Bill Kearney

A satellite image of Tropical Storm Chantal approaching the coast of the Carolinas, taken by NOAA's GOES-19 satellite on July 5, 2025. (Courtesy NOAA Satellites)

Here’s what forecasters think the rest of 2025 hurricane season will look like

August 8, 2025 at 9:28 a.m.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has adjusted the number of hurricanes they expect this year. Ocean and atmospheric conditions still favor an above-normal season as we enter the peak...

Franklin Adams, 87, in the Big Cypress near Alligator Alcatraz at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on Tamiami Trail E, Ochopee, on Saturday, July 12, 2025. Adams opposed the building of a jetport along with famed environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Before it was Alligator Alcatraz, this airstrip sparked fury and changed America’s landscape

July 16, 2025 at 9:39 a.m.

Alligator Alcatraz has triggered pride in the MAGA world, and fury in an unlikely bipartisan mix of South Floridians. Decades ago, bipartisan outrage erupted in a fight over a jetport...

A large python in Picayune Strand State Forest outside of Naples. (Bill Kearney for the South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Python-killer mystery: What animal was fierce enough to take down this massive snake?

May 20, 2025 at 10:19 a.m.

Biologists tracking a big python found it dead, chewed up and buried. They launched into a CSI-like investigation that revealed a surprising killer.

Large patches of sargassum seaweed are seen on the jetty beach at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park in Dania Beach on Monday, April 28, 2025. The season for seaweed typically begins in May and peaks in June and July. The Optical Oceanography Lab at the University of South Florida is predicting a major seaweed season, with large swaths of the substance already present in the tropical Atlantic. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Record-breaking amounts of seaweed drifting toward Florida, experts say

May 9, 2025 at 10:40 a.m.

The stinky sargassum is currently traveling across the Atlantic and Caribbean.

This map shows sea surface temperature probabilities for July, 2025. The white areas denote normal temperatures while the hotter temperatures denote the probability of above-normal temperatures. (Courtesy European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts)

Forecasters call for ‘near-average’ Atlantic hurricane season through September

March 6, 2025 at 9:32 a.m.

The upcoming Atlantic hurricane season could stay "near-average" through September for the U.S., according to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

Lake County loses a business and an institution

August 23, 2018 at 12:00 a.m.

Last Monday the community of Lakeport was shocked to see the doors of Piedmont Lumber closed for the final time. I have been a businessman in Lakeport for almost 31...

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