For the nation's top nuclear regulator, lapses by security guards at the Turkey Point power plant took a back seat Tuesday to concerns about its overworked reactor operators.
MIAMI-DADE | DEVELOPMENT
Adding a new wrinkle to the debate over sprawl and the South Florida environment, the chairman of the Miami-Dade Commission wants to draw a permanent development boundary in rural West Dade.
MIAMI-DADE SCHOOLS
Increasing the size of gifted and physical education classes, reducing magnet school budgets and having school police work fewer days are among the most recent budget cut ideas being considered by the Miami-Dade school district for next year.
CHARITY
With the economy down and needs up for the homeless, the hungry and the elderly, donations to South Florida churches and other religious institutions are straining to keep up with soaring needs, leaders say.
The former President Bush calls him ''Zach,'' and the Bush currently in the White House calls him ``Zee Zee.'' He has been a repeat guest at the family's Crawford ranch, the White House and on Air Force One.
SOUTH FLORIDA
Plucking birds from their nests sometimes brings Cameron Fritzson a few bucks. This week, it almost cost him his life. Fritzson, 20, was in critical condition Tuesday, a day after nearly being electrocuted while trying to capture monk parakeets from atop a Florida Power & Light tower in Pembroke Pines.
WEST-MIAMI DADE
Shots were fired during Tuesday night's rush hour into a vehicle where a baby girl slept in her car seat. The child was not hurt, but her father, who was driving, was struck in the chest area. He was driving a Nissan on West Flagler Street at Southwest 79th Avenue about 5 p.m. when the shots were fired.
MIAMI COMMISSION
Miami commissioners Tuesday gutted the city's planning protections for the Miami River's dwindling marine industry, a move industry advocates fear could hasten the replacement of well-paying shipping jobs with high-rise residential development.
CRIME
When he was first arrested at 12, Steven William Bell was accused of pocketing four video games at Target worth $89.96. In January, Bell was cuffed again -- after police said they found three baggies of rock cocaine and $15 in his pocket.
DOWNTOWN MIAMI
Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero on Tuesday gave a brief history lesson about his life, the United States and Cuba to dramatize how vital an independent judiciary is to a democratic society.
WEST MIAMI-DADE
Wielding a knife, a burly 21-year-old named Reggie Ponce De Leon burst into a West Miami-Dade storage company Tuesday morning and demanded cash, police said.
MIAMI-DADE MAYORAL ELECTION
An unexpected endorsement on Tuesday appears to bring Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez closer to an easy cruise into reelection. Bruno Barreiro, chairman of the County Commission, told a South Beach civic group he is ''committed'' to Alvarez.
MORTGAGE CRISIS
Nubia Agudelo and her husband were facing foreclosure and everyone they turned to refused to help them with their loan. ''We were paying $3,000 a month on two mortgages,'' said Nubia Agudelo, 50, of her four-bedroom, two-bath house in Pembroke Pines. She paid $300,000 for it in 2006.
Dean, Felix and Noel are off the list of storm names. A hurricane committee voted to retire those names Tuesday because they were three of the most devastating storms of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season.
There was real blood on the set of rapper Rick Ross' video shoot in Miami for Here I Am: Loxahatchee wildlife trainer Mark McCarthy was bitten on the leg by his white tiger Sabi, who was in a scene as Ross' pet.
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No Miami-Dade schools will be closed and converted into other uses to save money -- for now. The public school district plans to spend the next several months figuring out which 11 underenrolled schools to close, using criteria including student test scores, the conditions of school buildings, housing trends and parent involvement in an effort to save $11 million.
WEATHER
After sweating it out through Monday, the National Weather Service promises South Florida a cool reward for Tuesday: ''A beautiful spring day is expected,'' the forecast notes, ``with clear skies and temperatures roughly 10 degrees cooler than what has recently been experienced.''
CUBAN JUDO TEAM
The Cuban contingent that competed in last week's Pan American Judo Championships left Miami for Havana by way of Panama City on Monday afternoon without gold-medal-winning judoka Yurisel Laborde, who left the group Sunday afternoon.
