the swiftest exodus of refugees this century. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to keep up the resistance. He vowed that the invaders would have “not one quiet moment” and described Russian soldiers as “confused children who have been used.”
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No. 4 - Irena Bessmertnaya, a Ukrainian woman from Kherson, opened up to NBC 6 Wednesday about Russia’s invasion into her hometown.
Russian state media claims Kherson has fallen under its control. “All of my family is there. My mom texted me that there were gunshots right next to her windows. Bullets flying into the people’s windows. It’s very bad,” she said. Bessmertnaya also shared videos with NBC 6 sent to her from loved ones in Kherson. The videos show an airstrike, a priest praying in downtown Kherson, and a smoldering Russian tank. While U.S. and Ukrainian military officials deny that Kherson has fallen to Russia, Bessmertnaya says her city is suffering. Click here for more in a report from NBC 6’s Ryan Nelson.
No. 5 - Miami-Dade commissioners on Tuesday unanimously passed new rules requiring all condo and homeowner associations to publicly file financial statements and structural reports.
"It's mixed emotion. This new law unless it has a higher authority to implement it, it will be toothless," said Carlos Delgado, homeowner at Lakes of the Meadow. By February 2023, all homeowner and condominium associations in the county must upload financial statements and disclose special assessments to make them available to the public, however, NBC 6 found the county won’t review the documents. "This is the beginning of a mult-faceted approach to try to reign in these condo associations," said Commissioner Rene Garcia. Garcia proposed the new rule and says accountability and transparency are key in this first phase, but it won't stop here. Click here for more in a report from NBC 6’s Laura Rodriguez.
No. 6 - Reckoning America’s past could mean uncovering what’s beneath the places we drive past or visit daily.
“As you delved deeper into the stories of what happened, with these cemeteries and these gravesites, sometimes it was far more intentional, far more egregious. Some of these were intentionally stolen, they were desecrated, they were built on top of,” State Rep. Fentrice Driskell said. Driskell is pushing for the protection and preservation of these sites. But to protect Black burial grounds, you have to locate them first. A Miami-Dade Public School parking lot, City of Miami park, and fire station currently sit in this community three blocks off of NW 46th Street. Click here for more in our series Hidden History: South Florida’s Black Burial Ground from NBC 6 investigator Sasha Jones.
