On a recent Sunday morning, the two rebels positioned themselves outside the entrance of the Publix on Miami Lakes Drive. There was Patricia Wade, the Redland Community Council’s spunky chairwoman, dressed in a linen jumpsuit and floral print sun visor. Next to her was Kendall Community Councilwoman Millie Herrera, sporting…
Back on May 8, 2003, things got ugly on Dinner Key. Miami Commissioner Angel González was angry. He demanded more information about city police matters. Chief John Timoney would have to wait, González said. Timoney’s reaction? He didn’t say, “You’re bad. Fuck you!” as he did to a protestor at…
Fresh from a four-day weekend trip to Paris celebrating his 38th wedding anniversary, a jovial Joe Arriola assures his department directors his job is not in jeopardy. “I’m going to be here for a long time,” Miami’s embattled city manager promises his senior staff during a January 31 meeting at…
It’s Sunday afternoon in a Doral industrial park, and eleven-year-old Roger Bustamante is doing what he loves most, busting out ollies and heel-flips and grabs. But the gregarious, easygoing skateboarder is bummed. Here his board can’t do what he wills it to do. Semi trucks are making deliveries, and some…
It’s a hot day on Indiantown’s Brady Ranch. And pastor Doug Giles has his hands on a gun. A wiry man in fatigues and a crumpled cowboy hat, he crouches between two fat oak trees. Then he locks his sight on a 500-pound nilgai antelope and pulls the trigger. The…
Isabel’s plans have gone horribly awry. The buxom brunet, her frosty highlighted hair in gravity-defying layers, had one mission: Seduce and marry the sweetly naive Alejandro, heir to his grandfather’s highly profitable ranch. Now she listens, horrified, as the earnest young man, brown eyes shining with sincere concern, reveals what…
For Marino Martínez, it began 44 years ago on the streets of Guira de Melena, a small city ringed by tobacco fields south of Havana. Martínez was eight years old, playing stickball with friends, their shouts echoing off the faded buildings, when a passerby took notice of the boy’s prodigious…
For much of the Eighties and Nineties, drivers on the Palmetto Expressway zipped past a revolving, 45-foot tower of Gatsby-era Fords and classic Porsches. It sat atop the 160,000-square-foot headquarters of Classic Motor Carriages, then the nation’s largest manufacturer of automotive replicas. The firm was forced to close in 1994…
Joey “Hollywood” Giordano had a breakthrough year in 2005. The 40-year-old Kendall native did some casting work for network television, scouted locations for a few big-budget films, went over scenes and dialogue with William Morris-quality talent (Farrell, Caruso, Foxx) and, perhaps best yet, Joey, who looks eerily like Joey from…
Melissa Thomas and Renee O’Brien are twentysomething professionals, just the kind of people Miami developers and city leaders hope to attract to the scads of new high-rise condos downtown. So on the evening of February 7, the pair was invited to a soiree hosted by the developer of One Brickell…
If you’re not the manager of a multibillion-dollar hedge fund, you might naively assume the Man of Steel is a big deal. After all, it’s a $16.3 million, 123-foot ocean-cruising yacht with four bedrooms, four bathrooms, six flat-screen television sets, a Jacuzzi, a gym, a bar, and a pilot house…
As a boy, Mikey Butders dreamed of distant galaxies. From the window of his family’s apartment in Queens, the night sky was a hazy fantasy swirling above the fluorescent wash of street lights. Butders would go there someday, he told himself, and float untethered through the blackness. The astronaut reverie…
December 2001 Joe and Manny are holed up in a dimly lit city hall office. They’ve been spending long hours together, gazing out upon the forlorn landscape, daydreaming, smoking, cussing, trying to select a new city manager. Then one evening, after some drinking, Manny finally reveals something from inside. Manny:…
Miami Police can’t get enough of you. Really. In January, the Magic City’s PD had to extend the deadline for accepting applications because not enough men and women had registered to join the 1024-member force. Every year the city holds three 30-day sign-up periods, each drawing about 500 would-be cops…
The fluorescent lights at Club Madonna turn the multicolor carpeting into a hallucinogenic swirl, a riotous assault on the eyes that parallels the bass-heavy beats pumping from the sound system. The sensory onslaught, supplemented by completely nude, lissome, gyrating females, is clearly upscale fare. It’s a hell of a lot…
It’s a balmy Saturday afternoon and hundreds of Protestant faithful are gathered in Miami’s Tropical Park. They loll on blankets and canvas chairs surrounded by turquoise porta-potties, red and yellow balloons, and hot dog carts with drooping umbrellas. All the while, a band on the stage churns out Christian pop…
For two decades Jack Thompson has staked out the moral high ground, heaping derision on foes like Luther Campbell and Janet Reno in the late Eighties and Ice-T and Howard Stern more recently. His campaigns have led to the arrest of 2 Live Crew in Broward County and to Warner…
If a U.S. soldier’s lover in the field is his M-4 assault rifle, his mistress is caffeine. Caffeinated drinks are some of the best-selling items among military personnel in Iraq, says Judd Anstey, a spokesman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. In January alone, the proud and the…
Tal Priel had wanted to own a classic American automobile since he was a teenager. In June 1999, the then-44-year-old New Yorker fulfilled his dream by traveling to Lexington, Kentucky, and purchasing a 1975 gold two-door Buick LeSabre custom convertible for $3000 from its original owner. He spent another $5000…
Desire and Felicity shamble down the scorching sidewalk, sodden makeup smearing sullen faces. They’re looking for the telltale sign from a driver rumbling through midafternoon traffic on Biscayne Boulevard: prolonged eye contact and a chin nod. Or maybe the reliable standby: “Excuse me, miss, but I need directions.” Both women…
Already an Internet legend of sorts, at least in the minds of unredeemed boozehounds and womanizers, Tucker Max added to his infamy last month with the debut of his New York Times best-selling collection of dubious drunken tales, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Max’s stories have been passed…
On Wednesday, January 25, after deliberating less than 30 minutes, a Miami-Dade County jury acquitted 27-year-old Mario Barcia of attempted second-degree murder of a police officer. Miami New Times, which published three articles about the case, was a regular subject of discussion at the trial. Shortly after midnight October 24,…
