Bruce Golding

U.S. officials say they are looking forward to Jamaica’s response to a series of extradition requests for nationals suspected of committing crimes in the U.S.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela told reporters that Washington is pushing for greater effectiveness of the Proceeds of Crime Act to defeat organized crime in Jamaica.

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It’s been 114 years since Miami gained city status and to mark the occasion, a statue of the “Mother of Miami” was unveiled on Wednesday in her honor.

Amidst fanfare, a black sheet was lifted to reveal the majestic 10-foot-tall bronze statue of Julia Tuttle at the southern end of Bayfront Park, to mark the 114th anniversary the city she founded.

The statue depicts a proud Tuttle with a basket of oranges nestled in one arm as she extends the other with orange blossoms.

Tuttle, who owned some 644 acres of land in Miami in the late 1800s, convinced Florida East Coast Railway tycoon Henry Flagler to extend his railroad to Miami in 1896. She had a vision of transforming Miami into a metropolis, which came true in 1896 with 300 signatures, which were required to apply for the city's incorporation.

Though Tuttle could not vote, because she was a woman, her vision and her landownership played a vital role in the birth of the City of Miami.

Since Tuttle’s death, two years after Miami gained city status, there has been a call for a memorial in her honor, but this was not to happen until now, thanks to the Miami Commission on the Status of Women who officially took on the project, and the Miami-Dade County Commission for Women who later joined.

Miamians can now view the likeness of the Mother of Miami, whose vision and perseverance is evident in the city she imagined.

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Two South Florida cities, Coral Springs and Coconut Creek, have been designated the best cities to reside in the region.

Money Magazine in its latest publication rated the North Broward city of Coral Springs as the number one place to live in the state and Coconut Creek the second best, Nationally, Coral Springs was ranked as the 44th best city in which to reside, and Coconut Creek, just a few miles south-east of Coral Springs was ranked 48th.

In ranking the cities, the magazine reviewed information from 800 U.S. cities with populations of up to 300,000 residents and made the placements based on cost of housing, population diversity, the state of the city’s economy, quality of schools, strength of government, and the focus given to arts and leisure.

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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton blocked the provision of the law that could have resulted in the arrest of legal immigrants, and granted a preliminary injunction that prevents police from questioning people about their immigration status.

The provision that has been the real source of the controversy related to the bill requires police to “make a reasonable attempt” to determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested if the officer has a “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

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