Bill Cooke

Miami Beach Police Video Shows Toronto Sisters Failing The Nasty Dance

Angelina and Michele Mastrangelo seemingly reveled in "popping it" for two Miami Beach police officers who arrested them a couple of days before Christmas. Police station video footage -- first published on local blog Random Pixels -- shows the hand-cuffed Toronto siblings voraciously showing off so ... More >>

Miami's Best Eats and Drinks This Weekend

Chilly this morning, huh? This city is at her finest when we have 80-degree weather one day and 60 degrees the next. Makes us feel like L.A. but without all the earthquakes and cold ocean water. The weekend is supposed to be lovely. Sure, there's a drizzle or two expected on Saturday, but it won' ... More >>

Best of Miami 2012 - Best Blog: Random Pixels

​Want access to our Best Of picks from your smartphone? Download our free Best Of app for the iPhone or Android phone from the App Store or Google Play. Don't forget to check out the full Best of Miami® 2012 issue June 12 online and June 14 in newsstands.Best BlogRandom Pixels randompixels.blogsp ... More >>

Stephanie Kienzle: Northern exposure

Miami's best blogs: From the Crespogram Report to Political Cortadito

Miami's Top 10 Political Bloggers Rank Dade's Worst Politicians

Miche Ratto​This week, Miami New Times profiled the ten hardest-hitting blogs that make life miserable for public officials in South Florida. At a time when the Miami Herald and other media outlets are shaving back coverage of civic and public affairs, bloggers are filling the void to investigate ... More >>

Miami Herald Has Less News Aggregation Ethics Than Huffington Post Miami

​There's a media fight brewing in Miami between the old paper giant and the new local iteration of a quickly growing Internet media monster. Random Pixels blogger Bill Cooke, ever the keen-eyed instigator, noticed that the recently launched Huffington Post Miami was cribbing quite liberally from M ... More >>

Carlos Gimenez is the Same as the Old Boss

Carlos Gimenez has Carlos Alvaritis Disease. Symptoms include acting like the mayor who was just recalled. ​Anyone expecting some radical new ideas from Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez can just forget about it. Just like his predecessor, Gimenez is screwing over the county employees who can least ... More >>

Miami Herald Really Wants You To Know Its Reporter Got Arrested For DUI

There was a strange news story published on Miami Herald's website Wednesday. The article, titled "Herald writer charged with DUI, leaves paper," reported that little-known Neighbors reporter Jose Cassola was pulled over for running a stop sign with his headlights off at 4 am on Monday. He admitte ... More >>

Google Street View Invades a Liberty City Woman's Right To Hold a Water Jug Naked On Front Porch

​It used to be you could contemplatively hold a water jug naked outside of your Liberty City house without fear that your photo would end up on the internet. Used to be. Bill Cooke, the blogging brain behind Random Pixels, chuckled a lot as he told us to Google the address 1760 NW 66th Stree ... More >>

Route 9 Review: Errors Corrected

​The Route 9 review that appears in this week's issue has created a mini-storm of local concern among foodies. Frodnesor, Eater, and Bill Cooke have all commented on it.Here's the deal. Our food critic Lee Klein's review of the small Coral Gables eatery included several factual errors. I ... More >>

As Miami Police Shootings Hit National News, More Lasting Memorial Painted in Overtown

photo by Tim Elfrink​Mark March 22 as the moment the world started paying attention to Miami's embattled police department. That's when an ex-Miami Herald reporter named Don Van Natta Jr. parachuted in to write a New York Times piece telling millions of readers what everyone in black Miami knows t ... More >>

Bill Cooke Will Most Likely Not Be Buying a Ynot Tribute T-Shirt

Ynotlives.comA Ynot tribute t-shirt, modeled by somebody Bill Cooke would probably call a "scumbag".​Bill Cooke hasn't been this unhinged at the New Times since my boss photographed a mannequin wardrobe malfunction. The self-styled media watchdog behind blog Random Pixels and Loose Thoughts call ... More >>

Has Bravo Secretly Been Filming Real Housewives of Miami?

photo by Bill CookeUnfortunately, Real Housewives of Hialeah remains but a dream. ​Miami seems like the perfect location for a spin-off of the Reality TV behemoth Real Housewives franchise that Bravo has unleashed on the world. Though, when The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills premiers next month ... More >>

Frank Owen Sues Gerald Posner Over Plagiarism Charges in Miami Babylon

photo by Bill Cooke​Back in March, we were the first to detail local author Frank Owen's charges that Gerald Posner had plagiarized dozens of passages in his latest book, Miami Babylon, from Owen's 2003 book Clubland. The case opened the floodgates on what looks like Posner's career-long habit of ... More >>

Al Maloof Raises More Money Than Ron Book In Local Miami-Dade Races

Bill CookeWhen it comes to campaign donations, Al Maloof drops it like it's hot.​Raising cash for county commission and school board races in Miami-Dade is like making it rain at the strip club. The more loot you fling, the more popular you are! As voters start going to the polls for early voting, ... More >>

Gerald Posner's New Gig: Representing Mahmood Karzai, Afghan President's Embattled Brother

Photo by Bill CookeGerald Posner, international man of mystery.Mahmood Karzai, meet Gerald Posner.​You're a multimillionaire Afghan "entrepreneur" who happens to be the brother of fabulously corrupt President Hamid Karzai, and you've just been accused by the Wall Street Journal of airlifting billi ... More >>

Gerald Posner Busted for Stealing From Our Sister Paper, Houston Press

Last time we wrote about Gerald Posner, we showed -- in excruciating detail -- how the disgraced South Beach author appears to have plagiarized at least 35 passages from dozens of sources in two books, Why America Slept and Secrets of the Kingdom. photo by Bill Cooke​That story came a few w ... More >>

Plagiarist Gerald Posner Nabs a TV Deal For Miami Babylon. Where's Our Check?

Gerald Posner has apparently landed a TV deal for Miami Babylon, a book that New Times has proved includes dozens of plagiarized passages. photo by Bill Cooke​Cary Woods, a producer and Plum TV-co-founder, tells the New York Post  he plans to turn Babylon into a "tropical" version of T ... More >>

Gerald Posner Plagiarized in Why America Slept and Secrets of the Kingdom, Research Shows

Photo by Bill Cooke Gerald Posner​In this week's Miami New Times, we write about new evidence that Gerald Posner plagiarized dozens of passages in his 2003 book Why American Slept and in 2005's Secrets of the Kingdom. After the jump, you can check out all the proof. But first, a little back ... More >>

Gerald Posner Hires Rush to Judgment Author Mark Lane in Plagiarism Case

Gerald Posner, Miami Beach author and admitted plagiarist, announced today that he's hired a lawyer to defend him against Miami New Times' stories about his literary thefts. photo by Bill Cooke​His choice of attorney is turning some heads in New York: Mark Lane is famous for authoring -- alm ... More >>

More Gerald Posner Plagiarism in Miami Babylon, From New Times, PBS, and Many Others

Back on March 16, Riptide broke the news that South Beach-based author Gerald Posner's latest book, Miami Babylon, had stolen eight passages from Frank Owen's 2003 work Clubland. photo by Bill Cooke New Times and a doctoral student have found more than a dozen new instances of plagi ... More >>

Gerald Posner: Plagiarism An 'Old Story,' New Times Is Out to 'Destroy' His Book

Photo by Bill CookeGerald PosnerIn this week's New Times, we report on 16 new examples of apparent plagiarism in Gerald Posner's latest book, Miami Babylon. We emailed all the problems to Posner last week and left multiple phone messages for him, but he never responded.Minutes ago, however, he uploa ... More >>

Gerald Posner Plagiarized Several Passages in Miami Babylon, Author Says

Last month, when Miami Beach journalist Gerald Posner got caught lifting from the Miami Herald in stories he wrote for the Daily Beast, he blamed the "warp speed" of the Internet. Photo by Bill Cooke Gerald Posner​So what's his excuse for plagiarizing at the presumably snail pace of book wr ... More >>

Gerald Posner Resigns from The Daily Beast

Photo by Bill CookeAfter admitting to plagiarizing multiple passages from Miami Herald stories and other sources, Gerald Posner has resigned as chief investigative reporter of The Daily Beast.Posner, a Miami Beach author best known for his investigative books like Miami Babylon, posted an  ... More >>

Gerald Posner Admits to Plagiarizing From the Miami Herald

Photo by Bill CookeGerald Posner​Miami-based investigative reporter Gerald Posner has been caught lifting lines from Miami Herald stories for his own stories at the Daily Beast. As a result, Posner has been temporarily suspended.Posner, the author of Miami Babylon and many other well-received nonf ... More >>

Streak Runner Robert Kraft Publishes South Beach Murder Mystery

Photo by Bill CookeObsessive Runner Guy Robert "Raven" Kraft is the Forrest Gump of Miami Beach. Since 1975, he has jogged over 100,000 miles -- eight of them per day -- on the shores of South Beach. He ran through 75 pairs of sneakers, seven presidents, and the end of the disco era. Plus, he has a ... More >>

Miami Police Control the Chaos on New Year's Eve

Editor's note: Photographer Bill Cooke rode with City of Miami Police to capture the chaos that comes with New Year's celebrations. Click here to view the entire slide show from that night.Photo by Bill CookeMiami Police Senior Officer David Carpenter fills out forms in the breathalyzer room of Miam ... More >>

Over the Weekend: NeckFace, MoonFest and The Other Hollywood

We skipped dressing up for Halloween this year, but people wouldn't stop bothering us as to why we weren't in costume. Being an overworked, underpaid writer is a full-time job and is the scariest costume we could come up with.But enough about us -- here is what you missed over the Halloween weekend: ... More >>

305 Photo of the Day: Real Housewives of Hialeah

​Our photographers caught a lot of crazy costumes this weekend, but the Real Housewives of Hialeah, from photog Bill Cooke's Lincoln Road gallery, are among our favorites.Check out all of our Miami Halloween party pictures here.

SunPost's Longtime Publisher Files For Bankruptcy, Owes More Than $1 Million to Creditors

Back in March, New Times proclaimed the death of the SunPost, Miami Beach's scrappy and once impressive weekly rag.​If we didn't turn out to be precisely right -- a few stray copies of all-but-content-free issues are still appearing from time to time around Lincoln Road -- we were pretty damn clos ... More >>

Look Who Showed Up at the Miami Babylon Book Reading

Bill CookeTrisha Posner (left), Irene Marie, and Tara Solomon​Just last week, investigative journalist Gerald Posner complained to the New York Post that no one in town would throw a party for the release of his new book detailing the cocaine-fueled history of Miami Beach, Miami Babylon. Not ... More >>

Big Bad Daily: Reason 2,987 the Miami Herald FAILS

Alex Izaguirre​The Miami Herald's skullduggery against local blogger and photographer Bill Cooke is getting serious. Miami's only major daily has sicced Ian Ballon, a big-dog intellectual property lawyer based out of Greenberg Traurig's Los Angeles office, on the canterkerous shutterbug-agitator. ... More >>

Miami Herald Tries -- and Fails -- to Intimidate Random Pixels Blogger

via Random PixelsThe offending image on Random Pixels.​Classic David and Goliath: Small local blogger criticizes big powerful daily newspaper. Daily newspaper doesn't like it and sends a cease-and-desist order even though when the local blogger gave the daily praise they found no problem with it. ... More >>

Was The ShamWow Guy Involved in the MacArthur Causeway Crash? Update: No, He Was Not

This is almost too much to believe. Just months after news broke that Vince Shlomi, better known as the ShamWow guy, got into a tongue-biting fight with a hooker he met at Louis, comes a report that he was involved in the crash that shut down traffic on the MacArthur Causeway. An unnamed s ... More >>

Miami Herald Says Bye to Joan Fleischman

The longtime gossip columnist kisses the town farewell.

Miami Herald Legend Joan Fleischman Pens Her Last Column Sunday

Scarface in Miami

Twenty-five years ago this month, the gangster epic caused a local stir.

Letters from the Issue of November 25-December 1

Intelligent voters, outspoken readers, and a downtown dining oasis

Letters from the Issue of June 24, 2004

Old pol, bad pickup lines, and authentic hip-hop

Buying Time

Can the Miami Herald polish up its old luster by importing a columnist from an "edgy" free weekly?

Letters to the Editor

From the issue of July 26, 2001

Fine Young Cannibals

The reporters providing us coverage of Elian Gonzalez seem to recognize they're taking part in a shark feed. And they just keep chomping.

The Versace Experience

Program Notes