With the New Hampshire and Georgia, et cetera, behind us, and the March 10 Florida primary looming, you may find yourself stomping around in circles, bellowing (in the manner of James Earl Jones in Yellow Pages ads), “Choices! I NEED choices!” – because the choices you’ve gotten so far just…
The fight began just after dusk and within minutes the scabbed asphalt in front of Bootsy’s Grocery was standing room only, the aimless human electricity of a Saturday night in Opa-locka conducted from the housing project across 22nd Avenue into a schoolyard knot around the spectacle. Monica Dawe, a 25-year-old…
In what might be the beginning of a lengthy legal battle, a state labor judge has ruled that Bob Kunst, fired this past August from his executive post at Cure AIDS Now, is entitled to the unemployment benefits he has been collecting. On February 17 Josefa Perez, an appeals referee…
One might be tempted to think two local fire departments would be able to devote their combined energies toward the common goal of providing an indispensable public service. But during cutthroat economic times, controversies erupt in the most unlikely places, and these days union leaders representing the City of Miami…
For the past 37 years the Florida Bar has honored media organizations for “outstanding journalism aimed at increasing public understanding of the system of law and justice in America, particularly in Florida.” In Tampa this past Saturday, New Times was presented with one of four Florida Bar Media Awards for…
On the morning of February 5, moments before her umpteenth press conference, Cheryl Little received an unsettling phone call. For Little, the crusading supervising attorney at Miami’s Haitian Refugee Center, unsettling phone calls have been part of the daily grind since a September 30 military coup toppled Haiti’s fledgling democracy…
The late-October sun was still asleep as Lawrence Allen and Tania Figuerola set out for the Keys and talked about things that only lovers know. They discussed their relationship, how in a giddy seven months they had reached profound depths of intimacy usually reserved for characters in romance novels. And…
When Miami Beach commissioners interview Norman Hickey for the island’s city manager post on Tuesday, they might consider asking the San Diego County administrator whether he’s still engrossed in contemplation of the Book of Revelation and the end of the world. Back in September 1985, when Hickey was in his…
Aside from a predilection for anchovies, Denise Cruz’s pizza fetish never sparked much controversy. In fact the self-employed bookkeeper was such a loyal crust hound when she lived in north Coconut Grove that employees of the Domino’s Pizza franchise at 3740 Bird Rd. knew her by her first name. But…
With the New Hampshire primary behind us, and the March 10 Florida primary looming, you may find yourself stomping around in circles, bellowing (in the manner of James Earl Jones in Yellow Pages ads), “Choices! I NEED choices!” Because the choices you’ve gotten so far just don’t cut it. The…
The neighborhood park is a thing of verdant beauty: Manicured baseball diamonds and other athletic fields. Shaded playgrounds of swing sets and sandboxes. Unsullied green spaces, woods punctuated by nature paths, quiet lakes and ponds. Tennis and racquetball courts in private condominium complexes. Rec rooms. saunas and spas. Television lounges…
On February 1, readers of the Miami Herald learned that Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee had made a public appearance in one of Dade’s most beautiful parks. An extraordinarily public appearance. “Two Metro-Dade police officers reported finding Albee, 63, naked in Crandon Park on Jan. 19,” read the story, filed…
My good friend Zap is on the phone, telling me the monkeys are gonna whistle tonight. Naturally I believe him. I take inventory: A T-shirt, two sweatshirts, a sleeveless exercise jacket with hood, a London Fog with hood. Bandanna, hat, two pairs of socks, sneakers. Plenty of smokes. A Thermos…
Last August, on the day Bob Kunst was fired from Cure AIDS Now after a spate of allegations, audits, and front-page Miami Herald stories, an uncharacteristic silence emanated from the Miami Beach residence of the AIDS organization’s deposed executive director. Bob Kunst, the Herald reported tersely the next day, could…
Smuggling cocaine into the United States wasn’t Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta’s only business venture. According to federal agents, the pair was also heavily into the South Florida real estate market. During the past eight months, the U.S. Marshals Service has seized more than $16 million in property they say…
It was a day for redemption, a chance to win back a little respect after years of embarrassment. Everyone wanted to be in on the arrest of Willy and Sal, to be able to say they’d been there when the legend died. So on a rainy afternoon last…
Crack all the jokes you want about household engineering and inefficient repairmen, but Irving Spiegel isn’t laughing. For three years, he and his employees at Mirror Poster Printing in downtown Miami waded through shoelace-deep effluent while a procession of bumbling Metro-Dade and private plumbers continually unclogged their commodes. The problem…
Today Danny Donovan is a wealthy man. To begin with, the 30-year-old handyman is about to receive $2.2 million in cash. After that he’ll receive $20,000 per month for the rest of his life, plus an extra $50,000 every five years. All of it is tax-free. But he’ll probably never…
The relatively new and still evolving retail used-CD business is sending a capitalist shiver through the old-style marketeers, sparking debate, not to mention outrage, in the boardrooms of major record labels, distributors, and retailers. A used compact disc often costs less off the shelf than a new one costs wholesale…
In the dimly lighted courtyard of the Bayside Motor Inn on Biscayne Boulevard, newly arrived Haitian refugees cluster in doorways and against walls, speaking softly in Creole. Mona Coicou wanders through the shadows from room to room, looking for her sister, once a judge in Port-au-Prince. “I spoke to her…
By the time accounts of Paula Redo’s arrest hit the evening news, acquaintances, even friends, had trouble recognizing the 29-year-old Lauderhill woman. Her cheeks bruised and purple, one eye puffed into a grim wink, Redo’s face reflected the fate of a boxer with too strong a chin. As did her…
Si Ayiti pa fore, ou jwenn tout bet ladan-l If Haiti isn’t a jungle, why then all these beasts? – from “Ayiti pa fore” (“Haiti Is Not a Forest”) by Manno Charlemagne Under the pinkish lights, Manno Charlemagne’s features looked exaggerated. Somehow too real, fans would later say, his stubborn…
