Kelley Mitchell

The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had an impact on more than his own country. Now it remains to be some what his successor, Nicolas Maduro, will do or not to maintain those ties. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos patched up fractured relations with Venezuela before Chavez died.

The history between Haiti and Venezuela dates all the way back to liberator Simon Bolivar and is a big reason why Haiti's second-largest airport was just named for the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

April 19th, 1995

My Louisville-born husband wakes up from a dream he just can't seem to shake. He knows, of course, that I'm an Oklahoma City girl, though many years removed. It's April. It's a tornado, he thinks. Oklahoma City has been hit, he thinks. I'll turn on the TV, he thinks. That something is wrong, he knows.  

"KELLLLLLLEY!!!!!"'  

Miami-Dade County is grappling with how to repair and replace parts of its aging sewage system, under pressure from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Water and Sewer Department has drawn up a $1.5 billion plan.

However, the clean-water advocacy group Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper says the plan doesn’t take into account the potential for sea level rise at its three coastal treatment plants on Virginia Key and in North Miami and South Miami-Dade.

There's a chocolatier in Quito, Ecuador, who is trying to sweeten the economic history of South America.

Santiago Peralta was tired of watching his country's prized cacao beans being shipped around the world so others could create prize-winning chocolate.

He was also weary of the low wages that simply exporting raw goods produced in his country.

So he had an idea. Start his own chocolate-making company and send ready-made Ecuadorian chocolate bars around the world instead.

South Florida listeners of The Diane Rehm Show are eagerly anticipating her visit this week, as one of the more well-known hosts of the NPR radio family. For those of you who are able to attend and for those of you who wish you could, WLRN's Kelley Mitchell sat down and talked with Diane in advance of her arrival. So, brew a cup of tea and get comfortable -- and get ready to know the candid Diane.

I just had one of those "When Life Kicks You In The Teeth" moments.

No, nobody's dying, and, yes, it could be worse, but I'm still reeling a bit.

I've found out that my high school is being torn down.

John Marshall High School in Oklahoma City. 

The school we all couldn't wait to follow our brothers and sisters to, even if I had neither.

The school where I took driver's ed and learned from the wrestling coach who was required to be the instructor one hour a day to 'Don't never 'ccelerate during a turn.'

In 1973, future Miami Herald music critic Howard Cohen burst into the Spec's Music store on South Dixie Highway in Coral Gables with of all the energy of a 10-year-old about to begin a 40-year habit.

That's because he was.  

He and his mother had piled into their 1971 yellow Ford Pinto for the express purpose of taking home Helen Reddy.  At least in the form of her hit single, "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)." 

The Overtown section of Miami was the heart and soul of music during the early to mid-1960’s.

It developed as Southern and Bahamian blacks relocated to Miami area to work on Henry Flagler’s railroad.

As they prospered, so did the club and performing arts scene.

Other venues included the Rockland, Palace, the Harlem Square Club, the Cotton Club, the Ritz Theater, the Mary Elizabeth Hotel and the Sir John, to name a few.

  If you think writers from all around the world have been descending upon Key West for 31 years to escape cruddy winter weather while knocking back a rum runner or two and discussing their work, you probably won’t get an argument from them.

The Key West Literary Seminar attracts some of the finest authors – and their fans – for two consecutive weekends.

This year’s four-day event started on Jan. 10 and the second session picks up on Jan. 17 and ends on the 20th, with a Writers’ Workshop Program sandwiched in between.

A bustling Art Basel Miami Beach, the 1,000th Random Act of Culture, a vote of popularity for Delray Beach’s Arts Garage and major change for the Miami City Ballet.

All this and more took place in 2012.

WLRN is seriously committed to covering the arts and a lot of our staff was in the thick of the arts world.

We asked some voices you may just know to identify a few of the influential happenings.

So here are thoughts from Alicia Zuckerman, Arianna Prothero and Christine DiMattei in what we like to call “ArtsYear 2012.”

 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.

The homegrown Borscht Film Festival is underway and in its eighth incarnation now.

It started as a group of New World of the Arts high school students who shared a common love of film. They stayed in touch,

even as they scattered across the country to hone their skills.

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.

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.

White House Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Munoz voices 

President Barack Obama’s concerns about what the impact of a failure to reach a budget agreement could mean for Latin families.

Jobless benefits may be cut off for more than      100,000 Floridians at the end of the month.  Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity is sending notices to those receiving Emergency Unemployment Compensation from the federal government. The program provides up to an additional 20 weeks of benefits that will expire December 29 if Congress doesn't extend them. The program began in July of 2008.

LATE-BREAKING STORY:

The Miami Herald Building will not be designated historic, paving the way for demolition by casino giant Genting.

Absentee Ballot Tally For South Florida

The casino giant that bought the Miami Herald site has put a hold on its plans to petition for a casino amendment on the twenty-fourteen ballot.  Halting the petition effort means state lawmakers will drive the decision over whether to bring Las Vegas- style gaming to Florida. The Malaysian-based casino giant -- Genting Group -- has spent close to a million dollars on a campaign to let voters decide. That campaign started after a casino amendment died in the Florida legislature last year.  But now the group is taking a less aggressive strategy, in part perhaps because gaming regulations ar

Miami-Dade Commissioners said they could bring back prayer to their public meetings and now they have. It came in an 8 to 3 vote. They signed off on a change to a current rule that only allowed for a moment of silence before meetings. Now, commissioners will be able to invite a religious leader of their choosing to lead everyone in a prayer before each meeting. Baylor Johnson is a  spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union      of Florida and says the commissioners are inviting conflict and a possible lawsuit by doing this. A commissioner can also lead a prayer themselves if t

  Indiana's ousted education chief says he's applied for the Sunshine State's top schools job.

Tony Bennett lost his bid for reelection last month.

Bennett says he first met Jeb Bush after winning election as the Indiana's Superintendent of Public Instruction four years ago.

Since then, Bennett has taken education policies Bush first in Florida tried and brought them to Indiana. Those ideas are often called "The Florida Model."

Miami-area Republicans helped the U.S. House pass legislation to give out more high skilled visas.

"Little Haiti" has lost perhaps the man who could be called its father and the man who is credited for the name.

Viter Juste has died at the age of 87.

He was born in La Gonaive, Haiti in 1924 and after first going to New York, he and his family made their way to Miami in 1973.

He started with a house in Buena Vista and a record store in downtown Miami, "Les Cousins."

That led to creating the first Haitian newspaper for the growing community,  Haitian Florida,  and the Haitian American Community Association of Dade.

Lots of us would rather steer clear of construction, but Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is actually embracing it. 

The new runway and terminal expansion project will not only allow for more flights, it also creates more space for art.

So, the Broward County Public Art and Design Committee is looking for an artist, or perhaps artists, in residence.

And the art is supposed to be about the airport construction project itself.

Consumer confidence in Florida dropped this month, but retailers were busy over the Thanksgiving shopping weekend. 

  Hear from an economist who isn't concerned about the decline in confidence… at least not yet.  

The stated goal of the Grameen Foundation is to help the world’s poorest  improve their lives and escape poverty by helping to provide access to financial services , such as small loans and savings account, to find  new ways to generate income and obtain important information about their health, crops and finances.

Grameen Foundation is a nonprofit founded in 1997 by friends of Grameen Bank to help microfinance practitioners spread the Grameen philosophy worldwide.

The Florida Public Service Commission today approved $151 million dollars in advance nuclear costs for Florida Power & Light.

 That's the total amount that FPL requested and the vote was unanimous. It means that a customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours a month will be charged $1.69 a month for the advance costs beginning in January 2013. The costs were approved despite objections from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which argues that FPL has failed to demonstrate its intent to actually build the new Turkey Point reactors.  

Long before there were TV cooking networks, there were cooking segments and Art Ginsberg as "Mr. Food" was arguably the most popular one in the country.

The Allen West - Patrick Murphy Congressional standoff is now over. The one-term congressman came close to winning the new District 18 that he had to move to run in, but not close enough, so he conceded today on Fox News. West maintains there were enough ballot irregularities to warrant a close look. And there is no disputing there were voting problems in St. Lucie County. The outgoing GOP Congressman gave no definitive plans for his future. Winner Patrick Murphy has already been through freshman orientation in Washington. 

Two strikes and he may be out. A second judge has ruled that he will not hear GOP Congressman Allen West's request for a recount, virtually assuring Patrick Murphy of the District 18 Congressional seat.  It happened in St.