On opening night of Miami Book Fair International in October, former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz scored the gig of the weekend: interviewing Tom Wolfe onstage about his new Miami-set novel, Back to Blood. Before a packed house of power players and literary cognoscenti, Diaz set himself up as an independent…
During the darkest months of winter, half of Canada flees to South Florida. So you’d think police would have some respect for the maple-syrup-guzzling visitors who fuel the local economy through spring break.That’s not what one pair of sisters from Toronto found in Miami Beach last month. The women say…
A stupid gun owner almost claimed the life of a Miami musician on New Year’s Eve. The falling bullet narrowly missed Ted Zimmerman’s head, but he won’t be playing his trumpet any time soon. The bullet tore through his index finger and lodged into his middle one.In an exclusive interview…
Miami’s Scummiest Tax Scams of 2012: Marine-Bilkers, Football Frauds, and Laundry Cheats
Miami’s 2013 Resolutions: Jeffrey Loria Needs to Shut Up, Jeff Ireland Needs to Man Up
It was a wild New Year’s Eve for Florida Keys resident Deni Noa.According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, the 24-year-old Stock Island resident reached into a car and punched a woman in the eye as she was idling at a light on US 1 and Cross Street around 9:…
Nothing rings in the new year like a suspicious death in Miami Beach.According to city police spokeswoman Det. Vivian Hernandez, homicide detectives are investigating a dispute between a couple who were staying at the Marseilles Hotel at 1741 Collins Ave.Police found the man dead in his room early on New…
The world didn’t end after all on December 21, so now we all gotta make amends for our bad behavior in 2012. Our New Year’s resolutions last year all failed, of course, whether it was taking abuelita to church every Sunday or deleting our Facebook accounts because Mark Zuckerberg is…
With another tax season descending on us, you might want to secure your W-2 or 1099 a little tighter. Over the past 12 months, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami has uncovered more than a dozen rackets involved in stealing tax refund checks using stolen identities of social security applicants,…
Building permit? Miami-Dade County doesn’t need any stinkin’ building permit!In fact, officials for the county’s internal services department got away with completing two construction projects in downtown Miami without obtaining permits for either one, according to Miami-Dade Inspector General Chris Mazzella.”The Office of the Inspector General finds this matter troubling,”…
Manuel Alonso-Poch Won’t Fix Conflicts of Interest at His Charter School, New Audit Finds
It’s pretty hard to follow in the large boot steps of John Timoney, the one-time Miami police chief. In fact, ever since Miami New Times crowned Timoney “America’s Worst Cop” in 2007, it’s taken us five years to find suitable successors to the title.But the quintet of contenders in Miami…
Back in June, a Miami-Dade School Board audit skewered a Coconut Grove charter school’s seemingly incestuous relationship with its founder and landlord, Manuel Alonso-Poch. Seven months later, school board auditor Jose Montes de Oca claims Academy of Arts and Minds has done next to nothing to address its conflicts of…
Banana Republican kicked off 2012 by recognizing a local Internet cabal of rabble-rousers and muckrakers who have helped fill the investigative journalistic void in the Magic City. In a cover story back in January, we ranked the Top Ten activist bloggers who work incessantly to expose shady government officials and…
Tammy Valdes, a former Golden Beach Police officer who recently won $233,000 in damages against the town for wrongful termination, has been criminally charged with illegal firearms dealing. Her husband Rafael Valdes, a Hialeah Police officer, is also facing a federal charge of making a material false statement in connection…
There’s a big battle brewing between the Old Guard and the New Guard for the top leadership position of Florida’s Democratic Party. Several South Florida Hispanic Democrats are voicing their displeasure with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s move to support Tallahasee’s Allison Tant in next month’s election for the party’s state…
Convicted Felon Demetrio Perez Jr. Gets $110 Million in Bonds From Miami-Dade Commission
You’d think that after Demetrio Perez Jr. pleaded guilty in 2002 to defrauding a trio of frail elderly tenants in his low-income Little Havana apartments, Miami-Dade politicians would steer clear of the felonious former school board member. But then they couldn’t grease up to Perez and his deep pockets whenever…
Shortly after leaving his gig last year as producer for Miami-based documentary maker Rakontur, the company that brought the world Cocaine Cowboys and The U, Evan Rosenfeld went on a journey to the Far East in search of a project for his directorial debut. “I took a trip to India,…
Sari Maharani had barely opened the doors to her downtown Miami restaurant Little Lotus when she says her landlord was already trying to find a way to kick her out without just cause. Now the former paralegal of Indonsesian descent is locked in an epic legal fight with Abram Aminov,…
Back in 2002, Demetrio Perez Jr. had an epic fall from prominence. The then-Miami-Dade Public Schools Board Member was removed from public office following his 21-count federal indictment that he had been overcharging elderly tenants at his federally subsidized low income apartments in Little Havana for a decade.He ended up…
Ever since she beat two separate criminal cases against her last year, Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones has been quietly preparing for an epic take down of Mayor Tomas Regalado and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle — the two politicians she blames for almost destroying her.Today, Spence-Jones launched the…
