Ron Jones, a microbiologist and renowned expert on the fragile Everglades ecosystem, spent months devising the details of a contract to transfer laboratory equipment from Florida International University, his former employer, to Portland State University in Oregon, where he now works. Attorneys were close to finalizing the deal when New…
The only space big enough to hold the crowd gathered at the e-Equality technology center on Biscayne Boulevard last week was the cavernous classroom in the back, where people sat amid rows of beige PCs glowing dully in the fluorescent light. And even though the topic was serious, grim even,…
Two-thirds of the way into Il momento piu bello (The Most Wonderful Moment), a disconsolate Dr. Valeri (the baby-faced Marcello Mastroianni) bids arrivederci to the final two members of his Lamaze class, the latest setback to befall him in the talky, turgid 1957 Italian soaper that was dubbed into English,…
Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel emerged from the city’s urban battleground in 2001, born of outrage over fatal police shootings, a perceived heavy-handedness by cops during the Elian Gonzalez standoff, and the general sentiment that officers were running roughshod over minority communities. The panel’s function — the CIP has the power…
Last month the Public Health Trust released an internal audit disclosing that it was stiffed $25 million by nonresident patients — the majority of whom the hospital should not have admitted according to its own rules. Many were foreign nationals arriving for elective surgery who either didn’t have insurance or…
Ron Jones was startled to see police lights strobing in his rearview mirror. The microbiologist, whose tenured professorship at Florida International University had just drawn to a close, is nothing if not meticulous and conscientious, definitely not the type to run a stop sign or even exceed the speed limit…
On a stormy Tuesday this past November, voters in Miami approved a measure that raised the annual salary of their five city commissioners to a reasonable $58,200. Since 1949 the salary had been set at a paltry $5000 per year. Although a pathetic nine percent of the city’s electorate cast…
After an acrimonious North Miami City Council meeting last October, the rancor spilled into the parking lot of city hall at 776 NE 125th St. Mayor Josaphat “Joe” Celestin accused David Burns and other community activists of being racists. “He also had the audacity to say that he was going…
When it comes to protecting his business interests at Miami International Airport, local entrepreneur Pedro Pelaez counters threats with the ferocity of a Lennox Lewis left hook. In 2001 Pelaez lost a bout with the Miami-Dade Aviation Department when his now-defunct company, Quick Packing, Inc., failed to gain a lucrative…
For several months last year Reynaldo Rapalo was a faceless immigrant with a Central American accent who allegedly stalked and raped women, terrorizing Miami’s Shenandoah and Little Havana neighborhoods. Overlooked time and again by everyone, the Honduran suspect remained anonymous as police frustration mounted and criticism of their investigation increased…
Miami’s war on public corruption has spawned a private skirmish affecting two top law-enforcement agencies. Marcos Jimenez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, has accused the Miami-Dade Police Department of leaking information about a sensitive investigation, an accusation police officials vehemently deny. In response Miami-Dade Police Director Carlos…
Mornings at B & B’s Laundromat in Overtown are dominated by the old women, afternoons by younger women, children, and the occasional stray male. But early Sundays belong to the men. “They call it Men’s Morning,” laughs Lee Bethune, his South Carolina accent still strong after 46 years living in…
In the past few years the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department has been battered by charges of discrimination and harassment — an embarrassment for a county system that prides itself on striving for diversity. Now three black men claim that racism kept them from making it through the department’s training academy…
It’s been nearly two years since ex-Miami-Dade Commissioner Miriam Alonso was arrested by police, which prompted Gov. Jeb Bush to boot her from office amid a cloud of scandal. And yet the intervening 21 months have not resulted in a trial date for the former powerhouse politician and her husband,…
Miami’s hip new Wynwood Art District (WAD) has entered an exciting stage of evolution, marked not just by sleek pink-and-black street banners but also a heightened sense of perception regarding the area’s most colorful con artist, Martin Siskind. Marty, as he is known in the WAD community, is currently under…
South Beach’s famous Lincoln Road promenade, with its clean sidewalks, chic designer boutiques, and smartly dressed tourists, seems a long way from the rough-and-tumble neighborhoods of Liberty City. But it is here in the offices of SoBe Entertainment, hidden away in a nondescript white office building a few doors down…
On a recent afternoon on the busy central Havana street known as La Rampa, Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo ducks into the back seat of a taxi, one of the plethora of boxy old Russian-made Ladas that careen through the Cuban capital. The pudgy driver, who barely fits into the tiny vehicle, turns…
Steve Shiver is not accustomed to sitting on the sidelines. He occupied the spotlight as a Homestead City Council member, Homestead mayor, and Miami-Dade County manager before exiting life as a public servant last June, following a flap over the county’s budget deficit. Shiver’s new endeavor casts him in a…
Men in white guayaberas starched parchment-crisp escorted women in evening gowns into the Manuel Artime Theater in Little Havana as night fell on November 15. Backstage, teenage girls twittered nervously in front of makeup mirrors, the scent of powder and hairspray floating on a chemical perfume cloud. By the end…
It’s now official: Fidel Castro had nothing to do with a decision to gut the University of Miami’s Dante B. Fascell North-South Center, a federally funded research institute that has specialized in hemispheric affairs since 1984. For months inquiring minds on and off campus have wondered if the shutdown, announced…
Have you noticed that our brash new police chief has been getting more and more surly as complaints over his handling of the Free Trade Area of the Americas protests refuse to go away? A couple of weeks ago he nearly bit off the head of Citizens Investigative Panel vice…
Hollywood is our bastardized version of Mount Olympus; like it or not, entertainers have become the demigods of our time. Once a film has gone to video or a TV series ends its run, the immortalization is left to fans who are willing to keep it alive through moments of…
