Hustlin’ marshmellows? Wikipedia.org has once again fallen victim to human error. Rick Ross, Miami’s prodigal hip-hop son, was briefly defamed this afternoon on the site. The first line describes him as such: Rick Ross, born ‘dick sucker’ 1977, is an white American rapper from coral gabels (sic), in northern Miami-Dade…
Deal, or no deal? Babalu, “an island on the net without a bearded dictator,” issues a send-off to the recently departed Gerald Ford. After decrying Ford’s pardon of Nixon and a lackluster 1976 presidential campaign that “led directly to Jimmy Carter’s victory and the subsequent disastrous four years of his…
Local government rags can be pretty damn amusing. Take the latest issue of the Miami Beach city government magazine. A recreation department guide in the glossy drops a dubious bombshell: sumo wrestlers are actually from China, not Japan. Under the heading “Miami Beach Goes ‘Around the World,'” a chirpy paragraph…
Christmas day started out well. I watched D-Wade drop 40 points on the Lakers and my buddy Norman invited me to the Dolphins-Jets game. Sorry futbol fans, but growing up in Miami, you kind of get sucked into the Fins euphoria. After all, we boast the only team to go…
A viewing of The Pursuit of Happyness prompted James Burnett to reflect on his race with candor and grace: I have an occasional paranoia that I will come across someone who doesn’t want to take me seriously because I’m young and black. Some of you may think it’s a silly…
Woof. Bad dog. In a http://www.hsus.org/furfree/news/sean_john_diddy_combs_mislabeled_fur.html”>report issued today, the Humane Society of the United States says a fur collar on a jacket sold by Miami resident Sean “Diddy” Combs’s “Sean John” clothing line is that of a dog. The HSUS tested the fur on a Sean John Hooded Snorkel Jacket,…
Where’s the beef going? “I didn’t want to change it,” Isaac Starkman told me a few years back when asked about his strategy for renovating Wolfie Cohen’s Rascal House. “I wanted to perpetuate it.” And for good reason, as during one thirteen-year period alone the landmark delicatessen in Sunny Isles…
The 26th Parallel takes a close look at the Ileana Ros-Lehtinen mess and draws two conclusions: 1) Why not whack Fidel? 2) Filmmaker Dollan Cannell is full of baloney. Ros-Lehtinen may actually desire that castro be eliminated by any means possible, including assassination. If so, then….so? I would agree with…
As daylight begins to fade outside the Dollar and Beauty store at 1062 North Miami Beach Blvd., a deafening tidal wave of traffic roars into view. Like a firefly, a lone motorcyclist flits through the torrent of commuters. Snippets of radio songs spill from cracked windows of the passing vehicular…
Moldy Christmas Filed under: News Sweet baby Jesus would be so proud of the people running New Life Shelter for Homeless Families, which is operated by Catholic Charities, a nonprofit social service division of the Archdiocese of Miami. The fifteen-room facility in Wynwood provides downtrodden families with rooms for $200…
In the summer of 2005, 53-year-old Malika Oufkir stepped out of the oppressive 100-plus-degree heat in Marrakesh and into an orphanage where the air was equally stifling — filled with the odor of soiled diapers, medicine, and milk. It was the beginning of the exotic, Moroccan-born beauty’s third life, a…
Miami-Dade County Yesterday, County Commissioner Natacha Seijas crushed a recall against her. A pathetic 11 percent of the 76,000 registered voters in her district turned out to cast ballots. Seijas won by a 2-to-1 margin. She relied on a $430,730 campaign war chest, a legion of union workers manning the…
Good to the last drop About fifteen members of the Miami Area Society of Homebrewers (MASH) and their kin gathered this weekend to celebrate the birth of Bacchus — er, Jesus — on a screened-in patio on Mark and Diane Kelley’s lush 5 acre compound in Homestead. The sun eased…
All is quiet in Natacha Seijas country. Today district 13 voters are turning out to the polls to say yea or nay to recall the four-term county commissioner. As of this afternoon, there are no reports of Seijas’s chief of staff Terry Murphy haranguing anti-Seijas campaigners at the Miami Lakes…
Not long ago, El Nuevo Herald, the nation’s self-proclaimed “best Spanish language newspaper,” took a whack from the national press when it was reported that El Nuevo employees were moonlighting for government-sponsored Radio Marti. Embarrassment followed. Miami Herald publisher Jesus Diaz fired the moonlighters, then resigned in protest after they…
Keep your kid Billy’s pockets free of ganja lint. If he’s busted, he might just spend eight hours next to a seventeen-year-old who murdered his parents with a lead pipe. And if little Billy gets a beating, no one may be around to hear him scream. Miami-Dade commissioners recently renewed…
Katie Edwards, executive director of the Dade County Farm Bureau, was very happy with our cover story about the Natacha Seijas recall. Edwards left the following congratulatory message on my voicemail: “Hi Frank Alvarado, this is Katie Edwards calling from Dade County Farm Bureau. Wanted to call and tell you…
During his 33-year career at the Miami Herald, Tom Fiedler won the Pulitzer Prize for covering an extremist group in Liberty City, took down presidential hopeful Gary Hart, and pissed off Miami’s Cuban-American community. On Friday, the McClatchy Co. — the Herald’s parent owner — announced Fiedler’s replacement: Anders Gyllenhaal,…
“I’ll get you, my Patty… And your little dog, too!” This past weekend, Terry Murphy, chief of staff of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas (subject of this week’scover story), was busy protecting his cushy government post. For the past two months, a political action committee has been busy campaigning for…
Table 8 Coming to a plate near you David Bouley Evolution, the South Beach outpost of one of New York’s finest chefs, and Table 8, the South Beach outpost of one of Los Angeles’ finest chefs, have opened their doors, almost simultaneously, less than two blocks apart from each other…
By Christmas, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas’s reign could be over. A band of rebels threatens her imperial grip. Last month the anti-Seijas commandos set up a bunker in the heart of her Hialeah stronghold. From inside a warehouse near Okeechobee Road, they plot ways to convince voters to recall…
Stone Gets Spanked Filed under: News In 2003 HBO yanked Comandante, Oliver Stone’s puff-piece documentary about Fidel Castro. Bad timing, according to HBO: The Cuban dictator had just jailed 75 dissidents and executed three others. Now Stone is in hot water over Cuba once again. On December 1, the Department…
