More than a month after the Lakeland City Commission voted to move the Confederate memorial from the center of downtown, fundraising has slowed and tensions continue.

Jason Bellows was a Florida inmate on his way out of prison and back into the real world. 

The Environmental Protection Agency has completed a more than decade-long cleanup at Cascades Park. A manufactured gas plant closed more than 50 years ago had contaminated the area’s soil with chemicals.

Traffic, sea-level rise and the Everglades are colliding after Miami-Dade commissioners voted Wednesday to advance a potential expressway extension to state regulators.

The proposal to extend State Road 836 aims to reduce traffic for commuters in the West Kendall area. Driving the 20 or so miles to downtown Miami during rush hour can take an hour and a half -- or more.

Hillsborough commissioners will allow voters to decide if they want non-partisan elections in the races of five county officials.

Commissioners voted Wednesday to hold a referendum in November. The proposal would affect races for county sheriff, clerk of the court, property appraiser, tax collector and supervisor of elections.

The vote was 5-2 along party lines with Republican commissioners in favor of nonpartisan elections.

After days of damaging news stories about an administration policy that separated immigrant families at the southern border, President Trump tried to change the narrative Friday. He spoke up for grieving family members who've lost loved ones at the hands of people in the country illegally.

Trump has frequently pointed to sympathetic crime victims to justify his get-tough policies at the southern border. But experts say the president's rhetoric overstates the threat posed by immigrants, who tend to commit crime at lower rates than people who are born in the United States.

Updated at 4:43 p.m. ET

In the image, a little girl wails in uncomprehending sadness and anxiety.

Her face flushed nearly as pink as her shirt and shoes, she stares up at her mother and a U.S. official, both too tall to be seen. The 2-year-old Honduran child's panic is so palpable, it's difficult for a viewer not to feel it, too.

The fear of family separation is not new for many immigrants already living in the U.S. In fact, that fear, heightened in recent weeks, has been forcing a tough decision for some families. Advocates say a growing number of American children are dropping out of Medicaid and other government programs because their parents are undocumented.

Marlene is an undocumented resident of Texas and has two children who are U.S. citizens. (NPR is not using Marlene's last name because of her immigration status.) One of her kids has some disabilities.