Sundial

The Miami City Ballet has become one of America's leading dance companies in the last three decades. And Edward Villella was an essential part of that. The legendary dancer is one of the company's founders and a former star performer in the New York City Ballet . Villella based the style of the Miami company on dance he learned from New York City Ballet founder and choreographer George Balanchine . Villella says he wanted to pass on the knowledge he learned from Balanchine to all future dancers.

Protestors want to see the end of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's dictatorship. This week, four more people died in confrontations between Nicaraguan security forces and protesters. Roughly 300 people have been killed since protests began in April, prompting international condemnation and calls for Ortega to step down. Sundial talked to WLRN’s Latin American reporter Tim Padgett about the violence in Nicaragua. The former artistic director of Miami City Ballet returns to South Florida to

Daniel Oates is the Miami Beach Police Chief. He has been following an ongoing investigation about a Miami Beach resident who was trying to burn down his condo unit . The resident claimed he wanted to kill all the Jews in the building. Chief Oates joins Sundial to tell us about the investigation and explain a new policy that stations police officers at schools in Miami-Dade for the upcoming school year. CNN's Latin correspondent Leyla Santiago has been following the groundbreaking coverage in

On July 13, Walter Edward Stolper, a Nazi sympathizer, was caught in the act of pouring gasoline around his Miami Beach condo unit with the intent of igniting it. He was originally charged with attempted arson, but that was elevated to attempted murder. Miami Beach Police Chief Daniel Oates says the case is likely to be considered a hate crime. "[Stolper's] got two very powerful prosecution teams, the state and the feds looking at him," Oates said Wednesday on Sundial. "And again we avoided a

Shortly after his mother died in 1987, Brian Gordon Sinclair stumbled upon a copy of “A Farewell To Arms,” Ernest Hemingway's famous novel set during World War I. Sinclair fell in love with the writing and knew he wanted to learn more about the author. Sinclair dove into the life of the wartime journalist, world traveler and adventurer. He has since written seven plays from Hemingway's perspective and one has been turned into a film, called “The Hemingway Chronicles: Life and Death in Key West.”

Former Village of Biscayne Park Police chief Raimundo Atesiano and two former Biscayne Park police officers have been charged with pinning burglaries on a teenager who didn’t commit them. Last week, the Miami Herald found that the department was arresting people of color in order to improve or show “perfect stats.” The former police chief has denied the charges. Miami Herald reporter Charles Rabin appeared on Sundial to discuss the internal review of the department’s practices. Sixty-two percent

The Everglades Foundation is kicking off a campaign to include the Everglades Reservoir in this year’s federal Water Resources Development Act bill. The reservoir is designed to move water away from Lake Okeechobee and reduce the spread of the discharge causing the toxic algae blooms on both coasts. The announcement comes days after Governor Rick Scott declared a State of Emergency as a result of the toxic algae blooms. Dr. Steven Davis is the chief ecologist at the Everglades Foundation. He

Last week, Gov. Rick Scott ordered a state of emergency for seven counties around Lake Okeechobee as a result of toxic algae blooms. Now the Army Corps of Engineers is releasing water from the lake because the algae has spread to both Florida coasts, hurting home values, tourism and local businesses. The Everglades Foundation is kicking off a campaign to include the Everglades Reservoir in this year’s federal Water Resources Development Act bill. The reservoir would be designed to move water

There are a variety of mangoes found around South Florida: Haden, Mulgoba and East India, Julie. Experts say that the first mangoes arrived to the city in the 1700s--from pirates. Now the fruits are celebrated through mango festivals around the city, in Biscayne Park , Fairchild Botanical Gardens and Coral Gables . How did this delicious, blush-red, tropical fruit get so popular in South Florida? Dr. Noris Ledesma , a self-described "mango maniac," has written more than 30 academic journals and

In a new study from the University of Florida , Florida Hospital and the Obesity Action Coalition , researchers looked at the health data of 9 million Floridians and found that 37 percent of Floridians are considered obese. That is 10 percent higher than the national average, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The research breaks down obesity rates among different ethnic groups and geographic regions in the state. The study found that African Americans and Hispanics both have a higher