A team of mechanical, architectural and environmental engineers, geoscientists, and geoinformation specialists affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and Germany has found that many of the tall, heavy buildings along the coast of South Florida are sinking into the ground much faster than was expected.

In their study published in the journal Earth and Space Science, the group compared satellite images over several years to learn more about ongoing subsidence along multiple beachfronts.

Prior research has shown that many factors can lead to subsidence, in which the altitude of a given parcel of land declines. Natural causes include water movement, earthquakes and gravity. Manmade causes include the heaviness of the built environment, including large buildings, and activities including fracking and landscaping.

In this new study, the researchers noted that the many tall buildings along many parts of the coast in South Florida appeared to be extremely heavy. They wondered if adding so much weight might be causing the ground beneath them to sink.

To find out, the researchers obtained precise satellite imagery for several of the most popular beaches in South Florida and compared 35 buildings standing on them over time. Modern satellite imagery is so precise it can detect changes in altitude of just a few centimeters. The researchers found that every one of the buildings they measured was sinking, ranging from 2 to 8 cm over the years 2016 to 2023, and that most of them were sinking faster than expected.

The research team also found that there were differences in subsidence between beach areas. The worst, for example, was occurring on Sunny Isles Beach; after that was Surfside, site of the collapse of a 12-story building back in 2021. Miami Beach, they noted, was experiencing the least amount of subsidence.

Because of the building collapse three years ago, the researchers took a closer look at Surfside to find out if subsidence may have been a contributing cause and found no evidence. Even if the building had been sinking, they note, it should not have led to structural damage unless it was sinking unevenly, with one part of the ground under the building sinking faster than another.

They suggest more work is required to determine if that is happening to any of the buildings in South Florida, and if so, to warn their owners.

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Former Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., was indicted Tuesday on charges that he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act and laundered funds in order to “conceal and promote his criminal conduct,” the Justice Department said on Wednesday. 

In the indictment, Rivera is accused of working “as an agent” of Raul Gorrín Belisario, a Venezuelan national who the Treasury Department said played a role in a “corruption scheme” to bribe the national treasurer of Venezuela. 

Rivera “sought to lobby senior U.S. government officials” on Gorrín’s behalf, attempting to have Gorrín removed from a list he was placed on because of the alleged bribery, according to the indictment returned by the grand jury.

Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), anyone who has agreed to work in a certain capacity for a foreign government’s interest, either through the government itself or an intermediary, must register with the U.S. government. 

The indictment also alleges that Rivera created shell companies “to conceal and promote his crimes.” The alleged scheme took place in 2019 and 2020, according to the indictment.

The FBI Miami Field Office, which the DOJ said is investigating the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night. An attorney for Rivera also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  

Rivera was previously arrested and indicted in 2022. Prosecutors alleged in that case that Rivera tried to “act and cause others to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign principal,” referring to the Venezuelan government, without registering with the U.S. government. 

The Miami Herald reported on Wednesday that Rivera in a statement referred to the various FARA allegations as “false,” arguing that Tuesday’s indictment was “just another politicized indictment against a Republican, right before the Trump administration brings back sanity and fairness to this weaponization of the justice system.”

Rivera served in Congress from 2011 to 2013.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla — The person warning you about Florida’s next hurricane might not be a person at all. Florida’s Emergency Management team rolled out new AI technology Wednesday that, they say, will save lives during future emergencies.

Think of your average weather report. Little music in the background, a baritone meteorologist predicting partly cloudy conditions. Pretty standard, don’t you think?

Think again. AI now has the power to give you an almost identical broadcast to what you’d hear on your car radio, but it’s not a real person, just real information. And a real opportunity, say state officials, to inform people during emergencies.

BEACON (Broadcast Emergency Alerts and Communications Operations Network) is a first-of-its-kind program created as a joint venture between Florida Emergency Management, the University of Florida, and an AI company called Futuri. BEACON gathers emergency alerts and messages from official federal/state/local sources, prioritizes them, and turns them into a 24/7 AI-powered radio station.

Listeners can stream it on the BEACON app or over the air with a regular old radio. Florida’s Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said during Wednesday’s rollout speed was among the biggest benefits.

“That goes straight to the airwaves,” he said. “And we’re really excited about that technology and that capability to get instant messaging out on the airwaves, and I guarantee you sometime over the next, you know, decades, that we will save lives.”

The program is starting small. Just one BEACON, for now, operating out of the public radio station WUFT in Gainesville. In the future, BEACONs could be across the state, broadcasting in multiple languages and at all hours.

The concept is simple. When an emergency happens, officials push out alerts, and in seconds, BEACON turns them into broadcasts that will run before, during, and as recovery begins.

AI systems have come under scrutiny for reliability, recently. The Associated Press reported this in October. An AI hospital transcription tool was found to be making stuff up — including “racial commentary, violent rhetoric and even imagined medical treatments.”

 “It really depends on the quality of data that is being fed into the system,” said Futuri CEO Daniel Anstandig.

 He dismissed accuracy concerns. BEACON, Anstandig said, will get its info from trusted sources, meaning its broadcasts will be just as trustworthy.

“We know that the data is highly controlled,” said Anstandig. “It’s high integrity, and so we have measures in place to be sure that we’re only ever processing or using information that originates from statewide agencies or from sanctioned government agencies, and that makes a difference.”

BEACON’s next steps aren’t certain. It’ll be up to the legislature to fund it and expand the program across Florida. That means the AI’s operators “will be back” next year to ask lawmakers for more cash when the session begins in March.

Something to be mindful of. Florida is entering a new year where one of the main goals of Florida’s new House SpeakerDanny Perez is trimming the budget. What that means for programs like this remains uncertain– though emergency management often ranks high on the state’s priority list.