News

In the Marketplace Morning Report's second Wednesday segment, host Jeremy Hobson wonders if home ownership is still part of the American Dream. He speaks with Miami's billionaire condo king, chairman George Perez of the Related Group, and introduces WLRN's Karen Burkett with a story about the challenges that home buying poses to normal-income people competing with investors for the same properties.

Marketplace Morning Report will spend the first week of President Obama's second term broadcasting from Miami and demonstrating what some of the president's inaugural themes mean in real life.

The raw materials for show host Jeremy Hobson and his production team of three are Miami's huge immigrant population, its great wealth and crushing poverty, and the enormous empty space between those economic extremes.

In recent years, parallels have often been drawn between South Florida's diverse population and the multi-cultural America that President Obama will be presiding over for a second term.  But some South Floridians feel that cooperation between various racial and cultural groups is still a work in progress.

Among the hundreds of who filed into the Adrienne Arsht Center Monday to watch a live simulcast of President Obama's inauguration was Janette Kemp of Tamarac.  She says that when it comes to multiculturalism, our region has more work to do.

People across South Florida's diverse communities and cultures marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year is also the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

More than 100 people gathered at Lakeview Elementary in North Miami to celebrate MLK Day. Brent McLaughlin, executive director of Branches, one of the non profits that put on the event, said people who grew up in the United States sometimes take Dr. King's message for granted.

As South Florida prepares for a day of dual celebration for Inauguration Day and MLK Day, we are rounding up what is going on in the community, and what people are talking about.  There are watch parties all over the place- but we have sent our reporter Chris Di Mattei to the Arsht Center to sit in on the watch party there.  Our StateImpact education reporter Sarah Gonzales just happens to be in Washington D.C. for the event, and we are going to be hearing from her, too.

Among the throngs of people gathered at the National Mall to watch today's inauguration ceremony is Boca Raton's "President Obama."

That would be Lynn University student Eric Gooden.  Last fall, the 24-year-old senior served as a stand-in for the President during Lynn University's final preparations for the presidential debate in late October.

South Florida businessman Norman Braman is calling the  proposed plan to renovate Sun Life Stadium with the public dollars "plain welfare for a multi-billionaire."

He contends that Miami Dolphins owner Shephen Ross’ football team is a private asset and should not receive any public money. 

If you’re a judge and you’re Facebook friends with a lawyer and that lawyer winds up in your courtroom to try a case, does that mean you have a conflict of interests?

That's what the state appeals court based in West Palm Beach wants the Florida Supreme Court to decide. It's the same court that took Broward County Circuit Judge Andrew Siegel off of a case because, it decided, his Facebook friendship with the prosecutor made it impossible for him to be impartial.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is seeking funding for teams of social workers and deputies who can respond 24/7 to anonymous citizen complaints of suspicious behavior by others.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw's second-in-command, Chief Deputy Michael Gauger, announced the program at a community forum on Wednesday. He said early vigilance and quick response might have prevented the school shootings in Newtown. The Palm Beach Post was there:

The Miami Dolphins' proposed deal to use state and local tax dollars to renovate Sun Life stadium is getting some big endorsements.

But the  benefits a renovated stadium would bring  the county are questionable, some economists say.