Local News

Confederate Street Names In Hollywood To Come Down

By Wilson Sayre • Aug 31, 2017

After a five and a half hour-long public comment and discussion, the city of Hollywood decided to rename streets that bear the names of Confederate icons.

Wasserman Schultz, Broward Agencies, Discuss Lessons Learned During Fort Lauderdale Aiport Shooting

By Adrianne Gonzalez • Aug 30, 2017

Local safety and government officials met Wednesday for the third roundtable on airport security and policy hosted by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz at her district office in Sunrise.

Participants spent two hours discussing the weak links in airport security put in evidence by recent reports on the Jan. 6 shooting at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and what can be done to rectify them.

Miami Pediatrician Now Taking Care Of 4 Million Kids

By Sammy Mack • Aug 30, 2017

There are more than 4 million children in Florida and Dr. Jeffrey Brosco just became responsible for them.

Brosco is a pediatrician at the University of Miami and a bioethicist with Jackson Memorial Hospital. And as Florida’s new deputy secretary for Children’s Medical Services, he now oversees everything from Florida’s poison control hotline to a state-run insurance program for extremely sick children.

Gunshot Wounds Are Expensive, And We're All Paying For Them

By Sammy Mack • Aug 30, 2017

It costs American hospitals about $622 million every year to admit patients with gunshot wounds—and it turns out, we’re all paying the bills.

That’s according to a new study in the journal Injury Epidemiology that tapped into a national sample of hospital records to gauge the cost of admitting patients with firearm injuries.

The researchers broke the costs down by injury type, demographics and insurance status.

Among the findings:

Monroe County Moving Dog Park That May Be Above African Burial Ground

By Nancy Klingener • Aug 30, 2017

Monroe County announced this week plans to reconfigure a dog park in Key West believed to be above the graves of Africans who were rescued from the slave trade in 1860.

The dog playground is across the street from an area already recognized as a burial yard.

While slavery was still legal in the U.S. in 1860, importing them was outlawed in 1807.

“But people kept doing it, especially Americans,” said Corey Malcom, director of archaeology for the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West.

Miami Non-Profit Trains Residents How To Advocate At Miami-Dade Budget Hearings

By Nadege Green • Aug 30, 2017

As Miami-Dade County prepares for public input on its budget, a local non-profit is teaching residents how to advocate for the causes they care about.

Going through Miami-Dade’s $7 billion budget can be a daunting task for the average citizen.

That is why Florida New Majority says it created a series of workshops to teach the public how to find information in the voluminous budget document.

Advocates To March For Overdose Awareness Thursday At FAU

By Peter Haden • Aug 30, 2017

Drug overdoses now kill more Americans than car accidents or gun violence.

Thursday is International Overdose Awareness Day and, to mark the occasion, advocates and officials from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties will gather on the Florida Atlantic University campus in Boca Raton to call for greater federal action to end the United States’s epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths.

Rallies will be held in cities around the country.

Maureen Kielian is a parent advocate from Fort Lauderdale who helped organize the event.

Women's Fund Of Miami-Dade Wants To Create Structural Change Around Pay Equity

By Nadege Green • Aug 29, 2017

Art by FED x, Composite edit by Nadege Green / http://bit.ly/2iCMTHL

Will Hollywood Change Confederate-Named Streets?

By Wilson Sayre • Aug 29, 2017

The city of Hollywood has been grappling with how to deal with some of its Confederate icons and is looking into changing streets named after Confederate generals.

The issue may be decided Wednesday, when the City Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to change the names or keep the existing ones.

Top Florida Highway Patrol Official Resigns Amid Ticket Quota Questions

By News Service of Florida • Aug 29, 2017

The second-highest ranking officer in the Florida Highway Patrol is stepping down after acknowledging he wrote an email in May encouraging troopers to write at least two tickets per hour.

In the latest fallout from an ongoing investigation into whether troopers were told to meet a traffic-ticket quota, Lt. Col. Michael Thomas, a 30-year veteran and deputy director for the FHP, submitted a letter of resignation on Monday, indicating his last work day will be Friday.