United States of America
I am a freelance writer with extensive experience as a Washington news correspondent. I specialize in retirement issues, presidential and Florida politics, Congress, Cuba policy, immigration and the marine environment.
Donald Trumpthe icon, real estate mogul and reality TV star is a long-familiar national brand. But his launch as a politician arguably began at a tea party rally four years ago in Boca Raton. In April 2011, the part-time Palm Beach resident stood before a cheering throng of thousands, some chanting "Run, Donald, run."
WASHINGTON - Florida leaders are struggling to fend off mounting pressure to drill for oil off the east and west coasts, just five years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. Republican senators from Louisiana and other oil-rich states are pushing legislation in Congress that would allow rigs as close as 50 miles from Florida's Gulf Coast, encroaching on the current 125-mile buffer zone.
WASHINGTON - Dolphins are dying in unusually high numbers. Sea turtle nests are declining. Tuna are developing abnormally. And pelicans and gulls are still suffering from the lasting effects of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico five years ago, the National Wildlife Federation warned in a report released Monday.
Florida's wage gap has significantly widened since the Great Recession as a growing share of workers became stuck in low-paying jobs, a research team at Florida International University concluded in a report released Sunday. Pay for the top 10 percent of wage earners in Florida grew 25 times faster than for the bottom 10 percent from 1980 to 2014, the researchers found.
With varying success, South Florida's seaports are striving to grow wider and deeper to lure a bigger share of the increased trade expected to flow from Asia and Latin America. Port Everglades just got approval - 18 years in the making - for a federally funded dredging project.
A Supreme Court decision on Thursday upholding subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act brought relief to more than a million Floridians who depend on them to save thousands of dollars on their policies each year. Florida has the largest number of people with subsidized health insurance through the federal marketplace - 1.32 million.
Alarmed by the rising number of crashes caused by distracted drivers, Professor Daniel Raviv has invented a software program that can block a motorist from sending or receiving text messages from behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.
Sen. Marco Rubio's wavering immigration stance is getting hit from the left and the right - just as he gains traction in the presidential race. Rubio's rise has prompted closer scrutiny of his shifting position on immigration now that many establishment Republicans see him as their potential nominee in 2016.
A triple whammy will hit senior citizens in the pocketbook next year, including more than 1.2 million Floridians, unless Congress can reach a compromise to avoid it. * They won't get a yearly raise in Social Security benefits. * They face a hike in the deductible for Medicare coverage - a cost that comes out of a patient's pocket.
Florida's coral reefs and delicate marine environment could become less vulnerable to pollution from potential oil spills under a pact taking shape between the United States and Cuba. The agreement would clear the way for American companies to provide the latest blowout preventers and other pollution controls to help stave off spills in Cuban waters and contain slicks before they ride the ocean currents to Florida.