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Slashed pay and extreme pension cuts caused a rift between Hollywood and its police and firefighters that has lasted almost a decade. Hollywood took steps to end the feud with the city’s firefighters on Wednesday, a month after mending fences with police. A plan that would restore pension benefits at an estimated cost of $2.6 million a year won unanimous commission approval. A final vote will take place on March 20. “Long overdue,” Commissioner Peter Hernandez said before Wednesday’s... Read More

TALLAHASSEE — With plenty of breathing room before a March 15 deadline set by Gov. Ron DeSantis, House and Senate leaders are close to doing away with a state ban on smoking medical marijuana. State Sen. Jeff Brandes and state Rep. Ray Rodrigues confirmed Wednesday they’ve reached an accord on a proposal that would allow patients to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana for smoking every 35 days, ban smoking of medical marijuana in public places and allow terminally ill children to... Read More

The family of a Caracas-based American reporter who freelances for South Florida news outlets fears he has been detained in Venezuela by the embattled government of Nicolas Maduro. According to media reports, the U.S.-based relatives of journalist Cody Weddle do not know what has happened to him but they think he was detained sometime around 8 a.m. Wednesday after authorities apparently raided his home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. Weddle’s sister Kelsey McMahan said the family has... Read More

It took six weeks of allowance and an agonizing wait before Constance Ruppender had scraped together enough savings – three bucks – to buy her first Barbie doll at a Woolworths in 1959. She was beautiful, slender and everything like the doll she saw advertised on “The Mickey Mouse Club,” with late-‘50s bubble-cut hair and a Jackie Kennedy-style orange coat and gray dress. To then-8-year-old Ruppender, she was perfect. Which perhaps explains why Ruppender never stopped buying... Read More

A Coral Springs police officer was injured in a fall from a tower during a training exercise Wednesday, officials said. The officer was airlifted to the hospital with several injuries, according to fire spokesman Mike Moser. His injuries are not life-threatening, said police spokesman Tyler Reik. The tower is about 40 feet tall, but it wasn’t immediately known where the officer fell from on the tower, Reik said. The officer’s name hasn’t been released. lhuriash@sunsentinel.com,... Read More

Aspiring rapper Jamell Demons, known better by his stage name YNW Melly, has pleaded not guilty to charges he murdered his good friends Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr. in Miramar last October. Demons, 19, knew the victims since their childhood in Vero Beach, according to police. Demons’ friend, Cortlen Henry, is also charged in the murders. Both men are scheduled to appear before Broward Circuit Judge Andrew Siegel for formal arraignment later this month. Demons, Thomas... Read More

A woman in Texas doesn’t know how it happened, but her credit card company told her two men have been going on a shopping spree around Broward County using her account. Now, the Broward Sheriff’s Office is hoping someone will recognize the men seen on surveillance videos. Security cameras recorded them using a fraudulent credit card to buy more than $3,500 worth of merchandise at Publix supermarkets in November, investigators said. The thieves spent a total of $1079.53 in two trips to a... Read More

Stay up to date with this week’s local Bulletin Board listings for South Florida. Events are subject to change. Sunday Pedals Up: 8:30 a.m., March 10. Boca Raton Bicycle Club will be riding with Conte’s Bike Shop in three categories. 3150 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Guests welcome. Free; donations accepted. bocaratonbicycleclub.com Korean War Vets: 9 a.m., March 10. KWVA Chapter 17 monthly meeting; repeats on the 2nd Sunday. Weisman Community Center, 7091 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray... Read More

Endeavor Elementary School in Lauderhill had to be evacuated after someone started a small fire Wednesday morning in one of the school restrooms, fire officials said. School staff managed to quickly douse the flames with a fire extinguisher before they could spread, said Lauderhill Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Jeff Levy. “It did not trigger the sprinklers,” he said. “That’s probably a good indication of how small was.” The fire was reported about 9:23 a.m. in the school at 2701 NW... Read More

A Tamarac man is accused of stealing checks worth more than $30,000 while working in the office of the Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Courts. David Michael Santana, 24, was a court records specialist when he stole 53 checks that were intended to pay for court records, according to a Miami-Dade police arrest report. The checks totaled $30,320 and Santana is accused of depositing them into seven different personal bank accounts belonging to his girlfriend and other friends. The checks were... Read More