News

State pest control officials are renewing the war against a versatile and destructive termite they thought they had defeated a decade ago.

But the tree termites -- mobile, airborne, prolific and voracious -- have gained a new foothold in Broward County. Experts who met Wednesday to develop a termite strategy say the insects have overrun a square mile of Dania Beach.

The usual anti-termite tactics won’t work this time, they say, because:

Miami-Dade officials have begun their investigation into why voting in Florida's largest county was such a mess earlier this month.

Consumer confidence takes a dip in the Sunshine State.  However, economists remain optimistic about Florida's future, and energy is one of the main reasons why.

This time of year, many birds from the north began migrating south for the winter. Some will stay here in South Florida while others will pass through the region on their way to the Caribbean. Increasingly, these birds are running into man-made obstacles that leave them with injured eyes, wings and beaks.

Consumer confidence in Florida dropped this month, but retailers were busy over the Thanksgiving shopping weekend. 

  Hear from an economist who isn't concerned about the decline in confidence… at least not yet.  

The stated goal of the Grameen Foundation is to help the world’s poorest  improve their lives and escape poverty by helping to provide access to financial services , such as small loans and savings account, to find  new ways to generate income and obtain important information about their health, crops and finances.

Grameen Foundation is a nonprofit founded in 1997 by friends of Grameen Bank to help microfinance practitioners spread the Grameen philosophy worldwide.

Florida advocates for liberalizing marijuana laws  felt the rush on Nov. 6 when two states, Colorado and Washington, legalized marijuana and Massachusetts approved its use for medical purposes.

So they really like their chances for their own proposed measures, two for medical and one for out-and-out legalization.

You may notice a growing buzz of activity--especially in Midtown, the Design District and Miami Beach--that signals that a week (or more) of art appreciation, parties and sensory overload is almost here. The height of activity is next Wednesday, Dec. 5 through Sunday, Dec. 9, but gallery openings and other events are already starting.

Below are are seven signs that Art Basel is upon us.

Things are changing in Tallahassee, but how much?

Republicans have lost their supermajority control of the Florida Legislature after Democrats made modest gains in both chambers in this month's elections.

What will that mean for future policy decisions and the state's unpopular governor Rick Scott?  

Why will 2013 be his most important year, and is Florida's former Gov. Charlie Crist breathing down Scott's neck? Will Crist go after his old job?

A group tasked by Governor Rick Scott with reviewing Florida's "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law is under fire from a local Democratic leader.

The panel was created to review the law after neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman fatally shot Miami Gardens teen Trayvon Martin in February.

But State Senator Chris Smith of Fort Lauderdale told Current TV host Eliot Spitzer the panel's draft report doesn't change much.

The Miami Herald's  headquarters on Biscayne Bay has been sold to a developer who wants to tear it down. Historic preservationists are working to stop the demolition, saying the hulking, boxy building is a prime example of Miami Modern architecture from the 50's and 60's. NPR interviewed demolition proponents — including  some prominent architects — who say it's a clumsy building with no sense of style and not a "MiMo" design worth saving:

A legal technicality nearly derails the prosecution's case against a Miami woman accused of killing her foster child.

A judge has denied a motion for a mistrial in the high profile case of a Miami-Dade woman, Geralyn Graham. She's accused of killing her foster child, Rilya Wilson.

Graham's defense asked for the mistrial after it was discovered that prosecutor Joshua Weintraub had his law license suspended for months after he failed to properly record legal education courses with the state bar.

Just this week, news circulated that former leaders of the Florida Republican Party have admitted that Florida's voting law was aimed at suppressing the vote this year during President Obama's reelection.

Democrats in the U.S. House are clamoring for a federal investigation.

Wind, waves and high tides have eroded the beach, wrecked the seawall and undermined the roadway along northern Fort Lauderdale beach this month and the damage is raising short-  and long-term issues for local officials.

Short, because the wave damage may require S. R. A1A north of Sunrise Boulevard to shrink permanently from four lanes to two with bad effects on tourism imagery and local convenience.

For the fourth year in a row, state lawmakers are going to take a stab at passing a law that would ban texting while driving all around the state.

State Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, has introduced the ban: Senate Bill 52. Her bill was among a small list of bills that have been introduced already for the upcoming Florida Legislative session, which starts in March 2013.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been riding a wave of popularity in the last few years. Members of the Republican Party have been clamoring for him to seek higher office as he travels around the country taking on some of the more extreme positions recently taken by members of his party.

Among his credentials, which are currently prompting all the focus, is his popularity with the Latino community and his credentials as a successful education policy innovator.

The Latino vote was one of the most talked about voting blocs this year, mostly because this demographic helped propel President Obama into his second term in office this year -- especially in important swing states such as Florida and New Mexico.

Governor Rick Scott has announced a challenge for state colleges. He wants them to offer a $10,000 bachelor's degree.

Last month, the colleges last month put out a plan to boost the number of Florida students who finish their degrees and stay in Florida.

More multicultural change is coming to Miami in time for New Year's Eve. It’s been decided the city's official end-of-the-year street party should be translated from "The Big Orange" to "La Gran Naranja."

The case that changed the way the state looks after foster children has now gone to trial as prosecutors in Miami Dade seek justice for Rilya Wilson.

Prosecutors say the five-year-old girl was killed by her foster parent, Geralyn Graham.

The girl was placed with Graham and her domestic partner in 2000. In 2002, the state discovered the child was missing. That was a year after Rilya was last seen.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has opened up voting for a new design for the state's license plates.

The department is allowing Floridians to vote for the tag design they prefer from November 26 to December 14 at Vote4FloridaTag.com.

Florida's Judicial Qualifications Commission has filed some new charges against former Miami-Dade County Judge Ana Pando.

Pando, who resigned from the bench after losing her primary campaign in August, has been under investigation for using her prestige and judicial stationery to revive a dissolved corporation headed by a friend of hers.

The Florida Public Service Commission today approved $151 million dollars in advance nuclear costs for Florida Power & Light.

 That's the total amount that FPL requested and the vote was unanimous. It means that a customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours a month will be charged $1.69 a month for the advance costs beginning in January 2013. The costs were approved despite objections from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which argues that FPL has failed to demonstrate its intent to actually build the new Turkey Point reactors.  

The Food Network-- a famous cable channel featuring popular cooking shows and competitions-- has broken into the restaurant biz, and its first location is (believe it or not) the Jet Blue terminal at Fort Lauderdale International Airport.

It's  the only restaurant serving hot food at the terminal and it has the Food Network logo plastered over every bit of the cafeteria-style decor. 

This week, you can find Bigfoot at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens... that is, a large sculpture of a man with unusually large feet.

Idan Zareski's "Bigfoot" will be unveiled on Tuesday at the Gardens. The sculpture, "Bigfoot," has already been featured in other countries all over the world. 

The whole idea behind the voting law state legislators passed in 2011 was to discourage Democratic voters.

That's the bottom line in a Palm Beach Post story by Dara Kam and John Lantigua. Although the law was presented as an urgently needed defense against voter fraud, sources including former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and former state GOP Chairman Jim Greer and some Republican campaign consultants tell the Post a very different story:

How to be normal after your 65th birthday: according to a handful of new statistics we found on Careerbuilder.com (and a few other sources), the normalest thing you can do is get a job as an embalmer in South Dakota.

A look into the City of Miami's finances this year shows the city failed to meet its own financial rules and benchmarks.

According to The Miami Herald, "Miami failed to comply with eight of its 13 financial standards in the 2010-11 budget year, according to an internal audit published late last month."

Among the shortcomings:

Alarming beach erosion continues in South Florida thanks to Hurricane Sandy.

Experts in erosion say the damage is the worst in Broward and Palm Beach counties.