It’s Wednesday, June 3rd - and NBC 6 has the top stories you need to know for the day.
No. 1 - Demonstrators gathered in South Florida Tuesday as protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis continued.
A fourth day of peaceful protests started in Miami at the State Attorney’s office, with demonstrators calling once again for Katherine Fernandez-Rundle to be voted out of office. From Coral Springs to Sunrise, hundreds of protesters showed up to march in Broward County. For over five hours, demonstrators peacefully marched from the BB&T Center all across Sunrise, calling for justice for George Floyd.
No. 2 - The mother of a woman seen on video being shoved to the ground by a Fort Lauderdale Police officer during a weekend protest is defending her daughter and saying the suspended officer needs to lose his job.
In the video, the officer, identified as Steven Pohorence, is seen yelling and approaching protesters, ordering them to get back. The demonstrators then surround the officer and kneel with their hands up, before Pohorence shoves a kneeling woman to the ground. Mayor Dean Trantalis said the officer in the video was suspended, and a full investigation will be conducted.
No. 3 - Florida's largest association of educators called Tuesday for changing how schools operate in the era of the coronavirus — including staggering school schedules, suspending active-shooting drills and imposing social distancing rules on buses and campuses.
The discussions come amid preparations for the state's 2.9 million public schoolchildren to return this fall after being shut out of classrooms nearly three months ago by the pandemic. In a 17-page document released Tuesday, the Florida Education Association called on the Department of Education to suspend standardized tests for students and key performance evaluations for teachers and schools — proposals that are sure to garner skepticism among adherents of accountability metrics.
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No. 4 - For some people, it has been months since they first applied for benefits. Thierry Sleszynski, 72, says he applied back in March.
He says despite submitting the required paperwork needed to qualify for Federal Pandemic Unemployment Benefits, the online system is showing incorrect income information. When he tries to resubmit the paperwork online he says the system crashes. Click here to hear what else he had to say to NBC 6 consumer investigator Sasha Jones.
No. 5 - She knows that she can’t expect the fridge to be full, and that snack time isn’t want it used to be.
“What we most like are snacks, like all kids," a 10-year-old girl told NBC 6, with the raw innocence of a child but with the profound understanding of someone who is experiencing a tough time in life. The child is processing the food struggle brought on by the financial toll of the coronavirus pandemic. Click here for more on her story from NBC 6’s Stephanie Bertini as part of our weekly series Helping Hands.
No. 6 - Weatherwise, rain has moved into South Florida as showers and the occasional storm stick around starting Wednesday through the end of the week. Keep you NBC 6 app handy for push alerts on any severe weather as well as First Alert Doppler 6000.
