Arianna Prothero

If the city of Santa Clara has its way, the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale may move to California.

That's right, Santa Clara, the city that just built a new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers and is neck-n-neck with South Florida in a bid for Super Bowl L.

Santa Clara says it plans to raise $2 million for an endowment to support the swimming hall as well as $10 million to move it to the West Coast.

The hall has also received inquiries from England and China.

Florida has a big problem with invasive species, and the idea of chowing down on the pests has been gaining in popularity. So far, there’s a cookbook dedicated to lionfish, an invasive species cooking contest and even an invasive species sampler tent at The Grassroots Festival on Virginia Key this past February. 

As Lanette Sobel with the Fertile Earth Foundation said, “If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em.”

Unfortunately, that tactic, however appetizing, is probably not enough to outpace the invaders wreaking havoc on Florida’s ecosystem.

Over the course of the recently concluded legislative session, we approached lawmakers with questions from South Florida residents that came out of last February's WLRN-Miami Herald Town Hall.

Here's one:

What's being done to promote and protect development of local artists across the state?

The short answer is: not much.

Editor's note: In the hunt for what to do about the various mix of invasive species found in Florida, we are running a series that not only describes the problems caused by these plants and animals but, well, offers a culinary solution. Tweet us (@WLRN) your ideas and tips or email us a recipe: WLRNMIA@gmail.com.

If you ask someone to name a valuable commodity, they may say gold, or oil. Ask someone in ballet the same question, and there’s good chance they’ll say boys.

Most ballets have almost equal part male and female roles. But in the U.S., boys who want to do ballet are hard to come by.  

For that reason boys often receive full scholarships to ballet schools and other forms of special treatment in order to attract them to the profession.

Former principal dancer with New York City Ballet Philip Neal was one of those boys.

The legendary choreographer George Balanchine once said, “ballet is woman,” and that seems to be the case, considering the scarcity of boys aspiring to become ballet dancers compared to the legions of girls.  But of the girls who grow up to become top dancers, few have actually graduated into the upper levels of leadership.

Ballet’s Glass Ceiling

The second annual PhilanthroFest kicks off Saturday at noon in downtown Miami. The event is like speed-dating for volunteers, donors, nonprofits and the people who may need them.

More than 100 organizations are participating in the event that runs from noon until 6:30 p.m. at Miami-Dade College’s Wolfson Campus, at 300 NE Second Ave.

PhilanthroFest co-founder Estrellita Sibila says the festival is helpful for local nonprofits, which sometimes have to compete with organizations from out-of-town.

President Obama traveled to PortMiami Friday to talk about the importance of the nation’s infrastructure to the economy. He outlined a plan for state and local governments to fund large-scale infrastructure projects through private sector partnerships.

PortMiami provided the perfect backdrop for the announcement. The port is undergoing a series of multimillion-dollar improvements including a $915 million project to dig a tunnel under Biscayne Bay that will directly connect the port to I-395.

Steve Augello lives in Spring Hill Florida, just outside of Tampa. Like a lot of dads, he always made his 17-year-old daughter, Alessandra, check-in with him when she was out. Augello also had a rule.

“You weren’t allowed to have that cell phone out while you’re driving,” Augello remembers telling Alessandra. “I even tested her a few times I called her when she was driving and it always went right through to the recorder.”

President Barack Obama will be visiting PortMiami Friday to talk about the economy.  Gov. Rick Scott, meanwhile, is asking the federal government to repay Florida for the money it has spent on port improvements.

Although Scott often criticizes the federal government for spending too much, he says this is different.

The Tony-award winning Broadway musical, Fela! is in Miami this week. The production is based on the complex life-- and music-- of late Nigerian activist, musician and singer Fela Kuti.

Kuti is known worldwide for founding the musical genre afro-beat. But in Nigeria, he’s known for using his music to protest the country’s military government through the 70s and 80s.

Over the weekend, public transit advocates in Miami built a temporary train station along an imaginary transit line. They called it the Purple Line, sticking with the theme of Miami’s other two commuter rail lines, the Orange and the Green. Organizers of the project say this mock train station is going to help improve public transit in the city.

On September 4th, the Miami City Ballet suddenly announced the company’s founder, Edward Villella, had resigned that morning from his post as artistic director 8 months earlier than planned. Not only is Villella one of America’s most famous dancers, he is one of South Florida’s biggest cultural commodities. In 25 years, he created a world-class ballet company from scratch and helped spark Miami’s arts renaissance. But, the last year at Miami City Ballet had been marked by financial troubles and power struggles. Insiders claimed that Villella had been forced out.
 

WLRN followed developments at the ballet throughout 2012, starting early in the year with the announcement of who would succeed Mr. Villella when he retired in 2013.

In September, Villella suddenly resigned 8 months ahead of schedule. WLRN’s Alicia Zuckerman produced a feature story that incorporated sound from an earlier Villella interview.  The following month, on the night of the ballet company’s first performance without Villella, WLRN aired an interview with his successor, Lourdes Lopez

A conference looking at how Miami can become a nebula for technology start-ups is taking place Wednesday at the New World Center on Miami Beach.

Called Start-Up City: Miami, the conference is in part the brain-child of urban studies expert Richard Florida who lives part-time in Miami Beach.

Florida is a senior editor at the Atlantic and runs an institute for the study of economic prosperity at the University of Toronto.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity is asking state lawmakers for half a million dollars in order to recoup a $20-million investment in the now-defunct digital animation studio, Digital Domain.

And according to local experts, Florida has a tough fight ahead to get its money back.

The state originally gave Digital Domain $20 million in incentives in order to lure the company--and jobs--to Port St. Lucie. Four months ago, the firm filed for bankruptcy, shut down and let go 300 Florida workers.

South Florida may be a source for banned performance-enhancing drugs making their way into major league baseball.

Governor Rick Scott was at Miami-Dade College's North campus today to announce that eleven more state colleges have accepted his challenge to create bachelor’s degree programs costing $10,000 or less.

That means all 23 Florida state colleges offering four-year degrees have signed on. 

Broward College is developing a bachelor's degree program in teacher education and business. President David Armstrong told the News Service of Florida that the goal is to open doors for more students.

Florida’s Marco Rubio is among a group of eight Democratic and Republican Senators unveiling a bipartisan immigration plan today.

Safe driving is the focus of two proposed bills being filed in Tallahassee this session. One bill addresses texting while driving. The other bill deals with slow people in the fast lane.

According to the News Service of Florida, Senator Nancy Detert, a Venice Republican, believes this year will be the year her texting-while-driving ban passes.

This will be her fourth attempt.

Although the bill has passed the Senate twice before, Detert says it has never been heard in the House.

Florida taxpayers are helping subsidize three industries that have been blamed for recent mass shootings: violent movies, bloody video games and high-powered assault weapons.

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.

Today, Miami poet Richard Blanco will recite the poem he has composed for President Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony.

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. 

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.

On the one month anniversary of the Newtown, CT school shooting, mayors across South Florida and the country called for stricter gun regulations on Monday. Among them was Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado.