Pope’s Warning on Global Warming Should Hit Miami Hardest

Today’s biggest news may just hit Miami harder than any other city in the world. Pope Francis has released his Encyclical, “Laudato Si’” on the Good of the Common Home. It states that  It is time to change the way we act toward the earth.  It starts out thusly, defining…

Ivan’s: A Biscayne Boulevard Newcomer With Multiethnic Appeal

When Ivan Dorvil’s Nuvo Cafe on West Dixie Highway burned down in 2012, his admirers mourned. The place was a neighborhood favorite, and Dorvil was a ministar, having cooked for the likes of P. Diddy, Gloria Estefan, and Lil Wayne. He’s also worked in high-end restaurant’s in South Beach’s Delano…

Finally, Equal Rights: Gays Can Marry in Florida

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled Thursday that an injunction he had issued should be lifted, confirming an earlier decision that gays have a constitutional right to marry in Miami-Dade County. “The Constitution requires the Clerk to issue [marriage] licenses,” he wrote. Florida’s conservative attorney general, Pam Bondi, who had…

Obama’s Cuban Reform Doesn’t Go Nearly Far Enough

Yenis Delgado is a green-eyed, 45-year-old Cuban beauty. She left the island a decade ago with her husband and young son. Her dad stayed behind, though, and it’s hard to keep in touch. Calls cost $1 per minute. Sending gifts sets her back $50 per pound. “Who can afford that?”…

Anthony Alfieri: Clean-Up Man

In this week’s Miami New Times, we profile 30 of the most interesting characters in town, with portraits of each from photographer Stian Roenning. See the entire Miami New Times People Issue here. After 45 years of poisoning the mostly black residents of West Coconut Grove, the incinerator Old Smokey…

Miami Should Help, Not Hinder, Overtown Football

The Overtown Optimist Club Rattlers have practiced here since 1993. They’ve won four national championships and produced not only model citizens but astounding athletes. For example, there’s former Rattler Dave Thomas, a cornerback who earned a Super Bowl ring with the New York Giants. Then there’s Ben Hanks, who played…

Steven Sotloff’s Mother Pleas to ISIS for His Release

The mom of Steven Sotloff, the 31-year-old American journalist and Pinecrest native whom ISIS has threatened to kill, has issued a moving video begging for her son’s release. In the minute-long video, Shirley Sotloff says: “He is a loyal and generous son and grandson. We have not seen Steven for…

Gawker Admits Plagiarizing Miami New Times, Suspends Writer

Everything I have ever said about Gawker is false. Everything. The gossip/news (or is it news/gossip?) website this morning admitted inadvertently stealing copy from Miami New Times. We didn’t bring it to their attention. The plagiarism related to a post last week by Miami New Times news blogger Kyle Munzenrieder,…

Peacocks: Most Miami Reason for a Traffic Jam

For half an hour this morning, North Miami Avenue — one of the city’s most crowded arteries — was shut down. By peacocks. For most of the show, it was funny, but not to the honking buses, swerving drivers, and cops who didn’t show up…

27 Cars in One Coconut Grove Parking Lot Booted

Randy Katz is a stand-up guy. An emergency room doc at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, he recently raised $35,000 for a buddy, Jeff Fogel, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — Lou Gehrig’s disease. The money helped Fogel buy a high-tech wheelchair to deal with the malady that is…

Hadley Park Community Center Finally to Be Built

After 13 years of stalling, bureaucratic ineptitude, and political gamesmanship, Liberty City’s Hadley Park will finally get a $6.5 million community center. This historic 28-acre spot at NW 50th Street and 14th Avenue is one of the most infamous in Miami history. Thirty-five black families were ejected from the area…

Raising the Speed Limit to 75 Is Ludicrous; Lower It to 55

My God! Rick Scott did something right. Florida’s governor announced yesterday he will veto a bill, approved by the state Senate and House, that would raise the speed limit on much oft the state’s highway system. Though law enforcement mostly supported the plan — Scott proposed the veto after attending…