MIAMI (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department and Florida exchanged legal salvoes on Monday over the state’s controversial effort to remove non-U.S. citizens from its voter rolls ahead of this year’s presidential election.

Florida fired the first shot, filing a lawsuit against the federal government seeking access to a national database detailing citizenship information as part of its drive to verify whether non-citizens are illegally registered to vote in the state.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The U.S. subsidiary of Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht has filed a lawsuit challenging a recently signed Florida law barring local governments from hiring companies that do business in Cuba or Syria.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in Miami federal court, claims the measure is “unconstitutional and unenforceable” and argues that the federal government, not states, has the authority to enact laws involving foreign affairs.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Subtropical Storm Beryl moved slowly toward the U.S. southeastern coast on Saturday, threatening heavy rains and dangerous surf for Memorial Day weekend beachgoers in northern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

Beryl was centered about 220 miles east-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, carrying maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. It was moving southwest, with tropical storm-force winds extending about 115 miles from the storm’s center.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Florida election authorities are examining about 180,000 people who they say may not be U.S. citizens but are registered to vote in the state, an official said on Friday.

State officials are updating Florida’s voter rolls ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. Florida is home to a large Latino population and is expected to be a critical swing state in the contest between Democratic President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

MIAMI (Reuters) – An American contractor imprisoned in Cuba praised Raul Castro’s economic reforms but called the Cuban government’s treatment of him “shameful” on Friday in his first media interview since he was jailed more than two years ago.

In a telephone interview with CNN, Alan Gross also made a new appeal to Cuban authorities to allow him to return to the United States for a brief visit with his gravely ill 90-year-old mother.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Shortly after police arrived at the scene of Trayvon Martin’s death at a gated community in the central Florida town of Sanford, officers seized the alleged murder weapon, a 9mm handgun.

For the next 45 days until the arrest this week of George Zimmerman on a charge of second-degree murder, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot the unarmed 17-year-old teenager continued to hold a concealed weapons permit as allowed under Florida law.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The Miami Marlins baseball team suspended manager Ozzie Guillen for five games after he praised Cuba’s Fidel Castro in a magazine interview, the team said on Tuesday.

The outspoken Guillen held a bilingual news conference on Tuesday in Miami – home to a large Cuban exile community – to apologize for a second time and said there were translation problems with the interview.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Get ready, baseball fans. Miami, the city of sun and fun, wants to bring some flair to America’s favorite pastime.

When baseball’s Opening Day kicks off next week, the Miami Marlins will inaugurate a new $515 million ballpark built with all the trappings of South Florida — two enormous fish tanks, palm trees and a kitschy (of course) home run celebration display.

PORT-AU-PRINCE/MIAMI, March 7 (Reuters) – A Haitian
banker whose son is cooperating with authorities in a major U.S.
bribery investigation involving former Haitian government
officials has been shot and killed, police said on Wednesday.

Venel Joseph was shot on his way home in the capital,
Port-au-Prince, late on Tuesday, said police spokesman Gary
Desrosiers. Authorities are investigating the circumstances of
the shooting, he said.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A U.S. Justice Department official steering the department’s anti-bribery efforts signaled on Thursday the agency would continue to use aggressive tactics to pursue prosecutions despite recent setbacks in some high-profile cases.

Charles Duross, the deputy chief of the DOJ’s Fraud Section, said “there are lessons to be learned” after prosecutors failed to win convictions in several cases involving violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars U.S.-linked firms from bribing foreign officials.