Roger Hammer is searching for wildflowers. A wilderness photographer since 1972, the tall, sturdy 70-year-old has spent much of his life in the world-famous swamps of South Florida. With a long gray ponytail swaying across his back, he steps over the soft, algae-covered slough floor about 60 miles west of…
It starts out as a light wind and a few small waves lapping the shore. But in less than a minute, the minor storm becomes brutal. Howling winds turn the water choppy and rough and storm surges are so massive that they consume a small house. With 157 mph winds,…
In early November, with a new toll system about to launch on the 836 Expressway and the 112, Doral resident Alexander Gonzalez was worried. He was already paying some $50 each month on those roads, to get to and from work at a communications company in Coral Gables. The changes…
It was a typically dreary evening in the Colombian capital—cold and drizzling. Yet that didn’t stop thousands from coming out on May 17 when Colombian sensation Bomba Estéreo gave Bogotá a sneak peak of its new album Amanecer (“Daybreak,” in English) at a massive open-air, mountainside dance party on the…
American travel to Cuba has soared since President Obama’s announcement that he’s restoring diplomatic ties to the nation, with a 36 percent jump in visitors since January. Among those flocking to Havana? Billionaire Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. The real estate developer confirmed yesterday that he visited the island, telling…
For more than a year, FIU physics professor Stephan Linn warned campus administrators and Miami Dade Transit that using the bus to get to and from campus was risky for students. In letter after letter, he complained of bus stops that were inconvenient, unsheltered and unsafe— located too far from…
Florida Republicans haven’t exactly been making headlines for their progressive action on climate change. But a lone Republican has begun to push for action within his party. Representative Carlos Curbelo, who represents Florida’s 26th Congressional District, which stretches from Miami to Key West, says he understands climate change is “a…
A few months after Hurricane Sandy bared down on New York, killing over 150 people and wreaking $65 billion in damage, city leaders cried for help to make their city more flood-proof. Dutch expert Henk Ovink answered. Ovink had helped make his homeland, where 55 percent of the country is…
If you’re a typical American sports fan with only a vague grasp of how serious Argentinian soccer rivalries run, just take a look at what happened in last night’s game between Boca Juniors and their hated opponents, River Plate. The game was suspended when Boca fans attacked River players at…
Florida’s finally getting closer to totally eradicating the Giant African land snails that have plagued the state since an outbreak in late 2011. The snails were first found in Coral Gables, a year after a religious leader named Charles L. Stewart of Hialeah smuggled them into the country and made…
Cuban migration to Miami has risen sharply following President Obama’s historic December announcement that he plans to restore diplomatic relations between the two nations, Customs and Border Protection stats obtained by Miami New Times show. In the first three months of the year, 2,701 Cubans arrived to Miami. That’s up…
Susan Maurer began working as an abortion clinician 40 years ago at a Philadelphia hospital. For the past 22 years, she’s helped South Florida women through what might be an agonizing moment. The soft-spoken 63-year-old nurse administers anesthesia and assists doctors. At one point way back when, she recalls, abortions…
Some of the seniors graduating today at the University of Miami will be wearing an extra detail on their graduation caps. As a reminder of the promise of Title IX, the federal law that protects students from discrimination, students are placing the roman numerals IX on top of their caps…
Legendary Florida environmentalist Nathaniel Reed has added his voice to the chorus of disapproval for Florida’s legislature, saying their failure to enact key legislation — as the House quit early over a Medicaid funding fight — has made the state “the laughing stock of the country.” Among the many bills…
Until November 11, 2013, musician Wilfredo Batista lived a pretty normal life. The Puerto Rico native had good credit, and was well-liked by friends and neighbors. But on that Monday a year-and-a-half ago, he learned he had unknowingly stepped foot in the wrong zip code: Miami’s 33138. While filming a…
As Florida’s leaders spent this session in Tallahassee yet again trying to make life more difficult for gay residents, an unlikely nation in South America proved once more that it’s a regional pioneer in championing diversity and equality. It’s Argentina, where courts last week allowed a one-year-old boy to become…
The future’s looking brighter for solar energy at the University of Miami, with a solar-power charging station and bench set to come to campus soon. The technology will allow two people at a time to sit and charge their smartphones and other small devices, both during the day and at…
Angela Cameron says she spent days trying to avoid thinking about what had happened after a college party last April. But when the University of Miami junior finally broke down and told her friends about waking up injured and raped by a fellow student she’d been dating, they told her…
Florida Gov. Rick Scott was the target of a Presidential dig Wednesday during Obama’s speech in the Everglades. The occasion was Earth Day and Obama didn’t miss the chance to take a whack at a governor who has reportedly forbid staff from even mentioning climate change. “Climate change can’t be…
The head of the city’s police union is accusing the Assistant Chief of Police Anita Najiy of lacking respect for the United States, and he’s circulating a video that he says should lead to disciplinary action against her. Her alleged crime against America? Not holding her hand over her heart…
Disciplinary paddles and a “Wall of Shame” might sound straight out of hazing rituals in a frat house basement. But according to one former employee of North Miami-based Kent Security, a manager in the company used both — along with other humiliating intimidation tactics — against guards working at a…
Biking along a tranquil, green path in South Miami sounds pretty enjoyable. Next to a series of massive, 10-story nuclear power transmission lines? Perhaps not so much. That’s a real possibility facing the Underline, a project to transform the underutilized land below Miami’s MetroRail from the Miami River to Dadeland…
