In December, Citi Bike crossed the bridge from South Beach to the mainland and celebrated its 50 new stations with a party at Bayfront Park. Some residents in Brickell haven’t been celebrating the arrival of the bike share, though. In fact, so many residents complained about the 38-foot racks eating…
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office recently spent $81 million on a sparkling new palace of law enforcement on Florida’s Gulf Coast. There’s a state-of-the-art 911 center, top-of-the-line hurricane protection built to withstand Category 5 devastation, and a high-tech data center. There are also some spiffy accoutrements, such as a bright-green…
As Jeb Bush’s all-but-certain run to the White House ignites for liftoff, one of the biggest lingering questions is whether he’ll hit any serious turbulence over his decades of sometimes questionable financial dealings since leaving Tallahassee. Well, it didn’t take long for Bush’s first financially tied mini-scandal. Last week, Jeb…
For two decades, Gerald Bailey compiled a sterling reputation with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, including over the past eight years as the force’s commissioner. Until last month, that is, when he abruptly and quietly left office. What happened? “He resigned,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters yesterday after confirming…
Gov. Rick Scott has never received 50 percent of the vote in Florida. He spent most of his first term with approval ratings that would make Enron executives blush with shame. His personal narrative includes a detour into the largest Medicare fraud penalty in American history. This is a man…
Amid a roiling national debate about police oversight, the Miami City Commission last night voted to take away Miami PD’s ability to investigate its own police shootings. Instead, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will probe those deaths. Miami’s police union president didn’t take the news quietly. Sgt. Javier Ortiz…
Even most hard-line Florida Republicans have accepted that gay marriage is here to stay. As thousands of LGBT couples from the Panhandle to Key West have tied the knot and business leaders have trumpeted the economic boost gay weddings will bring, the state GOP’s response has ranged from Attorney General…
In the wake of this morning’s devastating terrorist attack in Paris, where masked gunmen stormed the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people, spontaneous rallies have broken out from the Place de la Republique near the site of the attack to London, New York, and Berlin. The…
From the get-go, Major League Baseball made no secret that one of the costs of doing business with Tony Bosch was a promise to ask the courts to go easy when criminal charges came down. (You remember Bosch, the Coral Gables steroid dealer who snitched on Alex Rodriguez and more…
The small municipality of Sweetwater has been no stranger to big controversy. Its last mayor was whacked by the FBI for taking a $40,000 bribe, and rumors soon swirled afterward that the feds were stacking up cases against other city departments for crooked behavior. Now one ex-police commander is taking…
After all the hand-wringing debate about how Heat fans would deal with defector LeBron James’ return to the AA Arena — Would they boo? Would they jeer? Would they rain flaming Molotov cocktails upon the court? — LBJ’s introduction last night was a surprisingly business-like affair. A few fans booed,…
Growing up in Miami in the 1960s, Mitch Novick remembers cruising along Collins Avenue and gaping at a gold-and-blue tinted mosaic. “It really is a spectacular mosaic,” says Novick. So when Novick heard that the building housing the artwork had been approved for demolition to make way for the massive…
A few years back, Florida passed a law allowing religious displays in public buildings. The legislators’ idea, as you might imagine, was mangers and crosses at Christmastime. But under the letter of the law, all religions had to be invited to the table, which has led to the delightful sight…
This year marked the first-ever Miami Beach Bowl, a profoundly mis-named college football game that actually takes place inside Marlins Park, about 10 miles away from its barrier island namesake. Badly named or not, the bowl did live up to another famed Miami college football tradition, though. Last night’s contest…
In September 2006, the crime that sparked one of the darkest sagas in Miami-Dade Public Schools history happened in a Northwestern High School bathroom. That’s where the school’s star 18-year-old quarterback had sex with a 14-year-old freshman girl. The crime soon began the focus of a mass coverup allegation as…
A federal judge told him to drop the plan. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals told him it was illegal. Then the U.S. Supreme Court refused to listen to his arguments. But despite losing over and over in every court around, Gov. Rick Scott is still fighting for the right…
The 1987 University of Miami Hurricanes team is justly famous for any number of reasons. Michael Irvin. Brian Blades. Swagger. An undefeated campaign and an infamous comeback over FSU. But that season is historic for another reason as well: It marked the first time a school had signed a big…
Up until October, developer Jeff Berkowitz’s audacious plan for a 1,000-foot tall tower on the bay front had sailed through with scant opposition from politicians or residents. The city commission quickly signed off on the Skyrise plan, and voters gave it a green light in August. But then came news…
Spirit Airlines is no stranger to complaints. From its tiny seats and crippling pilot strike to advertising campaigns that have used devastating oil spills, MILFs, and prostitution scandals to hawk tickets, no airline draws groans from consumers quite so regularly than the South Florida-based budget carrier. But even for Spirit,…
There are a few unmistakable signs that a candidate is about to declare his run for the White House. His travel schedule is suddenly peppered with appointments in small-town Iowa and New Hampshire. He’s on Sunday morning talk shows every week trashing the opposition or talking up his narrative. Or…
A complaint that began with towing companies grumbling at a city commission meeting about “pirate” drivers stealing their city-approved jobs has reportedly blossomed into a mass FBI probe of Miami cops. Now three Miami officers and two public service aides have been suspended under allegations that they called unapproved tow…
For years, Adam Meyer has occupied a unique space on the local sports scene. A “sports handicapper,” he boasted he could predict which team would win 60 percent of the time, and through his Real Money Sports Inc., he offered that edge to gamblers for annual fees up to $250,000…
