With hurricanes and high gas prices, 2005 was not a good year for South Florida casino cruises.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m. November 29, a busload of 25 recruits arrives for the first time at the gate of the U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, South Carolina. Before the vehicle enters the two-lane causeway, a military policeman stops it, ascends the narrow steps, and orders the…

On the last Saturday before Christmas, Mr. Pocketbook, a purse store, was blissfully void of holiday cheer — no windows adorned with mechanical elves, no Kenny G renditions of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” The owners of Mr. Pocketbook (2850 NW Fifth Ave.), Philip and Moshe Nahum, are Jewish, but…

On Wednesday, October 12, shortly after 6:00 p.m., three police cars slide into the parking lot of a Walgreens on SW First Street and Twelfth Avenue. The sun is low in the sky, and the first lights are snapping on in Little Havana as residents arrive home from work. Tonight’s…

The sign, written in marker on a dry-erase board, leans against the remaining window of Sweat Records’ store at NE Second Avenue and 23rd Street. “Dear friends and customers,” it reads. “As you can see, Sweat Records got pretty messed up by Wilma….” And you can see: Weeks after the…

Last month, when Miami-Dade County’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board granted the Coconut Grove Playhouse protected historical status, local preservationists breathed a sigh of relief. The 1926 Mediterranean Revival building would be protected forever. But when the board meets again November 17, the playhouse will appeal the designation. “We want…

She came from the West, a demure Category One, letting us think she was steady, docile, and relatively harmless. But when Hurricane Wilma blew ashore and crossed Florida in a flash, she was a bitch. She toppled a multistory dry dock in Sunny Isles Beach, launched a 30-foot sailboat and…

On Sunday, September 11, 44-year-old Jeffrey Krainess and 39-year-old Mark Shawley were walking south of Fourth Street on Washington Avenue when a silver Honda slowed alongside them and then came to a complete stop. At 3:30 a.m. this is never a good sign. “We had met a friend at Karma…

It’s 4:42 a.m. Saturday, August 27, when one, two, three, four, five police cars on westbound MacArthur Causeway simultaneously flash their blue lights. Perhaps a carnivorous sea turtle has emerged from Biscayne Bay. Maybe a volcano has risen from the depths. Or Diddy has landed in his Buck Rogers backpack…

It wasn’t anything close to the physical assault on Wire publisher Carl Zablotny this past July 4, but in the early hours of Wednesday, August 10, Brian Bosserman also became a victim of anti-gay hostility, and he’s wondering whether South Beach is the gay-friendly enclave it used to be. In…

The graphic renderings of some new condominium developments around downtown Miami look like the covers of pulp-fantasy novels. Architects, it seems, are taking “Magic City” a little too literally these days as they reimagine a skyline of gleaming towers and crystal pinnacles. A prancing unicorn wouldn’t seem out of place…