By ERIC STAATS, Scripps Howard News Service

NAPLES, Fla. - Thousands of Burmese pythons are eating their way through the Everglades, leaving a dramatic decline in mammal populations in their slithering wake in just a decade, according to a study published Monday.

With an oil-drilling rig on its way to Cuban waters from Singapore, U.S. officials are trying to piece together a strategy for what to do should a spill from the exploratory well threaten the Florida coastline.

The job is complicated by diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Cuba and the domestic politics of the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

One of the eyes in the sky relied on by hurricane forecasters to predict the dangerous storms' path is expected to go blind in 2016.

The resulting data gap could get longer unless Congress increases funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's polar-orbiting satellite program to launch a replacement satellite, NOAA officials warn.

NAPLES, Fla. - Florida was on edge last summer as oil spewed from the blown out Deepwater Horizon well in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

This summer, Florida could turn a wary eye in a different direction: south toward Cuba.

NAPLES, Fla. - A town called Holly sounds like a cozy place to spend Christmas.

Holly, in southeastern Michigan, hosts an annual Dickens Festival every December and is home to a ski and snowboard resort called Mount Holly.

But, for the Haneline family this year, Christmas with grandma beat out Christmas with Holly.

NAPLES, Fla. - When oil began spewing from the blown-out Deepwater Horizon well, Stephan Howden started scrambling.

NAPLES, Fla. - A hurricane plowing through the Gulf of Mexico is enough to put coastal cities and towns on high alert.

Throw in an oil spill that is washing ashore in Louisiana and threatening coastlines from Texas to Florida, and start Tuesday of hurricane season looks even more foreboding.

NAPLES, Fla. - As 2009 ended, Florida panther scientists chalked up a grisly figure: 17.

That was the record number of the endangered cats killed in collisions with vehicles, mostly in Collier and Lee counties, last year.

The death toll begged the question: Are there more cats roaming around than scientists know about?

Now the numbers are in, and they're holding steady.

NAPLES, Fla. - When the oil spill closed his home fishing grounds off Pensacola, Fla., Donny Waters decided he couldn't just sit around.

So he readied his 40-foot commercial fishing boat, Hustler, and headed into the Gulf of Mexico in search of oil-free waters to catch as much red snapper as he could -- while he still can.

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. - The tally of manatee deaths in Florida waters reached a record 429 in 2009, according to figures released this week by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The numbers reflect a record year for manatees killed in collisions with boats, baby manatees found dead, and deaths related to cold weather last winter, biologists said.