Florida leaders are expressing themselves, although not always clearly, after the elementary school massacre in Newtown last week.
Some Florida Democrats, including Tampa U. S. Rep. Kathy Castor, are calling for new restrictions on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.
Congressman Rich Nugent, a Republican and former sheriff from Brooksville, says more gun control would be far less useful than identifying and treating mental illness.
Credit Sagette Van Embden / Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Wendy Pedroso did well in math classes -- until her first algebra course. Twice as many students at Florida colleges took a remedial math course than took a remedial writing or reading course.
Wendy Pedroso has never liked math, but for most of elementary school and middle school she got B’s in the subject. It wasn’t until ninth grade at Miami Southwest Senior High School, when Pedroso took algebra, that she hit a wall. In particular, she struggled with understanding fractions.
“I kept getting stuck in the same place,” Pedroso, 20, recalled recently. She failed the class, and worried that she’d never get to go to college. Pedroso sought help from tutors, took algebra again over the summer and passed. She went on to graduate from high school in 2011.
Governor Rick Scott is talking about the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut last week that took the lives of twenty children and six adults at an elementary school.
Scott told the Herald/Times Tallahassee bureau his job includes taking care of 19 million people in the state, and he wants to keep them safe.
"You stop and say, 'Why do these things happen? What is the logical thing to do?' But I think right now the biggest thing is to be caring about all these families."
Scott is caring about these families because of his own personal reasons.
As state and federal lawmakers roll out and implement the health care reform law over the next few years, millions of people living in the U.S. who didn't have health insurance will gain insurance. However, in a state like Florida, thousands of people won't be included in those changes-- and that is because they are undocumented.
TheLocust Projectsexhibition space in Miami's Design District is a showcase for experimental, contemporary art, and this week, it's featuring an installation byTheaster Gatescalled Soul Manufacturing Corporation. The piece asks us to consider the value of things made by hand.
Bal Harbour Police Chief Thomas Hunker remains suspended with pay today in connection with his department's far-ranging anti-drug operations that yielded no prosecutions but kept his officers flush with ready cash.
Hunker is accused of professional misconduct in a Justice Department review of the department project that sent Bal Harbour officers all over the country to pose as money launderers for drug gangs. The department operated under rules that allowed it to keep up to 80 percent of the cash after turning the rest over to the Justice department.
From left, sisters Sara, 12, Jessica, 6, and Kaitlyn Gerckens, 10, gather Sunday night during a vigil to remember the lives lost during Friday’s shooting at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Republican Governor Rick Scott Friday reacted to speculation that newly registered Democrat Charlie Crist will run against him in 2014. Crist, a former Republican governor who became an independent in 2010, and is now formally registered as a Democrat. Scott says the state lost hundreds of thousands of jobs and saw its debt soar during the Crist administration. "In my first two years, we've turned the corner. Biggest drop in unemployment - it's down to 8.5 percent - and 175,000 private sector jobs. So that's what I'm doing.
With the U.S. Supreme Court considering same-sex marriage, President Barack Obama re-elected on a platform that included it, and the first openly gay lawmakers taking their seats in Tallahassee, gay voters say it's been a winning year.
"We've made a lot of progress, but we still have a long way to go," said Rep. David Richardson, a Miami Beach Democrat, and one of two openly gay lawmakers elected this year – the first in Florida's Legislature.
The Miami Beach Commission is finally going to let investors, developers and architects renovate the Beach's old and frumpy looking convention center.
The convention has been the site for some big events in the city. For example, Art Basel has been hosted at the center for the past few years. But even though some hot events are hosted there, the convention center has maintained its old and outdated look.
English teacher Vallet Tucker teaches 10th grade honors students. She says she's not surprised that more than half the students who took Florida's college placement exam in the 2010-2011 school year failed at least one subject.
Shakira Lockett was a pretty good student in elementary, middle and high school. The Miami-Dade County native says she typically earned As and Bs in English classes.
Math was always something of a struggle for Lockett. Still, she got through her high school exit exam with a passing grade and went on to graduate from Coral Gables Senior High School in 2008.
She went straight to Miami Dade College. Then, something unexpected happened: She flunked the college placement exams in all three subjects – reading, writing and math.
Motorists are free to blast Justin Timberlake -- or any other music they choose -- as loud as they wish, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The court unanimously struck down a state law barring drivers from blaring their radios at a volume that was "plainly audible" to someone 25 feet away. Three of the seven justices -- Chief Justice Ricky Polston and Justices Charles Canady and Peggy Quince -- didn't fully support the reasoning behind the decision, but didn't write opinions saying where they differed.
The Miami Dolphins will be marking the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest feats in sports history this weekend.
Their perfect season remains intact, and that's cause for celebration.
In 1972, The Dolphins went a flawless 17 and 0 on their way to a title in Super Bowl VII, and four decades later they remain the last NFL team to make it through an entire season unscathed.
The Cuban government officially doesn't like reggaeton. As some of you know, reggaeton is that mix of Jamaican dancehall music and Spanish hip hop that you hear blasted through car speakers all over Miami and in almost any club you go to in the city.
I would say reggaeton is an acquired taste, but the Cuban government was some pretty serious feelings about this.
Credit Sagette Van Embden / Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Shakira Lockett says in high school she typically earned As and Bs in her English classes. But at Miami Dade College, she had to take remedial courses in math, reading and writing.
The series on remedial education exposed what some in the public school system at the secondary and college level already knew: that many students are graduating from high school unprepared for college.
More than a quarter of a century after Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities looked at race relations, class divisions, greed and ambition in New York City, the influential writer has shifted his focus to the Magic City.
On his recent trip to Miami, Wolfe sat down to chat with WLRN-Miami Herald News features editor Alicia Zuckerman about his new novel, Back to Blood.
Most students who receive Bright Futures scholarships would have to stay in Florida after graduation or pay back the money under a law proposed in Tallahassee. If approved, he law would take effect with the 2014-15 school year. The bill was filed by Republican Representative Jimmie Smith.
2012 will be forever remembered as the year of Hurricane Sandy.
The storm did over $50-billion in damage in the Northeast, playing out a worst case scenario exacerbated by sea-level rise. In low-lying South Florida, the problem of rising seas is more apparent than ever, the issue has recently come front and center in planning for the future.
Venus Rising performs “Rhythms of Diversity,” mixing in world fusion into its traditional West African dance and drum work, with an emphasis on the female role, form and movement; the Children of Kuumba join in for the South African boot dance.
If audiences feel empowered after a Venus Rising performance, then members of this globally-inspired group have accomplished their mission.
“We want to uplift and inspire,” says Founding Director Zeva Soroker, who started the all-female dance and drum group in 2003. “Music is an amazing thing,” she adds. “It helps with harmonizing and healing.”
Remedial courses cost students and schools money. And the need for remedial courses makes it less likely students complete their studies -- and likely boost their earnings.
John McAfee, the anti-virus software founder wanted for questioning in connection with a murder in Belize, landed at Miami International Airport last night for what he called some rest and relaxation in South Beach.
Indiana Superintendent Tony Bennett will be Florida's next education commissioner. The Florida Board of Education unanimously selected Bennett, a protege of former Gov. Jeb Bush. As Indiana's chief, Tony Bennett imported Florida education ideas to the Hoosier state. Board of education members cite Bennett's familiarity with new Common Core standards as Florida transforms how schools teach and test students. Bennett says he wants Florida to remain a national education reform leader. "I think we have a great opportunity to capture Florida's moment," Bennett says.
