Valentines Weekend in SoFla week ending February 13, 2026
I've been extremely busy this week, this year really, and am a bit behind here on this week's post. You may notice a major website reformat, which was but one thing. The 28th weekly prayer vigil across from Alligator Alcatraz was of course another. Getting out into nature with a bunch of teenagers on a field trip was another. In depth interviews with people about Alligator Alcatraz and immigration writ large was another. Meeting a candidate for US Senate was another.
I'm going to pause the Historic Interlude this week for time's sake. Sorry!
Anyway, this recap of this busy week isn't even the personal life stuff! Anyway, the Everglades is beautiful, full of birds but almost dry as a bone. That pretty much captures the week. So let's dive into it.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington Dec in February of 1968.
Table of Contents
Buy Local! Not an ad–an endorsement!
Finite
Disappointment
Innocent until proven guilty, I guess
While I firmly believe in due process and that one is innocent until proven guilty and while I agree that part of what is happening with the ethics probe and charges against Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat from South Florida, is because she's a Democrat and she hasn't been accused of much that others haven't done, I also know there's a lot of smoke to the litany of ethics charges against her.
I was impressed by her impassioned plea to extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians last month. I was impressed by watching her talk to the press that day before her planned remarks. But it's pretty depressing when a member of congress gets caught up in an ethics probe and felony charges and it looks pretty bleak.
Is she guilty? I don't know. If she is guilty did she do anything out of the ordinary? I don't know that either–although a story today includes an text exchange where she told a staffer that it was out of the ordinary and she wasn't comfortable with that. What I do know is this makes me sad.
Florida
Gonna Florida
Several Florida stories this week. Some good. Some bad. Some ugly.
Miami sold more homes to investors than any other city in the country, meaning, when you're looking for a home to live in you're fighting with a billion dollar corporation that just wants to scoop it up. This has been Florida's entire history since about 1900. It's Florida being Florida.
Sergio R. Bustos
At well over 100 each, the oldest living couple in the United States lives in...Miami.
Jo Corona
My member of Congress, a Cuban American, slammed Bad Bunny's Super Bowl for being too Spanish and not American enough. For those keeping score, Florida is a Spanish word so Florida has always been very Spanish since the days the first Europeans landed here 500 years ago.
Naomi Feinstein
Florida has been very cold for Florida this week. You know, almost freezing. So when a Florida Man jumped into by Florida standards frigid water to save a woman's life, it's extra awesome.
Even more awesome is that she gave birth shortly after he saved her life. That's a great Florida Man!
Ramon Antonio Vargas
Buy
Local! Not an ad–an endorsement!
The National Parks are under threat from the Trump Administration's additional fee for foreign tourists of $100 per person. So, on top of the $35 per car American pay, the NPS is now being asked to count foreigners and charge them an extra $100 bucks a pop. Park rangers told me this has lead to many cars simply turning around. And one park ranger told me that 80-90% of the people coming to visit the park are foreign tourists. This is a crisis.
But it's a crisis you can help with if you're in Florida by buying local–and visiting your National Parks!
I took all of the pictures in this section this week in the Everglades. Get out there, support your local park!
Infinite
Hope
Part of the website change is because I'm hoping to shorten these newsletters into more of a recap of stuff I publish over the week. So, I wrote up my recent visits to Everglades National Park and the hope the visits instilled in me and I humbly ask that you check it out. The link below is to my story:
Philip Cardella
Bad Bunny, the Super Bowl and Miami
As the Miami Herald Editorial Board accurately surmised this week, "if the Super Bowl show was too 'multicultural.'"
If you want to know what it's like to live in Miami just go and watch that Super Bowl Half Time show in California, a state that speaks Spanish as much as Florida, but it just isn't Miami.
One of my kids put it this way, "That half time show was the first time since you forced me to move to Miami that I felt proud to live in Miami."
For the "Benito Bowl," as locals referred to the Super Bowl Half Time Show local restaurants didn't miss the opportunity to rally around the flags of America, so to speak.
If the Super Bowl had been in Miami this half time show could have been exactly the same and been about Miami, not Puerto Rico. That said, Puerto Rico is fabulous and I loved ever second I've spent in it and I can't wait to go back.
If you missed the show, check it out. This is America at her best. This is Miami at her best. This is Puerto Rico being fabulous. This is community. This is love. This is hope and I love it.
Community for Community Doing Good in Broward
I know a bunch of the people quoted in this story though I didn't cover it at all. I wish I had. Check this piece out on how community gives us hope.
Sergio R. Bustos
The power of reaching out to people
This week a few people visited Coral Gables to reach out to the people and you know that always fills me with that hope that spreads on out to infinity. Hecto Mujica, a former Google philanthropic administrator shared his vision for Florida and the nation with the Coral Gables Dems. While not everyone was excited by his message, it's so important that candidates and actual members of our government speak to us.
To that end, it was great to see one such person at that same meeting. Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro reaching out to the people about an issue she cares about deeply–when voting happens in local elections in the city.
When author and activist Sam Daley-Harris visited my church on Sunday I actually had to skedaddle to get to the prayer vigil across from the racist meme Alligator Alcatraz. But it was well received by the audience, including my partner, and as Kirkus Reviews says of his book, "A handbook for aspiring activists that readers will find to be both inspiring and practical." The book and the speech are literally about hope so they belong in the Infinite Hope section!
This week has been so busy I nearly forgot about the several videos about and the write up I wrote regarding the 28th prayer vigil across from the so-called Alligator Alcatraz.
I always find hope at the vigils– I've been to 24 of the 28 and I think you will to if you come out to one. The link below is to my story:
Philip Cardella
Bear
The History Hound Finds
Running late this week so just some clips I thought were interesting. Not even all of them, really. Miami showed up so many places this week!
Parker Molloy
Hadeel Al-Shalchi
G. Elliott Morris
Have a news or event tip?
Another great way to help TWIFL out is to send a tip about something going on in South Florida, especially something that is important to our community but may not be getting the coverage it needs. This can be anything from an ice cream social put on by kids to support a local retirement home to a protest for or against the current administration to an endangered species thriving or being threatened.
Though This Week in Florida is a labor of love it is in fact a lot of work. The hope is that one day it would add to the family income. Why? So we can get rich? No, so we can pay for the oldest kid's room and board at college (they got the grades in high school so they don't really have to pay tuition).
You can help by sharing this newsletter with your friends.
And, of course, no newsletter would be complete, it seems these days, without an ask for money. Room and Board in Miami for the kid is a little over $15,000. In Miami. That's a really good deal!
But it's also just over $2000 per month.
Help us out! Donations of $50 or more will receive a free 8x10 or 8x12 photo from my collection.