We now live in a day and age where a former congressman running for his old job can’t peruse the sex toy aisle at Spencer Gifts in peace. Just ask Joe Garcia, who is leading polls in the Democratic primary for the 26th congressional district currently occupied by Carlos Curbelo,…
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, his face contorted in a scowl, doesn’t get up to greet Alex Villalobos when the big-eyed 42-year-old state senator enters the dimly lit office connected to the executive suite of Tallahassee’s Capitol building. It’s early May 2006, shortly after the last day of the legislative session,…
Dozens of union workers sporting red, purple, and yellow T-shirts file into a sweltering auditorium on the grounds of the Greater Bethel AME Church in Overtown. As a speaker whips the crowd into a chant — “Fight for ’15! Fight for ’15!” — a pudgy, olive-skinned man in black slacks…
In the fight for a Jewish state 67 years ago, Charles Winters took part in a clandestine mission to equip Israeli freedom fighters. Winters helped supply the Israelis with military planes, including three B-17 bombers dubbed “the Hammers” that strafed Egypt during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. While the Boston-born…
When Rakontur, the eponymous documentarians of all things Miami, began shooting Dawg Fight, a film that follows the lives of Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris and his eclectic band of backyard fighters in the low income suburb of Perrine, President Barack Obama had just taken the oath of office. Last night,…
Watching freshman Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo deliver the Republican Spanish-language rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, one could only wonder: Where the heck was Sen. Marco Rubio to hand his homeboy a tall drink of water? You might recall Rubio took a break from his response…
Inside a storefront with blacked out windows on Collins Avenue and 6th Street, footwear designer to the hip-hop elite Jon Buscemi is chatting up a tall man with dreadlocks past his shoulders dressed in all black, including a black Canadian Mountie-style hat and a fresh pair of black old school…
Detective Suberto Hernandez, a heavyset undercover cop with a scraggly beard and long greasy hair, pulled to a stop in an unmarked car just south of Calle Ocho on a quiet Little Havana corner across from a vacant grass lot. Wearing clothes that made him look like a grungy construction…
The rise of Stitches, the Miami rapper who attracted millions of page views and huge national attention for his hit “Brick in Yo Face,” provides a blueprint for modern-day hip-hop myth-making. Almost overnight, Phillip Katsabanis went from being a suburban Kendall kid known as “Lil Phill” to a bona fide…
A gleaming white Cadillac Escalade lurches to a stop in a grimy South Beach alley. A slender, olive-skinned dude in a T-shirt steps out holding a bulky duffel bag. He approaches a husky, Mohawked young man with gold teeth and a face full of startling tattoos that include a microphone,…
Count worldwide art icon and Wynwood pioneer Shepard Fairey among those in AholSniffsClue’s corner. Yesterday, during a round table discussion with local reporters plugging his collaboration with Hennessy, Fairey said the Miami street artist had no choice but to sue American Eagle, which used Ahol’s trademark droopy eyes art without…
King of Diamonds has sorta become hallowed ground for anybody in the hip-hop game. Just about every major rapper, from Drake to Lil Wayne to Rick Ross, have dropped verses about the highly successful strip club catering to a predominantly African-American clientele. Floyd “Money” Mayweather practically has a second home…
The photo is reminiscent of a poster for The Sopranos. Three men dressed in natty suits with slicked-back hair saunter down a dimly lit, brick-paved alley. They leave little room to pass. It seems like they are intentionally blocking someone’s path. The pretty boy on the left scrunches his face…
The photo is reminiscent of a poster for The Sopranos. Three men dressed in natty suits with slicked-back hair saunter down a dimly lit, brick-paved alley. They leave little room to pass. It seems like they are intentionally blocking someone’s path. The pretty boy on the left scrunches his face…
Last summer, Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi was arrested on the same day the feds nabbed another local mayor, Sweetwater’s Manuel Maroño. Both mayors were suspended form office by the governor and charged with taking bribes in exchange for bogus grants. While Maroño and two others, lobbyists Jorge Forte and…
For a while, Raonel Valdez was like the Chris Angel of Cuban-born delinquents, mind-freaking the criminal justice system with his ability to escape hard time. His bag of tricks may have finally come up empty. Yesterday, Valdez was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center (TGK) after spending close…
Inside a conference room at a Sheraton Hotel in Miami, Bob Calkin paces in front of a small stage, holding a microphone. The 50-year-old Los Angeles cannabis hustler with ’80s rock-band hair flies around the United States, charging folks $299 a head to learn how to make a fortune dealing…
In December, I received an email from a former police officer once featured in Miami New Times for blowing the whistle on dirty cops in the town of Golden Beach. Life had turned upside down for Tammy Valdes and her husband, Rafael, since she won a $233,000 judgment against the…
When Manny Pacquiao returns to the ring on Saturday, another ex-champ will celebrate his own attempt at a comeback amid a bevy of bare naked beauties on Biscayne Boulevard. Shannon Briggs, the last American to hold the heavyweight boxing title, is hosting a watch party at the upscale gentleman’s club…
There’s an old High Times video of legendary pot grower Jorge Cervantes that opens with “the Ganja Guy” behind the wheel of an old rusty tractor. Cervantes — wearing his iconic disguise of black sunglasses and black dreadlocks — tells viewers he’s taking them on a tour of marijuana gardens…
The Tides South Beach is giving locals a reason to brave the early afternoon weekend crowds on Ocean Drive. The Art Deco hotel’s outdoor restaurant is serving up a brunch menu on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring several dishes inspired by southern comfort food to…
In October 2012, just outside a pastel-painted Coral Gables apartment building, one of the largest gold heists in Florida history went down. A convicted thief named Raonel Valdez, who was supposed to be wearing a court-ordered GPS device, somehow jacked $2.8 million in gold from courier George Villegas. And within…
