Info: Rabbi with a Cause For Loring Frank, South Florida’s freewheeling rabbi of the people, Judaism is all about inclusion By Ray Martinez Is he or isn’t he? The question of whether Loring Jethro Frank is a legitimate rabbi has lingered for ten years in South Florida’s rabbinical community, with…
Less than four years after persuading Dade County and the city of Homestead to spend upwards of $60 million in tax dollars on a giant motorsports complex in South Dade, the operators of the facility are quietly negotiating the sale of their lease — a deal that would allow them…
A Cuban rafter sits on a bed in a darkened room, legs tightly crossed and arms folded together in a position that is almost fetal. He is leaving the next day. “When dreams can’t go forward, they fall into the past forever,” he explains to an unseen video journalist. “And…
Millions in taxes,” Coral Gables Development Director Catherine Swanson intoned to the darkened room in the basement of police headquarters. Her slide projector clicked, and her audience, seated around the projector in a loose horseshoe of chairs, was treated to an illuminated chart. Another click: a slide that touted two…
At the 47th annual Green Eyeshade Awards last Saturday in Atlanta, New Times staff writer Judy Cantor won first place honors for criticism in the print division, in competition with other weeklies and monthlies. The contest, which recognized the best work published in 1996, is open to all media in…
Linum arenicola, commonly called sand flax, is a frail sprig that stands about eight inches tall and sports a tiny bright-yellow five-petaled flower. Despite its unassuming appearance and the fact that it has no known practical uses (unlike its cousin Linum usitatissimum, from which linen, linseed oil, and linoleum are…
Architect Jorge Espinel has a number of visions for Miami’s downtown waterfront. Or at least for what’s left of it. As with all idealized visions, Espinel’s pay little heed to obstacles — political, financial, or otherwise. If they seem fanciful in that regard, they nonetheless strive to accomplish a very…
Deputy City Manager Sergio Rodriguez cuts a smart figure at Miami Beach City Commission meetings. A silver-haired architect who favors trim dark suits and speaks with a refined Cuban accent, he presents an elegant contrast to the flamboyant, bow-tied Mayor Seymour Gelber and the motley crew of commissioners with whom…
So you thought that barbecue you held last weekend was a blast? Check out these eyewitness testimonials to a recent shindig on Miami Beach: “… animal farm …” “… unrestrained licentious behavior …” “… For hours people were hanging out, eating, drinking, and CHANGING THEIR CLOTHING in front of the…
Danielle Romer doesn’t normally speak on the air, but this Saturday evening Yves Fontaine, the regular host of the Creole-language talk show she produces on WKAT-AM (1360), is indisposed. So she finds herself sitting at the control board with a mike and a telephone. Her too-big earphones are uncomfortable, and…
We’re having a few technical problems with the sound equipment, so the music will be starting a little late,” announces an apologetic voice over the public address system, penetrating the early-afternoon quiet in this heavily wooded corner on the grounds of the Ives Estates Optimist Club in North Dade. The…
The arena is Bagels & Lox restaurant, a strip-mall deli in Lauderhill. The league is the weekly breakfast meeting of the Basketball Fraternity, a long-standing local fellowship of retirees, most of whom played college or pro ball during the game’s infancy. The contest is trivia. And Jack Shaber, Mr. Basketball,…
The beach at Virginia Key has always been a home to outcasts. When Muhammad Ali trained in Miami in the 1960s, he swam there because it was the only place blacks were permitted. Since desegregation, the beach has been an on-again, off-again favorite of gays and nudists. A generation of…
During a recent tour of the Miami River, Dade County’s chief biologist Susan Markley reported a highly unusual sighting. “Look!” she said, sounding alarmed. “There’s a guy in the water. Over there.” Indeed, just east of the NW Fifth Street bridge, a shirtless man was sitting quietly in the shallows…
Cuba is a place of legends. Some are as open and public as a billboard. Others are whispered with a guardedness normally reserved for state secrets. Here is one of the latter: Shortly after the triumph of the revolution, agents from Castro’s government dug a huge hole in the ground…
A press conference on the steps of Hialeah City Hall. An angry citizen railing against the mayor. Nothing remarkable in a town that has historically raised political intrigue to spectacular heights. But this press conference is unique even for Hialeah. Here under the palms on March 10, a journalist in…
For the past few years, attorneys have been wrestling over the fate of Coco’s Lounge, a nightclub in north-central Dade. Oddly, though, none of the principal lawyers in the matter has been there after dusk to see the place in, er, full swing. If they dared, they might behold something…
One evening in early December, journalist Jose Rivero Garcia left the office of CubaPress in Central Havana and hailed a cab to take him to his home in Alamar, a crowded suburb on the eastern outskirts of the city. The driver, who regularly traveled that route, was in a sour…
It’s not always easy being Miriam Alonso’s son-in-law. Just ask Kevin Miles: While Alonso was a Miami city commissioner, Miles was appointed director of the city’s International Trade Board. But after Alonso failed in her bid to become the city’s mayor in November 1993, Miles found himself out on the…
Pedro Blanco can relate to Anthony T. Rossi, the founder of the Tropicana orange juice company. Rossi immigrated to Florida from Italy, penniless, with a burning desire to succeed in business. Through hard work, his original fruit packing and gift box company grew into the world’s largest producer of fresh…
Winston Noe Curtis always wanted to learn about law enforcement. And for the past seven months the 24-year-old Nicaraguan immigrant, whose goal is to become a police officer, has been getting an education in the vagaries of Dade’s legal system — albeit a very slow one. Last August 2, Curtis…
Some people on the Miami River call the Rex Bear the voodoo ship. A 40-year-old steel-hull freighter, it glided up from Cap-Haitien, Haiti, in 1990 and never left. Over the past seven years, it has become a wandering ghost haunting the river, unable to find refuge. Just recently, on the…
