South Florida

Southern California's shocking loss to Oregon State - a team missing star tailback Yvenson Bernard - merely rushed the inevitable this season: This Trojans team was going to lose. It was just a matter of when. But, it was supposed to be California or Oregon or Notre Dame that was going to get the Trojans - not a team that lost by 28 to both Boise State and California. Even with the loss, USC stayed in the top 10 in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings. Unless each team in the top 10 implodes, it's highly unlikely a team outside this week's top 10 can make it to the Jan. 8 BCS championship game in Glendale, Ariz.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- In the eyes of many consumers and politicians, this city's gentrified Rio Vista neighborhood represents the best and worst of Florida Power & Light's potential as a merger partner for Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group Inc. Its modest 1,200-square-foot ranch homes are gradually being torn down and replaced with 4,000-square-foot, multimillion-dollar behemoths that consume triple the kilowatts. With boulevards flanked by postcard-worthy palms and majestic Gumbo Limbo trees, it is among the wealthiest neighborhoods in one of Florida's fastest-growing economies, helping to drive profits and enhance the favorable Wall Street image of the utility's parent company, FPL Group Inc. But when Hurricane Wilma - a medium-sized Category 1 storm - sent aging utility poles and power substations tumbling with frightening efficiency in October 2005, a darkened Rio Vista also came to symbolize the public fury that surrounded FPL. And it came just as executives were sitting down to negotiate their $11 billion takeover of Constellation.

Though no longer expected to arrive as a hurricane, Tropical Storm Ernesto still could batter South Florida with up to 10 inches of rain, flooding and wind gusts to 70 mph, starting today and into Thursday, forecasters warned. Tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches remain in effect from Vero Beach south to the Keys, with Ernesto forecast to hit near Homestead, south of Miami, tonight. Then it is expected to churn northward. A flood watch was to be posted by this morning. Initially, the system was forecast to hit the region as a Category 1 hurricane, possibly stronger.

Temporarily strengthening into the season's first hurricane yesterday, Ernesto moved toward Florida, putting the Keys under the gun and threatening to bring torrential rain, wind and tornadoes to South Florida tomorrow and Wednesday. Visitors were ordered to leave the Keys yesterday, and Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency. "It certainly looks like it's going to impact a significant portion of Florida before it's all over," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

It's the deal season in South Florida. The snowbirds have flown back north, the kids are out of school and gas prices are putting a crimp in plans for summer jaunts, so hotels, restaurants and attractions in South Florida are serving up summer specials. Fort Lauderdale, for instance, is promoting a "Summer of Discovery," and it's not just an empty slogan. It's a season of two-for-one deals at area activities and attractions. Dixie Divers in Broward County offers a four-hour, two-site snorkeling trip, including gear, on a twofer basis (954- 420-0009 or 888-772-DIVE, dixiedivers.

It's not alligators you should be afraid of. It's Bambi."- FRANK MAZZOTTI, University of Florida wildlife scientist, explaining that despite three recent fatal gator attacks, the deadliest animal in the United States is the deer, which is involved in roughly 130 fatal car accidents each year; alligators have killed only 20 people in Florida since 1948 [SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Dry weather has pushed them out of the Everglades and into backyard canals, where they concentrate in greater, hungry numbers. Mating season has made males more territorial. And then there are the people - hundreds moving into Florida each day, taking over what was once wildlife territory and, in some cases, feeding the dangerous reptiles like pets. All these factors, plus a heavy dose of coincidence, are probably to blame in the recent string of deadly alligator attacks across the state, wildlife biologists said yesterday.

LOS ANGELES-- --There's no doubt about it, novelist-journalist Carl Hiaasen writes about weirdoes. His books Strip Tease, Stormy Weather and Lucky You are packed with bizarre characters: a petty crook who fences hot wheelchairs, a 7-foot hit man, a guy who has a weed whacker surgically attached to his arm. "Growing up and working in Florida, the material is so rich," says Hiaasen, seated at a table in an empty hotel room here. "You can only put so much in the newspaper; in the meantime you have all this overflow, this great material, this great inspiration, and what better place to put it than in a novel?

Your new afternoon talk host? It's been a few weeks since I started hearing a buzz about a new afternoon (4 p.m.) talk host on WJFK (1300 AM). The Sports Idiots have been filling that slot, but rumor was they were just a place-holder. There is no official announcement yet, but it would appear that a woman from South Florida named Anita Marks is headed to WJFK. Thanks to the Web site dcrtv.com for pointing out the report in The Miami Herald that says Marks is coming to Baltimore. The Herald doesn't name the station, but putting 2 and 2 together, as both dcrtv.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Despite the four hurricanes that hit Florida in both 2004 and 2005, a record-breaking 85.8 million tourists visited the state last year. Statistics released yesterday by Visit Florida, a public-private agency, show 85.8 million visitors spent time in Florida last year - the equivalent of the combined populations of California, New York, Florida and Illinois. It was nearly 6 million more visitors, a 7.6 percent increase, over 2004. Even Hurricane Wilma, which pounded South Florida in October, didn't dampen the numbers.