Around The Region For Dec. 21, 2013

Among the eight South Florida eateries the state temporarily closed last week were five restaurants inside The Mall at Wellington Green in Palm Beach County. The big problem: rodent droppings. It was the second time since September that inspectors found rodent issues at the Wellington mall. Other noteworthy findings included a live spider on a cutting board and roaches crawling around an oven and on single-use bowls and lids. The South Florida Sun Sentinel typically highlights restaurant inspections conducted by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Save now on products from Apple, Shark and Samsung As the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, Black Friday offers savings on everything from TVs to toys. And there’s a good reason why it’s one of the busiest shopping days of the year — retailers generally save their biggest discounts for the event, so you can really make your holiday shopping budget stretch. At BestReviews, we research and test hundreds of products, which allows us to spot the best Black Friday deals as they become available.

It’s been an exhausting year these last 12 days, but all the Canadian election night support puppies have scampered back across the border, and now is a good time to revisit former Boston pol Tip O’Neill’s admonition: All politics is local. Voters flipped the Palm Beach County Commission from a one-seat GOP majority to a one-seat Democratic majority. It’s a thin victory, though, and commissioners will operate in what has become a hot pink county.

For many of us, one of life’s great pleasures is sitting in a cozy coffee shop, chatting with a friend and watching a parade of colorful characters waiting patiently for their daily cup of joe. We are lucky to have many independent coffee shops in South Florida. These cafes are not part of a chain and are able to assert their individuality by designing their own menus, serving creative coffee combos, and decorating their spaces with innovation and edginess. On this list, you’ll find an assortment of coffees, menus, prices and atmospheres.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, Associated Press Business Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans stepped up their spending at retailers last month in the latest sign that healthy consumer spending is driving the economy’s steady growth. Retail sales rose 0.4% from September to October, the Commerce Department said Friday, a solid increase though less than the previous month’s robust 0.8% gain. A 1.6% jump in sales at auto dealers drove much of the gain.

Broward’s state legislators chose their leaders for the next year quickly, without drama and by unanimous votes. But the comity didn’t last when discussion shifted to the question of whether to grant a leadership position to state Rep. Chip LaMarca. The issue: LaMarca is a Republican. And Broward is so Democratic that all the other 14 state senators and representatives from the county are Democrats. The scene was different in Palm Beach County. A Republican state representative nominated a Democratic state representative to serve as chair of the Palm Beach County Legislative Delegation for the next year, continuing a system in which the two parties alternate leadership roles. Broward delegation Most of the members of the Broward Legislative Delegation gathered Tuesday in Hollywood for one piece of routine business: picking one of their own to serve as delegation chair and someone else to serve as vice chair for the next year. The local delegation works together on issues that are important to the county, and need action in Tallahassee, but don’t necessarily rise to the level of major issues that involve legislators from across the state. State Rep.