It’s Tuesday, February 8th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - A man who was shot and killed inside a Coral Gables Publix over the weekend had been purchasing lottery tickets before a dispute with another customer led to the shooting, police said.
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The Saturday night shooting left 50-year-old Franklyn Jose Pineyro dead and 51-year-old Osmel Lugo-Gutierrez facing a second-degree murder charge. According to an arrest report released Monday, Pineyro had been standing in the customer service area of the Publix at 106 Ponce De Leon Boulevard around 6:15 p.m. Saturday and was purchasing lottery tickets when Lugo-Gutierrez approached him from behind as a "notable line was forming." The entire incident was captured on the store's surveillance cameras, the report said. No other injuries were reported. Lugo-Gutierrez was booked into Miami-Dade's jail, where he remained held without bond Monday, records showed. His attorney did not return NBC 6's requests for comment.
No. 2 - A South Florida man is searching for answers to why police shot him in the back, paralyzing him, when he was the one who called police for help.
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It was at an apartment building in the 5200 block of Hollywood Boulevard where Michael Ortiz was shot eight months ago. The building has surveillance cameras, and the lawyers for the family told NBC 6 they’ve been trying to get the footage, but police are using the section of the Florida law that allows them to keep the images confidential while an investigation is underway. From his wheelchair on Monday, Ortiz described waking up from a coma weeks after he was shot by Hollywood police. Click here for what he said in a report from NBC 6 investigator Willard Shepard.
No. 3 - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hosted a roundtable discussion in Miami Monday to voice criticism against the Biden administration's immigration policies.
DeSantis was joined by Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, Attorney General Ashley Moody and others at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora. DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden's immigration policies. A bill championed by DeSantis that would prohibit all Florida government agencies from doing business with transportation companies that bring immigrants who are in the country illegally into the state received its first legislative approval last month. The bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party line vote, with Republicans supporting and Democrats opposed.
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No. 4 - Recent videos showing students fighting at a Coral Springs school have parents concerned about safety, but a new program being developed could help curb the violence.
Videos released in recent weeks showed fights involving students at Coral Glades High School, and Coral Springs Police have arrested students in some cases. But Police Chief Clyde Parry wants to start a pilot program to stop the fights before they start at Coral Glades and other local schools. The program, likely to be called "Safe-Keepers," would enlist parent and community volunteers to spend a few hours at school every week to mentor and uplift students. Click here for more in a report from NBC 6’s Marissa Bagg you’ll see Only on 6.
No. 5 - The “Great Resignation” impacts regions and industries differently. Hundreds of thousands of Floridians quit their jobs each month, according to newly released federal data.
When public health measures combating COVID-19 temporarily shut down businesses, the labor market was scrambled like never before. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows around 3% of Florida workers leave their jobs every month. South Florida as a region is impacted more than others because of the type of industries in the area. Many employers say they’re having a hard time hiring enough workers, particularly in South Florida’s service economy. There are more jobs available than workers wanting to work them, driving up wages and prices at times. Experts say companies should not expect a return to the way it was before the pandemic for some time. Click here for a report from NBC 6 investigator Phil Prazan.
No. 6 - The IRS is changing course after partnering with a third-party company that uses facial recognition to verify the identities of taxpayers logging onto their IRS accounts.
The agency previously announced that starting in summer 2022, if you needed to log in to the IRS’s website to access certain online tools, you would need to create an account with the third-party identity verification company ID.me. As a part of this verification process, taxpayers would be asked to upload a picture of their passport or license using a secure link. Next, the system would prompt the user to take a video selfie to verify the photos. But recent backlash and concern about the collection of sensitive biometric data have the IRS changing course. Click here for more in a report from NBC 6 consumer investigator Sasha Jones.
