Kerry Sheridan

As the number of coronavirus cases in Florida continues to grow exponentially, some predictive models show things could get bad, fast. Many hospitals are gearing up for a possible surge in sick patients.

The Clearwater City Council voted Wednesday 4-1 to close public beaches for two weeks over fears of coronavirus -- but the order doesn't begin until Monday morning.

Coronavirus has upended daily life, and for those who care for children, it can be hard to know what to say, or how to explain. WUSF’s Kerry Sheridan spoke with Dr. Judith Bryant, a USF professor of psychology who specializes in child development, for advice on answering their toughest questions.

Local public schools are preparing for online learning in case they have to close due to coronavirus.

Coastal flood zones across Florida are changing, and many property owners across Florida are seeing their flood risk go up – or down – for the first time in 40 years.

These Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maps recalculate the risk of what’s often called a 100-year flood.

A prominent Sarasota infectious disease doctor has placed himself in self-quarantine at home after he treated a Manatee County man with coronavirus last week, officials said Wednesday.

Local hospitals are preparing for the possibility of a surge in coronavirus cases. At Sarasota Memorial Hospital, officials on Tuesday said about a dozen people are awaiting test results for coronavirus, after testing negative for flu and other common viruses that cause similar symptoms including coughing, fever and shortness of breath.

One of the confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Tampa Bay area is a patient who has no recent history of travel. 

The man is in his 60s, and is a resident of Manatee County. His name has not been released.

Hillsborough County Schools formally approved a contract for its new superintendent Tuesday.

Addison Davis will be paid $310,000 per year. That's $85,000 more than his predecessor, Jeff Eakins.

NPR has launched the second annual Student Podcast Challenge, which invites students in 5th through 12th grade to submit their own podcast for a chance to have it air on NPR.

More than a hundred, mostly retired, part-time musicians from around the country gathered last week in Sarasota to revive what some fear is a dying art – live circus music. These elder musicians hope to pass the mantle to a younger generation of performers.

A decades-old sex abuse investigation into a retired Sarasota pastor is raising questions about Florida's statute of limitations law and how it affects a victim's search for justice.

When police arrested Henry Porter earlier this month, they said they knew about his alleged victims for years. But the statute of limitations prevented them from making an arrest.

Poverty has long been an obstacle to reading. A new program called the Big Plan aims to boost reading scores by giving extra, individual attention to a select group of young readers who are close to reading at their grade level, but not quite there.

Women are making gains in the boardroom. More than 20 percent of boardroom seats across the country are now held by women, up from an average of 17.7 percent in 2018.

Whenever asked about her secret to longevity, the answer is not one that’s generally expected.

Holiday traditions take shape in many forms, and this week on Florida Matters, we take a look at some of our WUSF staff's favorite family holiday traditions.  

Hundreds of people gathered at a candlelight vigil Monday night, running 800 meters in honor of Mohammed Haitham, a 19-year-old former track star and aspiring pilot from St. Petersburg who was killed in a mass shooting at Pensacola Naval Base earlier this month. 

Nineteen-year-old Mohammed Haitham was one of three people killed on Friday at the Pensacola Naval Base. Over the weekend, family and friends remembered the St. Petersburg native as an avid runner who loved to make others laugh, and who had recently decided to follow in his mother's footsteps by joining the military.

Fifty years ago, a college football game in Tampa helped change the course of race relations in America. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 29, 1969, a predominantly white school played an all black university in the Deep South for the first time.

 Editors Note: This story originally aired on July 31, 2019

Sailing on a research cruise in the Gulf of Mexico last month to study deep sea creatures that make their own light – like jellyfish, anglerfish and shrimp – a team of scientists worked long hours and grabbed naps when they could.

One day, around noon, University of South Florida St. Petersburg marine biologist Heather Judkins was about to doze off for a couple of hours when she heard a knock on the door.

“I love pods of dolphins. But I was like, I hope they are not waking me up for a pod of dolphins,” Judkins recalled.