It’s Thursday, August 4th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - It was early Monday morning on Davie Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale when a pregnant woman walking her dog was suddenly attacked.
“I haven’t really left the house, and the dog certainly hasn’t either. She’s got tubes coming out of her neck and drains," Danielle Lowell said. Lowell described the nearly life-threatening injuries her dog Messi got after being attacked by another dog. Fortunately, the 4-year-old Jack Russell's heart wasn't punctured. But her neck, scars, and wounds will take some time to heal. Lowell is 32 weeks pregnant and said it was a regular walk with Messi on their usual route when a pit bull suddenly lunged at them. Lowell says the pitbull’s owner was nearby. Click here for more on this story in a report from NBC 6’s Jamie Guirola.
No. 2 - The jurors in the Parkland school shooting sentencing will be touring the building where the tragedy occurred on Thursday.
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Judge Elizabeth Scherer told jurors Wednesday that they will be taken by bus Thursday morning to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where they'll tour the 1200 building that was the site of the Feb. 14, 2018 shooting that left 17 dead and 17 others wounded. The jurors will be guided floor-by floor by bailiffs and must adhere to strict rules that include not touching any items. Shortly after the shooting, the building was fenced off and sealed — the dried blood, Valentine's Day gifts and bullet holes still in place. Gunman Nikolas Cruz, now 23, pleaded guilty to the murders in October. Jurors are deciding whether he'll be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in prison.
No. 3 - As monkeypox cases rise in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he won't be declaring a state of emergency over the disease.
"Do not listen to their nonsense ... I'm so sick of politicians, and we saw this with COVID, trying to sew fear into the population," he said in a news conference near Orlando on Wednesday. Currently, there are more than 500 cases in Florida, which is more than double from last week. South Florida has a bulk of new cases — 384 between Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties. DeSantis compared monkeypox public education campaigns to the likes of COVID. Right now, monkeypox is spreading fast among men who have sex with men. But there are concerns that as school is set to start, transmission could dramatically increase among other populations.
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No. 4 - The U.S. Coast Guard in South Florida is asking family members to discourage their relatives from Cuba and elsewhere from making dangerous and illegal voyages by sea to the country.
The trek for a better life in the U.S. is nothing new but with Cuban migration numbers on the rise, the Coast Guard wants migrants to weigh the risks. "People are getting hurt, people are dying. It is safest if they try to come to the U.S. and migrate legally," said Petty Officer Nicole Groll with the Coast Guard's 7th District in Miami. Since Oct. 1, 2021, Coast Guard crews have interdicted nearly 3,800 Cubans, the most since 2016. U.S. Border Patrol officials said Wednesday that a group of 25 Cuban migrants arrived in Key West on a "rustic vessel."
No. 5 - The images on the Broward County Principal and Assistants Twitter page show what it looked like at the end of July when the principals gathered at the Ritz Carlton in Naples. The professional association they belong to said they did more than 11 hours of required professional training in those seminars.
But the head of the Broward Teachers Union questioned Wednesday why the association was asking for the school board to reimburse a large share of the expenses. Ana Fusco said she respects the principals and works well with them, but believed many of the other images on social media show more fun than work. Fusco says traditionally the school board had reimbursed the association for the seminars and that the principals have requested the same thing this time. Click here for more in a report from NBC 6 investigator Willard Shepard.
No. 6 - The first day of school is just around the corner, and school-based professionals are getting ready.
Not just teachers and administrators, but hundreds of mental health counselors, social workers, and nurses gathered at Ronald Reagan Senior High School in Doral for The Children’s Trust annual training conference, an exercise designed to get the attendees up to speed in time for the first school bell to ring. In one of the workshops, mental health professionals were discussing a variety of issues, including the imperative that all staff on campus, not just counselors, learn how to spot the warning signs that a student might be in crisis. That training process has already begun, according to Sally Alayon, who heads the mental health services department of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Click here for more in a report from NBC 6’s Ari Odzer.
