On this Tuesday, March 8, edition of Sundial:
Palm Beach County Elections
It's election day for some South Floridians: Four municipalities in Broward County have elections Tuesday. And 19 municipalities in Palm Beach County are hosting elections to fill open positions from mayor to city commissioner, and ask city charter questions.
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Voters will also be filling two special seats: in Broward, voters are choosing a state senator for District 33 which covers parts of the northeastern portion of the county. In Palm Beach County, voters are choosing a state Representative for District 88 – that district covers Riviera Beach and part of West Palm Beach.
WLRN's Wilkine Brutus joined the program to talk about several key races in Boynton Beach, Riviera Beach, West Palm Beach, Pahokee, and more. You can find more of WLRN's election coverage, here.
And you can find additional reporting by Brutus on the races at stake in Palm Beach County, here.
From Tijuana to South Florida
Luis Alberto Urrea is most recognized as a border writer.
He was born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and an American mother. Urrea also spent much of his childhood in San Diego, crossing the border back and forth.
“I thought everybody was American and Mexican, I mean, I thought everybody spoke Spanish and had an abuelita,” said Urrea. “When I was a kid, it was not the border we know now. You would drive into Tijuana, there were no fences or walls… and coming back was kind of the same way.”
It wasn’t really until his father’s death that he started to see another side to the border.
“He had a very shady, mysterious death. It wasn't good. It was a bad thing. And I think that's when it all changed,” he said.
He had been killed on the Mexico side of the border on his way back to the U.S., bringing the younger Urrea a present for his college graduation. After his death, Urrea worked as a translator for a priest who was doing work in the slums of Tijuana and years later published a book about his time there titled “Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border.”
“I realized at one point, because many of the people we worked with on the border lived in the Tijuana garbage dump, quite literally. They would build shacks out of garbage and pick garbage to stay alive. And it hit me that everybody, everybody in the world, sooner or later, is going to wake up one day in the Tijuana garbage dump, even if it's for a moment. And what I mean by that is that you're going to suffer," said Urrea. "Hopefully that opens some compassion for others, too."
He is presenting at the Festival of the Arts Boca this Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Mizner Park Amphitheater. Find more information about the event here.
Tallahassee Takeover
WLRN’s Tallahassee Takeover podcast takes a deep dive into how the state is helping small businesses challenge local governments.
“Two proposed state laws would allow businesses to sue and block local rules that hurt their profits. Local government officials say that's interfering with what people want in their own neighborhoods — and putting local taxpayers on the hook for damages,” writes WLRN reporter and podcast host Daniel Rivero.
More about that episode here.
