UFC Update

This calls for a celebratory stogie The Super Korean is Super Victorious! American Top team’s mix martial arts fighter Denis Kang successfully defended his Spirit Martial Challenge heavyweight title March 11th in Korea. He won by unanimous decision after a grueling three-round bout. This was the 29-year-old Fort Lauderdale resident’s…

Souto, on a Trash Tear

Earlier today, loquacious county Commissioner Javier Souto paid a visit to the governmental operations and environment committee. The former state senator was hoping to convince his colleagues to support his legislative measure aimed at cracking down on scoundrels who pile up bulk waste, such as old appliances and discarded furniture,…

The Case of the Missing Investigator

Less than a month after news broke that a former schools computer services technician had been convicted on child porn charges, former schools inspector general Herb Cousins is suing the school board. Cousins alleges a conspiracy to “defame” him through a “campaign of character assassination,” and says administrators were worried…

Miami Ink Courts a Growth Industry

We’re Miami Ink, and you’re not Some things just seem to fit together, like chocolate and peanut butter, or government officials and corruption. And according to the cast and crew of the TLC network’s uber-popular reality TV show Miami Ink, so do tattoos and porn. The show’s casting director, George…

A Waist of Bling

WTF? I’m at a stop light in Liberty City the other day, and an old Haitian guy sticks some flyers in my window. Before I can wave him off, he urges, “Help me out.” Among ads for “cash today” and “pray clothes” was a pitch for Encore Services (right). Seems…

These Streets Weren’t Made for Walkin’

Despite its location somewhere up north near the tundra, Madison, Wisconsin, has been named the nation’s “Most Walkable City” by Prevention magazine. And despite its reputation as a tropical paradise, Miami barely cracks the list. (We are number 98 on a list of 100 cities.) Sad. City planners, are you…

Buy the Farm

Not a bad one in the bunch Local, organic, affordable, good. These adjectives rarely combine in Miami, despite our proximity to some of the most fertile farmland in the country. So rejoice, downtown office workers and anybody else who can find his way to Bayfront Park: An excellent farmers market…

Buy the Farm

Not a bad one in the bunch Local, organic, affordable, good. These adjectives rarely combine in Miami, despite our proximity to some of the most fertile farmland in the country. So rejoice, downtown office workers and anybody else who can find his way to Bayfront Park: An excellent farmers market…

Beaureacracy Got You Down?

If you’re the sort of person who reads structured finance legal briefs for fun, or who prefers watching a filibuster on C-SPAN to a blockbuster at the local cineplex, we have something you should know about. The Team Metro Citizens Academy! It’s a free 13-week program that will teach you…

Justice for All?

Indira Lopez -Ruiz, a rape and molestation victim who’s lost a child, was angry. Standing outside the Miami courthouse Wednesday just as prosecutors prepared to announce their guilty verdict in the Jessica Lunsford/John Couey case, the beautiful young woman scowled. She carried a sign with a picture of a Precious…

Shaq’s Resume Gets Taller

Don’t make me bust you for obesity Remember when sports stars were sports stars, and not busybodies? Shaquille O’Neal has signed on to star in a reality TV show on ABC. He will attack childhood obesity during the six-episode show. First, he takes over the Miami Heat. Then he becomes…

Naked Chef to Headline 2008 Wine & Food Fest

Hot off the presses, a New Times exclusive: The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival is set to announce that its 2008 honorees will be internationally renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and the buoyant British chef Jamie Oliver. The former will be feted at the Tribute Dinner on February…

Naked Chef to Headline 2008 Wine & Food Fest

Hot off the presses, a New Times exclusive: The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival is set to announce that its 2008 honorees will be internationally renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and the buoyant British chef Jamie Oliver. The former will be feted at the Tribute Dinner on February…

Not Massive, but Critical

Riding off into the sunset In celebration of last Saturday night’s full lunar eclipse, I joined Critical Mass Miami to ride the 16-mile loop at Shark Valley Slough in Everglades National Park. The route, it turns out, is open to the public 24/7 — if you go at night, you…

In the Heart of the Earth

In the Heart of the Earth This Spanish period piece is set in 1888 Huelva, an Andalusian mining town run by the British-backed Rio Tinto mining company, where conflict erupts between local Spanish workers and their employers. The story is framed by a friendship between Blanca (Catalina Sandino Moreno, a…

Peck for Justice

There’s a lot of sadness going around at the Richard E. Gersten Justice Center in Miami this week; the Jessica Lundsford murder trial is well underway. The state and the defense rested their cases Tuesday afternoon. Accused killer John Couey declined to take the stand; jurors are shaken by the…

Your Turn for Tricks

Got a frog that fixes glasses? Producers from CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman will be in Miami next weeked in search of a few good men to appear alongside the bespectacled host in an upcoming episode. Actually they’re on the look out for a few strange people who either…

Rags to Riches to Rags to A&E

Ganglandnews.com Paciello, with Madonna and Lourdes Chris Paciello’s life is a rags-to-riches-back-to-rags story. Now it’s an A & E movie. Paciello, once a New York thug, moved to Miami and became the prince of South Beach nightlife (and a pal of club impressario/Madonna friend Ingrid Casares). But his past came…

Cash ‘n’ Berry

Frances Nash Mmmmmm In a post from her http://f-i-n.diaryland.com/index.html”>Sunshine State blog aptly titled”strawberry fields forever,” Frances Nash writes about a recent tour of Homestead U-Pick Knaus Berry Farm, where “the air smells sticky and sweet, like the strawberries boiled by the sun.” Her photos and prose (“their strawberry shakes taste…

Is Long Beach, California, the new South Beach?

This is the question posed today by a Reuters wire story. It says that three TV shows that are supposedly set in Miami — Dexter, Nip/Tuck and CSI Miami — all routinely film in Long Beach. So keep this in mind tonight when you’re watching Horatio Caine do his thing…

Jesus For Sale

Calvin Godfrey Feeling guilty after dropping your kid’s braces money on a stripper at Club Rollexx? Just head a couple blocks south on Unity Boulevard, and pick up a nice painted statue of Jesus for the front lawn. The kids will forgive all your trespasses, and so will He! This…

They’ll be Sweating Tequila

Webber: “Pass the bottle — er — ball!” If the Detroit Pistons look a little sluggish at the AAA tonight, blame it on the Patron. Last night at SoBe club, The Fifth, Piston Chris Webber had a birthday party, his so-called “Celebrity Birthday Extravaganza.” Joined by teammates Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey…