Tom Hudson

Arnold Donald admits there were gaps in how the world's largest cruise ship operator followed environmental rules.

"Clearly there were some gaps in this system," Donald told WLRN's Sunshine Economy during a recent interview in his office at Carnival's headquarters in Doral. It was Donald's first public comment since agreeing to pay a $20 million fine and plead guilty to six violations of the company's probation in June.

It’s almost six months into Gov. Ron DeSantis’s first term, and the biggest shift from the Rick Scott administration has been his focus on the environment.

Business from cannabis is growing fast in Florida; some of it regulated tightly, and some of it without rules. But all of it comes with cash that the banking industry is reluctant to touch. 

The first legal industrial hemp seeds in decades are growing now in South Florida soil.

CBD is showing up in ice cream, gummy bears and cocktails, but the state says the products are illegal.

The Florida Cabinet is planning to hold its next meeting in Israel next month.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said the trip’s main purpose is to promote investment in the state.

The Florida International University community marked Friday one year since the devastating bridge collapse that killed six people — including a student and a bridge worker.

The school held a memorial service, and a moment of silence took place at 1:47 p.m., the time of the collapse.

The 2019 legislative session begins Tuesday. Over 60 days, lawmakers will tackle the states’ biggest issues, including school safety, education and health care.

Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said he wants schools in his county to be the safest in the nation.

His pledge comes one year after 17 students and staff members were murdered, and another 17 were injured, during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Florida's largest health insurer has seen a 45 percent drop in opioid prescriptions since it stopped paying for OxyContin.

It has been almost a year since Florida Blue announced that it would no longer provide prescription payments for the popular painkiller and would require advanced permission for any opioid prescription lasting longer than seven days.

It replaced OxyContnin in its drug plans with a different opioid, Xtampza. That drug is designed to be more difficult to crush, making it tougher to snort or inject.

Better law enforcement and stronger school security are the big takeaways from the draft report released this week by the state commission investigating the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

It’s been almost 10 months since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. In addition to the wave of student activism, there’s been an effort to understand the events that led to Feb. 14 massacre.

According to The Sun Sentinel, the Broward County school district knew more than it let on. It found the district hired lawyers and public relations consultants to keep information from the public. 

Gambling in Florida is a perennial issue for politicians and the public. It will be on this fall’s ballot for voters in two forms. One proposed constitutional amendment would ban greyhound racing. The other question is much larger: should voters have the exclusive right to expand gambling? If approved by at least 60 percent of voters, it would take that power away from state lawmakers.

Spirit Airlines is a major economic force in South Florida: it is the second largest carrier at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport; it is a top five employer in Broward County with more than 3,000 regional employees; and it is one of the largest South Florida companies with more than $2.5 billion in annual revenue.

Between summer 2015 and 2016, kids under the age of 18 in Florida were subjected to an involuntary psychiatric exam 32,000 times – almost a 50 percent increase over five years.

This year is six weeks shorter than last year.

Not on the calendar, or course, but there are six fewer weeks this year for people getting their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act -- otherwise known as Obamacare or ACA-- to sign up for 2018.

Hurricane Irma was the strongest storm to hit Florida in more than a decade.

Irma was an epic storm. It was stronger and bigger than almost all hurricanes on record and lasted longer than any storm on record. From the Lower Florida Keys to St.

While Gov. Rick Scott isn't committing to using courts in the battle against Florida's opioid crisis, a state senator from Miami and a Palm Beach community want to use the legal system to address the crisis.

For the past year, WUSF has invited you to share the cost of your health care -- not your insurance premiums, but the cost of the care itself. Our PriceCheck project is a database made up of charges shared by health care facilities and costs contributed by you.

Sometime before the end of this year, the state of Florida will have a new website with health care prices for patients. It's the result of a 2016 law and a five-year, $6.1 million  state contract that was finalized earlier this month.

Over the past year, Florida has been second only to California in the number of new jobs created with just over a quarter of a million new jobs. But California’s labor market is twice the size of Florida’s. The rate of growth of Florida's job market also ranked second in the nation at 3.1 percent. (Oregon was No.

What started in part by a text in response to racial tension and police shootings of black men has turned into millions of dollars directed at economic development and investment in the black community. The bank black effort is an economic call to action as much as it is a social movement.

One local bank, OneUnited, has received millions of new dollars in deposits thanks to the bank black movement. The bank is based in Boston with branches in Los Angeles and in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood.

While America has experienced a peaceful transition between presidents 44 times, there has never been a president-elect quite like Donald Trump.

In 2012, Florida’s election results were decided by less than one percent. In 2000, fewer than 600 votes separated the candidates.

It has been four months since WLRN launched Pricecheck, an online guide to bring clarity to health care costs in Florida.

Florida and it's big insurance companies are ready for a hurricane.

Beginning in July, if you have health insurance and go to an in-network hospital but a doctor who is not in your insurance plan’s network helps you, you aren’t supposed to get a surprise bill.

  Rob Valle used to fly fighter jets for the U.S. Navy. Now he flies charter flights for his company Air Key West. Since late March that has included a weekly scheduled flight from Key West International Airport to Havana. He fits nine passengers, including one in the co-pilot seat next to him. They pay $525 for the round-trip flight.