The Florida Roundup | WLRN

The Florida International University community marked Friday one year since the devastating bridge collapse that killed six people — including a student and a bridge worker. The school held a memorial service, and a moment of silence took place at 1:47 p.m., the time of the collapse. Stand with us today at 1:30pm at the Betty Chapman Plaza at MMC in a moment of silence for the victims of the Southwest 8th Street pedestrian bridge accident. #FIUStrong pic.twitter.com/dQmb9ujosw — FIU (@FIU) March 15, 2019 The bridge was meant to carry pedestrians across Southwest Eighth Street, connecting the city of Sweetwater with the campus. The National Transportation Safety Board found that design flaws caused cracking at a critical structural point. The agency’s latest update doesn’t blame those design errors for causing the collapse. A full report is expected to come out later this year. On the South Florida Roundup, host Tom Hudson spoke with two reporters who've been looking into the collapse

Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., who represents Hialeah and is chairman of the Senate Education committee, says South Florida charter schools shouldn’t be excluded from money generated by voter-approved property tax hikes. “Those referendum that say they’re going to be used for public school teachers should go to all public school teachers, not only union school teachers,” Diaz told WLRN Thursday. The South Florida delegation in Tallahassee has continued to debate the issue. Earlier this month, House Speaker Jose Oliva sent a letter to the Miami-Dade County school district, calling out the property tax increase that would be used for teacher raises and school safety. The district has previously committed to sharing funding for security but not for teachers with charter schools. Also recently, a third charter school in Palm Beach County sued the district over similar teacher pay hikes. The South Florida Roundup delved into charter schools and money. Host Tom Hudson spoke with a panel of education

The 2019 legislative session begins Tuesday. Over 60 days, lawmakers will tackle the states’ biggest issues, including school safety, education and health care.

Juanes. Luis Fonsi. Maluma. They’re some of the artists invited to perform at Friday's Venezuela Aid Live concert in Cúcuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela. The show aims to benefit the effort to move tons of humanitarian aid into Venezuela on Saturday.

Tensions continued mounting in Venezuela. The issue even came up at President Trump’s State of the Union speech. “We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime,” he said on Tuesday. The U.S. and several countries have recognized President Nicolas Maduro’s regime as illegitimate. They’re instead supporting interim president Juan Guaidó, who recently called on soldiers to allow humanitarian aid to enter Venezuela. The country’s military blocked a highway on the Colombian border that would provide a path for trucks of food and medicine to get to Venezuelans suffering from shortages and astronomical inflation. The evolving political crisis has also turned the Trump administration’s attention to Cuba – what some call the “Cubanization” of Venezuela policy. On the South Florida Roundup, host Tom Hudson discussed these latest developments with Ambassador Carlos Trujillo , the U.S. representative to the Organization of