1) Boca Raton police shoot 'suspicious' man with knife near shopping center
A "suspicious" man with a knife is in critical condition at the hospital after an officer-involved shooting at a shopping plaza in Boca Raton Thursday night, police said.
The incident happened around 9:15 p.m. near the Barnes & Noble bookstore at the University Commons shopping center, located at 1400 West Glades Road, which is just east of Interstate 95.
According to officials, the man had a knife and was acting erratically in front of the store, located at the far left side of the shopping center, which also includes Whole Foods, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Nordstrom Rack.
Police said no officers were injured and the knife was recovered.
2) Surfside recovery operation underway as death toll reaches 64
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Thursday evening that four additional bodies have been found in the rubble of a collapsed Surfside condominium building, bringing the death toll to 64. The mayor said 76 people are potentially missing and 200 are accounted for.
The search for survivors shifted to a recovery effort on Thursday after authorities said they had come to the agonizing conclusion that there was "no chance of finding life" in the debris pile.
3) Smokers know serious health risks, yet continue to light up, study finds
A new study in the American Heart Association Journal showed a majority of smokers know the serious health risks, yet continue to light up.
The study looked at the same group of smokers for five years.
A little more than 2,600 people took part in the study, and 95% of them knew that smoking could cause a heart attack or cardiovascular disease. And out of that, 30% continued to smoke despite the odds against them
4) Tropical Storm Elsa hits the Northeast
Tropical Storm Elsa is carving a destructive path up the East Coast after killing at least one person in Florida and spinning up a tornado in Georgia that flipped recreational vehicles, tossing one of them into a lake.
One person was killed in Jacksonville, Florida, when a tree fell on a car. Elsa gained strength Thursday afternoon across North Carolina.
The system was expected to move near or over the northeastern U.S. on Friday.
Tropical storm warnings extended up the coast from North Carolina to Massachusetts amid warnings Elsa could cause considerable flash flooding in the Northeast.
5) Zaila Avant-garde wins this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee
Zaila Avant-garde is this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.
The 8th grader from Louisiana spelled the word murraya correctly to win on Thursday night.
According to the Associated Press, Avant-garde, 14, is a basketball prodigy who holds three Guinness World Records for dribbling multiple balls simultaneously.
When it came down to the final three, they were all girls: Avant-garde, Chaitra Thummala, and Bhavana Madini.
Avant-garde is the first homeschooler to win the coveted prize since 2000.
