When the Zika virus hit Miami Beach last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it wasn’t even possible to spray pesticides over Miami Beach, since the buildings were too tall. But — at Gov. Rick Scott’s request — the county has changed course. Planes will start spraying…
“Got ’em on!” Mark “the Shark” Quartiano roars while his first mate stabs a shark with a gaff and hauls it out of the placid Atlantic Ocean. “In the boat, get him in the boat! Yeah, got ’em on!” Thwacking its tail and flipping over so the white of its…
Let’s be honest: Miami is a place people visit in order to have sex. Our citizens remain locked in a constant fight to expose as much skin as possible without getting arrested. All types of lifestyles canoodle in public here without reproach, young tourists wantonly stare each other down along…
Last month, an environmental supervisor at Palm Beach County mosquito control told New Times that Miami-Dade County’s 5 a.m. spraying missions for Zika mosquitoes were simply “psychological,” wouldn’t actually kill Aedes aegypti bugs, and may have just been for show. And when the Zika virus hit Miami Beach, the U.S. Centers for Disease…
As Zika has swept through Miami, residents have raged almost as much at Gov. Rick Scott as at the hated aedes aegypti mosquito. And with good reason. Scott slashed mosquito control budgets statewide then tried to blame Obama for the outbreak. And to top it off, his wife owned undisclosed…
Dear Stoner: Do marijuana allergies exist? If so, what happens if you’re allergic to marijuana and smoke it? Mick Dear Mick: Marijuana can cure many ills, but like pollen, peanuts or grass, it’s also capable of making some people swell up and turn red. According to a story in U.S…
Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco is sick of finding cigarette butts in the sand. As he strolls South Beach’s white beaches, he regularly has to stop what he’s doing to pick them up and throw them away. In fact, he once hosted a beach clean-up that netted over seven pounds…
The City of Miami Police Athletic League runs a youth football camp to help teach Miami kids the values of working hard, competing fairly, and treating people with respect. But two men claim Miami cop Stanley Jean-Poix took some time out of football practice to demonstrate a different lesson in…
Dear Stoner: What is Thai stick? Is it just an old strain of chronic from the ’70s? The Berg Dear Berg: Be ready to take notes if an old-timer ever tells you about the time he smoked a Thai stick, because it was probably crazier than any blunt you’ve ever…
Beer theft is a pretty great racket. You steal beer and then you drink it. It’s simple, it works, and even if you go to jail, your fellow inmates will probably treat you like a hero. Miami’s most feared cerveza crook saw his reign of terror end today, though. Because…
A couple after the Miami Heat won its second-straight NBA championship title in 2013, Francois Alexandre was partying in the streets alongside hundreds of other blissed out fans. Late into the night, as the crowd thinned to about 20 people, Alexandre says a group of City of Miami bicycle cops…
Mike Fernandez has not been shy about his contempt for Donald Trump. The Miami health care billionaire took out full-page ads in December calling Trump a “narcissistic BULLYionaire” and comparing him to Hitler. In July, the Cleveland Plain Dealer refused to print Fernandez’s latest ad, featuring a scorpion in a…
A lot of weird stuff happens in Florida. That, of course, is because people move here to live like free spirits — be those people tend to be teens who like to run around in dinosaur costumes holding guns, men who dance in g-string bikinis in public, or people who…
Back in May 2014, Miami-Dade Commissioner Dennis Moss put a slightly controversial item on that month’s agenda. He wanted to investigate how the medical marijuana industry might affect agriculture in the county. At the time, fellow Commissioner Javier Souto wasn’t thrilled. “This is an item that’s causing a lot of arguments…
Facebook friend requests from strangers almost always turn out to be bad news. In the best-case scenario, some weird guy from Turkmenistan insults your sister’s prom photos. In the worst-case: Someone creates a fake account, discovers hidden info about your past, and then threatens to release that information or kill you…
In Miami, journalist Lindsey Snell spent years working documentary projects like Billy Corben’s Square Grouper. The University of Florida graduate made a name for herself telling the impossible-to-invent narrative of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church’s huge marijuana-importing business. Now, Snell is living her own tale of international intrigue. In July, Snell…
Venezuela’s long economic slide under Hugo Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, has lately turned into a terrifying free fall. Hunger is so widespread that whole families have survived on nothing but mangos this summer. The luckiest get by with just one meal a day. Thousands are expected to march across…
Five years ago, as a journalism student at Florida International University, Nicole Taylor-Lang started thinking of ways to flesh out her photography portfolio. She didn’t have to look far: just a block away from her home in Greenacres, she found the first subject of what would become a years-long passion…
Why is it so hard for liberal candidates to get elected in South Florida? Tim Canova’s loss to Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District primary last night is a good place to start answering that question. Going into yesterday’s primary, Canova had quite literally everything going for him…
In Miami-Dade County, cities can’t spend money on public transportation, affordable housing, or sea-level rise preparedness without local residents stomping their feet and flooding city commission meetings to protest. But ask for six figures worth of controversial, military-grade police equipment, and South Florida cities will pretty much just hand you a…
Statewide, Florida voters mostly did themselves proud yesterday. They rejected terminal blowhards Carlos Beruff, Dan Bongino and Alan Grayson, and backed a common sense solar power amendment. Our Jacksonville friends even booted longtime Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown, who is under indictment on corruption charges. So what exactly were Republicans in southwest…
Dear Stoner: I have a metal pipe that I can unscrew and clean, and the other day I had a great idea: What if I put a nug in there to get nice and sticky after smoking a few bowls? Will it be more potent? JustBlaze Dear Blaze: Now I…
