Utilities Sector

Souto, on a Trash Tear

Chávez cut the lights? Conspiracies Abound.

Toxic Runways

Years of neglect have poisoned the land and contaminated the water under Miami International Airport. Investigators are just now beginning to grasp how bad it is. It's very bad.

Greener Runaways

A "proactive" Metro-Dade is dragged kicking and screaming into environment consciousness

Throw Away This Newspaper

And you just might face hefty fines, thanks to the countywide crackdown on businesses and landlords that refuse to recycle

Harpal Kapoor Is the Funkiest Transit Director In All the Land

We would've thought Miami-Dade transit parties would be dull affairs -- you know, where the administrators get tipsy and see who can recite the Sunday schedule for Route J the quickest.  But no, director Harpal Kapoor, an Indian-born sikh, and his merry band of bureacrats go buck-wild after hours. ... More >>

Nice House, Rotten Spot

This can't be what the real estate pros have in mind when they say "Location, location, location"

Bottled Water Gets the Boot

As containers and costs mount, tap water is the rule in eateries.

Clever Green

Florida is starved for electricity. Some eco-renegades are growing their own.

Baghdad West

In Opa-locka, gang warfare, drug dealing, and decay are a way of life

Sticky Lingers

"The streets look horrible. Everybody I talk to is like, ‘You’re right, man; gum is disgusting."

Ecological Politics

UM's Larry Brand flouts the grant system, pays the price

Return of Three Mile Island?

Exelon plans to build a new nuclear power plant. Ho-hum.

Letters from the Issue of March 14, 2002

University of Miami administrators called for downfield interference

Greed Stinks

It smells like political cronyism, laced with a little Penelas and arsenic

Best Place To Jet Ski

Turkey Point Inlet

The Energizer

Forget the bunny. Robin Parker has a battery that might save the world.

Better Lake Than Never?

Officials insist the Lake Belt created by limestone mining in Northwest Miami-Dade will be an eco-panacea. Critics say that's all wet.

Swamp and Circumstance

Planners hope the Natural System Model can help restore the Everglades. But will it survive politics?

Letters

Planners hope the Natural System Model can help restore the Everglades. But will it survive politics?

Trash and Cash

Small, independent garbage haulers have always had to battle the big companies, but now they have a new foe: the City of Miami

Talking Turkey Point Blues

The feds want to know: Is a proposed airport too close to Turkey Point?

Politics Makes for Strange ... Trashmen?

If Joe Carollo gets into bed with old nemesis Wayne Huizenga, two of the mayor's closest advisers will be fluffing the pillows

Rotations

If Joe Carollo gets into bed with old nemesis Wayne Huizenga, two of the mayor's closest advisers will be fluffing the pillows

Letters

If Joe Carollo gets into bed with old nemesis Wayne Huizenga, two of the mayor's closest advisers will be fluffing the pillows

Put a Lid on It, Pal

Waste Management is fuming about an entrepreneur's efforts to cut garbage-hauling costs for small businesses

A Litter Night Music

It's 3:00 a.m. and there's a lot of clanging going on outside your apartment. It's only the garbage man, breaking the law.

If You Sink It, They Will Come

Creating an artificial reef is no longer a slam-dunk affair, despite an abundance of missile sites, water towers, and wanna-be philanthropists

Such a Deal!

The Old South Dade Dump is an open-air museum of pollution history -- and it's all ours

A Whiter Shade of Green

The Old South Dade Dump is an open-air museum of pollution history -- and it's all ours

Left Out

When Everglades National Park chief Dick Ring held a feel-good camp-out in the Dry Tortugas, he really toasted some people's marshmallows

The Last Frontier

When authorities pledged to reflood the Everglades, they tried to accommodate residents of the 8 1/2 Square Mile Area in Southwest Dade. They're still trying.

Running on Empty

A century of messing with Mother Nature has robbed the Everglades of too much water. Now we don't even have enough for ourselves.

Gully Gee!

A century of messing with Mother Nature has robbed the Everglades of too much water. Now we don't even have enough for ourselves.

We are now scrambling to find additional supplies of water. Among their most immediate measures, they recently requested permission from the state to pump more water for treatment at the Hialeah-Preston plants.

A century of messing with Mother Nature has robbed the Everglades of too much water. Now we don't even have enough for ourselves.

The Scoop That Nobody Wanted: Jose Canseco's Man-Ram Press Conference

Associated PressIt was so quiet you could hear a testicle shrink.Miami native Jose Canseco has made a post-baseball career out of snitching on his former teammates and getting punched in the face. This is not a dignified existence. And yet he insists on respect. Every time evidence emerges that a st ... More >>

Key Biscayne Sewage Plant Poisons a Neighborhood

Resident John Rosser raises a stink.

Solid Waste Director Fred Hobson Hired Despite Shady Record, City Hides Behind Storage Dispute

If only Miami could recycle everything as faithfully as it does shady employees​When Miami's director of solid waste management quit earlier this summer, city officials were sent scrambling for a replacement. They quickly hired Fred Hobson, a former assistant director of solid waste who had retir ... More >>

Fred Hobson, City of Miami solid waste official, hired despite sketchy record

If only Miami could recycle everything as faithfully as it does shady employees​When Miami's director of solid waste management quit earlier this summer, city officials were sent scrambling for a replacement. They quickly hired Fred Hobson, a former assistant director of solid waste who had retir ... More >>

Solid Waste Director Fred Hobson's Resumé Fails to Check Out, Again

​Like a pair of Tara Reid implants, some things are just too fake to pass. A few weeks ago, Riptide reported on the bizarre hiring of new Solid Waste Director Fred Hobson, handed a $100K job despite the fact that two of his former bosses say they fired him from city posts.Hobson first got the axe ... More >>

Turkey Point: Five Reasons Miami's Nuclear Power Plant Is Apocalyptically Unsafe

​With Japan on the brink of a devastating meltdown, nuclear power is coming under increased scrutiny around the globe. We talked to Jupiter-based Thomas Saporito, a former instrument control technician and safety whistleblower at nuclear power plants in Florida, Arizona, and Texas. Saporito now wo ... More >>

Radiation From Japan Has Arrived: Our Food and Water Are Exposed

via Flickr BlatantNews.comRadiation in your food and water? Fuggedahboutit!​Due to devastation caused by the Tsunami that recently hit Japan, the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is leaking radiation. It might not sound like a big deal to us, except for the fact that said radiation is traveling all t ... More >>

Five reasons Turkey Point could be the next nuclear disaster

via Flickr BlatantNews.comRadiation in your food and water? Fuggedahboutit!​Due to devastation caused by the Tsunami that recently hit Japan, the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is leaking radiation. It might not sound like a big deal to us, except for the fact that said radiation is traveling all t ... More >>

Turkey Point Reactors Vulnerable to Global Warming, Experts Warn

​"We are the most vulnerable metropolitan area in the world when it comes to sea level rise," says University of Miami professor Harold Wanless. Sitting in his office, the avuncular geologist paints a bleak picture. Global warming is a fact, and the results are already visible: hurricanes are gett ... More >>

FPL's $268 Million Early Cost Recovery A Ripoff, Pols Say

If you have electricity in your house, you have paid FPL $268 million ostensibly to build two new reactors at Turkey Point. You'll probably pay nearly $200 million more in 2012. Problem is, those reactors may never be built. Last week we warned that the utility's Turkey Point pla ... More >>

Giant Python Digesting a Deer Captured and Killed in West Miami-Dade

​It may not be as amazing/disgusting as that legendary snake-exploding-while-eating-an-alligator photo (which we are now lobbying to be adapted as the official state seal), but officials have found another invasive snake in the Everglades that had just made a meal out of a rather large native spec ... More >>

Deede Weithorn Denounces FP&L's Monopoly On Miami Beach

​After having a conversation about Florida Power & Light with Commissioner Deede Weithorn, Banana Republican is convinced it's time for an Occupy Turkey Point rally. It's bad enough the Florida Public Service Commission approved a rate increase for FP&L so the utility giant can cover $20 m ... More >>

Virginia Key Landfill Fix Delayed By Politics: Blood, Sewage, and Chemicals Still Leach into Bay

A blood pump in Virginia Key Landfill, 1976Twisted metal. Bags of blood. Broken needles. Human excrement. Mysterious orange drums full of God-knows-what.Like a giant shit-filled anniversary cake, the Virginia Key landfill has been stuffed full of the nastiest crap Miami has to offer. The dump has be ... More >>

Virginia Key landfill remains a hellish hazard while bureaucrats bicker

A blood pump in Virginia Key Landfill, 1976Twisted metal. Bags of blood. Broken needles. Human excrement. Mysterious orange drums full of God-knows-what.Like a giant shit-filled anniversary cake, the Virginia Key landfill has been stuffed full of the nastiest crap Miami has to offer. The dump has be ... More >>

Dramatic North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre Now in Public Feud With His Kid's Science Teacher

​Controversy seems to follow North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre wherever he goes. So, naturally, now he's managed to get himself in a public feud with his kid's science teacher.Laurie Futterman, a science teacher at the David Lawrence Jr. K-8 Center, showed up last week at a city council meeting t ... More >>