When Dr. Norman Block got the news in May 2012, he was incredulous. The Nobel Laureate he’d brought to the University of Miami to work on cancer research — a groundbreaking drug researcher named Andrew Schally — would lose $150,000 in funding. Schally would have to lay off two researchers…
Since the day he was elected, Rick Scott has been one of the most unpopular governors in America, often hovering below 30 percent in polls. He’s tried everything from casual Fridays to flipping hamburgers in local restaurants to boost his numbers. But the most recent Q poll still shows nearly…
With Capitol Hill still locked in a debt-ceiling full nelson, President Obama offered a compromise last night on one thorny shutdown issue: States can now reopen national parks using their own money. Governors in at least four states have jumped at the offer. After all, millions of tourism dollars have…
Jimmy Dewayne Whipple made a series of unfortunate mistakes this past Tuesday. First, he called the local police department to report that his gun had been stolen. That’s a reasonable thing for most people to do but less of a great idea when you’re a felon who is not allowed…
If your knees get shaky and your palms sweat every time you get near Orlando and catch a glimpse of a roller coaster from I-4, avoid this story like the express line to Space Mountain. Because a dozen visitors at Universal Orlando spent three hours yesterday living the ride-phobe’s worst…
There’s really no doubt that Florida leads the nation — if not Planet Earth — in insane crimes. In the past month, we’ve had an elderly guy showing up pants-less and masturbating at a McDonald’s drive-thru, a woman twerking obscenely in front of a school bus full of kids, and…
A 65-year-old Florida man went to a McDonald’s drive-thru looking for a happy ending to go with his Happy Meal, police say. Clemons was arrested after rolling up to the window at his local Micky D’s without pants, grabbing a cashier’s hand, and trying to force her to touch his…
UPDATE: In February 2014, Alex Rodriguez and his legal team voluntarily dropped the lawsuit against Major League Baseball, the Players Association, and Commissioner Bud Selig. Rodriguez also accepted his season-long suspension. As Alex Rodriguez fights for his baseball-playing life in New York this week, he’s forbidden from discussing the details…
On one side, there’s the billion-dollar cruise industry and Key West’s powerful chamber of commerce sinking thousands of dollars into a campaign to convince islanders to dredge 17 acres of sea floor to allow larger ships and thousands more tourists to visit. On the other, environmentalists, preservationists, and their leader…
Walmart’s plans to build a superstore in the heart of midtown Miami are now just one vote away from becoming a reality. The retail giant won an appeal with the city’s zoning board last night, overcoming hours of pleas from residents who say the store would turn one of Miami’s…
Eight months after a Miami New Times investigation revealed that Coral Gables anti-aging clinic Biogenesis was slinging performance-enhancing drugs to pro athletes, the fallout keeps growing. Fourteen baseball players were suspended by August. Hometown superstar Alex Rodriguez’s career hangs in the balance as he appeals his historic 211-game ban. One…
For a world-class con man, James Sabatino has a habit of burning out in blazes of self-inflicted pain. As a teenager, he pulled off an incredible run of schemes, including getting close to Julio Iglasias by posing as a Sony Music executive and wrangling more than 200 Super Bowl tickets…
If you’re texting a link to this story on your iPhone while you sip coffee and weave through morning traffic on the Dolphin Expressway using your knees — JUST STOP IT. Years of appealing to your common sense clearly hasn’t helped, so perhaps you’ll respond to the news that beginning…
Eight months after a Miami New Times investigation revealed that Coral Gables anti-aging clinic Biogenesis was slinging performance-enhancing drugs to pro athletes, the fallout keeps growing. Fourteen baseball players were suspended by August. Hometown superstar Alex Rodriguez’s career hangs in the balance this week as he appeals his historic 211-game…
The voice is scratchy but vaguely familiar. “I want you to tell the boys,” the man says in Spanish, “that today, Sept. 16, I am more alive than ever.” According to thousands sharing the recording across social media in Venezuela, the words come from none other than strongman Hugo Chavez…
Aaron Fechter must be one of history’s strangest mechanical geniuses. After inventing Whac-A-Mole, the timeless game that allows children to beat the hell out of buck-toothed creatures popping out of holes, he rented a gigantic central Florida warehouse to create robotic, animatronic rock bands for Chuck E. Cheese’s and ShowBiz…
El Nuevo Herald’s jefe is abandoning the city he recently described as “the candy store of American journalism” for a town world-famous for, uh, being the seat of Collier County. Nuevo executive editor Manny Garcia told the newsroom yesterday he’s leaving to take the top job at the Naples Daily…
Officer Eric Guzman’s highlights over his nine years on the Miami Police Department include 30 use-of-force complaints, two dead suspects, and one self-inflicted gunshot wound to the foot. Sgt. Juan Mendez, meanwhile, has killed four suspects and racked up nearly 100 complaints in his 28-year career. Like a recurring migraine,…
Officer Eric Guzman’s highlights over his nine years on the Miami Police Department include 30 use-of-force complaints, two dead suspects, and one self-inflicted gunshot wound to the foot. Sgt. Juan Mendez, meanwhile, has killed four suspects and racked up nearly 100 complaints in his 28-year career. Like a recurring migraine,…
Mario Fabricio Ormachea Aliaga’s has one job in his native Bolivia, and it’s a pretty important one. The colonel in Bolivia’s National Police is the Andean nation’s top anti-corruption official. So it’s not fantastic for Ormachea’s resume that he’s currently sitting in Miami’s Federal Detention Center on corruption charges. The…
With his $4.4 billion in the bank, couldn’t Dolphins owner Stephen Ross afford a few remedial classes in basic public relations? We’ll give you this crash course for free, Steve: Do not throw an insane $200 million donation at your alma mater months after stomping around and demanding that broke-ass…
Last year, two Miami reps pushed a bill banning red light cameras through a committee with some loud public support (thanks in part to a Tampa TV station’s investigation showing Florida had helped shorten yellow light times to collect more ticket revenue). But that bill eventually flopped in the full…
