Politics

COMMENTARY

Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, made a particularly sensible point when I talked to him during his visit to Miami this week.

The recent normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations, Almagro said, is good for the Western Hemisphere because it “has changed the logic of relations between Latin America and the United States.”

Gov. Rick Scott signed a measure Friday that will help families of first responders who are enrolled in the Florida Retirement System and get killed in the line of duty.

The death-benefits bill (SB 7012), a priority of Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, was among 17 bills Scott signed into law.

"When people give their lives in the service of our state, the least we can do is make sure we help provide for the families they leave behind," Gardiner said in a prepared statement.

The law covers first responders killed since July 1, 2013.

More than a year after same-sex marriages began in Florida, a federal judge on Thursday issued a final judgment declaring that Florida's voter-approved prohibition against gay marriage is unconstitutional.

In a harshly worded ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle rejected state officials' arguments that a final order in the Florida case was unnecessary due to a seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that struck down state bans on same-sex marriages nationwide.

When people entered the Hollywood Branch Library on Tuesday to vote in the presidential primary, they learned that they were two days too late.

They said Broward’s online voter information page wasn’t clear and that they thought they could vote there through Tuesday.

Nonetheless, people like Christian Bauman, a 29 year-old Hollywood resident, hoped he could squeeze in his vote elsewhere.

He said he’s been a lifelong Democrat.

           It was 85 degrees and breezy with a spotless sky on Miami Beach Tuesday afternoon—not exactly weather to make you roll up your towel and head for the polls.  K’Teyah Dumoy, sprawled in the sand with family visiting from Canada, says she usually votes. But Tuesday? "It’s such a perfect day at the beach, so..."

  Workers at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center said there was a steady flow of voters on Tuesday morning, but by noon just a trickle of people could be found there.

Jarrett Edward Fulton, of Liberty City, came there to repair a van in the parking lot. A Navy veteran, and proud grandfather of 22, he recently voted for Hillary Clinton on his absentee ballot.

He thinks the general election will come down to her and Donald Trump. He says the Republican debates were a turnoff. And he says, Trump isn’t fit to run this country.

Republican Marco Rubio of Miami suspended his campaign Tuesday night after losing his home state to Donald Trump.

Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton were victors in the Florida presidential primary.

Florida was do-or-die for Rubio. Florida's 99 Republican delegates are awarded on a winner-take-all basis.

"While this may not have been the year for an optimistic message, I still remain hopeful and optimistic about America," Rubio told his supporters Tuesday evening.