Florida Keys

Federal officials are now considering thousands of comments as they finalize the first update in a quarter century to rules that govern the marine 3,800-square mile marine sanctuary.

Dalton Hesley led a dive team to an offshore Miami Beach reef last month in pursuit of sea urchins. Something else drew his attention instead. A cluster of staghorn corals, their branches reaching toward the surface, appeared a ghastly white.

Monroe County officials will decide Monday afternoon whether to close schools but already warned residents in RVs and campers to evacuate areas from the Seven Mile Bridge west to Key West.

Over the last few decades, corals on the reef have been hammered by warmer water and ocean heat waves, disease and hurricanes. If the U.S. loses its reef tract, it loses a powerful defense against more intense hurricanes fueled by climate change.

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's Restoration Blueprint would add Pulley Ridge in the Gulf of Mexico to its boundaries, in addition to putting additional protections on more than 450 square miles around the Keys.

The oldest newspaper in the Keys, the Keys Citizen, will now reach its subscribers through the U.S. Postal Service.

Three historic lighthouses on the Florida Keys reef are up for auction. They're listed now at $15,000 — but each needs more than $2 million in repairs right away.

Drivers slowing down to look at nearby boaters are causing two-mile backups and frequent collisions, Florida Keys officials say. They want to create a "visual barrier" to block the view.

Helicopters are hovering next to the power lines that parallel the Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys. It's a project that has led to two recent power outages in the Lower Keys — but the utility says that work is done.

This month’s Sundial Book Club title is about Henry Flagler and his dream to build the impossible railroad.

Monroe County Commissioner David Rice discusses plans to make the road safer.

The state wants to make boaters in the Keys anchored out "on the hook" move to regulated mooring fields or move every three months. Some boaters say that would sink one of the last affordable ways to live in the expensive island chain.