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The South Florida Roundup

Florida Roundup: Soccer, Spanish And The Special Session

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Today on the Florida Roundup, we're talking special session, soccer and Spanish.

SPECIAL SESSION

At 1 p.m. Monday afternoon gavels will fall in the Florida House and Senate, calling to order a special session of the state Legislature. Lawmakers have only one piece of business to take care of: pass a budget before July 1 or risk a state government shutdown.

 
 
That debate will have to tackle the issue of medical coverage for some 850,000 Floridians who were left out when Obamacare was rolled out in Florida. Medicaid is a full third of the state budget, and whether or not to expand the program is at the center of that debate.

 
SOCCER

The beautiful game is known for its patient strategy punctuated by brief moments of jubilation or misery with a big dose of imagination.
 

That also describes the global business of soccer this week. Fourteen top executives at soccer’s international governing body, FIFA, and a Major League Soccer boss were indicted in the United States in a massive corruption scandal. The people arrested come from Latin America, the Caribbean and Miami. The allegations of vote-buying and bribes include those against CONCACAF, the premier soccer group overseeing North and Central America and the Caribbean along with the similar group responsible for the game in South America.
 

The three-year investigation found "rampant, systemic and deep-rooted corruption." Suspicions of corruption have swirled around soccer’s governing body for years. 
 

NOT ENOUGH SPANISH TEACHERS

More than a third of South Floridians conduct most of their lives in Spanish. It’s the largest metropolitan area in the United States with the largest percentage of Spanish-dominant speakers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau -- bigger than a border town like Tucson and bigger than Los Angeles, a town with a Spanish name.
 

But is Spanish slipping away in Miami?
 

The Miami-Dade County Public School System has been struggling to find enough qualified Spanish teachers. Over the past two years, the school system has been changing its Spanish language instruction strategy by focusing on more intensive language instruction. 
 

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