Last week, Cuba’s daily newspaper breathlessly announced that the country faced a mule deficit.Yes, you read right: mule, as in, donkey, hee-haw, Mr. Ed* and all that. Breaking! Also in short supply in Cuba: everything.The dip in the mule community — their words — has triggered a countrywide census of…
Michelle Spence-Jones and Charlie Crist could write a bad romance. Classic story of boy meets girl: city commissioner runs for re-election, picks up a grand-theft charge, and gets suspended after her big win. She runs again, wins again, and he still throws her out of office. Rah-Rah-Rah. After a month-long…
Tomasito is clearing brush at City Hall. Another Manny Diaz ally is leaving. Last week, it was city manager Pete Hernandez. Now, it’s Robert Parente, the head of the city’s film office, and the guy who convinced shows like “Burn Notice” and Jennifer Aniston’s puppy movie “Marley & Me,” to…
On Tuesday afternoon, four Cuban goombahs were halfway into the third round of their daily dominoes game at Macabi Cigar Factory. Heli Montoto slammed one of the white pieces on the table and taunted his partner, Jacinto Perez, “Put on your batteries, man.” The two had already lost two games…
Until last October, the city used to pay a guy $14,000 a year to round up the thousands of stray chickens that roam our pockmarked streets. In a story in this week’s New Times, Lesther Jorge, the last Chicken Buster, toured some old battle sites, like Overtown, the Gaza of…
So you’re speeding down the MacArthur Causeway in your beat-up Toyota when you spot a Miami Beach Police cruiser. Only it’s the same cop car you’ve seen there for the past month. It hasn’t moved an inch. It’s been glistening in the morning, slumbering at night — but there’s no…
Miami’s Chicken Busters are no more
Cuban Commies give Avatar the thumbs-down
Three weeks on the Miami City Commission, and already the Rev. Richard Dunn has figured out Miami politics. Contacted Tuesday to comment on a story about his driving record, the newly appointed replacement for Michelle Spence-Jones went on the offensive, attacking District 2’s Marc Sarnoff. “Does this proposed article have…
Two weeks ago, we reported about WLRN’s plans to replace the retiring jazz man’s show with a computer. The station explained the move as a financial one, a result of “the Great Recession.” But that was all before local listeners went primeval on management, protesting the move with online petitions.Now…
Ever since the Los Van Van concert last month went by without a hitch, cantankerous anti-Castro activists here have been itching for some kind of PR victory. They just got it today: bolero singer Omara Portuondo canceled her March 2 concert at The Fillmore in Miami Beach citing slow ticket…
Over the weekend, a Cuban movie critic became the last person in the world to see Avatar. His verdict: meh.In a review in Granma, the official daily of the Cuban Communist Party, Rolando Pérez Betancourt pooh-poohs the money-minting, Oscar-nominated movie as a dumb action flick.”Dramatically speaking, Avatar is predictable and…
Bob Grabowski, the assistant DJ who criticized WLRN’s plans to replace jazz guru Len Pace’s show with a computer, was fired Thursday night by the station. Via voicemail no less.Grabowski sent an email to some 100 friends Sunday complaining that once Pace left his show, Evenin’ Jazz, the station would…
In a cramped county jail cell in Doral, Tavares Calloway has been awaiting his sentence for 13 years.On Wednesday, a jury finally recommended death for his murder of five Liberty City drug dealers in 1997.Seven jurors decided the crimes were too heinous to give him life, but five disagreed. His…
Last Friday, Len Pace’s Evenin’ Jazz grooved smoothly along as it has for the last 30 years. The gravely-voiced DJ played some Lonnie Smith, as he invariably does at the end of every week, and he bantered through his usual smoky standards. When he signed off with his typical tag-line,…
Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek’s last campaign report had some surprising names in it. Yeah, he snagged some usual suspects as donors: Swampthing James Carville, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee Terry McAuliffe, and, um, Don King.But he also scored a constituency that would presumptively belong to Republican Marco…
Los Van Van landed in Miami like a lit match on an ancient anthill.On Sunday, hundreds of grizzled Cubans came out of the woodwork — Westchester, Little Havana, Hialeah — to protest the popular band’s concert at the James L. Knight Center.They came bearing all the ardor of Tea Party…
The Cuban government had an enticing travel offer for expats around the world this week: Come back for a three-day panel discussion!Surprisingly, 450 of them accepted. Yes, a boatload of Cubans living abroad flew to Havana not for the green mountains or curvy women, but for a glorified Mesa Redonda…
City commissioners will appoint someone today to fill Michelle Spence-Jones’s empty District 5 seat. But the jockeying to replace the suspended commish was well under way Monday. David Chiverton and Dufirstson Neree, losing candidates in the election, made the rounds at city hall, pitching themselves to commissioners as credible seat-fillers…
Kerlyne Paraison helplessly saw the drama unfolding on television the way one watches a loved one flat-line through a hospital window. The 26-year-old Haitian had lived in Port-au-Prince until just two years ago. When she saw the first pictures flash across the TV screen of the Haitian earthquake, she thought…
Miami-Dade commissioners mail holiday greetings on your dime
It’s now two strikes for pugnacious Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. A Miami-Dade County judge today dismissed her temporary injunction against Charlie Crist’s suspension, setting February 12 as the day when she’ll actually decide if the Governor’s action is constitutional. A half hour later or so at Miami City Hall, Willy Gort…
