Opening day is about hope. Sure, there’s beer and hotdogs and warm weather and, um, more beer. But underneath all that, baseball’s new beginning is about the effervescent inkling that this year is going to be better than the last.Hope is a four-letter word these days for Marlins fans, however…
While other major electronic music festivals have been rocked by kids overdosing on party drugs, Ultra Music Festival has remained relatively unscathed.Until now, that is. Officials now believe that the Sunday death of a young man who was partying in Bayfront Park was a drug overdose. Medical examiners say New…
Marlenis Smart describes her seven years as a firefighter as a nightmare. In a lawsuit filed in 2010, she claimed she was sexually harassed by co-workers from her first day on the job. Male firefighters told her “women belong in the kitchen,” accused her of being a slut, and walked…
For a city that routinely gets swindled by its bribe-taking employees, Miami Beach sure fights tooth and nail over its lawsuits.On Tuesday, city attorneys successfully appealed a $700,000 jury award to a firefighter who had claimed she was sexually harassed by male co-workers. Now city officials have successfully shaved more…
Hibiscus Island Dog Rescue Endangers Animals, Complaints Say
Over the past few days, Miami Springs voters have received a flier urging them to vote by mail in the city’s election on Tuesday. It includes a request form for an absentee ballot and an official-looking envelope. But the P.O. box on the envelope doesn’t correspond to the county’s department…
On paper, Have a Heart Dog and Cat Rescue sounds like an animal lover’s ideal. Its address on exclusive Hibiscus Island conjures scenes of puppies playing and kittens canoodling in luxury. Several nearby mansions are worth eight figures.But nothing about 79 North Hibiscus Dr. is as it seems. Nowadays, the…
As Hurricane Ultra doubles back upon Bayfront Park today, some cranky locals are once again boarding up the windows and bolting town. But apparently not everyone got the message about the massive, noisy music festival.”We have no information about this event till yesterday,” writes out-of-towner Michel Harr, who is staying…
If you’re a foreign national looking to have a good time in Florida, stay out of trouble, and avoid possible deportation, here are three easy rules to follow.1) Don’t borrow someone’s flashy, $200,000 Mercedes2) Don’t street race said Mercedes at 116 miles per hour3) And for god’s sake, don’t hand…
Puerto Rico’s Wave of Drugs and Brazen Murders Reverberates to Miami
See the slide show “Puerto Rico Awash in Violence and Drugs.”
Miami Beach Must Pay $100,000 for Arresting Man for Looking Poor
For this week’s cover story on the soaring murder rate in Puerto Rico, I spent five days on the island. I visited crime scenes still wet with blood, picked up AK-47 shells sprayed around neighborhoods like confetti, and interviewed terrified locals.But at the heart of the Caribbean commonwealth’s killings is…
Miami Beach is a shallow place. The right car can get you laid. The wrong shoes can get you kicked out of a club. Hell, even the dive bars have dress codes. But can looking poor get you arrested?It did for Dale Picardat. Now the city owes him $100,000…
Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin may be behind a recently revived proposal to allow alcohol on the beach, but that doesn’t mean he is in favor of trashing the place.In fact, the mayoral candidate feels so strongly about keeping the sands clean he is going to spend his Saturday picking…
Once a year, downtown Miami used to reverberate with the roar of 1,000-horsepower engines, Bayfront Park smelled of burnt rubber, and millionaires’ Lamborghinis were made to look like junkyard jalopies. The Grand Prix of Miami, held from 1983 until 1993, was this city’s brief fling with Formula 1 racing. Now…
Miami Mom Posts World’s Saddest Craigslist Ad for Lost Rabbit
Miami Mom Craigslist Lost Rabbit Sad Story
Today, Miami Beach city commissioners are considering a proposal to legalize drinking on the sand. But according to one local activist, the idea is idiotic.”Nobody wants kids getting drunk on the beach,” says South Beach gadfly Frank Del Vecchio. “They already throw bottles, vomit, and urinate all over the place…
Someone appears to have fallen from the 79th Street Causeway, although it’s not yet clear whether it was a suicide attempt or an accident.”We do have a person in the water, but we are not sure of their condition,” said Miami Police spokesman Freddie Cruz. A spokesman for North Bay…
“I am looking for this bunny,” reads the enigmatic February 26 Craigslist ad. Beneath a photo of an absurdly cute rabbit with sparkling blue eyes, it continues: “I had it on hold for my daughter and it was not supposed to be sold. My daughter is devastated and she won’t…
Hugo Chávez once said, “If they kill me, the name of the person responsible is George Bush.”Bush is long gone from office, of course. But now that the larger-than-life leftist is dead, some in Venezuela believe that the U.S. really is to blame. On Tuesday, Chávez’s handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro, said…
Bernard Diederich’s Whiskey-Filled Travels With Novelist Graham Greene
Graham Greene Bernard Diederich Haiti
Last summer — fresh off a corruption raid by the FBI — the City of Miami Beach asked Miami-Dade Inspector General Chris Mazzella to help investigate its shady deals. This week, Mazzella gave the city an answer: Thanks, but no thanks. Mazzella tells New Times that his office simply doesn’t…
