Luke Taleno’s eyes, streaked with sapphire and magenta, were something out of a nightmare. The 14-year-old looked possessed, felt worse, and couldn’t escape the barrage of chemotherapy. He was dying, and he knew it. On May 29, 2011, Taleno was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a fast-developing disease in which…
More any other big city in the nation — with the exception being New York — Miami is a town of two realities. Ours is a city that’s simultaneously inhabited by revelers who preside over clubs with table service and can afford $50,000 to see Tiesto on New Year’s Eve…
Local chiropractor Dennis Nobbe, a rotund, ruddy-faced Scientologist allegedly forced employees to scream at ashtrays, perform lengthy staring contests, and convert to his church. Now, the man who says he “used L. Ron Hubbard Technology to build the largest chiropractic office in all of South Florida.” is backtracking. After former…
Kira Lee Grossman wants you to know this isn’t news. She wants you to suspend your powers of reasoning for a moment and surmise that her driving record isn’t remarkable. She urges you to ignore her powerful position as senior adviser to the Miami Parking Authority and ignore the fact…
Yesterday, the normally sleepy Miami-Dade County commissioners were downright joyous. It was like watching a bunch of hapless nerds finally get the attention of a cool kid, and that cool kid happened to be named David Beckham, and he totally wanted to hang. “Go, soccer!” Commissioner Juan Zapata bellowed. “Go,…
The conventional narrative holds that Florida is a wonderful place to be homeless. There’s lots of sunshine and warm weather. There are public beaches. And sure enough, homeless people abound. But according to a disturbing study released this past Friday, this notion couldn’t be further from the grim reality. Florida…
Kira Lee Grossman wants you to know this isn’t news. She wants you to suspend your powers of reasoning for a moment and surmise that her driving record isn’t remarkable. She urges you to ignore her powerful position as policy adviser to the Miami Parking Authority and dismiss the fact…
Prosecutors have dismissed charges against North Miami Beach cop Ericson Harrell for recently wearing a Guy Fawkes’ mask while protesting Obamacare along a busy road in Plantation. The bizarre arrest, cited under an obscure 1951 Florida law that defense attorneys told the Sun Sentinel was created to combat the Ku…
Seven years ago, Robert Levinson, a burly former FBI agent living in Coral Springs with his wife and children, traveled to the Iranian island of Kish to ostensibly investigate a “cigarette smuggling case,” when he simply vanished into the ether, captured by unknown assailants. In a case that at times…
Late last month, an ebony-haired Miami bikini model twice materialized on the cover of the New York Daily News. “Match.con,” the first headline screamed beside a picture of Yuliana Avalos posing languidly in a brown bathing suit. The next day was even more salacious: “Death Match,” the cover bellowed. Both…
Criminality and social media have rarely had a harmonious relationship. There are several obvious reasons, but the most important is this: Cops have Facebook. And Twitter. And — it has surely dawned upon 19-year-old Dupree Johnson — Instagram. Dupree Johnson, who’s evinced an iron dedication to crime, racking up five…
Late last month, an ebony-haired Miami bikini model twice materialized on the cover of the New York Daily News. “Match.con,” the first headline screamed beside a picture of Yuliana Avalos posing languidly in a brown bathing suit. The next day was even more salacious: “Death Match,” the cover bellowed. Both…
There are many possible explanations for what occurred Tuesday night — but really, only one makes sense. It could have been the fact that the Panthers-Senators game unfolded on a Tuesday night, which is the worst night imaginable for professional athletics. Or perhaps it was the matter that the Ottawa…
How did Miami drivers become the worst in the state? If clues exist, they’re buried inside a mammoth beige building tucked behind palm trees off Flagler Street in Doral. Here, down a hallway whiter than a psychiatric ward, are the offices of Alex Hanna — South Florida’s most successful traffic…
How did Miami drivers become the worst in the state? If clues exist, they’re buried inside a mammoth beige building tucked behind palm trees off Flagler Street just South of Doral. Here, down a hallway whiter than a psychiatric ward, are the offices of Alex Hanna — South Florida’s most…
Daniel Medina, who fatally shot his 26-year-old wife and uploaded a picture of her corpse onto Facebook aside a confession, now faces a first-degree murder charge and, if convicted, the death penalty. Initially the state only charged Medina, who claimed he’d shot his wife out of self defense, with second…
The Florida Keys, haunted dots of green floating in the Atlantic, have long attracted despondent souls plotting violent escapes from reality. In 2011, a prominent and sadistic Wisconsin surgeon named Glen Tucker shot to death his wife, Joan, before turning the gun on himself. His death, as we reported last…
On a bright May morning in 2011, coach Al Golden, sporting an orange Miami Hurricanes polo, gripped a Panama hat in his right hand and stomped across the field to address his team for the first time. “You’re on a field of champions,” boomed Golden, cherubic features tightening. “And we’re…
Ask Marleine Bastien what sparked her life’s trajectory, an arc that’s encompassed appearances on Oprah and CNN and the designation as Ms. Magazine’s 2001 “Woman of the Year,” and she’ll tell you to rewind the clock nearly 40 years. She’ll ask you to blot out the chaos of Miami and…
Next time you see photographers taking pictures of a languid, bikini-clad woman posing in the surf, realize something. Those photos are worth a lot of money. Especially if they materialize on more than 200 fake Match.com profiles managed by con men operating in internet cafés from Nigeria to Russia, according…
On Saturday night, hours before authorities say 20-year-old Kayla Mendoza pulled her Hyundai Sonata onto the Sawgrass Expressway going the wrong way and crashed into a 2012 Toyota Camry, killing the two passengers inside, she tweeted “2 drunk 2 care,” her Twitter feed shows. Mendoza, of Hallandale Beach, who calls…
Never take candy from strangers. Everyone knows that. Children, adults — even ducks, apparently. Over the weekend, Florida woman Karie Lindgren was arrested on felony charges of animal cruelty, and police dispatched one of the most insane/troubling/disturbing arrest affidavits in recent times…
