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The DayStarter: USF watches a key vote by state education leaders, the 2016–17 Lightning schedule and an Instagram challenge

 
Amber Keen,23, pulls on her husband Michael Keen's hair while their 6-year-old son Mathew Keen takes on the surf in their rainbow raft off of Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach. [JULIA KUMARI DRAPKIN | Times]


Amber Keen,23, pulls on her husband Michael Keen's hair while their 6-year-old son Mathew Keen takes on the surf in their rainbow raft off of Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach. [JULIA KUMARI DRAPKIN | Times]
Published June 21, 2016

Another mostly sunny day with a high of 90 and a minimal chance of rain. In other words, it's officially summer.

• A key vote today by a committee of the Florida Board of Governors could set the University of South Florida on course to receive more money and prestige. The board, meeting in Orlando, will consider USF's plan to become an "emerging preeminent" research university, with the goal of joining the University of Florida and Florida State University as "preeminent" schools by 2020. To make it to the next level, USF needs to increase its endowment and improve on its freshman retention and graduation rates.

[10Weather WTSP forecast | Tap to enlarge]

• The financial world will be focused on the Senate Banking Committee, as Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is due to give a semiannual report on the U.S. economy. The Fed suggested in a statement after its latest policy meeting that it needs a clearer economic picture before resuming interest rate hikes it began in December.

• President Barack Obama meets wounded service members being treated at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The president makes the trip a few times each year to the largest military hospital in the country.

• Instagrammers, we want your photos! Our photo team is starting a new weekly photo challenge on Instagram. Each week we'll give you an assignment and you will post your best image inspired by the theme to your Instagram account. You must include the hashtag #TBTimesGram. We'll feature your photos on tampabay.com and on our All Eyes blog. This week's assignment: First days of summer.

• The Lightning will announce its 2016–17 schedule this afternoon. Watch tampabay.com/lightning for the update.

• Here are the top things to do today around Tampa Bay, including a competition for Go Skateboarding Day and prix fixe meals at top restaurants for Tampa Bay Restaurant Week.

• Even in its first few weeks, On Swann seems suavely assured. It's hip but not trendy, and with small plates and shareables, it's the kind of restaurant that doesn't feel like a splurge despite the upscale setting. Here's the full restaurant review from our critic Laura Reiley.

• Here are some tips for making sourdough at home from local bread experts.

• Freefall's The Light in the Piazza is worth seeing twice — just ask our critic Andrew Meacham. Based on a book by Craig Lucas, with music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, the story centers on a mother and daughter vacationing in Florence in the early 1950s. Here's the full review.