Joe Cammarata can’t escape the controversy surrounding the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.”Not that he’s trying.Cammarata, a NYPD officer on 9/11 whose firefighter brother died in the attacks, has plunged into the heated debate, giving a flurry of media interviews here and in New York in preparation for the anniversary of…
It’s 7 p.m. on a Thursday, and Traz Powell Stadium is buzzing. Helmets crunch and penalty flags fly as two local high school teams — the Northwestern Bulls and the Norland Vikings — slug out a preseason game. In the stands, a thousand fans are fixated on Northwestern quarterback Teddy…
Like countries in a Middle East arms race, Miami-area high school football teams have spent the last nine months developing top-secret weapons to unload on their unsuspecting opponents.Trick plays, revamped offenses, and last-minute transfer students will all be on display tonight as the high school football season begins.For local title-hopeful…
In the late ’80s and early ’90s, The Button South in Hallandale was the place for punk and heavy metal. Every night, sweaty hordes of South Floridians would converge to rock out, head-bang, and hail Satan until sunrise.Now, The Button South is rising from the sulfurous ashes, at least for…
Local high school Miami Central has the second best football team in the nation, according to a new poll by USA Today.The poll pointed to Central’s 12 returning starters (six on offense, six on defense) in picking them ahead of bitter rival Northwestern, who did not make the top 25.But…
Limo driver Emilio Izquierdo fights Dade County for his piece of the American pie
Kendrick Meek will not miss Jeff Greene. Like that guy at your party who shows up uninvited, plays Kelly Clarkson so loud the cops come, and then bolts before you’re handed a noise violation, Greene has been a major headache.But Meek will miss Greene’s money. That’s because now that Meek…
Like a pair of Tara Reid implants, some things are just too fake to pass. A few weeks ago, Riptide reported on the bizarre hiring of new Solid Waste Director Fred Hobson, handed a $100K job despite the fact that two of his former bosses say they fired him from…
Two weeks ago New Times reported on the controversy surrounding Rise Academy, a Florida City charter school shut down after only two years in existence despite a dramatic “F” to “A” turnaround.Today the Herald followed suit, turning their copy just in time for this morning’s appeal hearing.What gives, Herald? Shaking…
Fascists. Communists. Cartels. For Emilio Izquierdo, there is no linguistic limit to the depravity of Miami-Dade’s limousine industry and the public officials who are supposed to regulate it.For five years, the 62-year-old Cuban has fought to operate his 2005 GMC Yukon as a luxury limo sedan for celebrity clients including…
Yesterday scientists at the University of California, San Francisco published a report on the dangers to humans and wildlife still posed by the gigantic Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. To the chagrin of BP, the White House, and everyone this side of Saudi Arabia, the report warned…
Carolina Garcia-Aguilera has got one kick-ass job. Not that New Times is jealous – after all, we spend most of our time writing about how to smother your boyfriend or have sex with appliances – but the SoBe-based mystery writer seems to having a helluva a good time.In Garcia-Aguilera’s newest…
Fred Hobson, City of Miami solid waste official, hired despite sketchy record
A day after ex-prez Bill Clinton turned on the smiles for U.S. Senate-hopeful Kendrick Meek, none other than President Obama himself is set to visit Miami today to stump for the Democratic candidate for governor, Alex Sink.And for those of you with $10,000 to burn and an empty picture frame…
Cuban dissident Ariel Sigler Amaya is recovering slowly but successfully from his seven-and-a-half-year stint in a Castro prison.Sigler, 46, began physical therapy last week at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He remains rail-thin and wheelchair-bound but is already visibly healthier than when he first arrived in Miami on July 28.Now Sigler says…
When Miami’s director of solid waste management quit earlier this summer, city officials were sent scrambling for a replacement. They quickly hired Fred Hobson, a former assistant director of solid waste who had retired in 2005.Problem is, Hobson’s resumé is itself solid waste — and the city should have known…
Do you find yourself unconsciously smashing things: strangers on the street, shopping carts, trash cans, or stray poodles? Do you have an irresistible urge to sprint until you puke; wear a jockstrap; or put eye black on like Cristina Kirchner?Fear not, friend. Your time has come.Yesterday was the first day…
Latin American politicians say the craziest things
Rise Academy, Miami-Dade’s most improved school, closed
When Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed “Teacher Tenure” Senate Bill 6 in April, teachers prayed the legislation was gone for good. Not so fast.SB 6 is back ahead of schedule, becoming a central talking point for Bill McCollum and Rick Scott, the two Republican candidates competing to replace Crist. Never mind the…
This weekend’s vicious attack on Tampa-area gardener Ralph St. Peter by a swarm of bees has Riptide wondering: How in hell does somebody get attacked by bees? More important, how do we keep their hellish fury from raining down on us?The good news: “There are considerably fewer bee attacks than…
We love our neighbors across the Gulf. Like bright, beautiful, nonsensical birds, they make the jail cells of our daily lives that much more colorful. Take their politicians. While Barack Obama is er-umming about the deficit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is disinterring a 200-year-old corpse and weeping about it, all…
