Basking in the twilight of a lengthy public service career, Miami City Commissioner Joseph Lionel “J.L.” Plummer chomps on an unlit cigar and explains his motivation for seeking an eighth consecutive four-year term. He doesn’t propose to return prosperity to Overtown. Nor does he come up with a strategy to…

History doesn’t mean much in Miami. Barely 100 years old, the city has allowed the bulldozing of decades-old buildings, re-routing of rivers, and ravaging of sacred Native American grounds. The few who are sensitive to the past look to the city’s preservation officer, Sarah Eaton, to safeguard its patrimony. But…

Just south of the rainbow-color storefronts that compose Miami’s Fashion District stands an empty L-shaped edifice. Its 30-foot-tall, concrete walls were erected a year ago to store tens of thousands of boxes. These days they hold only a folding table and a white, plastic lawn chair. Security cameras perched above…

“Don’t rip off a cop” may be the moral of this story. Not if you want to get away with it. Accountant Ronald Stern stole $1.3 million from a fund that provides aid to the families of injured and slain police officers, according to a lawsuit filed May 12 in…

The struggle of living with HIV overwhelmed Miguel Pacheco on April 4, 1999. About 9:00 that evening, he called his sister Margarita Welling to announce his intention to commit suicide. Welling, worried because Pacheco had attempted twice before to kill himself, raced from her South Miami-Dade home near Metrozoo to…

Info: Out, Damned Spa Marc Siegel hired South Floridians to work in a Mexican resort, then stiffed them By Jose Luis Jimenez For $1000 per week Sherry Parker was willing to work during the holidays. The 43-year-old single mother wouldn’t be able to spend New Year’s Eve with her family…