Home Care In Palm Beach, FL

The United States' military operation on Jan. 3 in Venezuela in which that country's leader, Nicola?s Maduro, and his wife were seized is of interest to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the U.S., especially Florida.

The Trump administration stripped the legal status of over 250,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S. on Nov. 7, leaving them without valid work permits and at risk of deportation. They joined a group of 350,000 Venezuelans who were stripped of TPS protections in April as part of the Trump administration's enforcement of laws against immigrants in the U.S. without documentation.Florida is home to over half of the 600,000 Venezuelan TPS holders affected, and local officials have said the abrupt revocation of their legal status and work permits will wreak havoc on the state's economy, especially in industries such as construction, health care and hospitality.

Florida reaction to the US military operation in Venezuela

Florida Sen. Rick Scott posted on X, tagging the president, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: "Thank you, and the brave members of our military who led the operation that successfully CAPTURED narco-terrorist Nicola?s Maduro. A new day is here for Venezuela and Latin America. The United States and our hemisphere are safer because of President Trump's leadership. God bless America and God bless the people of Venezuela!"

What is TPS and what does it mean for Venezuelans in the US?

The termination of TPS for Venezuelans came as the tensions between Washington and Caracas had escalated in the Caribbean, where the U.S. military had struck boats that Trump administration officials alleged were trafficking narcotics.

Temporary Protected Status is a humanitarian designation given to people from specific countries that are suffering from armed conflict, a natural disaster or other "extraordinary and temporary" conditions that make returning home unsafe.

It allows people covered by it to live and work in the United States, but they are not considered permanent residents, nor do they have a pathway either to permanent residency or citizenship. It also prevents people from being deported to their native countries.

In order to obtain TPS, immigrants must pass a full background check, and they may not have any previous felony convictions or more than two misdemeanors. Their applications are evaluated for renewal every 18 months.

Having Temporary Protected Status allows them to obtain a driver's license and receive a Social Security number, a requirement to work legally in the United States and file taxes. Holders of TPS do not have access to any federal public benefits, including Social Security.

Why did Trump administration remove TPS status?

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in February announced she would terminate the 350,000 Venezuelan refugees who received the protected status in 2023. In September, she ordered the same for the remaining 250,000 Venezuelans who received TPS in 2021. Both groups received TPS while President Joe Biden was in office.

Noem said conditions in Venezuela had improved and no longer met the requirements for the TPS designation. However, the U.S. Department of State warned Americans traveling to Venezuela of reports of wrongful detention, torture, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest and poor health infrastructure.

In making the move, Noem alleged TPS holders were a burden for taxpayers and that the program had brought in members of El Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that President Donald Trump calls a foreign terrorist group.

Noem's order marked the first time in 35 years of the TPS program that an existing designation has been terminated. It is considered the largest mass delegalization of immigrants in U.S. history.

Legal challenges were filed, but the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip TPS for the half a million Venezuelans living in the United States.

Venezuelans who had TPS are now undocumented and at risk of being detained and deported. They also lost the ability to work legally in the United States as their work permits expired with the end of TPS.

With the end of TPS, the legal status of Venezuelan nationals reverted to the status they held before TPS was awarded, including expired travel and student visas, immigration attorney Jeffrey Devore said. Those who don't have any other immigration avenues are left undocumented.

Devore said some of those who lost TPS can file for a family petition, a work visa or an investors visa, or seek asylum. All are lengthy proceedings that could leave them without legal status in the meantime.

Most of the 600,00 Venezuelans who lost TPS don't have legal avenues to remain in the United States, Devore said.

Florida economy to feel impact of end of TPS of 600,000 Venezuelans

Florida's economy has a lot of stake with the end of TPS for Venezuelans. It is home to over half of the of 600,000 Venezuelan who lost legal status and their work permits in the past year.

The end of TPS for Venezuelans comes a time when Florida is already facing a labor shortage in the health care, hospitality, education and construction industries — the same areas where Venezuelan TPS holders held jobs as teachers, caretakers in senior living facilities, manual laborers and restaurant and hotel staff.

Economists have warned that disqualifying broad groups of people who worked legally will disrupt the businesses that count on them and lead to increases in prices as they pay more to attract workers.

It will also expected to affect South Florida's economy as the tens of thousands who lost legal status are less likely to spend in local businesses, make their car payments or pay their landlords.

In Trump meeting with Netanyahu on Dec. 29, president mentioned Venezuela strike

When Trump invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu at his Palm Beach estate on Dec. 29, the topic was Israel and the Middle East, but the headline turned out to be Venezuela.

In remarks before and after his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump acknowledged a U.S. strike at a coastal facility in the South American country, as tensions in the southern Caribbean had been escalating.

Trump broke the news, at first cryptically, saying there had been a "major explosion" in a dock area in Venezuela, where he alleged boats are loaded with narcotics to be smuggled. Then he revealed it was a U.S. strike.

"So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area," the president said.

Trump spoke just after greeting Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago's entrance. For a second straight day, diplomacy over a conflict of global interest and reach played out at the Winter White House. This time, it was with the Israeli prime minister.

Netanyahu's audience with Trump at Mar-a-Lago took place a day after Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy spent an afternoon working out the "makings of a deal," as Trump called it, to end a war triggered by Russia's invasion in 2022.

Valentina Palm covers immigration and the western communities of Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at .

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected].

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —

West Palm Beach is ready to welcome 2026 in style! From 8 p.m. to midnight, the Great Lawn will transform into a lively New Year’s Eve celebration you won’t want to miss.

The evening will kick off with On The Roxx, performing crowd favorites from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and today. Afterward, DJ Reflex will keep the energy high, spinning top hits to carry us into the new year. Food and drinks will be available for purchase throughout the event.

As the clock strikes midnight, look to the skies for a spectacular 15-minute fireworks display over the Intracoastal Waterway, presented by the Downtown Development Authority in collaboration with the Flagler Museum.

This also will be the last night to view Sandee Tree lit up or ride the Ferris wheel.

Parking Information

Parking is available in downtown West Palm Beach public garages, and there is limited street parking. All garages are $10 between 5 p.m. and 8:59 p.m. Special event rates apply from 9 p.m. to 3:59 a.m.

Banyan Garage — 200 Banyan Blvd.: $40 pay on entry

City Center Garage — 199 N. Dixie Highway: $40 pay on entry

Evernia Garage — 333 Evernia St.: $20 pay on entry

Clematis Garage — 500 Banyan Blvd.: $20 pay on entry

Sapodilla Garage — 645 Clematis St.: $10 pay on entry

FREE on-street parking west of Rosemary Avenue

Guests are encouraged to arrive early, expect heavier traffic, and consider ride-sharing for a smooth arrival and departure.

Get the latest weather updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it .

We have nominated 10 individuals for the defensive POTY

Today, we turn our attention to some of the top defensive players from the 2025 season in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Our nominees include standout defensive playmakers at different positions across the field which tells you the caliber of players that the West Palm Beach metro area has produced.

Our nominees caused havoc all season long getting after the quarterback, racking up tackles for a loss, shutting down opposing wide receivers and intercepting talented quarterbacks.

As always, we ask you, the fans, to vote for who you think is the High School on SI Palm Beach County, Florida high school defensive player of the year.

Voting will close on January 28 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Here are the nominations:

Demetrius Geathers Jr, West Boca Raton

Geathers caused havoc all season long for opposing offenses. He finished with 29 solo tackles, 54 total tackles, 20 tackles for a loss and 12 sacks. He also tallied one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and blocked one punt.

Antonio Simpson, Pahokee

Simpson finished the 2025 season with 69 solo tackles, 92 total tackles and 34 tackles for a loss. He also tallied 13 sacks, six quarterback hurries and forced two fumbles.

Jaylin Bouie, Glades Central

Bouie proved to be one of the top defensive backs in the region in 2025. He finished the season with 27 solo tackles, 36 total tackles, five interceptions and 16 pass breakups. He also tallied one forced fumble, blocked one punt and took one interception back for a touchdown.

Kahlil Gabaud, Cardinal Newman

Gabaud made opposing quarterbacks pay when they threw it his way this season by finishing with six interceptions. He also tallied 51 total tackles, one tackle for a loss and broke up two passes.

Max Doster, Jupiter

In 2025, Doster tallied 22 solo tackles, 37 total tackles and 15 tackles for a loss. He also finished the season with four sacks, 19 quarterback hurries, two pass breakups and blocked one field goal.

Jayvon Dawson, Santaluces

This season, Dawson finished the season with 51 solo tackles, 68 total tackles, 22 tackles for a loss, eight sacks, one pass breakup and forced one fumble.

Jamir Johnson, Atlantic

In 2025, Johnson tallied 39 solo tackles, 53 total tackles and 17 tackles for a loss. He also finished with three sacks and two quarterback hurries.

Luther Howard II, Seminole Ridge

Howard finished the 2025 campaign with 18 solo tackles, 26 total tackles, one tackle for a loss and five interceptions. He also tallied eight pass breakups, one fumble recovery and one interception return for a touchdown.

Michael Kelly, Palm Beach Lakes

Kelly tallied 16 solo tackles, 33 total tackles, six interceptions and six pass breakups in 2025.

Raoul Brown, Royal Palm Beach

Brown is our last nominee for this season after finishing the 2025 season with 24 solo tackles, 33 total tackles and one sack. He also ended the year with nine interceptions, 10 pass breakups and one interception return for a touchdown.

Editor’s note: Our corresponding poll is intended to be fun, and we do not set limits on how many times a fan can vote during the competition. This poll is specifically for fans to vote on the players that have been nominated and in no way discredits any other player that may not be mentioned in our poll.

Showdowns in Broward and Palm Beach counties between hospitals and insurers like Florida Blue and Cigna over contract terms threaten to push patients out of network for coverage and disrupt care as the new year arrives.

Florida Blue and Broward County’s two public health systems, both under the same CEO, still lack a new contract. The months-long impasse between Florida Blue and Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare System has affected as many as 40,000 policyholders who must deal with higher out-of-pocket costs, a disruption in their doctor relationships, and finding ongoing treatment for non-emergency care. Earlier communication from the parties indicated new contracts might be completed by year’s end, but that hasn’t happened.

“We are having ongoing and productive discussions with the leadership teams from Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare System,” Florida Blue spokesperson Jorge Martinez said Tuesday.

In addition, unless Florida Blue reaches an agreement with Cleveland Clinic Weston by March, notices will go out to policyholders informing them that the hospital will be out of network as well, meaning they will not be covered for non-emergency services. For now, Florida Blue members can continue scheduling appointments and receiving care as usual at the Weston hospital.

The inability to negotiate a contract, however, would put Florida Blue policyholders at a significant disadvantage when choosing care. Open enrollment for employer-sponsored health plans has now closed for most companies, forcing them to decide whether to continue with Florida Blue and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Martinez said it’s too soon to know if and how contract disputes affected enrollment choices. Broward’s public health systems have suffered, too, with patients delaying care or finding new providers.

In Palm Beach County, Cigna policyholders received good news Wednesday when an eleventh-hour deal allowed them to stay in network at their major hospitals.

Tenet’s Palm Beach Health Network, which operates six major hospitals, was about to go out-of-network with Cigna on Wednesday. However, a Tenet spokesperson said the parties reached an agreement that will allow 1.3 million Florida Cigna policyholders and 13,000 Palm Beach County residents to be covered at its hospitals. Those hospitals are Delray Medical Center, Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Children’s Hospital in West Palm Beach. Tenet also operates Florida Coast Medical Center in Port St. Lucie.

Non-renewal of Cigna’s contract would have put the county’s only children’s hospital out of network, just as Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital has gone out of network for Florida Blue policyholders in Broward County.

Cigna’s standoff with Tenet’s Palm Beach Health Network was part of a national contract dispute with Tenet Healthcare facilities and services nationwide, which the two health giants resolved on Wednesday.

Patients are increasingly caught in disputes as health insurers and providers disagree on contract terms and the two parties urge each other to stop disrupting medical treatment.

On Wednesday, Cigna spokesperson Madeline Ziomek said, “An agreement has been reached with Tenet-owned Palm Beach Health Network, their physicians, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) to continue providing in-network health care with no interruption in coverage for our customers. Together we will continue improving the health and vitality of the people we both serve in this community through access to affordable care.”

The heated negotiations between the insurer and healthcare company may represent the trend ahead and the role AI will play.

Tenet had set up a website for patients to demand that Cigna relent and said that Cigna would not guarantee that a physician, not a computer algorithm, makes decisions about patient care.

“Tenet Healthcare has been negotiating in good faith to keep in-network access to hospitals and providers at the Palm Beach Health Network for our patients,” Andrew Lofholm, Communications and Community Relations Manager with Palm Beach Health Network, had said. “If Cigna ends its contract by December 31, 1.33 million Floridians could lose affordable access to both of the county’s Level I trauma centers and the only children’s hospital in the region. Because Cigna refuses to agree to reasonable terms to guarantee that a doctor, not a computer algorithm or AI, will make meaningful decisions about our patients’ care, families will be faced with paying thousands more or leaving the doctors and hospitals they’ve relied on for years.”

The standoffs over financial terms and reimbursement rates are also infuriating Broward patients, who at one point were told by Memorial and Broward Health they couldn’t make appointments as Florida Blue policyholders, even if they wanted to self-pay. On Tuesday, Broward Health and Memorial said they would accept Florida Blue patients who want to self-pay to continue seeing their doctors.

“We welcome any Florida Blue policyholders to continue their care with Broward Health providers,” said Broward Health Vice President of Communications Jennifer Smith. “Patients would need to self-pay or get a single-case agreement from Florida Blue. ”

The law requires hospitals to provide emergency care to patients regardless of whether they are in network.

“Anyone who arrives at our emergency departments will be treated regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay,” Smith said. “If admission is required, we notify the payor, and they decide whether to authorize admission or start transfer to an in-network hospital. But ultimately, it is the patient’s choice where they are treated.”

South Florida patients are upset that they are caught in the conflict between provider and insurer.

“My husband and I have complex medical histories,” Rev. Corrie Montoya of Davie wrote in a letter to the Sun Sentinel. “We have Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance through my employer. Most of our physicians are with Broward Health. We now must find a new primary care doctor and at least eight new specialists. It’s frustrating to have to start over. I can push through, but what I can’t abide is Florida Blue putting my child and all Broward children at risk.”

The breakdown in contract negotiations between health providers and health insurers put South Florida residents like Bob and Gayle Pifer in the position of losing access to doctors they have come to rely on over many decades.

Bob Pifer has been calling and writing Memorial Healthcare and Florida Blue, seeking answers to whether they can continue to see their doctors, and when the contract dispute will be resolved. The couple live in Pembroke Pines and all hospitals nearby, south of Interstate 595, are operated by Memorial. Both see various specialists at Memorial and Gayle Pifer is undergoing cancer treatment. The Pifers said they have been Blue Cross Blue Shield policyholders for more than 40 years, but can’t afford to keep seeing the same doctors.

“We live eight minutes from Memorial West. If we keep going, we could be stuck for the whole bill,” Bob Pifer told the Sun Sentinel. “In my wife’s case, the last infusion was very expensive.”

Plantation resident Andy Greenfield said he has been getting primary care at Memorial for over 30 years. “Because of this impasse, I will be forced to look elsewhere, even for ongoing conditions that Memorial physicians had treated. I don’t understand how so many hospitals can be out of network simultaneously for residents of Broward County.”

South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at [email protected].

Palm Beach officials have taken a peek at the 2026 tourist season – and they are already bullish about it.

In a recent report, tourism officials say studies show that expected visitor demand is up 1.4 percent for October through December, compared with the same period last year. It is also up 3.3 percent for January through this coming spring, according to the trade group Discover the Palm Beaches.

Palm Beach had a booming 2025, and Palm Beach business leaders say they see more wealth coming to the area, bringing in more jobs and front-office operations. But also bringing more tourists.

Lots of them are coming from out close neighbor to the north – Canada. Tourism officials say from January to September, 2025, Palm Beach County saw 253,400 Canadian visitors seeking to escape the cold.

Tourism officials are hoping to see an increase in visitors from Canada, which is likely, they say, if predictions for a cold winter hold true. Snowy forecasts are posted for much of the Northeast this year.

But already, officials say, convention and events tied to the Palm Beach County Convention Bureau are expected to surpass last year, when the venue booked 306,000 hotel room nights.

Palm Beach hotels have been healthy.

Revenue per available hotel room in Palm Beach County outpaced the state during the last fiscal year. The county revenue was $188 per available room, compared with $134 in the rest of the state of Florida.

That $188 is up nearly 11 percent from the year before, when it stood at $170.

Tourism is one of Palm Beach County’s most robust sectors.

The industry employs about 90,000 people. Its economic impact is about $10.5 billion annually.

In the 2025 fiscal year, which ran from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025, the County welcomed 10.6 million visitors, up from a record 9.6 million in the previous fiscal year.

A peak at the weather shows peak season – December to mid-April – average temperatures are expected to be in the mid-70s to low 80s. Beaches are expected to be “very busy,” tourism officials say. Accommodations at this time will be most expensive.

Later next year, from April to May, weather is expected to continue to be mild and warm. There are expected to be fewer visitors, and prices will be more moderate.

The lowest number of tourists usually comes in late summer and fall, and accommodations are at their lowest rates.

Increased tourism has an impact on the local real estate market, and potential home buyers are advised to take that into account when considering a purchase.

The tourism boom, according to real-estate sources, is driving up home demand, helping reshape neighborhoods and influencing buying decisions.

The major influx of tourists usually occurs in he November to April time period. This spike in visitors has tended to drive up property values in such places as West Palm Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton, the experts say.

The result, they say, is higher prices for homes that can double as vacation rentals or second homes.

Airbnb and Vrbo have made it easier for homeowners to rent out their properties to vacations, and many are doing just that. This, the experts say, has created a strong market for turnkey properties and condos with rental-friendly policies.

As a result, there is more competition for homes near tourist attractions. There are higher rental yields in tourist-heavy areas, and stricter local regulations on short-term rentals.

While all this allows investors the chance to earn passive income, it can mean more noise, traffic and limited housing availability for residents.

Rising property values may be good for investors, but can push some long-term residents out of their cherished neighborhoods.

Real-estate experts advise buyers to consider whether they want to locate in heavy tourist areas. Homes in such places tend to rise in value but ultimately may become too expensive for those on fixed or limited incomes.