South Florida Family Wins Right to Drill for Oil in Everglades

The Florida Everglades sure seem like a place where oil rigs don’t belong. The unique habitat contains tons of endangered species — and humans have demonstrably corrupted it enough already. But today, Florida’s First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee ruled that an investment company in Broward County…

New Bill Would Ban Smoking on Florida Beaches

Two years ago, when Miami Beach commissioners wanted to reduce smoking on city beaches, they had only one option: asking nicely. Florida is one of a few states where municipalities cannot regulate tobacco use, so the commission created voluntary smoke-free areas at Fifth Street and 86th Street, where pastel-colored…

FPL Wins State Approval to Build New Natural-Gas Power Plant in South Florida

The United Nations recently told everyone on Earth to stop emitting carbon dioxide into the air by 2050. Despite this warning, Florida Power & Light (FPL), the largest energy company in the Sunshine State, is now all but definitely building a fracked-gas-burning power plant in Dania Beach. Today, Florida’s Siting Board, a panel consisting of Gov. Rick Scott and his cabinet, unanimously approved FPL’s $888 million plan.

New Lawsuit Challenges Rick Scott’s Last-Minute Help to Big Sugar

Rick Scott has been a friend to the deadly red tide that has killed millions of fish, fouled beaches in Southwest Florida, and even endangered Miami’s multibillion-dollar tourist industry. He has cut environmental regulation and limited crackdowns on sugar companies that dump fertilizer into the groundwater, which is the root…

Late-Season Storm Forms in the Atlantic

A late-season storm forming in the Atlantic has a 90 percent chance of evolving into something more serious, the National Hurricane Center reports. “The disturbance is forecast to move westward to west-northwestward for the next few days, passing near or north of the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and…

Global Warming Will Bake Florida’s Outdoor Workers, Study Warns

Climate change will hurt working-class and poor communities the hardest. Monsoons and absurd levels of heat are already battering huge portions of India, for example. Closer to home, much has already been written about “climate gentrification” in Miami — that is, the process by which wealthier people are buying…

Panama City’s Poor Suffer Most in Michael’s Aftermath

Hurricane Michael ripped a hole in the roof of Amy Bauer’s tiny apartment in Springfield, a poor Panama City neighborhood. An administrative assistant in her early 50s who gets paid by the hour, she met the storm with no cash on hand, no extra food, no batteries, no flashlights…