Donna Shalala may have just averted her worst nightmare. Ever since Napoleonic Ponzi booster Nevin Shapiro spilled his guts to Yahoo Sports this summer with allegations that he’d rained gifts on student-athletes — from cars to hookers to piles of cash — the worst-case scenario for the Canes would be…
A Miami Beach cop shot and killed a man early this morning while trying to break up a fight near 12th Street and Washington Avenue in South Beach. The officer fired two shots into the suspect’s stomach, says Deborah Doty, a MBPD spokeswoman, and the man died a short time…
Hugo Chavez has struggled through cancer over the past year, losing his hair, gaining weight and traveling repeatedly to Cuba for surgeries. Chavez has never said precisely what stage of the disease he has, but on Wednesday the Venezuelan president suggested that he knew the source: A secret U.S. cancer-causing…
South Florida family sues over “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”
In a few short weeks, the world’s eyes will turn to Havana as a powerful but highly controversial leader with millions of devout followers lands to shake hands with Fidel Castro. No, no, not the pope — he’s not coming until sometime this spring. We’re talking about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the…
Muckraking site OpenSecrets.org decided to throw some fire on the Occupy Movement this week by estimating the net worth of every single member of Congress, from mighty Darrell Issa with his $700 million to Florida pauper Alcee Hastings, who owes nearly $5 million in unpaid legal fees.Here in Miami, the…
It’s that most special time of the year in Havana, when Raul Castro dresses up as Santa Claus and frees thousands of prisoners as a holiday gesture. Of course there’s a long list of convicts excluded from his Christmas amnesty — most notably hundreds of political prisoners, and Alan Gross,…
All 24-year-old Philip Arthur wanted on Christmas Eve was some peace and quiet so his wife could sleep in; what he got, cops say, was a fatal chest wound from the Liberty City neighbor who was blasting the tunes.Dorian Hinkson, a 51-year-old resident of the Pork ‘n Beans projects, has…
You’ve probably never heard of J. Fred Coots, but damned if his ditty hasn’t been blowing up your car radio for the past month. Way back in 1934, Coots co-wrote a little tune called “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” — a track that cracks the ten most played songs…
Miami is the fictional home of Dexter, Michael Weston and Horatio Caine, so it makes sense that some truly messed up crime goes down in the real 305. Still, it’s astounding how the Magic City steps up year after year to deliver acts so depraved and bizarre they make Jeff…
On Sunday, Little Havana store owner Cen Yue Kui was behind the counter, ringing up a customer for a gallon of milk. Then, without warning, the “customer” sprayed Kui’s eyes with pepper spray, leapt over the counter, and beat him viciously with a hammer — all so he could run…
Newt Gingrich’s failed Florida campaign
Even in a state notorious for its poop crime, a young South Floridian named Christopher Raphael has set a new low bar for fecal offenses by allegedly assaulting his girlfriend with a handful of shit. The Palm Beach Post reports the 24-year-old was arrested Monday after police say he rampaged through…
What if your smartphone has secretly tracked everything you’ve done for the past two years: every Google search, every website, every key stroke — not to mention everywhere you’ve traveled? Sounds like a paranoid fantasy from Enemy of the State, but that’s exactly what a secret bit of phone software…
How many more ruthless, brutal dictators are going to kick the authoritarian bucket this year before Calle Oche finally gets to hold that damn parade? Fidel Castro’s rolodex of entrenched, old-timey leaders is getting dangerously thin.Muammar Gaddafi: whacked. Ali Saleh: deposed. Zine Ben Ali: tossed from office. Hosni Mubarak: Facing…
Thousands of Florida A&M students marched to the governor’s mansion last night after Rick Scott demanded the school suspend its president over a band member’s hazing death. Scott agreed to meet students out front and, oy, that might have been the wrong decision.The white guv bizarrely attempted to quell the…
Seven years ago, an ex-Miami-Dade cop named Gandhi Lora was convicted of producing and possessing dozens of kiddie porn images, sent to prison, and forced to register as a sex offender. Today he’s not only free but also still earning a $7,200-per-month pension from the MDPD.Lora is just one of…
Out on the campaign trail, Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich hasn’t shown a ton of empathy toward the millions going through foreclosures. But maybe his new Florida campaign chief can change his tune with his own personal story of housing hell.Former Marco Rubio campaign chief Jose Mallea — who was…
Stuart Lawley’s dot-xxx domain fight
BCS college football bowl scam
Sure, the new Marlins Stadium is a taxpayer-draining succubus approved through wholesale lies and deceit — but is the retractable-roofed ballpark also unsafe? That’s what a whistleblowing former contractor says today, with the ominous warning: “I won’t go to that stadium. I won’t take my kids to that place.”The complaints…
When Charles W. Stiefel took control of his family’s business, Stiefel Laboratories was the largest dermatology manufacturer on earth. And the Coral Gables-based firm, which traced its history 160 years back to Stiefel’s ancestors in Germany, was still family owned.Charles Stiefel, though, decided it was time to cash in, and…
