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Few Donald Trump campaign promises have caused as much anxiety as his draconian plan for a mass deportation of all undocumented or removable immigrants — as many as 13 million people — which could affect a million people living and working in Florida. Now that former President Trump is, again, President-elect Trump, that prospect has undocumented migrants like Maria of Miami in a high state of dread. “Right now everybody is at risk, everybody is in danger," said Maria. "What will happen to thousands like me that have been here for decades?” Maria, who asked WLRN not to use her last name, came to the U.S. as a computer student after Hurricane Mitch destroyed her native Nicaragua in 1998. She arrived too late to apply for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which shields migrants from disaster- or conflict-torn countries from deportation. Since then, Maria has worked, paid taxes — and hoped the federal government would extend lawful TPS designation to tens of thousands of Nicaraguan migrants like her, especially now that Nicaragua is ruled by a brutal dictatorship. “If I have to go back to Nicaragua, it’s going to be horrible," Maria said. "I’m not even sure if [the dictatorship there] is going to let me in" since it has stripped many expats of their Nicaraguan citizenship in recent years — leaving those like Maria essentially without a country. That’s why Maria is imploring President Biden to grant that additional TPS protection to Nicaraguans before he leaves office — and Trump occupies the White House — in January. “People are scared," Maria said, in tears. "People are calling me and telling me, ‘What can we do?’ And I have no answers.” But even receiving TPS may not be the answer to that angst, as migrants like Daniela know all too well. "I'm very, very nervous that TPS will be taken from me as soon as Trump is President," said Daniela, who is from Venezuela — itself under a brutal dictatorship and the worst humanitarian crisis in modern South American history. Tap the link below to continue reading. Story by Tim Padgett. ?? Matias J. Ocner/The Miami Herald

When cruise ships lumber into Key West’s shallow harbor, they can sometimes churn up a storm of sediment more potent than a hurricane, new monitoring by the city shows. A year’s worth of tracking by the College of the Florida Keys found 32 events where turbidity measurements not only exceeded limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency but often reached levels above what hurricanes like Helene and Milton generate when they pass by, according to Patrick Rice, principal investigator for marine research at the college. “There's 32 events that exceed those turbidity standards over the past year. So it's like having 32 hurricanes, basically,” Rice told city commissioners during an update last week. “And none of those 32 events were an actual hurricane?” asked Commissioner Monika Haskell. “No,” Rice responded. “Those were all associated with the cruise ships.” Key West hired Rice to monitor turbidity, which can damage sea life including coral and seagrass, after state lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis pre-empted a local effort to limit massive ships sailing into the port where channels are only about 34 feet and most ships have a draft of 27 feet. Port Miami, by comparison, is between 50 and 52 feet deep. The city has since enacted its own ordinance on a city-owned docks, limiting ship arrivals to one a day at the only privately owned Pier B. In March, DeSantis and the cabinet agreed to expand the lease space at Pier B for 25 years to allow larger ships. The city launched the study as part of an effort to improve water quality with a citywide master plan to better protect waters around Key West and several smaller islands within city limits. In addition to turbidity monitoring, testing will also begin for chemicals found in sunscreens. An effort to ban sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate was also overturned by DeSantis. Other testing will look for evidence of sewer discharges in waters and potential leaching from an old landfill on Stock Island. Tap the link below to continue reading. Story by Jenny Staletovich. ?? Safer, Cleaner Ships

Late last month, Puerto Rico's governor race looked like a double-digit blowout for the incumbent party. But on Tuesday it turned out to be a closer, single-digit result — and a historic showing for a traditionally also-ran party — thanks in no small part to the ugly rhetoric about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally last week. With a little more than 80% of the vote counted Tuesday night, Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico's non-voting representative in the U.S. Congress, was leading left-wing challenger Juan Dalmau by a 40% to 32% margin — after Dalmau had drawn neck-and-neck with her in the most recent voter poll. In Puerto Rico, the U.S.’s largest Caribbean island territory, political parties aren’t divvied up as Republican or Democrat. They’re demarcated instead along pro-territory, pro-statehood and pro-independence lines — and the latter has traditionally run a distant third. González, the candidate of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP), had been leading Dalmau by 20 points in voter polls in October. But then came the vile comments about Puerto Rico — such as “a floating island of garbage” — from speakers at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden campaign rally in New York on Oct. 27. González, who is Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative in Congress, suddenly saw her lead in a new poll last week cut to two points — 31% to 29% for Dalmau, the candidate of the island’s Independence Party (PIP) and its pro-independence coalition. (Running third was Jesús Manuel Ortiz of the Popular Democratic Party, or PDP, which favors the pro-territory, or commonwealth, status quo.) The Trump campaign’s insults seemed to help unlock a store of pro-independence sentiment on the island. And it also appeared to stoke ill will toward the ruling PNP. Tap the link below to continue reading. Story by Tim Padgett. ?? Alejandro Granadillo/AP

Moderated by Jenny Staletovich, environment reporter for WLRN, the NPR affiliate in Miami, each Climate Café will feature Rosenstiel School and collaborating scientists, graduate students, and local stakeholders that will break down Jenny's Bright Lit Place Podcast. Speaking on the history on the Everglades and restoration efforts as well as, what's next, the future of the everglades. Accoding to the podcast, the U.S. Congress set out on one of the most ambitious environmental projects ever attempted: to wind back the clock and make the Everglades function like it once did — in 1900. The plan could have given Florida a 20-year head start on climate change, but that didn't happen. The two-part discussion on the CERP will cover the plan’s inception stages to the current state of the restoration process, to present day to determine the best path forward. The podcast is part of the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative. ?? Don’t miss this FREE event! ?? Register now to save your spot! https://buff.ly/4fh9jGa #WLRN #WLRNPodcasts #BrightLitPlace #Everglades #EvergladesRestoration

Once a crucial battleground state, Florida has turned deep red. That shift was cemented Tuesday night when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won Florida for the third consecutive election, earning the state's 30 electoral votes. Incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Scott crushed his Democratic opponent. The Associated Press called both races at 8:01 p.m. almost immediately after polls closed statewide. As for local, state and congressional races, voters saw a slew of reelections down the ballot. WLRN reporters were stationed at watch parties across South Florida. We've compiled a roundup of the key results from the 2024 general election. Tap the link to read the full story: https://buff.ly/3YUQov8

No, you’re not hallucinating — you may have actually seen comically large flamingos casting their ballots in front of the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections headquarters. The civic-minded flamboyance made their voices heard. Well, kind of. The towering 27-feet fiberglass and steel flamingos — three of them standing between one empty voting booth — are part of a colorful, eye-catching public art display by the county to spur voter participation. In front of the county supervisor of elections building in West Palm Beach, the pink birds are seen casting ballots in oversized voting booths a few feet lower in height — a metaphor for the magnitude of this year’s presidential election between leading candidates Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald J. Trump. The installation is designed for both voters and people passing by. “Some people ride bicycles, some people walk, but the majority go by car,” Matthew Mazzotta told WLRN. “So I wanted something that you could read really quickly as you're going to this voting place or as you're passing by maybe on that street. So I wanted to have it large.” Just as large as the number of county residents showing up. Early voting turnout in Palm Beach County has been strong, with 50% of registered voters —approximately 450,000 people — have already cast their ballots for local, state and federal elections. Mazzotta, whose public art projects have earned numerous international awards, told WLRN he blends art and activism to explore how the built environment influences interpersonal relationships and physical experiences. The $750,000 installation, titled, "VOTE" highlights the deep connection between public art and politics — he took early artistic influences from punk music and various modes of expression that coalesce social commentary with aesthetics. Florida flamingos, of course, can’t actually vote. But that’s the point, Mazzotta explains. The native New Yorker said that the flamingos in this project represent the voiceless individuals unable to vote. Tap the link below to continue reading. Story by Wilkine Brutus. ?? Robin Hill

Downtown Miami’s brutalist, concrete-filled architecture left an impression on screenwriter and filmmaker Bernando Britto as a kid. He grew up across the county line, in Weston, but often visited his father at work, where he was struck by Miami’s tall white buildings against the bright blue skies and the deserted ambiance of the city’s downtown after 5 p.m. This tropical, brutalist backdrop is something also present in Britto’s native S?o Paulo, Brazil, but the downtown Miami of his adolescence is what Britto tried to convey in his new science fiction feature film “Omni Loop,” now available for streaming. “I wanted to capture a sort of emotional truth of the city or something that spoke to almost my imagination of my memory of being a child in the city,” said Britto. In Omni Loop, a quantum physicist named Zoya, played by Mary-Louise Parker, finds herself in a time loop, with a black hole growing in her chest. She teams up with Miami Dade College student Paula, played by "The Bear’s" Ayo Edebiri, to try to unlock the mysteries of time travel. “I was always just really into the idea of doing a science fiction movie that didn't shy away from the kind of bright blue skies and the weather of the city,” said Britto. “In fact, I use that so we could contrast the kind of coldness of those lab environments in the school.” The film’s title, "Omni Loop", is named after a Miami-Dade County Metromover line, the free electric people moving system that connects downtown and its nearby neighborhoods, like Brickell and Park West. It was while riding the Metromover, where a lot of the important pieces of the film came together for Britto, like the film’s title, the main character’s name and where she’d be going in certain scenes. “The name is so sci-fi … it's such a big name for something that is a little bit dinky,” said Britto. “[It] kind of just goes around a circle … and this sort of idea of this like infinite loop, but really all it does is take businessmen to other places to eat lunch or something, that's that kind of absurd contrast that I find really interesting.” Tap the link below to continue reading. Story by Sherrilyn Cabrera. ?? Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

At the Sounds of Little Haiti event this month, as South Florida Haitians arrived at the Little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami, they were greeted by music urging them in Creole to vote in the Nov. 5 presidential election. It's a call that's become louder in recent weeks — thanks to former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump's repeated and reprehensible lie, which he shouted at the presidential debate in September, that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, had killed and eaten residents’ pets. That outrage has provoked a South Florida ad campaign, complete with billboards, urging Haitians to vote against Trump and for Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. And at the Sounds of Little Haiti event, it weighed heavily on Haitian-Americans' minds, especially considering the violent threats Haitians in Springfield and elsewhere have faced this fall. "I didn't think that in this day and age," said Laura Levros of Miramar, "this man in his campaign would resort to caveman ways to harm our community." But for Haitian-Americans like Levros, the urgency to vote is also stoking a desire to someday get voted in. Levros is finishing her bachelor's degree in technology project management at Broward College. But another goal is to run for government office, not just local but state and federal. And the abuse that she's watched the more than a million Haitians in the U.S. confront now has made that objective all the more urgent. “Having more elected officials ensures that we have a seat at the table," Levros told WLRN. "When we’re talking about immigration issues and rhetoric like that, who’s going to take care of you then? We can ensure that we’re represented in those conversations.” Tap the link below to continue reading. Story by Tim Padgett. ?? Rebecca Blackwell/AP

In WLRN's podcast, Bright Lit Place, we take a look at the science, politics and planning that have gone into restoration efforts over the last 30 years. Repairing wetlands drained to pave the way for modern South Florida could have given the state a head start fighting climate change. Instead, work is years away from completion. Join award-winning WLRN environment reporter Jenny Staletovich, for a discussion about how things are going, and what's left to be done. Panelists include Florida Atlantic’s Interim Director of the School of Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sustainability Dr. John D. Baldwin; National Parks Conservation Association’s Greater Everglades Associate Director Cara Capp; and Director, Environmental Sciences Program and Assistant Scientist, Department of Biological Sciences, Dr. Michelle Petersen. ?? Don’t miss this FREE event at FAU! Light bites and continued conversation will follow. ?? Register now to save your spot! https://buff.ly/4f3Kiy6 #WLRN #WLRNPodcasts #BrightLitPlace #Everglades #EvergladesRestoration

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