Local News

Parkland parents showed their outrage Wednesday night at a packed, and emotional, city commission meeting, after a series of security scares at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. 

“My fears have increased 100 percent this week with the increased activity by trespassers, weapons being brought on campus,” said Elyse Claprood, whose daughter attends Stoneman Douglas High. “We can’t live in this bubble anymore in this city.”

A dark blue banner hangs above the memorial site honoring the six victims of last week’s pedestrian bridge collapse at Florida International University's campus on Southwest Eighth Street. 

For the first time in decades, Florida lawmakers passed new limits on guns. They also approved a record-breaking state budget. Gov. Rick Scott signed the $88.7 billion budget into law on Friday.

The budget includes $400 million for school safety and mental health counseling as part of a historic bill in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. It increases overall public education funding, but not by much in big school districts like those in South Florida.

Federal health experts say the worst of the country’s nastiest flu season in nearly 10 years is pretty much over.

But while many of us were following doctors orders on how to avoid influenza, many pet owners might not have realized that their canine friends have their own version of the flu, which is almost as bad.

And veterinarians across Florida have been seeing an increasing number of cases in recent months.

Despite the perfect weather last weekend, another kind of perfect storm landed on South Beach.

The busy Graham Center building at Florida International University fell still and silent at 1:47 p.m. on Monday to honor the victims of the pedestrian bridge that collapsed on March 15. 

South Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz hosted a roundtable on Monday to discuss how to keep the momentum for gun control going long after this coming Saturday's "March For Our Lives," organized by Parkland students with support from their peers around the country. 

The panel was a follow-up to a gun safety roundtable that Wasserman Schultz held earlier this month.

The pedestrian bridge at Florida International University 's Modesto Maidique Campus was touted as a marvel for traffic-burdened Southwest Eighth Street. An average of 66,500 cars a day crossed the intersection with Southwest 109th Avenue in 2016.

Last weekend, the $14.2 million project was installed. By 2019, the cable-supported bridge would link the city of Sweetwater, where about 4,000 students live, and the school’s main campus across the street.

In response to the Parkland shooting that killed 17 people, Broward County’s Charter Review Commission (CRC)  is holding a special meeting to consider proposing gun control amendments for approval by the county voters. 

The meeting is scheduled for Friday,  March 16  at 10 a.m. at the County Governmental Center in Fort Lauderdale. 

Broward County filed a new lawsuit in federal court Monday against manufacturers of opioid drugs.

Walmart, Walgreens, the McKesson Corp. and CVS Health are just some of the drug makers and distributors Broward County is suing.  

Others include Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health Inc., Health Mart Systems, Mallinckrodt, Amerisourcebergen Corp., as well as Endo Janssen, Purdue, Cephalon and Teva Pharmaceuticals. 

The Florida International University (FIU) pedestrian bridge across SW Eighth Street collapsed Thursday afternoon, trapping at least 8 vehicles underneath and causing several fatalities, according to the authorities.