In this episode:

- Eight local football teams are headed to the playoffs, led by Venice in the state's new Open Division.

- Two district cross country titles in three days, and a time for the record books.

- Saint Stephen's wins its quarterfinal and hosts a semifinal next Friday.

- This morning: the 28th annual Manatee County Stand Down for veterans, at the fairgrounds in Palmetto.

- Tonight: Friendsgiving, a benefit for homeless animals at Mixon Fruit Farms in Bradenton.

- The Bucs get two key players back before Sunday night in Chicago.

- A Florida State discovery that could speed up the search for new medicines.

- The first new drug in a decade for advanced head and neck cancer.

- An AI-designed melanoma vaccine, with three-year results that are holding up.

- A nonsurgical option for precancerous cervical lesions shows promise in a large trial.

- A tiny DNA switch that helps hold back the most common form of breast cancer.

- Five pangolins, rescued from traffickers, are home again in a Nigerian national park.

- A new Hubble image of a thirteen-billion-year-old star cluster.