It's Tuesday, August 10th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - A condominium in Miami is being evacuated Monday after officials deemed it an unsafe structure.
An evacuation noticed was posted at the entrance of the building at 5050 NW 7th Street. Hundreds of residents from 137 units had only hours to leave, according to a city official. Miami’s building director says several columns needed serious repairs. The building association began the repairs without first getting permits from the city, he said, and because of that, the work they did was not good enough. NBC 6 reported on the building’s standing violations back in July. City officials told NBC 6 then that they opened an unsafe structure violation for the building in May based on photos of the damage.
No. 2 - For the first time, a local government outside of Miami-Dade County has taken direct action sparked by the Champlain Towers calamity.
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Broward County Mayor Steve Geller formed a panel called the Condominium Structural Issues Committee with a singular goal: "To ensure that the tragedy in Surfside doesn’t occur again,” Geller said. The committee includes two state senators, two state representatives, elected officials from local cities, and experts like structural engineer Dan Livrich, who said this panel is not trying to figure out what caused Champlain Towers to fall - that’s not their mission. Click here for more on their goals in a story from NBC 6 reporter Ari Odzer.
No. 3 - Florida public school officials could face financial consequences including withholding of salary if they implement mask mandates, a spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday.
The news comes as the superintendent of the school district in the capital of Florida said Monday that he's decided to require masks amid an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations fueled by the delta variant — despite attempts by DeSantis to deter schools from enforcing such a mandate. Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna said in a livestreamed announcement that children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade will be required to wear masks when classes resume in Tallahassee on Wednesday. Broward County School Board members are holding an emergency meeting Tuesday, expecting to decide whether to join the list of counties requiring masks.
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No. 4 - Gov. Ron DeSantis' efforts to block schools and cruise lines from doing what they think is needed to protect children and passengers from getting COVID continued to get pushback Monday.
A federal judge Sunday blocked enforcement of a law he championed that she found would jeopardize public health by forcing cruise lines to take on unvaccinated passengers. In addition to banning public schools mandating masks, DeSantis and his allies and blocked private businesses from demanding customers to prove vaccination and local governments from implementing and enforcing COVID restrictions on the public. But DeSantis’ plans are getting pushback from some. Click here for that story from NBC 6 investigator Tony Pipitone.
No. 5 - A South Florida man convicted of killing his best friend in a middle school bathroom in 2004 and who died in prison earlier this year had a heart condition and died of natural causes, according to an autopsy released Monday.
Michael Hernandez, who was 14 years old at the time of the murder, was 31 years old when he died behind bars in May. According to the autopsy, Hernandez was morbidly obese at 5-foot-10 and 285 pounds and had cardiac dysrhythmia. Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison after he killed 14-year-old Jaime Gough at Southwood Middle School. Hernandez stabbed Gough more than 40 times at the Palmetto Bay school before hiding his knife in his backpack and going to class.
No. 6 - The next tropical storm of the 2021 hurricane season could be named as early as Tuesday.
The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center has Potential Tropical Cyclone Six with winds of 35 miles per hour as it’s currently 270 miles to the east-southeast of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The NHC said the unorganized group of showers and storms could become a Tropical Storm as early as Tuesday morning, when it would be named Fred. Between two and six inches of rain could fall across the Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico before reaching the Dominican Republic. Forecasts say the system could skirt over the northern coast of Cuba before a possible move around the west coast of Florida. All of South Florida was in the system's potential cone of concern Tuesday morning.
