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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said the state will need help covering costs associated with the coronavirus outbreak, expressing confidence that the federal government will help pick up the tab for increased Medicaid outlays. And the state might have to borrow to deliver a $400 weekly benefit to unemployed workers that President Donald Trump mandated in an Aug. 8 executive order, he said. (Sarkissian and Fineout, 8/11)

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday joined President Donald Trump and other GOP members of Congress in an effort persuade athletic conferences to salvage the upcoming college football season despite the Covid-19 outbreak. The Republican governor, an avid sports fan and former Yale baseball captain, held a briefing at Florida State University’s practice facility to send the message that Florida is carrying on with Division I football. An abbreviated season would better than nothing, DeSantis said, leaving open the possibility of restructuring schedules for teams willing to compete with Florida schools. (Atterbury, 8/11)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is lobbying for players whose seasons have been postponed because of the novel coronavirus pandemic to join schools in his state that are on course to play in the fall. DeSantis issued those remarks Tuesday during a college athletics roundtable at Florida State University in Tallahassee, before the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences announced they would be scrapping fall sports with the hope of salvaging the 2020-21 football season by delaying it until the new year. (Bieler and Wang, 8/11)

One month after reopening amid the mounting coronavirus pandemic, which surpassed 5 million U.S. cases over the weekend, Walt Disney World is modifying its hours of operation in a new schedule taking effect on Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day. Disney’s already limited hours will reduce by one to two hours per day, depending on the park. The change comes days after Disney reported unexpectedly low park attendance and “adversely impacted” earnings due to restrictions aimed at preventing the virus’s spread. (McMahon, 8/10)

The last time Miriam Castro saw her son Herman, he was in the hospital. A mask covered his tear-stricken face as he sobbed over a FaceTime call. “He kept saying: ‘I love you, Ma, I love you, Ma. Take care of yourselves. This is no game,’” Mrs. Castro recalled. “He cried and cried.” Herman J. Castro, a 32-year-old manager of a McDonald’s in Central Florida, died two days later. (Robles, Gebeloff, Ivory and de Freytas-Tamura, 8/11)

Adria and Ayman Arafat are finally heading home to Florida after being stranded for months in the Gaza Strip by coronavirus-related restrictions but fear they will now face a much greater health risk. Gaza has seen only 81 cases of COVID-19 and just one death so far, partly a result of blockades imposed on the Palestinian territory by neighbouring Egypt and Israel, while Florida’s infection rates are among the highest in the United States. (al-Mughrabi, 8/11)