Most Popular
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Perez Hilton Picks a Fight
Haters and lawsuits threaten Miami's infamous celebrity gossip export.
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The Murder of Master Do
Ten murders and Haitian gangs roil the quiet town of North Miami.
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Poisoned Well
What was contaminating our drinking water? Who knows - Dade officials stopped looking.
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Che Guevara Who?
Cubans get pissed, an artist gets even, and the supreme prosecutor of the Cuban revolution gets booted from Dadeland.
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Winter Music Conference
Everything you ever, ever wanted to know about the spin event of the century.
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A Pregnant Pause (10)
Drink heavily and don't worry. That baby will be fine.
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Sour Milk (7)
Tennessee Williams gets walloped in the Design District.
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Carbonell Cold Shoulder (7)
We're all losers at South Florida's biggest awards show.
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Poisoned Well (6)
What was contaminating our drinking water? Who knows - Dade officials stopped looking.
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Perez Hilton Picks a Fight (5)
Haters and lawsuits threaten Miami's infamous celebrity gossip export.
-
Perez Hilton Picks a Fight
Haters and lawsuits threaten Miami's infamous celebrity gossip export.
-
The Murder of Master Do
Ten murders and Haitian gangs roil the quiet town of North Miami.
-
Poisoned Well
What was contaminating our drinking water? Who knows - Dade officials stopped looking.
-
Che Guevara Who?
Cubans get pissed, an artist gets even, and the supreme prosecutor of the Cuban revolution gets booted from Dadeland.
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A Felony with That Croqueta?
Criminals are everywhere at the nation's best-known Cuban eatery.
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Toast the Environment
06:06AM 04/12/08 -
BREAKING NEWS: Liberty City Six Jurors Deadlocked
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The Party Crasher - Broker Boxing Federation Attracts 1,500 to Mansion, Including the Mournings and Brooke Hogan
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Eminem to Perform for Mandela?
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Beto Cuevas Announced as Special Surprise Guest at Tonight's Myspace Latino "Show Secreto"
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Jenny Laura Takes El Exito
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What we are writing about
- Arsht Center
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Recent Articles By Isaiah Thompson
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A Felony with That Croqueta?
Criminals are everywhere at the nation's best-known Cuban eatery.
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Easy on Rudy
The newspaper of record plays softball with the schools chief.
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Poisoned Well
What was contaminating our drinking water? Who knows - Dade officials stopped looking.
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Payday Mayday
While its owner lives the high life, a county contractor stiffs its employees.
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Homeless Sex Offenders Face Eviction
State officials scrap under-the-bridge policy.
Recent Articles By Mara Leventhal
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Stage Capsules
Current shows.
Recent Articles By Brantley Hargrove
National Features
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Cleveland Scene
Dangerous Liaisons
Another by-product of the privatization of the Iraq War: sexual assault.
By Lisa Rab -
Seattle Weekly
The DUI King
Meet Bob Castle, a drunk who always seems to find a way to drive.
By Rick Anderson -
City Pages
"How Can This Stuff Be Legal?"
Take a toke of Salvia Divinorum and you'll wonder, too.
By Matt Snyders -
OC Weekly
Teacher's Pests
Targeted by Bill O'Reilly, James Corbett isn't the first educator to face the wrath of OC conservatives.
By Gustavo Arellano and Daffodil J. Altan
Gossip 101
"How many times can you rank the hottest sororities? It just gets meaner and meaner."
By Isaiah Thompson , Mara Leventhal , and Brantley Hargrove
Published: March 13, 2008
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MIKE GORMAN
Gossip 101
Filed under: News
If there is a special corner in Hell reserved for the producers of Fox's family-destroying hit reality show The Moment of Truth, then Matt Iverson, creator of JuicyCampus.com, might find a spot nearby. The site is an anonymous collegiate message board that airs X-rated, high-school-style taunts — the kind of stuff traditionally found written with a Sharpie on dirty bathroom walls.
In the University of Miami students' section of the site, anti-Semitic comments describing Jewish coeds as big-nosed and hairy share space with posts outing closet gays on campus. There are lengthy misogynistic rants about college women, usually mentioning their first and last names. A typical post reads, "She is the sluttiest slut in all of slutdom. Comparing her vagina to a Wal-Mart entrance is like comparing the Grand Canyon to a crack in the sidewalk."
Considering more than 40 shooting deaths have occurred in the past year on college campuses — 33 alone at Virginia Tech in April — some fear JuicyCampus could lead to more than hurt feelings. In December, a Loyola Marymount student posted a threat to shoot random peers on campus and was later apprehended by the Los Angeles Police Department.
A few dozen UM student leaders met February 19 to discuss the site and what can be done about it: not much, admits student government vice president Molly Jones. It doesn't make sense to ban the site, she says, "but JuicyCampus.com is spreading like wildfire. Many students here are outraged and offended."
Last Thursday, on UM's Coral Gables campus, a Midwestern sorority member in her third year agreed to talk about JuicyCampus — anonymously, of course. "It's like the new Facebook. When you are writing a paper, you just have it in the background all the time," she said as she headed to the gym.
"I think something really bad is going to happen. It is getting old.... How many times can you rank the hottest sororities?" she continued. "It just gets meaner and meaner.... And you just don't know. It's college. People have low self-esteem." Asked to elaborate, she added, "Someone could get hurt." — Mara Leventhal
Got Boats?
Filed under: Real Estate
A couple of cows for a good saddle? Trade you my Cheetos for your Doritos? Or how about a $6-million yacht for a house or a condo in Florida?
A Northfield, New Jersey plastic surgeon is looking to make that last, high-end swap through Craigslist, the Internet hub where just about anything goes.
For the adventuresome and creative (and those with beaucoup resources), real estate deals continue to percolate — at least outside the Miami condo market.
Dr. Ira Trocki, a big-time real estate investor in the Northeast, is advertising other trades on Craigslist, including Philadelphia condos for places in Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Such exchanges aren't all that uncommon, realtors say. But a boat?
Andy Weiser, an agent for Coldwell Banker in Broward County, wonders how such a swap might go down. Do you bring in an appraiser? How do you allow for the appreciation of the real estate and the inevitable depreciation of the yacht?
Trocki didn't respond to messages seeking comment for this story. Meantime, old-school bartering is apparently making a comeback. Just be careful not to step in the bullshit. One trader on Craigslist advertises a private (or, as it's spelled, "privet") island off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with a "$2,500-square-foot house" in exchange for "anything of value," including "cars, boats, planes, jewelry."
Trocki's proposed swap is straightforward enough: no middleman; a house for a yacht.
The doctor himself is a man of many interests. He owns the company that built the vessel — Egg Harbor Yachts, a once-floundering boat maker he bought in 1999 and infused with $10 million in improvements, according to the company's website. He's also the principal of the Trocki Hebrew Academy and has even worked as a cut man for Mike Tyson.
"People in Hell want ice water," says Weiser. "It sounds very funny to me." — Brantley Hargrove
The Misfits Keep on Coming
A month ago, probation officers served the sex offenders living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway with 72-hour notice to leave, and then-Department of Corrections Secretary James McDonough explained sex offenders would no longer be sent to live there.
Since then, there have been at least three newcomers, the bridge dwellers say. What's more, they are still under 72-hour notice to leave; every 72 hours, they are given new notice.
A DOC spokesperson declined comment but confirmed the three new arrivals.
"A whole bunch of probation officers — a couple of them were from Tallahassee — came down here the other night," says Juan Carlos Martin, one of the most outspoken in the group. "And they were like, 'Do you have microwaves?' Microwaves? We can't even get water anymore!"
The appearance of visitors from Tallahassee might have something to do with McDonough's recent resignation and his replacement by Walter A. McNeil.
Since the county passed in 2005 an ordinance restricting sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school — a law that makes nearly the entire county uninhabitable to them — county and city officials have responded to the situation under the bridge by adamantly refusing to take any responsibility whatsoever.
A few weeks ago, McNeil wrote a letter to the City of Miami: "We are willing to work with local leaders of the City of Miami community towards finding a solution to the unintended consequences that have resulted from sex offender residency restrictions." — Isaiah Thompson
The saga continues............... This travesty by both Miami-Dade AND the DOC passing the buck does nothing. Who is responsible for all of this? Politicians of coarse. Without the one-up-man-ship to out regulate each other, this mess would not exist. These men regardless of what they have done, are still human and while they still are paying the price for their actions, treating them as mangy animals does no one any good.
You hear that those who rule in Florida are "Christians" and follow the "good Book" with forgiveness and piety, yet when it comes to sex offenders, throwing rocks is a given action. Forget the glass house or being without sin, when it comes to sex offenders, this doesn't count, anything goes. Hypocrites one an all.
My question is simple, when will the rulers of Florida get some balls and do what is right for once? I don't see it happening anytime soon. They know a good thing when they see it. Who cares if it demeans another? They don't.
Let these men be again part of society. If they screw up, they deserve what they get. Every bit of what the law calls for. Until, no, if they follow the laws, not if, as they follow the laws and rebuild a life for them and family, leave them alone unless you support them while they again be productive members of society. STOP throwing your rocks and STOP treating them worse than some mangy mutt.
Comment by Michael Price — April 13, 2008 @ 01:12AM