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Mail-in ballots are starting to go out to South Florida voters for the August primary, kicking off the first major election in the state after two controversial elections laws passed since 2020. Voters have until Aug. 13 to sign up to receive a mail-in ballot for the primary, although they can still sign up and receive a mail-in ballot in person at elections offices after that. Mail-in ballots have to be received at elections offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Aug.... Read More

Prosecutor Mike Satz gave jurors an introduction to the horror of Feb. 14, 2018, telling them, “I’m going to speak to you about the unspeakable.” Monday was the first day of the sentencing trial to determine if the confessed killer gets the death penalty or life in prison for the murder of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Advertisement “He had been planning to be a school shooter long before he moved in with the Sneads , long before his mother... Read More

FORT LAUDERDALE — The trial for confessed mass shooter Nikolas Cruz is a rare event, since most accused mass killers don’t reach a courtroom. The pre-trial jury selection and motion hearings started in April, and the trial itself is expected to last well into October. The first day of the trial, and the scheduled opening statements, showed just how much interest there is in the South Florida proceedings. More than a dozen camera crews were set up outside the Broward County Courthouse in... Read More

Fort Lauderdale’s legions of commuters have already gotten the word. But there may be some motorists, particularly out-of-town visitors, who did not. A five-day shutdown of the city’s venerable Henry E. Kinney tunnel on U.S. 1 is scheduled to start Monday as construction workers enter a key phase of a $28.4 million pedestrian plaza and improvement project. Advertisement For those who may have forgotten, the city sent reminders via email Sunday that the tunnel’s shutdown is... Read More

ENGLEWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida woman was found dead after falling in a pond and being grabbed by two alligators. The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office told news outlets that the elderly woman was seen falling into the pond along a golf course in Englewood late Friday and struggling to stay afloat. Advertisement While she was in the water, two alligators were seen grabbing her, authorities said. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Two alligators have been... Read More

SpaceX managed a record 31 launches in 2021, but its more-than-weekly pace in 2022 including a launch Sunday morning let it match that record less than seven months into the year. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 53 more of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:20 a.m. Advertisement This is the third time SpaceX used a first-stage booster for a record 13th time, with this booster having previously flown... Read More

Justice is not free. When the gunman who took 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School decided to plead guilty, a victim’s father called it “one step closer to justice.” Advertisement But it was just a step. A formality, really, considering gunman Nikolas Cruz has never made even a pretense of innocence. Guilt was never the question, fate is. And answering that question will cost Florida taxpayers millions in money that would not have been spent had he been sentenced to... Read More

The U.S. Border Patrol reported on Saturday that it had apprehended 41 Cuban migrants after multiple boat landings along the Florida coast during the day. Saturday morning, authorities said, nine migrants were taken into custody in Jupiter Island, just north of Palm Beach County, after arriving in a ramshackle rowboat. Advertisement Then, Saturday night, the Border Patrol’s chief agent, Walter N. Slosar, tweeted that 32 people had been taken into federal custody after multiple... Read More

The past four years have led Bridget Hale to consider homeschooling her kids. She hasn’t experienced anything firsthand to make her fear for her budding middle schooler’s and two elementary schoolchildren’s safety in Palm Beach County. But after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and May’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, her anxieties nonetheless climb. Hale has gone as far as planning out future rescue missions with... Read More

An outside audit could help Broward schools determine whether anyone acted unethically when awarding contracts to sell caps and gowns to graduating seniors. The school district has contracted with Carr, Riggs & Ingram, an Alabama-based accounting firm with 21 Florida locations, to review how the school district selected caps and gowns vendors both in 2016 and 2021. Advertisement “The scope of the audit will test for compliance with the District’s policies and procedures,”... Read More