Now that our little Cuban refugee is back in his homeland, quietly becoming a role model for other young communists, it’s the season in Miami for Elian retrospectives. It seems every local publication has compiled a list of winners and losers from the protracted custody saga. Regrettably these indexes tend…
Cuba Affidavit Citizens’ Auxiliary **CONFIDENTIAL** TO: Supreme Commander, Cuba Affidavit Citizens’ Auxiliary FROM: Robert Andrew Powell, Sergeant at Arms RE: Morale problems among the troops Attached are volunteer Ofcr. R. Guerra’s first reports from the field. Please read them carefully. I’m afraid the initial reception of our Cuba Affidavit Citizens’…
Sam Burley sweeps his arm over an undulating grass field adjacent to Southridge Senior High School, where Burley is the head track coach. He’s pointing to the area where the school board has long promised to build a running track for his athletes. The board won’t build the track, though,…
Lola Bar owner David Bick wants to do things differently. The New Jersey native arrived on Miami Beach eight months ago, intent on managing a business free from the pretension and shadiness common in the South Beach scene. “We don’t run our nightclub like the average nightclub,” he says. “We’re…
Cue the giant whooshing sound. Add a bombastic voice-over, a flashing graphic, some dynamic music. Cut to a man and a woman sitting behind a curved gray desk inside a vast room. In the background: video monitors, red railings, the bobbing heads of lackeys answering telephones. Dark-haired female: Good evening,…
In April, at an event called Canesfest, University of Miami athletic director Paul Dee unveiled snazzy redesigned uniforms for the school’s football, basketball, and baseball teams. Less attention was paid to a new logo, which soon appeared all over the shady Coral Gables campus printed on hats and T-shirts that…
“I can’t live without this one,” declared Andy Nierenberg when placing a bid earlier this month on the ntBay Internet auction site. The item Nierenberg so coveted was a photo album memorializing the tenure of Ted Eefting, former City of Miami public works director. Along with dozens of other civic…
Andrea Loring is fighting against the tide. Marching toward the cafeteria, she looks in the eyes of every student still lingering in the hallway. “Hugo, you’re heading the wrong way,” she says to a boy strolling past her. “Eddie, you too,” she calls out to a second boy, a sheepish-looking…
Because he is watching a soccer game, Juan Carlos Michia is happy. No matter that the Florida sun has turned the playing field into brittle brown straw. No matter that the teams are composed of awkward, leggy boys. Michia is happy. As the players race the dusty pitch, Michia stakes…
Can I see your tickets?” asks the woman, dressed head to toe in red and blue, the colors of the Haitian flag. She stands in an aisle at the Orange Bowl with two similarly festooned friends. They hold tickets entitling them to sit in seats occupied by three men rooting…
Lack of institutional control. The phrase regularly appears on the sports pages, usually to describe a college athletic program run amok. In 1995, after the hammer fell on the rogue University of Miami football program, the NCAA reprimanded school leaders for their “lack of institutional control.” Ditto for Notre Dame…
The scene outside Elian Gonzalez’s Little Havana home was rather subdued this past Saturday afternoon. A few network news crews and photographers staked out the house from a neighbor’s yard, huddled around a television set atop a milk crate, watching the NFL playoff game between the Washington Redskins and the…
We always begin with a cheer. The referee, waiting to drop the puck at center ice, refers to it as the rah-rah shit, as in “Go do your rah-rah shit so we can start this game.” The cheer is a relic from the serious, organized, desperately important sporting events we…
Hattie Lee is one of those people who takes Christmas decorations very seriously. “Oh, I just love the way the lights twinkle in the windows,” she says in a warm New Orleans drawl. The 64-year-old great-grandmother also loves the look of the giant plastic angels perched on her roof, and…
Talk about a mixed message. Last month, when students at Ludlam Elementary were asked to raise money for their school’s new music department, they were offered an incentive: Pokémon cards, the current absolute, most necessary must-have. But tacked on to a flyer distributed by Parent, Teacher, & Student Association president…
In Chicago, on the North Side, they used to refer to the strip of Division Street between Ashland and Western as “Polish Broadway.” From the 1940s through the late 1960s, polka soloists, trios, and quartets performed nightly in gin joints up and down the strip. In the hot summer months,…
Two of Miami-Dade County’s top high school football teams — Northwestern and Jackson — are stocked with ineligible players who employ dubious addresses in order to attend and play for their schools. Numerous student athletes on both teams, which are among the best in the nation, claim to live within…
Imagine the peace of mind! As yet another hurricane churns toward the United States, a high-ranking government official calmly flips a switch. Instantly three or four large fans strategically stationed along the eastern seaboard crank to life. Within seconds wind speeds stronger than the storm are generated and the cyclone…
Five months after a New Times cover story detailed allegations of deceitful and unethical business practices by John Svadbik, he continues to sell used cars. In fact, despite apparent financial problems, he is expanding the dusty lot of his primary dealership, Coconut Palm Auto Sales, located on South Dixie Highway…
In November 1994, the United States had not yet gone loco for Latin pop music. Even so, old-school Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias had just finished the first of four sold-out shows at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and he was pumped. In the dressing room he recalled the…
About 250 freshmen fidget and murmur in the cavernous ballroom at Florida International University. The newcomers wait for the next segment of an orientation session FIU requires all incoming students to attend. Hanging on a wall above the stage is the university’s mascot, a large panther baring its fangs, slashing…
The internal affairs bureau of the Miami Police Department is no comedy club. It is a cramped office decorated with faded travel posters, harsh fluorescent lights, and ancient metal desks. Amid piles of paperwork somber detectives slog their way through the hundreds of citizen complaints filed every year. These are…
