News

Trevor Aaronson was running errands when he heard about yesterday's bombings at the Boston Marathon. The news coming across the radio caught his attention, maybe more than the rest of us, and he soon found himself forgetting about his dry cleaning and going to Twitter for clues.

If sea level rise continues unabated, sections of South Florida -- and Miami in particular -- will be under water in a matter of decades. But a new study suggests that swift reductions in "short-lived climate pollutants" and carbon dioxide levels could help to slow the rise.  

As part of our That's So Miami poetry project running during the month of April, we have been airing select submissions from our community of listeners and readers.

In fact, serendipity struck today during one of these pre-recording sessions. One of our contributing poets, Christine Armario of Miami, brought her abuelo, Manuel Armario, who wrote a poem too. Go ahead and read them. Hers is in English; his, Spanish.

Nicolas Maduro, heir to the late Hugo Chavez, appears to have won Venezuela's presidential election.

But it's by a margin so thin that opposition candidate Henrique Capriles is challenging the legitimacy of the results, demanding a full recount.

Maduro, acting president since Chavez's March 5 death, held a double-digit advantage in opinion polls just two weeks ago, but electoral officials said he received just 50.7 percent of the votes compared to 49.1 percent for Capriles. With nearly all ballots counted, that's a difference of about 300,000 votes.

Cuban American musician Pitbull has come out with his own song about Cuba just days after rapper Jay-Z released an "Open Letter" about a controversial trip to the communist island with wife Beyonce.

For birdwatchers and the bird curious, April in South Florida is the jackpot month – the time of year when almost anything with wings can show up.

One particular evening will always stick with me. I was commuting home from work and at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Southwest 27th Avenue, which is a pretty intense during evening rush hour.

As I crossed the intersection, I was cut off by a driver who was clearly unaware of my presence, despite the bike lane. The car came within inches of my bike. Being familiar with this intersection, I know when and where I need to be watching. Had I not known where to look, I would not have been able to break in time.

Several ecologically-significant tracts of public land in Palm Beach County will go under the microscope this month as a state agency continues its multi-region assessment of state-owned lands throughout South Florida. 

Miami Beach is usually pretty colorful. Art Deco buildings boast vivid shades of pink and turquoise. Bright green palm trees line the streets year-round.

But this weekend the city is awash in every color of the rainbow in celebration of Miami Beach Gay Pride, and if last year is any indication, that means a massive throng of at least 60,000 people could flood Ocean Drive.

Well everybody, I have a new assignment. I'm WLRN's Flawed-But-Fabulous beat reporter.

Miami-based shark researcher Neil Hammerschlag, whose work WLRN has covered in the past, is getting international attention with his latest study on the feeding habits of the ocean's most feared and misunderstood creature: the great white shark. 

We were invited to El Paso, Texas to cook at a gathering of ‘Oldways Preservation’, a non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachussetts. ‘Oldways’ is one of the premier educational forums for focusing on healthy, culturally diverse and historically respectful eating. They put on conferences around the world and invite scientists, farmers, professors, chefs and food/wine media to promote positive lifestyles.

Join us for an hour of conversation about the week's news on The Florida Roundup, live at noon on WLRN.  Here's what we're watching:

Sen. Bill Montford, a Democrat from North Florida, doesn't like the Parent Empowerment in Education bill. It's much better known as the parent trigger bill.

“We know overall that the majority of students that are successful have parents that are involved,” Montford said. “It's critical to have parent support and involvement in the schools.”

Montford is CEO of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.

Online shoppers in Florida may have to budget an extra 6 or 7 percent for their Web purchases if State Sen. Nancy Detert's sales tax bill (SB 316) makes it through the Legislature this year.

But they may get some of that back. She's making the legislation politically palatable by ensuring most of the revenue is returned in the form of tax breaks.

Behind the allure of bikinis and board shorts, Miami residents possess a sea of Star Trek costumes.

At least that's one conclusion you might draw from a recent article in Movodo, a real estate website.  The criteria used to determine the winners, while not scientific, is telling of the "nerd demographic" that our city has nurtured over the years.  Here is a quick rundown of the data used to determine the winners:

1969.  Seventh grade.  School trip to an amusement park.  While sitting with a friend in a shaded and secluded spot, I was surrounded by 5 or 6 kids who demanded our ride tickets.  When I stood to my 6-foot-2-inch frame and invited them to try and take my tickets, they decided to pick on someone else.

1975.  A high-school football linebacker decided to test the band major in the boys’ locker room.  Football linebacker had a sore nose.  Band major was unscathed.

As part of WLRN's Remix the News Challenge: Sun Life Stadium Edition, we're asking people (both expert and amateur) to help us hear what the stadium renovations debate sounds like to them.

Seven or eight years ago, during a sociology class at Miami-Dade College, the professor asked us to write a sociological history of our lives. It was the first time I thought long and hard about my life in the scheme of history, about the chain of events that brought me to my life in Miami as a Cuban-American.

For people of my generation, you simply could not avoid getting a crash course on Cuban politics and the dream of a free Cuba.  The reason we are here. We are here because of him. Because of Fidel.

The Florida House has passed a bill that would preempt local living wage ordinances and a similar version is making its way through the Senate.

The House measure would not allow local governments to mandate that their vendors pay employees more than a set minimum or provide them with special work-related benefits.

Here's a question we received from one of several hundred South Florida residents who attended a recent WLRN/Miami Herald Town Hall that was held just prior to the current legislative session.

This one comes from friend-of-WLRN Piyush Agrawal, a scholar, educator, businessman and philanthropist who lives in Weston:

"Why does Florida's constitution still allow the state to prohibit foreign citizens from owning real estate?"

Back from his recent trip to Havana, rapper Jay-Z quickly released a new song, Open Letter, in which he not only addresses controversy about the trip but speaks his mind in a way that is likely to stir up some of the deep passions Americans have toward Cuba and the communist island's tumultuous relationship with the United States.

Who's growing cocktails in their gardens? In a manner of speaking, Blackbird Ordinary and Broken Shaker are. The two Miami-Dade bars are growing plants they use to make simple syrups, infusions and garnishes. You can also grow your own "cocktail garden." Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist, visits Books & Books this Friday, and she'll be giving gardening tips.

A patient, we’ll call him John, called my office several years ago, frantic over the behavior of his son Aaron. “My son thinks there are helicopters circling our home, following his movements,” he said.

At my office the next day, dad was frantic. Aaron, who appeared disheveled and preoccupied, presented his experiences in a matter-of-fact style. He was certain some authority had singled him out to be placed under surveillance. He had no insight into the psychotic nature of his thinking.

Sea turtle nesting season is off and crawling this year with the first reported sea turtle nest in Boca Raton. The nest, made by a leatherback turtle, was recorded on Sunday morning in South Beach Park by Marine Turtle Specialists with the Boca Raton Sea Turtle Conservation and Research Program based out of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. 

Florida lawmakers are doing something they haven't done in years: adding money to state programs.

The recession sent the state into multi-billion-dollar budget shortfalls that led to big cuts in education and state government payrolls.

But this year, lawmakers have money to play with. Gov. Rick Scott has proposed a budget of more than $74 billion for the fiscal year that starts in July. That's about a $4-billion increase in spending over the current year.

So where did the extra money come from?

The work of the iconclastic filmmaker Stanley Kubrick is part of a retrospective this week at O Cinema in Wynwood.

South Florida native Rodney Ascher directed Room 237, a new documentary exploring the many interpretations of Kubrick's The Shining. Both films will be shown at O Cinema this week. 

Sure, logging a stint with South Florida's largest theater company's rigorous high school mentorship program looks good on a college application. But the Maltz Jupiter Theatre's Youth Artists' Chair is about much more than beefing up a resume.