NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – A North Miami mother was arrested over the weekend after police said she beat her son with a wooden stick and threw him to the floor.

The incident was reported around 7 p.m. Saturday in the 2200 block of Sole Mia Way.

According to the woman’s arrest report, her daughter witnessed the beating and ran to a security guard before police were called.

North Miami police said the victim told responding officers that his mother, Carolina Barco, 33, was upset with him because he didn’t do his chores.

He said she became irate, grabbing a thick wooden stick and striking him multiple times on both his arms with it, according to the report.

The report states Barco also struck her son with an open hand on his face and body, squeezed his face with both her hands and then threw him to the floor.

Police said he sustained a small cut on the right side of his face and a cut to his left thumb, which also appeared to be slightly swollen.

Large bruises were also spotted on his arms, authorities said.

According to the report, the victim told police he did not want to go back inside the home with his mother.

Police said Barco denied hitting her son, but said she left her kids alone for about 20 minutes and returned to find the house a mess.

She claimed her son didn’t help clean up after she told him to do so and had been inside playing video games.

Barco was arrested on a child abuse charge.

As of Monday afternoon, she remained held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $5,000 bond.

The boy’s age was not released by police.

It’s not clear who is currently caring for Barco’s two children.

• Under this new plan, one-way tickets to Miami on this route are $17.50. It would cost $35 a day to take the train in both directions.
• It will only stop at Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, and the transfer station before reaching MiamiCentral.
• The express train will leave the West Palm Beach Station at 6:30 a.m. and get to MiamiCentral at 8:05 a.m.
• In the afternoons, the express train will leave Miami at 5:35 p.m.

A new way to get from West Palm Beach to the Magic City kicked off Monday morning.
Tri Rail is launching their pilot program for an express route to Miami, eliminating more than 10 stops along the way.
I asked Tri Rail leaders why they’re deciding to launch this now and if this has anything to do with Brightline rising their prices for their tickets.
Their answer was yes.
Brightline made the decision to get rid of their train passes, effective June 1.
They say “it has become increasingly difficult to accommodate all guests as peak trains are reaching capacity,” according to their website.
Before, you could buy 40 one way tickets for $400. Now, After their price increase and changes that started this month, those same 40 tickets would cost you $1,400.
Brightline says they worked with Tri Rail to alleviate this.
Under this new plan, one-way tickets to Miami on this route are $17.50. It would cost $35 a day to take the train in both directions.
I asked the executive director of South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which runs Tri Rail how that relationship worked.
“We went through our schedule to see if we could actually squeeze it in. We saw that we could, and then we went to the board for the budget for it,” said David Dech SFRTA’s executive director. “Brightline recognized that there were going to be some people that were upset with the pricing and reached out to see if there was something we could do to help everybody.”
It’s a one-seat ride, meaning passengers won’t have to transfer.
The express train will leave the West Palm Beach Station on Tamarind Avenue and Clematis Street at 6:30 a.m. each weekday and get to MiamiCentral at 8:05 a.m.
In the afternoons, the express train will leave Miami at 5:35 p.m.
Tri Rail says this will cut the drive time between West palm beach and Miami by more than 30 minutes.
The new express route also eliminates a bunch of stops.
It will only stop at Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, and the transfer station before reaching MiamiCentral.
The stops that were kept were chosen strategically, according to Tri Rail.
WPTV about more trains becoming available for this route. Dech says they’ll use all the information they get from the pilot to decide if they can add more trains to this route.
“Later on in the year we’ll be able to evaluate our business model in general,” said Dech. “I don’t have the funding or the equipment to just put on a whole bunch of additional express trains. We do share this line with Amtrak, we share this line with CSX. We don’t have a blank check to go out and kind of do whatever we want. But this is a good opportunity to see if there really is a demand.”

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The Miami Heat have dominated the NBA’s Southeast Division, winning 12 titles since 2004.

After failing to win it last season, the gap potentially widened Sunday when teams were allowed to negotiate with free agents. The Orlando Magic, who are the reigning division champs, are planning to add Denver Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope once players are allowed to sign.

Caldwell-Pope gives the Magic an experienced scorer to pair alongside rising star Paolo Banchero and forward Franz Wagner. Last year Caldwell-Pope averaged 10.1 points and shot 40.6 percent from the 3-point line.

He won two championships, both against the Heat. In 2020, he was a key cog in the Los Angeles Lakers defeating Miami during the bubble season in Orlando. In 2023, he was a starter on the Nuggets team that knocked off the Heat in five games.

He should help the Magic improve on last year’s 47-35 record after reportedly agreeing to a three-year, $66-million deal. They have one of the league’s top frontcourts in Banchero and Wagner, who combined to average more than 42 points and 12 rebounds.

The Heat, meanwhile, are less flexible than the Magic and Philadelphia 76ers because of salary cap space. They are limited on who they can add as a free agent, so will have to likely part ways with Tyler Herro or Duncan Robinson for any chance of revamping the roster.

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Inside The Heat. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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