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In what may be a preview of the governor’s race, former governor Charlie Crist directly criticized Governor Rick Scott before a U.S. Senate hearing on voting rights. Crist was critical of Scott for helping to pass a 2011 election law that limited early voting hours. 

From being detained by Cuban authorities, to experiencing the horror of dead bodies in post-earthquake Haiti, to reporting on a Honduran leader who was ousted in his pajamas, Frances Robles has been all over the hemisphere in her 19 years with the Miami Herald.

During an appearance on CNN on Wednesday, Gov. Rick Scott admitted Florida's voting law-- which he signed into law-- was partially to blame  for Florida's voting troubles this year.

He told Soledad O'Brien during Starting Point on Wednesday that lawmakers in the state have to come up with a bipartisan solution to Florida's voting woes. This year, people stood in lines that were up to six hours long even on Election Day, well after polls closed in other parts of the state.

It's Nutcracker time and few South Floridians will be farther than a few miles from a stage presenting Tchaikovsky's beloved holiday ballet, first staged in 1892.

The Nutcracker's score and imagery are the framework of Christmas memory for a lot of mostly older people. They were taken to see it as children and, remembering the experience, took their own children. That's how so many family holiday traditions were born in the story of a broken nutcracker and the fantastical dream of a troubled little girl.

Is It Still For Kids?

The bodies of "In Cold Blood" killers Perry Smith and Richard Hickock have been exhumed in Kansas for DNA samples that could tie them to murders of a Sarasota County family.

The men were hanged for killing Herb and Bonnie Clutter and their children in Holcomb, Kan., in 1959.

Before he was voted out of the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Indiana -- and well before he was appointed Florida Commissioner of Education -- Tony  Bennett pushed for a controversial package of education initiatives that brought Indiana to the forefront of a national conversation about how to transform public schools.

And it all began with a restaurant conversation between Bennett and Indiana Board of Education member Todd Huston, who was urging him to run for superintendent.

Citizens of Florida have democratically chosen a design for their state's next license tag.

You see it here: A white plate, trimmed in green with a picture of an orange, seven letters and numbers in a new font that won't confuse traffic cameras, and letters spelling "Florida" and "Sunshine State."

The shootings in Connecticut have sparked many debates in Florida about gun control.

Meanwhile, one state leader is stepping back from comments about guns in schools.

State House Judiciary Chairman Dennis Baxley of Ocala told the Associated Press Monday gun-free zones like schools are targets for deranged people and it might be wise for teachers and principals to carry guns.

Hear what he's saying now in WLRN Miami Herald News:

Former U. S. Sen. George LeMieux was once Charlie Crist's closest confidant as his chief of staff, so valued by the ex-governor that it was Crist who appointed him to fill out the term of the retiring Mel Martinez in the Senate in 2009. 

But things have changed drastically in three years.

After an unsuccessful attempt at being elected to a Senate seat last year in the Republican primary, the Broward native is now chairman of the Gunster Law Firm in Fort Lauderdale.

The state is 'all aboard' when it comes to a new Miami to Orlando passenger train.

All Aboard Florida is a privately-funded railway that would get passengers from the Orlando airport to downtown Miami in about three hours.

For more details on the latest meeting about the project, listen to WLRN Miami Herald News.

Just as last week’s tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut reignite the national debate over gun control, Florida will soon issue its one-millionth concealed weapons permit.  And that has gun control advocates worried that what happened in Connecticut could more easily happen in the Sunshine State.

Some Florida politicians are calling for bans on assault weapons. Others want to see more people armed.

From now on, Miami Herald readers who want complete access to the paper's online edition will have to come up with some cash.

Tuesday marked the official launch of The Miami Herald Plus+ Program, which requires a subscription for unlimited use of websites and mobile apps for The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald.

Miami Herald Publisher David Landsberg says the subscription program will allow the Miami Herald to keep pace with today's 24-7 news cycle.

In April, the Sun-Sentinel launched a similar "paywall" for its online content.

If state Democrats have doubts about Charlie Crist's break with the GOP, he'll be giving them more proof on Wednesday.  

Crist will be testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Voting Rights on the impact of Florida's 2011 election law.  He will be joined by a Democratic state representative from South Carolina and a liberal advocacy group, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.  

Throughout the Great Recession, laid-off workers have been trying to improve their re-employment prospects with college training.

But, once they enroll at their local community colleges, many are finding that that their math, reading and writing skills have atrophied so much they can't continue at the college level without remedial classes.

State Representative Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, says the Newtown shooting should prompt us to re-examine our gun policies - and consider allowing more guns at school.

The Florida Current reports that Baxley, sponsor of the Stand Your Ground law and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, contends:

Florida leaders are expressing themselves, although not always clearly, after the elementary school massacre in Newtown last week.

Some Florida Democrats, including Tampa U. S. Rep. Kathy Castor, are calling for new restrictions on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.

Congressman Rich Nugent, a  Republican and former sheriff from Brooksville, says more gun control would be far less useful than identifying and treating mental illness.

Florida's governor is sounding off on the shootings in Connecticut and says he has a personal connection to the tragedy.

Gov. Rick Scott's daughter is a teacher, and he says he has friends who live near Newtown, Connecticut.

But, he says, now is not the time to talk policy.

Hear his comments to reporters in WLRN Miami Herald News:

Wendy Pedroso has never liked math, but for most of elementary school and middle school she got B’s in the subject. It wasn’t until ninth grade at Miami Southwest Senior High School, when Pedroso took algebra, that she hit a wall. In particular, she struggled with understanding fractions.

“I kept getting stuck in the same place,” Pedroso, 20, recalled recently. She failed the class, and worried that she’d never get to go to college. Pedroso sought help from tutors, took algebra again over the summer and passed. She went on to graduate from high school in 2011.

State leaders are reacting to the tragedy in Connecticut that left 20 children dead.

Some are calling for more gun control, while others would like to see more people armed.

And as you might imagine, they're split among party lines.

We break down their responses in WLRN Miami Herald News:

Governor Rick Scott is talking about the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut last week that took the lives of twenty children and six adults at an elementary school. 

Scott told the Herald/Times Tallahassee bureau his job includes taking care of 19 million people in the state, and he wants to keep them safe.

"You stop and say, 'Why do these things happen? What is the logical thing to do?' But I think right now the biggest thing is to be caring about all these families."

Scott is caring about these families because of his own personal reasons. 

As state and federal lawmakers roll out and implement the health care reform law over the next few years,  millions of people living in the U.S. who didn't have health insurance will gain insurance. However, in a state like Florida, thousands of people won't be included in those changes-- and that is because they are undocumented.

Is raising the eligibility age of Medicare part of the negotiation to avoid falling off the fiscal cliff?

Members of Florida's congressional contingent are speaking out about it.

Hear what they have to say in WLRN Miami Herald News:

Bal Harbour Police Chief Thomas Hunker remains suspended with pay today in connection with his department's far-ranging anti-drug operations that yielded no prosecutions but kept his officers flush with ready cash.

Hunker is accused of professional misconduct in a Justice Department review of the department project that sent Bal Harbour officers all over the country to pose as money launderers for drug gangs. The department operated under rules that allowed it to keep up to 80 percent of the cash after turning the rest over to the Justice department.

What are South Florida school districts doing to make sure what happened in Connecticut doesn't happen here?

Find out in WLRN Miami Herald News:

 Republican Governor Rick Scott Friday reacted to speculation that newly registered Democrat Charlie Crist will run against him in 2014. Crist, a former Republican governor who became an independent in 2010, and is now formally registered as a Democrat. Scott says the state lost hundreds of thousands of jobs and saw its debt soar during the Crist administration. "In my first two years, we've turned the corner.  Biggest drop in unemployment - it's down to 8.5 percent - and 175,000 private sector jobs. So that's what I'm doing.

From the News Service of Florida

With the U.S. Supreme Court considering same-sex marriage, President Barack Obama re-elected on a platform that included it, and the first openly gay lawmakers taking their seats in Tallahassee, gay voters say it's been a winning year.

"We've made a lot of progress, but we still have a long way to go," said Rep. David Richardson, a Miami Beach Democrat, and one of two openly gay lawmakers elected this year – the first in Florida's Legislature.

The homegrown Borscht Film Festival is underway and in its eighth incarnation now.

It started as a group of New World of the Arts high school students who shared a common love of film. They stayed in touch,

even as they scattered across the country to hone their skills.

On the Florida Roundup:  Florida has its new Education Commissioner, former Indiana Superintendent Tony Bennett.  We’ll learn why Jeb Bush fans are thrilled and the teachers unions are not. NPR’s StateImpact Florida reporter Sarah Gonzalez will tell us why many of Florida’s high school graduates are not ready for college work.  And we hear from you on Florida’s growing need for remedial education and what the purpose of high school should be.  Tweet us @WLRN.  

The Miami Beach Commission is finally going to let investors, developers and architects renovate the Beach's old and frumpy looking convention center.

The convention has been the site for some big events in the city. For example, Art Basel has been hosted at the center for the past few years. But even though some hot events are hosted there, the convention center has maintained its old and outdated look.

That's about to change, though.