Evan Ross is a little-known but well-connected lobbyist in Miami-Dade County. He’s also fairly active within the Miami-Dade Democratic Party: He’s the former chair of the Miami-Dade Young Democrats and is now a precinct captain within the local party. He’s used to operating behind the scenes and keeping a low profile in the local press.
High above a leafy Westchester neighborhood, a helicopter full of federal agents zeroes in on a gated house with a red-tiled roof. On the ground, a Homeland Security SWAT team surrounds the ranch-style home on a dead-end street off the Palmetto Expressway. Scores of agents in body armor crouch nearby,…
We’ve been doing this for 20 straight years, Miami – you’d think by now we’d have gotten it into our heads that shooting a gun into the air to celebrate big holidays is a very poor life choice. But apparently, this is still a problem large enough that Miami-Dade officials have to gather in a park with big posters of Pitbull to reinforce the message.
Data shows Florida’s Stand Your Ground law is awful. The rule lets you kill anyone you want in self-defense, even if you’re the person who started a fight. In the years since the law went into effect, the state’s murder rate has shot up dramatically. The law has been used to exonerate…
One day in spring 2013, a 15-year-old girl didn’t show up for classes at Miami Jackson Senior High. Her parents sought help from someone who seemed trustworthy: a police officer named Juan Cecchinelli who worked at the school. The next day, the teen returned home and confided in Cecchinelli that she’d been sexually assaulted after running away.
When the weather in this town is just right, the sunbeams stretch down and light up the hard, oiled bodies sunning themselves on the beach, those glistening men and women eyeing one another voraciously along the surf. It’s like the appetizer for a nighttime buffet. Later on, a throng of …
Well, 2017 is officially halfway over — and when it comes to crime news, Miami always crams more insanity into six months than most cities do in a year. This year has been no different: We’ve been subjected to a handful of criminal plots that could each form the basis of a true-crime Netflix series.
These days, #Resisting Trump apparently encompasses a really broad spectrum of activities. On one hand, you’ve got your labor activists fighting for living wages, housing advocates battling for affordable homes, and a growing base of voters in both parties calling their representatives and asking them to institute single-payer healthcare. On…
A major study released this month warned that fetuses and babies who come in contact with naled, the hotly debated organophosphate pesticide Miami-Dade County uses to kill mosquitoes, could actually develop motor-skill issues as they get older. The study adds to the growing pile of research that suggests organophosphate pesticide exposure…
Jose Ferrer, a 46-year-old security guard at Miami International Airport, had to make a choice when his joint pain became too much for medication: either get a blood test or an MRI scan on his hands and knees. His insurance plan covers only one blood test a year, though, and he’d have to pay more than $500 out of pocket for the additional MRIs, a luxury he couldn’t afford.
Across the nation, voters have asked for civilian-led police advisory panels, which review complaints about police separately from departments themselves. There’s a simple reason: Internal affairs officers often act to shield problem cops from discipline, while civilian-led panels can act independently to weed out bad cops.
The idea of jumping on a bike in Miami is so inherently un-Miami that the thought alone is enough to make most people shudder. In addition to dodging construction sites and potholes, there’s the fact that the blistering heat and oppressive humidity might turn you into a puddle, Alex Mack-style.
An old white man with forearm tattoos and gold hoop earrings stands at the front entrance of a condo in St. Petersburg. He’s got a cigarette in one hand and a solo cup in the other. With the growl of Kodak Black behind him, he rocks to the light percussion…
Last summer, the Broward Sheriff’s deputy who’d killed Jermaine McBean — a computer tech who was carrying an unloaded air rifle — tried something that had never been done before in Florida: He asked for a Stand Your Ground hearing. The bet paid off. In late July, a Broward circuit judge dismissed the manslaughter charge, leading to protests and pushback.
Memorial Day weekend in Miami Beach this year spawned two scandals over casually racist politicians. City Commissioner Michael Grieco, who is running an embattled campaign for mayor, demanded the city cancel Urban Beach Week, the city’s largest celebration centered on black tourists, after two people were shot this year, including one killed by cops.
Miami-Dade County’s median income — a scant $44,000 — is remarkably low compared to virtually every other city of its size. This creates a whole host of problems for local and longtime residents. International billionaires jack up the city’s property values, inflating rental prices and forcing Miamians to either leave town or spend the highest share of their income on rent compared to residents of any other American city.
After six years of screaming about repealing Obamacare, the GOP hilariously fell on its face this week. There are a multitude of reasons Sen. Mitch McConnell shockingly delayed a vote on the American Health Care Act: the gaping schism between conservative Republicans who want to slash all spending…
Almost a year ago, the Florida Department of Health announced Wynwood was ground zero for Zika, the only place in the United States where the virus was being spread by mosquitoes. Soon after, the CDC began telling pregnant women to avoid traveling to the area, and a kind of panic hit local streets.
With rents and housing prices soaring ever higher across Miami-Dade County, how do locals afford to live here? New Times set out to find out by talking to Miamians with varying income levels about how they make life in South Florida work for them. This is the first story in a series.
A Miami Herald series earlier this year showed that Miami Beach’s luxury hotels — built for real-estate magnates, international billionaires, pro athletes, and reality stars — are staffed by low-earning housekeepers who can’t afford rent on the Beach and are forced to spend hours riding buses every day. The state minimum wage, capped at $8.15 per hour, has not kept up with the city’s luxury-level rents, and living a humane distance from work is virtually impossible.
Two men casually wandered through Dolphin Mall earlier this month, past the teenage shoppers and kiosks hawking watches, and headed for a quiet bathroom. One man gripped an envelope stuffed with $10,000 in cash. The other waited for a handoff in a stall. And lurking in disguise nearby, federal agents watched it all go down.
In a Facebook Live session with his constituents last week, Sen. Marco Rubio laid out the things he wanted to see in the U.S. Senate’s then-secret Obamacare repeal package. He listed four criteria that would push him to vote in favor of the plan: Whether it protected people with preexisting conditions…
