Wayman Adkins, a black businessman, is quite popular these days. As president and owner of Consolidated Techniques, Inc., a small construction firm in Hialeah, Adkins has been wooed by some white-owned firms eager to have him join them in their bids for county government contracts. Rivalry over his services, though,…
Joe’s Stone Crab, that hub of Miami Beach hubbub, was crackling with more excitement than usual this past June 16, the opening night of Thomas Kramer’s six-day South Pointe charrette. At his own expense, the German millionaire had brought together ten architectural firms from around the world to create a…
The press conference was scheduled for a small room in the Rayburn Building, one of several office complexes occupied by members of Congress. Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, called the gathering late last month to announce his intention of introducing a new bill that would end the embargo…
Life in prison has not been easy for Frank Fuster, the Cuban immigrant convicted of sexually abusing at least eight children at a day-care center in South Dade’s Country Walk housing development. In 1985 he was sentenced to six life terms. He has been the target of routine attacks ever…
The Dade State Attorney’s Office confirmed late last week it will join the City of Miami in investigating allegations against Assistant City Manager Herbert J. Bailey. “We have been asked to look into matters of conflict of interest and nondisclosure,” says the prosecutor assigned to the case, David Maer, who…
I am pathological about the Golden State Warriors. For those who don’t know, the Warriors are the NBA franchise that plays in Oakland. They wear blue and gold and, as a rule, they disappoint me. Two seasons ago, when they lost to the Seattle SuperSonics in the first round of…
I saw the Rolling Stones in concert once, back in the (gulp) late Seventies. Those were the days of marathon mini-festivals staged in acoustic hell-holes like bazillion-seat Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Opening acts Tower of Power and the J. Geils Band tore it up from just after noon until right around…
As the blues community celebrates the ascension of a new guitar hero in Dave Hole, it also mourns the passing of another. “Albert Collins,” says Hole, “was a major, major performer. There have been some who have been so influential — Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Albert King. And…
In October 1991, the Miami City Commission handed out a half-million dollars and started a small war. The fight erupted over how to improve a few blocks of deteriorated property on the northeast side. As happens with many of the city’s best intentions, political combat quickly replaced constructive action. Today…
Perhaps no one really believed the issue would lie dormant for long. Too much politics, too many passions. Indeed, the heated debate surrounding a new public law school in Florida — whether one is needed, where it should be located, and who ought to run it — energized the state…
If there was one place Simon Steckel didn’t want to be last Wednesday morning, it was Courtroom 3-2 of the Metropolitan Justice Building, where Dade County Circuit Court Judge Paul Siegel had convened a hearing to shed a ray of judicial light on a matter the Coral Gables attorney would…
Fear and temerity commingle in the voice of Alex Daoud, phoning the New Times offices to announce that he is finally on his way to prison. “Hey buddy, I’m in South Carolina, heading into Estill,” he barks into a mobile speaker phone, in the manner of a radio correspondent filing…
Two guys you might never expect to find in the same place at the same time — a skinny, balding white fellow in preppy shorts and sandals and a heavyset black man in grease-stained blue work pants and a grimy T-shirt stretched taut over his considerable girth A are staring…
Amid the usual cacophony of midday airport sounds, passengers who happened to have heard the explosion probably didn’t think much of it. A brief roar off in the distance barely intruding on the aural blur of arrival information and public announcements, crying children, vehicles loading and unloading travelers. Perhaps the…
This past September brought bleak news to the parents, students, and teachers at a northeast Dade grade school. Rumor had it that an Oak Grove Elementary staffer had walked off with thousands of dollars in school funds, necessitating a drastic cutback in supplies and the cancellation of all field trips…
Why would the Dade County Commission approve a two-million-dollar contract for undercover cop cars that: A) actually caused police to ration their undercover vehicles? B) subverted the county’s standard bid procedures?, and C) left the county embroiled in a nasty lawsuit? Well, son, as your father used to say, it’s…
As anyone who works there knows, the Juvenile Justice Center is a locale in dire need of distractions. Morale at the cozy complex of courtrooms on NW 33rd Street is running low these days, thanks to a rash of highly publicized crimes against tourists. While prosecutors ship more and more…
It looked like the beginning of the end for Temple Beth El. Here it was, the first night of the Jewish High Holidays in September, and the temple’s last-ditch appeal for new members in the North Bay Village News seemed to have fallen rather flat. “Dig deep into your hearts…
Earlier this year Octavio Visiedo and I exchanged thank-you notes. Mine was more than a little disingenuous. I suspect his was, too. Visiedo, of course, is superintendent of the Dade County Public Schools. I’m a parent of a child at Springview Elementary, about a mile north of Miami International Airport…
Lionel Goldbart is an unlikely hero. Working the Lotto hardware at Art Barker’s News on a Saturday afternoon, he’s somewhat forgettable in his worn T-shirt and shorts buoyed by suspenders, stubbly of chin and thinned out on top, bespectacled, round and a little bit droopy. To anybody who asks, he…
As Metro commission meetings go, this one was running relatively smoothly. Commissioners had agreed to ask voters to consider a new property tax, with the money to be earmarked to fight juvenile crime. They passed an anti-graffiti ordinance and a measure urging the federal government to build a new commissary…
Yosemite Valley, California, September 25: During a weekend layover in San Francisco, Gersten found time for some adventure at Yosemite’s famed Half Dome. Park rangers briefly detained him for climbing without a permit. Bristol, England, October 11: Billing himself “Joey the Magnificent,” Gersten joined his cousin Gertrude for several days…
