The South Florida Roundup

This week on The Florida Roundup ... The Florida Department of Education released the latest school grades for the 2016-17 year and the results are astounding . The percentage of schools that earned an "A" or "B" jumped from 47 percent the previous year to 57 percent and the number of failing schools decreased by more than half. How did school districts make such major improvements ? We ask our panel of education reporters, Kyra Gurney with The Miami Herald , The Sun-Sentinel's Scott Travis ,

This week on The Florida Roundup ... After weeks of private negotiations, Senate Republicans unveiled their Better Care Reconciliation Act , their proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act. Florida has more at stake in this debate than any other state and South Florida alone has more than 600,000 people signed up for individual coverage through the ACA this year. Many changes will come to Florida public schools under a new controversial law Gov. Rick Scott recently signed, HB 7069. The measure

This week on The Florida Round up ... Two and a half years after President Obama moved toward normalizing relations with Cuba, a new President announces changes designed to keep America money away from the Caribbean island's military complex that dominates the island's economy. President Donald Trump returns to Miami to fulfill his campaign promise to rollback his predecessor's negotiations with Havana. Read more: Trump Rolls Back 'Completely One-Sided' Cuba Policy Tighter restrictions on travel

This week on The Florida Roundup ... Ahead of last week's three-day special session, the state's top legislative leaders -Gov. Rick Scott, House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron- appeared to have reached an agreement about public spending in the new fiscal year. Read more: Gov. Scott Says He Will Sign Budget, Call Special Session The intent was a re-write of the state budget to include a boost to spending for public schools and money for job incentives and tourism

This week on The Florida Roundup ... Lawmakers will be heading back to Tallahassee for a special session to negotiate changes to next year's fiscal budget. Governor Rick Scott joined Senate President Joe Negron and House Speaker Richard Corcoran at the Miami International Airport Friday morning to announce that the legislature will return to the State capital for a three-day session, tentatively set for June 7-9 . Read more: Gov. Scott Says He Will Sign Budget, Call Special Session During the

This week on The Florida Roundup. .. President Donald Trump embarks on his first overseas trip since taking office visiting Saudi Arabia , Israel and the Vatican before meeting with NATO and the G7. The trip comes as foreign policy talk has been dominated by scandal surrounding the alleged administration links with Russia. While the White House deals with the Russia scandal, foreign policy closest to many South Floridians will have to wait . The administration has been reviewing Obama-era Cuban

This week on The Florida Roundup ... It's official: Coral Gables is the first city in Florida to enact a ban on plastic bags . Retailers are no longer allowed to supply them or they could be fined up to $500. This is just one of the new local government prohibitions on carrying containers. In July, Miami-Dade County's ban on polystyrene, the generic name for Styrofoam, in its parks goes into effect. Miami Beach banned it last fall. We get the details on the ordinance and how it may be challenged

This week on The Florida Roundup ... State lawmakers wrapped up the regularly scheduled legislative session, but they will go a few days late to allow a final vote on the budget. However, there's no guarantee Governor Rick Scott will sign the Legislature's spending plan, since it does not include any of his top priorities like spending for economic development, tourism marketing and funding to renovations for the Herbert Hoover Dike at Lake Okeechobee. So, does the $83 billion dollar budget

This week on The Florida Roundup ... Young black men in a concentration of neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County are the most common victims of gunshot wounds who are treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center. That's according a recent study from the University of Miami School Of Medicine. Researchers analyzed 11 years of data about victims of gun violence brought to Ryder and found that the number of individuals shot rose every year from 2002 to 2013. Most of the victims were shot

This week on The Florida Roundup ... With less than three weeks left to go in Florida's 2017 Legislative Session, state Senate leaders have found themselves suddenly confronted with arguably the most uncomfortable situation they've had to face in some time. Republican state former Senator Frank Artiles, R-Miami, resigned from the Florida Legislature on Friday, April 21 -- after he flung racist and sexist remarks at two African-American colleagues at a Tallahassee bar. Patricia Mazzei broke the