While You Were Sleeping: Thursday, Oct. 22

VR Systems, the Tallahassee company that hosts county Supervisor of Elections websites in Florida, took some public lookup tools offline at 10 a.m. Wednesday after the PHP Foundation flagged critical security vulnerabilities, Suncoast Searchlight reports. On Sarasota County's elections site, voters couldn't view sample ballots or find voting locations. The company said the tools would stay down until testing is finished and couldn't say whether that would take hours or days, and the Sarasota elections office is sending voters to its call center in the meantime.

Why it matters: VR Systems said the outage does not affect the ability to vote or the voter rolls, and the state's own voter registration lookup appeared to still be working.

Manatee County commissioners voted 3-3 Tuesday on an agenda item that would have advanced discussions about firing County Administrator Charlie Bishop, WWSB reports. Under commission rules, a tie kills the measure automatically, which halts the effort for now.

Why it matters: It's not clear whether the issue could come back once a new commission is seated after the upcoming elections.

The Sarasota City Commission voted 3-2 Monday to approve redeveloping the southern half of Midtown Plaza, off U.S. 41 between Bahia Vista and Prospect streets, reversing a Sept. 9 denial by the Planning Board, Your Observer reports. The plan replaces a long-vacant 45,869-square-foot grocery store with a 145-room hotel and a 91-unit apartment complex that includes 23 attainably priced units. Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich and Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch voted no, with sidewalk widths and a trash compactor location among the neighborhood concerns.

Why it matters: The site is near the growing Sarasota Memorial Hospital complex, and the owners said the apartment pricing is meant to give hospital staff, first responders and other service workers housing close by.

Expect sunshine today and Friday with highs in the upper 70s to around 80 and almost no chance of rain, WWSB reports. Saturday and Sunday bring northeast wind gusts as high as 30 to 35 mph at times, with choppy to very rough water, though it stays dry with highs in the low 80s. Moisture starts creeping back Monday.

Why it matters: Subtropical Storm Josephine is the season's 10th named storm, but neither it nor a second disturbance in the Atlantic is expected to affect Florida directly.