News

Just because you can’t drive down for the 31st annual Key West Literary Seminar, doesn’t mean you can’t take part.

WLRN is teaming up with the KWLS folks to bring the conversations online.

The elections supervisor in the state capital says the Legislature will have to make changes to avoid what happened during the last election.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have filed bills in Tallahassee to increase the number of early voting hours.

Proposals by the Democrats call for a return to 14 days of early voting.

All this week we've been bringing you the story of Fabienne Jean, a dancer who lost her right leg three years ago in the earthquake in Haiti.

Fabienne’s right leg was crushed and had to be amputated. When she danced again, she was hailed as a symbol of Haiti’s post-earthquake recovery.

But as reporter Jacob Kushner discovered during the year he spent reporting on this story, the quest to rebuild one woman’s life would take much more than that.

It's been three years since an earthquake leveled Port au Prince and shook all of us indirectly in South Florida, home to the nation's largest population of Haitian-Americans.

Miami Herald reporter Jacqueline Charles remembers January 12, 2010, well.

That day, Charles was in the process of writing a story about Haiti's latest mess, a controversy over the government taking a loan from Venezuela to help the country rebuild an airport.

The big Everglades python hunt starts Saturday and, so far, 670 people have signed up for the fun and a chance at cash prizes.

Among them is our intrepid U. S. Senator, Bill Nelson. He and a companion -- described in the Tampa Bay Times as a "rancher from Davie" -- will strap on pistols and machetes on Thursday  to go after the huge Burmese pythons that Nelson has  worried so much about, occasionally to the amusement of his Senate colleagues.

This Sunday, Nigerian Afro-beat artist Femi Kuti will be performing in Miami. Femi is known for using music to protest against the Nigerian government -- a legacy he inherited from his father, the legendary Afro-beat pioneer Fela Kuti.

An appeals court says a South Florida union leader can have a gun at work, even without a concealed-weapons permit.

This case revolves around whether a union is considered a “place of business.”

State law allows people to have guns at work even if they don’t have a permit.

But Torrence Little was arrested anyway.

In June of 2011, someone reported a man with a gun in a union hall parking lot in Ft. Lauderdale.

Little had a gun in his waistband under his shirt. Police took him into custody on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon.

Most of the victims of the Newtown school massacre were just like Florida Atlantic University professor James Tracy's daughter: seven-year-old first graders at a public school.

"If a similar tragedy were visited upon me and my family, I would be beside myself," he says. "But I think one of my ways of healing would be attempting to find out what went wrong, where was the failure."

But trying to start a public discussion of the public's small hope of ever finding out what went wrong has been costly. 

Flu season has begun with a bang and more than half the states, including Florida, have been classified "high" activity areas by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control.

It's worse than usual, doctors say.

The Miami Herald says five percent of Florida emergency room and clinic visits are by patients with flu symptoms. Two Florida children have died and the last time the state saw such widespread flu was in 2009.

With another legislative fight brewing, the Florida Medical Association is signaling that it could play a large role this year in a debate about limiting the amount of money doctors can charge for dispensing drugs to workers' compensation insurance patients.

The announcement that a Miami-raised son of Cuban immigrants has been chosen as the inaugural poet for President Obama's swearing-in ceremony is causing a stir throughout South Florida.  And nowhere more than in our region's literary community.

In 1993, a young civil engineer named Richard Blanco wanted to try his hand at writing poetry.  So he took a class at Florida International University, led by English Professor Campbell McGrath.

Sen. Eleanor Sobel (D-Hollywood) has filed a "domestic partnership" bill for the March session of the Florida Legislature. It would allow same-sex couples to establish recognized relationships that provide at least some marital benefits.

One opponent of the bill said it would not get far in the Republican-dominated Legislature.

Ailing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez won't be able to attend his scheduled swearing-in this week. But his congressional allies have voted to allow the ceremony to be delayed while he recovers from his cancer surgery in Cuba. 

It's estimated that more than 100,000  Venezuelans now live in South Florida legally and many more are undocumented residents who left their homeland to flee Chavez’s leftist regime.

Tallahassee may be hundreds of miles away, but WLRN and The Miami Herald will bring it to you. 

All this week we've been bringing you the story of Fabienne Jean, a dancer who lost her leg in the earthquake in Haiti three years ago. A prosthetic technician from Boston helped Fabienne get a replacement leg.

He hoped to help her recover in other ways too: to start  a business, buy a house and open up a dance studio. 

But none of these things came to pass. Late spring, Fabienne was struggling to find money to take care of her bedridden mother and adopted daughter. 

In the national media today, James Tracy is the nutty professor. The whacko professor. The one-man argument for abolishing tenure.

About 150 talented, young artists from across the country are in Miami this week to hone their skills through classes and performances.

They were chosen from a pool of 10,000 applicants to take part in the 32nd annual YoungArts Week. Twenty of the participants are from Florida.

In 1961, Robert Frost became the first poet to read at a U.S. inauguration when he recited "The Gift Outright" at President John F. Kennedy's swearing in. Since then, only three other poets have taken part in subsequent inaugural ceremonies: Maya Angelou, Miller Williams and Elizabeth Alexander. Now, there's a fifth.

Another relief bill is being offered by a Miami-Dade legislator for Florida residents who have been denied in-state college tuition rates because of their parents' immigration status.

Republican State Sen. Anitere Flores' bill (SB 180, filed Monday) is similar to a measure (HB 17) that Miami State Rep. Carlos Trujillo filed early in December.

When Gov. Rick Scott recently listed ways he thinks Florida could reduce voting difficulties and long polling lines, he drew the most attention for a change of course in suggesting that more early voting might help.

But another idea Scott raised may have more far-reaching implications for public policy in Florida, and might even be more difficult to accomplish than the politically volatile suggestion about early voting.

For artburstmiami.com

When you walk into artist Pablo Cano’s Red Velvet Theater in Little Havana, you are greeted by the most elegant of ladies — Marie Antoinette herself. The larger-than-life marionette welcomes you with her tightly corseted waist, lifted bosom and fine European lips.

Breeding numbers were down for some bird species for the third straight year in a row in the Everglades.

Nesting numbers for wading birds fell by 38 percent compared to the past decade. That's according to an annual survey compiled by the South Florida Water Management District.

Florida is missing a cheap and easy bet for improving the dental health of its children, according to a new survey.

The Pew Children's Dental Campaign gives the state a "D," mostly because it does little to make sure kids have access to decay-fighting tooth sealant programs in public schools.

The Florida Lottery is getting an image makeover to coincide with its 25th anniversary.

An audience of Bright Futures scholarship winners applauded as the new logo was unveiled at Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee.

Lottery leaders showcased the new logo, which prominently features a pink flamingo.

Florida Lottery Secretary Cynthia O’Connell says the redesigned brand should help lure new players.

California-based StudentsFirst has released a report card grading states on their education policy.

Florida earned the second-highest grade in the country, a B-, behind only Louisiana. No state earned an A.

Still undecided about whether to repair or permanently shut down an idled nuclear-power plant, Progress Energy Florida faces the likelihood of eventually refunding up to $100 million to customers.

The refunds stem from a wide-ranging settlement agreement that Progress reached in early 2012 with representatives of consumers and business groups. Under that settlement, the utility would not have been subject to refunding money if it started repairs on the Crystal River nuclear plant by Dec. 31.

Advocates for working folk haven’t had a lot of luck establishing a right to paid sick leave in Florida.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Barbara Jordan's proposal was defeated last year and, in Orlando, Orange County commissioners found a way to avoid a sick time referendum, even though 50,000 residents had won a ballot spot, fair and square, with their signatures on a petition.