The first thing cops noticed was the footprints. They began near the entrance to the expensive oceanfront townhouse: size-12 sneaker outlines, stamped in blood. They wound up a flight of stairs to the second floor, across smooth white marble tiles, and around rich leather furniture. They led through the kitchen…
Good morning Miami Beach. Are you feeling sore and tired from swilling too many flutes of celebratory champagne last night? Are you surprised to find yourself wearing a campaign T-shirt altered to say “Philip Levine Latrine”? Is your living room floor littered with more flyers than a Free Tibet rally?…
This week, New Times pulls back the spattered porn curtain on one of the most bizarre and brutal stories in South Florida history. It’s the tale of Miami’s biggest male porn performer, his rise to smut-screen stardom, and his descent into murder. But John Snavely — better known as “Champ”…
Mark Lowe struggled for the right word to capture his idea for Wynwood’s first and only major nightclub. “It’s definitely not a lounge, but I wouldn’t describe it as a megaclub either. It’s really its own entity — it’s a house,” Lowe told New Times. That was 2011. Two years…
It’s been a strange week in monkey-related news here in Miami. On Wednesday, state investigators announced they had shut down a black market monkey emporium. Meanwhile, details of a second set of monkey-involved arrests are leaking out. Also on Wednesday, Miami-Dade Police arrested members of animal rights group Smash HLS…
Karen Russell writes some of the scariest, most haunting stories around. The 32-year-old also happens to be from Miami, of course. So we thought we’d take a moment on Halloween — the most terrifying day of the year — to ask her how local ghosts and ghouls shaped her literary…
Cognac-toting models mingled with baseball superstars in the Biltmore Hotel’s gilded ballroom last week, but as Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez made the rounds, Spanish-language TV reporters wanted to talk about anything but the Hennessy-sponsored drink in his hand. Hours earlier, the Yankees legend had been accused of swindling the City…
Last month, Riptide revealed Michael Góngora’s shady connections to a smear campaign launched against his rivals for mayor of Miami Beach. Now the man targeted by those attacks ads is hitting back, filing complaints and a lawsuit against his detractors. Philip Levine, a self-made millionaire who has spent at least…
Miami may not have headless horsemen haunting it, but our streets are pretty freakin’ scary nonetheless. We’ve got zombies eating people’s faces, sharks miraculously swimming our streets, and, of course, motorists driving like demons straight out of Hell. So it seems fitting that tonight’s edition of Critical Mass Miami will…
The University of Miami’s main library is currently being evacuated after a bomb threat. Campus security issued an emergency alert at 10:28 a.m. this morning. A university spokesman confirmed the evacuation but did not provide further details on the threat. UPDATE: Cops have finished sweeping the library and given the…
Something is rotten in Miami Beach. Construction is soaring in Sunset Harbour. Lincoln Road is log-jammed with tourists. And Art Basel once again approaches like a billion-dollar beast ready to take a platinum piss all over SoBe. But underneath all of this commerce is the cloying odor of corruption and…
Would you like some controversy with your cognac? Last night’s celebrity-filled soirée at the Biltmore Hotel — hosted by Hennessy in honor of Roberto Clemente — took a strange twist when talk turned from the booze to a simmering baseball controversy in Hialeah. Accused earlier in the day of swindling…
Something is rotten in Miami Beach. Construction is soaring in Sunset Harbour. Lincoln Road is log-jammed with tourists. And Art Basel once again approaches like a billion-dollar beast ready to take a platinum piss all over SoBe. But underneath all of this commerce is the cloying odor of corruption and…
If you woke up this morning with a hard-on for sky-high interest rates, a hankering for anarchy, and hopes of seeing the sobbing shell of our once-stately president crumpled over the corpse of Obamacare, we have some bad news for you. Last night, Congress voted to end the 16-day government…
Ryan Seay’s life was turned upside down by a phone call. It was late October of last year, and the sound engineer was celebrating his 28th birthday in Sarasota. Exhausted after a day at the Ringling Museum of Art, Seay and his girlfriend fell asleep on their lumpy hotel room…
Remember when the Miami Heat wore hoodies in honor of Travyon Martin? Well, now another slain teenager’s name is on the lips of LeBron James and company after a graffiti artist’s audacious stunt. Heat players arriving to American Airlines Arena this weekend were welcomed by huge, white letters splashed across…
Five months ago, Holly Jacobs made the brave decision to become the international face of revenge porn victims. The pretty FIU grad student told New Times that her ex-boyfriend had posted sexually explicit photos and videos of her on the internet, nearly ruining her life. Braver still, Jacobs began a…
What’s the difference between porn — where people hump for money — and prostitution, where one person pays another for sexual services? Nothing, says Michael Weinstein. As president and founder of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Weinstein has been a pain in the bare ass of the porn industry. His organization…
As 200 protesters chanted and waved signs, Israel Hernandez’s sister voiced the concern that had drawn so many to South Beach on a Sunday afternoon. “Today, I [still] do not know why my brother died,” Ofir Hernandez shouted to the crowd. “They have not given us answers.” In fact, Miami…
Like many Miamians, you probably read our August 21 story about FIU frat brothers openly selling drugs on Facebook and thought to yourself: Those guys are f—ed. Al contrario, mi amigo. This is Florida, where bad deeds go unpunished all the time and state law practically encourages people to shoot…
What’s the difference between porn — where people hump for money — and prostitution, where one person pays another for sexual services? Nothing, claims Michael Weinstein. As president and founder of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Weinstein has been a pain in the bare ass of the porn industry for…
As 200 protesters chanted and waved signs, Israel Hernandez’s sister voiced the concern that had drawn so many to South Beach on a Sunday afternoon. “Today, I [still] do not know why my brother died,” Ofir Hernandez shouted to the crowd. “They have not given us answers.” In fact, Miami…
