Sammy Mack

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is dead. Public reactions from South Florida's sizeable Venezuelan ex-pat community were jubilant on Tuesday night. In Venezuela, less so.

The big question this morning: what happens next for Venezuela and its allies?

When Florida sued to overturn the Affordable Care Act, lawmakers targeted a piece of the law that would have forced Florida to make Medicaid available to more than a million uninsured Floridians.

The U. S. Supreme Court upheld most of the act but it made Medicaid expansion optional.

Now some Florida lawmakers who originally opposed Medicaid expansion are seriously considering that option.

Richard Blanco's inaugural poem, One Today, may have addressed the whole nation, but the details were full of South Florida. 

A father's hands callused by cutting sugar cane, a mother who taught Blanco to speak Spanish--these are some of the personal details that worked their way into the poem.

When Richard Blanco takes the stage Monday at President Barack Obama's second inauguration, the poetry community of South Florida will be paying especially close attention.

Blanco was born to Cuban parents in Spain. The family immigrated to the United States and settled in Miami when Blanco was a toddler. He trained to be a civil engineer but a class at Florida International University later launched his poetry career.

Blanco's poetry is full of images from a childhood in South Florida and a Cuban-American household. 

All this week, we're bringing you stories from the Key West Literary Seminar which runs through this weekend. Shayne Benowitz originally posted this piece on the KWLS blog.

Here at WLRN, we're big fans of interactive storytelling. 

Welcome to the Key West Literary Seminar edition of Tweet Us A Story! 

Starting at 5:00, we'll be writing a story with KWLS author Geoff Dyer.

Dyer has graciously given us the first line of a tale. It's up to you to help us finish it.

You can join in on the storytelling in the space below. Check out the rules at the bottom of the page.

Here at WLRN, we are acknowledging one of the secret, insider joys of Art Basel week: the people-watching.

Yes, the art is the core of Basel and the satellite fairs. But the real showcase happens when you inject a mix of international artists, collectors and dealers with our usual mélange of tourists, club kids and local aesthetes.

Only in Miami. Only this week.

Which is why we are asking you to help us document it. While you’re out looking at the people art, send us your favorite only-in-Miami-during-Basel images:

Earlier this week, we asked you to help us tell a story—140 characters at a time—in honor of Miami Book Fair International.

We tweeted out the first line, given to us by Pulitzer-winning author Junot Díaz: “The dogs hadn’t barked all week.”

Broward County is still tallying up votes in two recounts from last week’s election.  

In Dania Beach's close commission race, Chickie Brandimartie leads Mac McElyea by just 16 votes out of more than 4,000. In Hallandale Beach, it's even closer with Anthony Sanders leading Michele Lazarow by just 6 votes out of more than 7,000.

And the Sun-Sentinel reports that nearly a thousand uncounted ballots were discovered in a Broward warehouse on Monday.

Florida is considering its options while refusing to implement the Affordable Care Act.

Governor Rick Scott has been a harsh critic of the health care reform law. Under Scott’s administration, Florida lead the Supreme Court case against it.

But the Supreme Court upheld most of the Affordable Care Act and last week, Florida voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have banned the individual mandate. That leaves Scott in a tough spot for someone who would rather not implement the law.

Here at WLRN, we get excited about book fairs the way some people get excited about Fourth of July parades or Christmas pageants.

So this week, as the Miami Book Fair International descends upon our region and makes South Florida the center of the literary universe, we’re doing something special.  We want you to help us tweet a story.

8:27 Ballot Measure and Big Races

Here are some things that happened at the top and bottom of the ballot last night.

First, 8 of the 11 ballot measures failed this year.

Only three of these ballot measures passed:

Miami is a finalist for Super Bowls in 2016 an 2017. Only problem: There are other finalists - San Francisco and Houston - and each has a younger, better-looking and better-equipped stadium. The possibility of hosting the big game, the Miami Herald reports today, may put some steam behind a drive for taxpayer-funded renovations to Sun Life Stadium.

Every morning at 10:00 a.m., congestive heart failure patient Marilyn Yeats of Naples conducts her own health checkup with the help of a computer.

Call it a virtual visit. She uses a home health guide to send her vitals to her nurse in Tampa Bay via the internet.

“This program is having your own private nurse,” says Yeats.

HealthyState.org follows Yeats through her checkup and visits the behind-the-scenes of what happens to Yeats’ data.

For Susan Holtzman, the really terrifying parts of Hurricane Andrew didn’t begin until the day after the storm.  Susan was nine months pregnant at Baptist Hospital in Kendall.  It was the day before she was due to give birth.

She compares what she saw to a movie:

A network of Florida facilities that supports people with disabilities will lose nearly $1.6 million this year – just as the social services provided by the network are needed most.

Last year, Florida legislators passed a bill privatizing the state’s Medicaid program, moving recipients into managed care plans – a model patterned on a pilot program that’s been running in five counties since 2006.

The statewide change still needs federal approval – and for one family already living in a pilot county, it’s a troubling prospect.

Bullying is not a new phenomenon. It has been around for decades, but schools across South Florida are reporting that the frequency and severity of the incidents are getting worse. In the past year alone, a West Palm Beach student was attacked in math class and a Deerfield Beach middle school student slipped into a comma after being kicked in the head.

At age 21, Jeff has legs like broomsticks under his nylon basketball shorts and his cheeks are hollow. Sitting at a table outside the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine with two friends of about the same age, he looks young and fragile.

Jeff doesn't like telling people what's wrong. He doesn't like what they say when they learn he was born HIV-positive.

"They say, 'Oh boy, you gonna die,' " says Jeff, who doesn't want his last name used. "They call it 'die-slow,' you got that 'die-slow.' "