Author

Showing 1409 - 1430 of 1760

Jerry Iannelli

Jerry Iannelli is a former staff writer for Miami New Times from 2015 to March 2020. He graduated with honors from Temple University. He then earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.

Miami Herald Scolds Its Reporters for Attending the Women’s March

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 26, 2017

In James Fallows’ 1997 book about media ethics, Breaking the News, he argues that journalists are often so blinded by their devotion to the nebulous idea of “objectivity” that they often forget to act like real people. Fallows cited a decades-old TV program in which war correspondents were asked whether they’d jump into combat to save a wounded soldier. Many of the reporters said — out of concerns for their neutrality — they would not save a dying American, to the horror of the TV show’s audience.

Jeb Bush Refuses to Confirm if He Is Actually “Comrade Jeb,” World’s Best Meme

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 25, 2017

During President Donald Trump’s inauguration events this past Friday, Richard Spencer, the neo-Nazi Ken doll, stood on a street corner in Washington, D.C., explaining the significance of the Pepe the Frog meme to a reporter who has apparently never once used the internet. Then the crowds parted as if moved by the archangel Metatron himself, and a masked hero jumped into the crowd — and socked Spencer in the face.

Most of Miami’s Democratic Politicians Skipped the Women’s March

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 23, 2017

It wasn’t that difficult to attend at least one event related to Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington. Marches were, in fact, planned in every single major American city and tons of smaller satellite cities, including tiny Lubbock, Texas; and Key West, Florida. Miami held its own rally at the Bayfront Park Amphitheatre, which concluded with a protest march through city streets. All you had to do was show up and march.

Miami Beach Police Promote Cop Who Pulled Gun on Colleagues in 2007

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 23, 2017

In 2007, then-Miami Beach Police Capt. Richard Weissman stood inside a Miami Beach hotel room, preparing his fellow officers for a prostitution sting. According to a later Miami Herald report, Weissman began tossing heated questions at the other cops, including “What if a prostitute comes in and tries to rob one of you guys?” and “What if when the prostitute enters the room, she locks the door?”

Miami Is America’s Third-Most Roach-Infested City, According to Census Data

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 19, 2017

For better and worse, Florida’s early settlers exerted their will over almost every aspect of the Everglades, from the swamp’s water flow to the sharp sawgrass. But despite their best efforts at conquering nature, insects are still getting the best of us a century later. Zika-carrying mosquitoes briefly destroyed Miami’s tourism economy last year. And when locals aren’t swatting away mosquitoes, they’re blasting entire cans of Raid at palmetto bugs, South Florida’s unique brand of hideous, gigantic flying cockroaches.

Sierra Club Sues to Stop FPL’s $811 Million Rate Hike

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 18, 2017

According to Florida Power & Light, the Sunshine State-based electricity monopoly, the Sierra Club’s members are a bunch of extremists. “The Sierra Club is an extreme group, that takes extreme positions,” an FPL spokesperson told the Miami Herald last night. If that seems like an odd way to characterize the Sierra Club…

More than 360,000 Miamians Could Lose Insurance When GOP Guts Obamacare

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 18, 2017

We elected a president last year, which means D.C. politicians spent 12 whole months treating Floridians and their precious electoral votes like delicate French dauphins, catering to our every whim and promising us things like jobs, endangered species protections, and a sea that won’t swallow and drown us in a hundred years.

Environmentalists Start Petition Against FPL’s Radioactive-Waste Plan

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 17, 2017

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided there’s nothing wrong with Florida Power & Light’s plan to store radioactive waste and contaminated water in an aquifer connected to South Florida’s drinking water supply. Last Friday, NRC officials shot down a legal petition from an environmental group asking the agency to reconsider FPL’s plan.

Video: Cops Arrest Sabal Trail Protesters Handcuffed to Pipeline

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 16, 2017

Protests against the Sabal Trail Pipeline, the energy-company-owned natural-gas project slated to run from Alabama to Central Florida, have reached a fever pitch. Over the weekend, hundreds of peaceful protesters picketed and chanted in Suwannee County. They demanded that the triumvirate of energy companies building the $3 billion pipeline — Duke Energy, Spectra Energy, and NextEra Energy, which owns Florida Power & Light — reconsider their actions.

FPL Wins Battle to Store Radioactive Waste Under Miami’s Drinking Water Aquifer

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 16, 2017

South Florida sits atop two gigantic underground stores of water: the Biscayne and Floridan Aquifers. Miamians get most of their drinking water from the upper Biscayne Aquifer, while the government has used the lower portion of the Floridian to dump waste and untreated sewage — despite the fact that multiple studies have warned that waste could one day seep into the drinking water.

State Bill Would Create THC Limit for Stoned Drivers, but Scientists Say It’s Useless

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 13, 2017

Most cannabis activists, law enforcement professionals, and biologists agree that blood tests don’t work very well to police stoned drivers. Unlike alcohol, which dissolves in blood, THC, the active chemical in marijuana, dissolves in fat and doesn’t “peak” in the body while you’re actually high. In February, a Columbia University neurobiologist told NPR that it’s “really difficult to document drugged driving in a relevant way.”

Miami Republicans Blast Obama’s “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” Change as “Concession to Castro”

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 13, 2017

Over the past ten years, it’s been difficult to find politicians, be they left-leaning or right-of-center, to defend the U.S. government’s “wet foot, dry foot” Cuban immigration policy. Even during the Bush administration, politicos — such as then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — called the rule an outdated relic of the Cold War. Even Marco Rubio has said it’s time for the law to go.

Miami Beach Mayor Phil Levine Won’t Run for Reelection, Might Run for Governor

By Jerry IannelliJanuary 12, 2017

Before taking the reins as mayor of Miami Beach, Philip Levine made a fortune as a cruise-ship media magnate who spent his spare time hobnobbing with celebrities like Mick Jagger, Annie Liebovitz, and Hillary and Bill Clinton. The minute Levine took office in 2013, he used his experience as a PR king to his advantage, rapidly turning himself into one of the nation’s highest-profile climate-change fighters.