The call came in to Tower 41 Condominium, a salmon-pink set of buildings on Pine Tree Drive, on February 22, 2006. Why, asked real estate broker Ricardo Herran, had his client’s application to live there been rejected? In a hushed voice, a curly-haired secretary told him: “It’s two men…. Residents…
It started with a troubled security guard stealing college coeds’ underwear. It ended last month with the quiet resignation of the executive director of public safety and two top department officials at the second-largest Catholic university in Florida. “They swept this under the rug,” says Lindel Thomas, a former Barry…
A few hours ago, Sweat Record’s Barack N’ Roll Bake Sale + Voter Registration drew an unexpected character: a wayward, 84-year-old Miami granny by the name of Dory. Amid all the hip haircuts and soy lattes, the wrinkled retiree waddled over to a table of registration slips, and pinned a…
Something’s up at Barry University. The department in charge of keeping students at the Catholic Miami Shores college from getting raped, mugged, and robbed crumbled this past month. And so far, media hasn’t noticed. Public Safety Executive Director Stanley Young — and two other top officials who oversee security force…
In October 2005, Joanne Hatton spotted a woman rifling through her parents’ mailbox across the street from her Miami Shores home. The mysterious five-foot-six-inch brunette, who wore business-casual slacks, snagged an envelope and headed for her black Ford SUV. Hatton, an assertive 50-year-old green-eyed pharmaceutical consultant, grabbed a .38-caliber pistol…
Just after lunchtime Tuesday, September 18, Miami Police Det. Gary Jackson arrived at Curtis Park in Allapattah to investigate a crime. It wasn’t a typical purse snatching or pick-up football brawl. What he found must have shocked him. Two city park employees sat Jackson down and described the following: While…
The elevator doors part, and Mikayla Miles joins a threesome of clean-cut executives on the way up to the ninth floor. It’s 8 p.m., and the businessmen, still in their suits, cease chatting to stare at the dimpled, green-eyed blonde. A muscular 220 pounds, she towers over them at six…
Marius Valdes Just after lunchtime Tuesday, September 18, Miami Police Det. Gary Jackson arrived at Curtis Park in Allapattah to investigate a crime. It wasn’t a typical purse snatching or pick-up football brawl. What he found must have shocked him. Two city park employees sat Jackson down and described the…
Miami native Philip Smith’s childhood story is so odd, he had to get documentation to prove his memoir wasn’t a lie. Last week, the thin, urbane former managing editor of GQ Magazine released his book Walking Through Walls — a tale set in the Magic City — that tracks what…
When the excruciatingly bad Miami-based T.V. show “Hogan Knows Best,” began back in 2005, folks foresaw two travesties in the making. First, the show’s narrative through-line was about as compelling as the back of a cereal box. And second, the characters made us South Floridians look super blond and vapid…
Like a bunch of cowboys up against one friendly Indian, Coral Gables city commissioners are fixin’ to take over some territory. Only instead of using guns, they’re using lawyers. And instead of land, the war is over Web domain. As the Miami Herald reported last week, the City Attorney Elizabeth…
With indoor grow houses taking over the marijuana market, you don’t hear about people smuggling weed into the U.S. much anymore. But this past Saturday, at the Port of Miami, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement found 6,000 pounds of pot in burlap sacks, sent from Jamaica. Were talking about a street…
This past week, The Miami Herald blasted a comforting message: The state’s proposed gay marriage ban isn’t doing so hot. Polls show Amendment 2 is lacking up to 19 percent of the voter support it needs to pass in Florida. On top of that, Mayor Manny Diaz, the Miami City…
In the predawn hours of late summer 2007, in the recesses of Calder Race Course, a groom opened stall number eight. Greenwood Mystery, a sweet-faced brown bay horse, stood motionless and terrified. His halter and leash were bound so tightly to the wall that one move could have snapped his…
On a balmy night in May on NE 11th Street, not far from Club Space, Riptide witnessed a skinny girl in a green dress arguing drunkenly with her beefcake boyfriend. Gripping a Gucci purse in one hand, she clocked him with the other. He picked her up caveman-style and carried…
Back in April, New Times wrote about a case in which the only witness to a high-profile cop murder was about to be deported. To sum up the story: Jamaican-born Dwayne Henry watched a light-skinned man slay revered Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Reyka in the parking lot of a Walgreens last…
A couple of Saturdays ago, Donna Newman was walking the Miami Beach shoreline when she noticed a pretty ponytailed gal in a tight bikini and waved at her. “Free yourself, lady!” the tan, middle-age Newman hollered into a microphone. On cue, a troupe of topless female protesters behind her added,…
Courtesy of the Coral Gables Gazette George Volsky is a bad ass. This week, New Times featured an article about old-school journalist George Volsky and his ongoing conflict with Coral Gables City Manager David Brown. To recap, the former New York Times reporter busted Brown for dining lavishly on taxpayers’…
Armed with a pen and notebook, 87-year-old George Volsky climbed the stairs in Coral Gables City Hall the afternoon of August 12. With his thick black eyeglasses and the last of his snowy hair parted to the side, he could have passed for just another Florida retiree. But something was…
Courtesy of Gotopless.org Political activists of the aging hippie persuasion made a big, naked statement on Miami Beach Saturday to protest what they see as female oppression. The injustice: Men in Miami can go topless on the street but women can’t. Donna Newman, regional president of the protest group Gotopless.org,…
The battle over Florida’s constitutional gay marriage ban is a lot like a drawn-out arm wrestling match. Both sides are sweating, but the crowd seems to have lost interest in the show. Right-wing loonies proposed the measure months ago and gathered thousands of signatures to put it on the ballot…
On Northeast 11th Street in Park West – where an island of soulless mega clubs stand amid a stretch of slum – party kids will start seeing more cops. In a move that went almost completely unreported last spring, the Southeast Overtown Park West CRA approved $343,000 in grant money…
