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Transportation
7:00 am
Mon April 29, 2013

County Sees Ripple Effect From New Ft. Lauderdale Streetcar

Credit wavestreetcar.com
An artist's rendering which depicts a section of the new Wave streetcar route for downtown Fort Lauderdale.

More than four years ago, when Congress passed the Obama stimulus, nobody in Fort Lauderdale would have imagined that a ripple effect from the legislation might become a "Wave" for Broward County commuters and businesses.

"This is the beginning," said Diana Alarcon, director of the city's transportation and mobility department, smiling as she described the new Wave streetcar project for downtown Fort Lauderdale during a recent public workshop in Oakland Park.

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Archaeology
6:00 am
Mon April 29, 2013

More Evidence Of Tequesta Civilization Unearthed Near Miami River

Credit Nathaniel Sandler
The Third Avenue Circle, pictured with archeologist Ray Skinner and FIU archeology student Adrian Espinoza

Two months ago, twelve dump trucks bursting with dirt and fill from a downtown Miami construction site made their way to the Everglades Outpost, an animal rescue facility in Florida City.

Barbara Tansey, the facility’s owner and overseer is slowly sifting through the remnants looking for clues. Though volunteers occasionally come to help, at some moments the elderly Tansey is entirely on her own, tirelessly sifting in hopes of revealing any artifact.

It should be mentioned that twelve truckloads is an insane amount of dirt.

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Bike Culture
5:40 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

Ditch Your Car And Ride A B-Cycle

Credit hollywodmargaritaville.com
Broward B-Cycle offers commuters a chance to ditch their cars for short trips around various county locations.

Riding a bike is a childhood right of passage.  As we age, we move from tricycle to bike with training wheels to classic two-wheeler. But at some point we shift from bikes to the expanded mobility of owning a car.

Kathryn Moore, program manager at Broward B-Cycle, thinks people should consider going back to the basics when it comes to getting around downtown Fort Lauderdale.

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Food
8:02 am
Fri April 26, 2013

Exploring Coffee's Past To Rescue Its Future

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 6:59 pm

At the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Education (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica, you can touch the history of coffee — and also, if the optimists have their way, part of its future.

Here, spread across 25 acres, are coffee trees that take you back to coffee's origins.

"The story starts in Africa, no? East Africa," says Eduardo Somarriba, a researcher at CATIE, as we walk through long rows of small coffee trees.

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Corporate Run 2013
12:11 pm
Thu April 25, 2013

Thousands To Take Part In Miami's Mercedes-Benz Marathon

Credit facebook.com/mercedesbenzcorporaterun
This year's Corporate Run logo.

Up to 20,000 runners and walkers are expected to take part in Thursday evening’s annual Mercedes-Benz Corporate Run through downtown Miami — and that means street closures.

The race officially begins at 6:45 p.m. It concludes around 8 p.m. at Bayfront Park, but some closures on Biscayne Boulevard could begin as early as 2 p.m.

Motorists are encouraged to take alternate routes. Residents that live in the area will be allowed access on a “local traffic only” basis.

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Food
9:44 am
Thu April 25, 2013

The Rise Of Women In The Coffee World

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 2:46 am

The inspiration for NPR's Coffee Week arrived in an email last summer. I had just reported on the growing Third-Wave Movement in Coffee, and the burgeoning interest in coffee cuppings.

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Entrepreneurship
6:00 am
Thu April 25, 2013

Get Rid Of Your Junk With A College Hunk

Credit Steve Boxall
Miami franchise owners Christopher Poore (left) and Ron Rick (right).

Twenty-three-year-old Christopher Poore opens the door with a warm and welcoming smile. He turns and walks back into his new office. A lounge area with couches and a wooden table are off to one side in front of a wall painted bright orange and green, the colors of his alma mater. 


His business partner Ron Rick ,23, enters the room sporting a buzz cut and green polo shirt with a muscle man logo on it. The two are laid-back entrepreneurs who became friends as undergraduates at the University of Miami.

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Great Outdoors
12:34 pm
Wed April 24, 2013

Florida's National Parks Are Free Through April 26

Credit Wikimedia Commons
Sunrise on Long Pine Key Nature Trail.

In celebration of National Parks Week, every national park in the United States is free of charge through Friday, April 26.

These include Everglades National Park and the Dry Tortugas National Park off of Key West.

For a complete list of Florida's National Parks, go to the website by clicking here.

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Food
11:19 am
Wed April 24, 2013

How Coffee Influenced The Course Of History

Credit Hulton Archive / Getty Images
An overseer sits in the shade while workers collect coffee beans on a Brazilian plantation, circa 1750.

Originally published on Wed April 24, 2013 12:32 pm

Coffee is a powerful beverage. On a personal level, it helps keep us awake and active. On a much broader level, it has helped shape our history and continues to shape our culture.

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History
11:06 am
Wed April 24, 2013

New Plan Preserves Jackie Gleason Theater In Miami Beach

Credit facebook.com/SaveTheFillmore
The Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach

One of the most contentious aspects of the plan to redevelop the Miami Beach Convention Center has been settled: The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater will stay.

The theater had been slated for demolition by Portman-CMC, one of the two teams still in the running for the massive overhaul project. But with music and history lovers lined up in support of saving the theater, the team said that its plan has changed.

“We listened to the community,” said Jack Portman, vice chairman of Portman Holdings and John Portman & Associates.

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Food
10:34 am
Wed April 24, 2013

Going The Distance To Test Those Feel-Good Coffee Labels

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 11:29 am

What does it take to find guilt-free coffee?

Much of our coffee comes from places where the environment is endangered and workers earn very little — sometimes, just a few dollars for a whole day's work. Coffee farmers have helped cut down tropical forests, and most of them use pesticides.

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Nature
8:30 am
Tue April 23, 2013

Father Saves Boy From Alligator Attack With Stranger's Help

Originally published on Tue April 23, 2013 3:05 pm

A 6-year-old boy's day off from school Friday left him with a vivid story to tell his classmates, after he was seized — and eventually released — by an alligator in South Florida. The attack occurred at a wildlife refuge near Boynton Beach, Fla., where Joseph Welch had taken his son, Joey, for a canoe ride.

As Welch, a native of Rhode Island who now lives in Pompano Beach, says in a Morning Edition interview airing Tuesday, his idea had been to do "something new and different."

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