Things To Do In SW Florida

Gerry Goldstein remembers his childhood trips to Royal Castle like yesterday. Burgers at the Miami restaurant chain were only 3 cents each in the 1960s.

After Goldstein and his friends collected glass bottles and got paid for them at the local supermarket, they would rush to Royal Castle.

“We would go through the alleys of construction sites, and turn them in and eat like a king,” said the 73-year-old Goldstein, who grew up on South Beach.

Now, one of his favorite childhood restaurants is gone.

The very last Royal Castle, on Northwest 79th Street and 27th Avenue, had survived for decades after the chain went out of business. A few weeks ago, the owner closed it for good, and hung a “For Lease” sign on the front door.

Goldstein loved Royal Castle so much that he went to the restaurant a couple of times a year for reunions with his old Miami Beach buddies. The school friends will now need to find a new place to gather.

The peak years for Royal Castle

During the 1950s and ‘60s, more than 150 Royal Castle restaurants dotted Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. In South Florida, there seemed to be one in every neighborhood. read more

By Jimmy Jenkins, Jamie Tarabay, Bloomberg News

Recent cyberattacks on public defenders’ offices in multiple Western U.S. states have spotlighted the technological vulnerabilities of an often overlooked but critical part of the U.S. judicial system.

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Public defenders, who represent clients unable to pay for their own lawyers in cases as serious as murder, are a staple of American justice. Many of the offices, which are scattered across the country, house decades of digital client records at any given moment. read more

By Holly D. Johnson, Bankrate.com

In a perfect world, no one would need to take out a loan to consolidate and pay off debt. In the real world, however, sometimes borrowing money is the only way to dig your way out.

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This is mostly due to high interest rates on credit cards. With the average credit card APR (annual percentage rate) at 20.01 percent as of October 2025, consumers are stuck paying significant sums of money in interest. Because of this, a small amount of their minimum payment actually goes towards paying down a credit card balance.

These challenges are why many people consider consolidating their credit card debt with a personal loan. read more

Hollywood resident Peter Cicale says he was heading to the beach in January 2024 when he parked in an open parking space in a nearby lot.

He didn’t expect to open the mailbox at his home four days later to find a “parking charge notice” from a company called Professional Parking Management Corp. stating that he owed $90 for failing to pay. The document included photos of his license tag and an offer to reduce the charge to $55, plus tax, if he paid within 15 days.

And while the invoice looked like a parking ticket, it did not say that failure to pay would jeopardize Cicale’s license or registration status or ding his credit score.

“There was no signage or attendant,” Cicale recently told the South Florida Sun Sentinel about his decision to use the parking lot at 915 N. Ocean Drive. “When I came back, I just drove off. I didn’t know I was being surveilled.”

Cicale, who paid the $90 bill, is the lead plaintiff in a civil lawsuit filed against Professional Parking Management Corp., a Georgia-registered company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale that manages privately owned parking lots in several states. read more

Just four years after Virgin Voyages’ first ship sailed its inaugural Caribbean itineraries, the cruise line is bringing online its fourth ship while continuing to challenge the norms of the industry.

Brilliant Lady, which is calling PortMiami home for the winter, arrived in October from New York City to sail adults-only cruises to the Caribbean and Bahamas, ranging from six to 12 nights. While closely resembling its sister ships, the 110,000-gross-ton Brilliant Lady features “software” updates to its dining menus and entertainment offerings. It’s also the first Virgin ship capable of a Panama Canal crossing, with its lifeboats now tucked into the ship rather than hanging over the side.

The ship’s slate of entertainment offerings includes the roaring ’20s-inspired “Up With A Twist” dinner show, which features a four-course meal and five cocktails, a “Murder In The Manor” interactive mystery show, the “Out of Time” musical comedy and “Red Hot,” a show celebrating the “playfully rebellious spirit” of Virgin Group founder Richard Branson. read more