Florida’s largest K-12 scholarship funding organization put at risk assistance to more than 500 students with special needs ahead of the 2018-2019 school year because staff members made a “processing error” involving enrollment documentation, a Florida auditor general report found.

The audit, issued last week, said special-needs students who were eligible for awards under the Gardiner Scholarship Program saw a delay in funding due to the error by the organization Step Up for Students. The error affected 583 students before it was fixed.

This week, even as protests continue in Hong Kong, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, the chairman of the  Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) and a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, doubled down on his proposed “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.”

The protests, which started over a proposed extradition policy that could lead activists in Hong Kong to be deported to mainland China, have resulted in the shutdown of the Hong Kong airport. After months of protests, Hong Kong’s leadership announced on Wednesday it would not pursue the proposed policy. 

As dawn breaks Wednesday, the world is seeing what a tourist-dependent island nation looks like when a powerful hurricane smashes it to bits: mile upon mile of flooded neighborhoods, shredded homes and businesses, overturned boats and vehicles, and trees stripped of vegetation. 

Like Mexico Beach during Hurricane Michael, only Dorian had lashed the islands at major-hurricane strength for an unprecedented 36 hours.

A panel of state economists on Tuesday estimated it would cost $4 million to build a registry to carry out a proposed constitutional amendment that targets possession of assault weapons, if Floridians approve the measure in November 2020.

The ballot proposal, backed by the political committee Ban Assault Weapons NOW, would prohibit possession of assault weapons but would provide an exception for people who own the guns at the time the measure takes effect. Those people would be able to keep assault weapons if they register the guns with the state.