Miami News (BETA)

The National Weather Service issued a brief severe thunderstorm warning for southeastern Broward County.

A Fort Lauderdale man was fatally shot in his apartment Friday, police said.

An abandoned mansion in Miami Beach once owned by the Windjammer Barefoot Cruises family was destroyed by fire Friday morning.

Lydia, the Yorkshire Terrier, survived a Pompano Beach mobile-home fire Friday evening, authorities said.

Boynton Beach police on Thursday seized 31 marijuana plants growing in a Boynton Beach man's bedroom.

Although everyone who works at Metrozoo tries to help the environment, the biggest contribution comes from the elephants. And the rhinoceroses.

The Burmese python unfurled on the grass, a long slit running down its white belly where hunters gutted it with a knife. A dot on its head marked where hunters separated the spinal column from the brain.

More than three months after her death, the autopsy report on Bernice Novack, mother of slain Fort Lauderdale businessman Ben Novack, has been put on hold by the Broward County Medical Examiner's office.

Miami Gardens police on Friday were investigating what appeared to be a double homicide, officials said. Police were called to a report of a suspicious car behind 21410 NW 40th Circle Ct. about 9 a.m.

Police are investigating whether a guest at the Hilton Miami Downtown assaulted and raped a housekeeper early Friday morning. Officer Jeff Giordano, a Miami police spokesperson, said the woman was cleaning a room in the Northeast 16th Street hotel when a stocky, neatly dressed man assaulted her.

Some seniors grab their canes to help them get around, but some are now learning how to use their canes for self-defense. "Cane-Fu" classes have started to pop up around the country, and even in South Florida in hopes of giving seniors another weapon to defend themselves against a possible criminal.

The spotlight is shining on a former South Florida shelter dog named "Clyde" who has found himself center stage at the Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre. "Clyde" is playing the role of Toto in the FLCT's production of "The Wizard of Oz."

Florida's unemployment rate continued to hover at some of the highest levels seen since 1975, standing at 10.6 percent in June. The rate jumped three-tenths of one percent since May and was up 4.6 percent compared to June 2008. Overall, 970,000 employable Floridian don't have jobs.

A date has been set, for the second time, for convicted killer Richard Marek's execution for the murder of a South Florida woman two decades ago. Marek is to be executed by lethal injection on Friday, August 21.

The mother of a teenage basketball star who was shot in the back of the head Thursday hopes a vivid description from an eyewitness saw will lead to the capture of the gunman. The witness told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that the gunman who fled from the scene is only 15 or 16 years old.

Take a look inside the $7 million Miami Beach waterfront mansion.

They share the same first and last name and in three months they'll be husband and wife.

A dramatic new surveillance video shows two masked gunmen firing a barrage of shots into a crowded Miami supermarket during a June shootout that left a man seriously injured.

The teen accused of killing his dad with a shotgun blast on Easter Sunday told police he was afraid of his father and admitted to threatening his life but insisted the shooting was an accident.

A Miami blogger uses national and local headlines to make the connection between the new stadium and job losses at Miami-Dade County.

A pregnant Miami-Dade police officer is behind bars, accused of domestic violence.

HIALEAH, Fla. -- Police in Hialeah announced they arrested a teenager accused of shooting out the windows of 33 cars in the city. On July 7, investigators said victims woke up to find their cars were damaged.

Experts say the construction industry is among those hardest hit by the recent surge in unemployment.

A man has been charged with molesting a boy at a Disney water park in Orlando.

The president of Florida Atlantic University has been appointed to the state's highest education post.

A bankruptcy judge has approved revisions to a proposed plan for WCI Communities to emerge from bankruptcy, which includes a trust account for claims against insurers or suppliers regarding defective Chinese drywall.

Fort Lauderdale-based OptimumBank Holdings flipped to a loss in the second quarter after taking a charge related to a loan on a residential property in Naples. (OPHC)

Round one goes to Mark Cuban.

Miami-Dade County commissioners will consider a measure to temporarily redirect some community redevelopment agency dollars back to the county and cities in an effort to shore up budgets.

South Florida’s three community colleges have many shovel-ready projects that could go forward with help from a $12 billion spending plan President Barack Obama announced this week.

Monroe County's proposed budget for next fiscal year totals a 4 percent reduction from the current year.

A whale shark that's been hanging around Vaca Cut apparently is injured and "is definitely in distress."

Three Marathon boaters were rescued Sunday morning following a U.S. Coast Guard search that included an area between Marathon and Key Largo that was bigger than Rhode Island -- more than 3,000 square miles.

Waves of boat-motor thefts aren't uncommon in the Upper Keys, which are easily accessible to mainland thieves who dash down, commit their crimes, then dash back north.

A 55-foot boat missed a shortcut into Whale Harbor off Islamorada, leaving the trawler grounded on a grass flat for several hours early Monday -- and nearly half a mile of seagrass damage in its wake.

When Carol Anne Burger called police just before 1 p.m. October 23, 2008, she sounded panicked. "I... I don't know if this is an emergency, but it could be," she told the 911 operator. Carol was breathing heavily. "My girlfriend didn't come home last night." She immediately rephras...

Just after 9:30 p.m., an 80-pound Belgian Malinois snarls as it traverses the bushes outside a one-story house on NW 51st Street in Liberty City. Its bared teeth glisten under the streetlights. Cotekia Stringer hopes it misses her scent. A few minutes earlier, the heavyset 23-year-old wit...

Two dads face off against two moms. It's perhaps the most unique custody battle in recent Florida history and maybe the most radical verdict. Katherine Alicea and her eight-year partner, Ana Sobrino, decided to have a baby about a half-decade ago. Again and again, they tried using sperm from anon...

In November 2007, Robbie Coy rescued a dog that was being abused. He was later charged with felony burglary. That didn't matter to him. The renegade has gained fame for such unyielding defense of the canine set. Approximately 125 formerly stray dogs roam freely on his nine-acre no-kill co...

In August 2005, Robert Word got a $175,000 county grant. The 51-year-old businessman promised to bring a culinary arts training center, a veterans' assistance program, an art gallery, and a Subway restaurant to Overtown. It never happened. Word ended up using $132,000 of the money to buy ...

There are lots of Barbies walking around in South Florida. Blond, beach-tanned, with huge knockers. But like my friend aptly put it, "Not many Kens." Well all lookalikes are invited to the Barbie & Ken Look-Alike Contest on Friday to promote the Cornell Museum of Art & American Culture's current exh...

Replacing the childish Peter Pan poster on your bedroom wall for the one of Slash in his notorious top hat signified a time of growth. Jon Bon Jovi’s close-up put puberty in overdrive. The teenage years beckoned when black light posters were all the rage; then on to college with its vintage bee...

In a town where original music is the exception, Chrystal Hartigan’s Songwriter’s Showcase , held the third Tuesday of every month, is a respite from the endless rotation of cover bands playing “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Margaritaville,” and “Brown Eyed Girl.&...

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is a stunningly beautiful movie with an equally engrossing premise: if intelligence governs the relationship between man and nature, what about man’s relationship with technology, and God? Its approach to that question is extraordinaril...

The Sunday night drag revue Trannie Palace at Bill's Filling Station has been going strong for a year now, making it the premier destination to see six-foot-tall women with shoulderspans like linebackers saunter around the stage performing everything from showtunes to feats of mysticism (not ...