Some Florida Min. Wage Workers to See Raise

While the Florida Legislature did not raise the state-mandated minimum wage during its latest session, some minimum wage workers will soon see an increase in their paychecks. Companies including Gap and Ikea have announced or started voluntary minimum wage increases ahead of proposed legislation, according to the Miami Herald. In April, St. Petersburg-based C1 Bank raised its "living wage" to $14 an hour.

While the current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, Florida's minimum wage is $7.93 an hour. A full-time employee working 40 hours a week in Florida would earn $317.20 a week, or $16,494.40 per year, before taxes. Meanwhile, Florida's poverty line for a family of four is $23,850 a year. According to the Miami Herald, "The [Florida] Legislature adjourned in May without taking up a proposed hike to $10.10 an hour."

To read the entire article, click here.

Warhol Superstar Ultra Violet Dies

Isabelle Collin Dufresne, the actress, artist and author who was better know as Ultra Violet, died Saturday. The 78-year-old, who was best known as one of Andy Warhol's "superstars", died of cancer in a Manhattan hospital, according to The New York Times.

In 1973, she had a near-death experience that she blamed on her excesses of the previous decade. She later became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She lived in both Manhattan and Nice, France, and worked as an artist until her death. A New York exhibition in Chelsea this spring featured a selection of her work, and closed three weeks before she died.

In a 2010-interview with Miami Herald's Steve Rothaus, Ultra Violet said, "Today with the explosion of the media, the Internet, everybody has 15 minutes of fame. I'm trying to get 16 minutes, and it's very hard."

To read Dufresne's obituary in The New York Times', click here. To read Steve Rothaus' interview of Ultra Violet, as well as the mention of her death, click here.

Bay of Pigs' Secret History

How long does information need to remain classified? Sometimes, the answer is fairly obvious: If attacked, we don't necessarily want the attacker to know when, where, and what kind of retaliatory measures will occur. Other times, the information may remained classified beyond its necessity.

In an article first printed in the Washington Post and then reprinted in the Miami Herald, George Will writes that the CIA is holding "only a small amount of still-classified information" dealing with the Bay of Pigs. As with so many events, the 1961 invasion influenced several subsequent events. According to Will, the Bay of Pigs led to the U.S. deepening its involvement in Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as making "a cameo appearance in the Watergate shambles..."

Meanwhile, fifty-two years after the invasion, the CIA is still holds still-classified information on the Bay of Pigs, while the National Security Archive argues that there is "no important government interest is served" by keeping the information classified.

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Miami Beach Man Dies Over Slow Ambulance Response

A Miami Beach man died March 5 after an ambulance took 31 minutes to go the 2 miles from the fire station it was housed at to the man's home. The man's wife called 911 at 9:05 a.m.; the ambulance arrived 31 minutes from the nearby fire station, according to the Miami Herald.

The complete article may be found at http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/20/3297228/miami-beach-ambulance-takes-31.html#storylink=cpy or at Health News Florida (http://health.wusf.usf.edu/post/fire-rescue-delayed-man-dies).