A Year To Remember: The Florida Connections
Ask any reporter in the Sunshine state and they will swear the following statement is true: No matter what the story, there is almost always a Florida connection. And that was certainly true in 2019.
Take for instance the scandal surrounding Ukraine that has engulfed the President and led him to be impeached.
Two of the more interesting figures in the investigation are Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman - Ukrainian businessmen working with Rudy Giuliani to help dig up dirt on Joe Biden in order to help Trump in the 2020 race.
It didn't take long before we realized the Parnas and Fruman lived in South Florida and attended exclusive events with the President at Mar-a-Lago and in the White House.
They are now accused of funneling foreign money into the US election - which is illegal.
And the Florida connection went even further. Soon after Parnas and Fruman were arrested, Florida politicians found themselves answering uncomfortable questions about donations they had allegedly received from the two men. Among the politicians who obtained campaign cash from the duo: Senator Rick Scott and Governor Ron DeSantis.
"As soon as this stuff came out I told the PAC, you gotta send the money to the [United States] Treasury and let's just move on with it," DeSantis said. "So that's what we're doing and so I don't really have anything else to add."
The border crisis with Mexico came to a head in 2019 as the Trump Administration continued its policy of detaining children. And while most folks might think that the largest detention facility would be in one of the states along the border, it was in Homestead.
The Mueller probe came to an end in 2019 as the last defendant in the case went on trial - that defendant, Broward's very own, Roger Stone who was convicted of lying to investigators.
This year 60 Minutes aired a horrifying story about the man who may well be America's most prolific serial killer. Samuel Little is believed to have killed 93 women between 1970 and 2005
Little it turned out lived and worked in Coconut Grove and dumped his victims in the Everglades.
Joining serial killer Little in infamy in 2019 was serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who authorities say hanged himself in his jail cell. Like Little Epstein found many of his victims in the warm and sunny confines of South Florida.
When the Taliban released two American hostages it held since 2016, it wasn't long before we learned one of the men, Kevin King went to the University of Miami.
At one point, the President tried to steer next year's G-7 conference of world leaders to one of his properties. But it wasn't his resorts in New Jersey or Virginia he had selected - it was Doral in Florida.
And of course when the President decided on finding a new state to call home, his choice was obvious - Florida.
