Since arriving as Miami Beach’s new police chief in 2014, Dan Oates has mostly steered clear of the scandals that plagued his predecessors in the high-profile department, the odd off-duty pay raise and fatal shooting during Art Basel aside. Back in Aurora, Colorado, though, where Oates spent nearly a decade…
12,000 people — about one in eight inmates — are currently being held in solitary confinement in Florida state prisons according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The organization, along with a coalition of civil rights organizations, faith leaders and advocates for the mentally ill, is now calling on the U.S…
South Florida and Miami in particularly has worked hard to shed its image as America’s (or at least New York’s) retirement home. Nope, this is no longer supposed to be the land of bubbes suntanning in bathing caps and old men hitting up the golf course. This is supposed to…
At last night’s GOP debate at the University of Miami, moderator Jack Tapper posed a question that came from none other than Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, a Republican who has endorsed Marco Rubio, to Rubio himself. The topic was climate change. It was a pretty simple question: “Climate change means…
David Rivera is the absolute last name Marco Rubio wanted to see in headlines four days before the biggest election of his life. Because whenever the former U.S. representative and longtime Rubio buddy makes the news, it’s for increasingly sordid allegations and federal investigations. Today is no different. Rivera is…
Growing up in Palmetto Bay, 26-year-old Nick Katz might never have met his childhood best friends if it hadn’t been for skateboarding. He was a Jewish kid who lived in a nice home next to Biscayne Bay. The guys he skated with were young Jamaican dudes from West Perrine. “The…
A lot of weird things happen in Florida every week, and on Fridays we’re here to bring you the weirdest. This week: 20 kilos of coke wash up on a beach, a drunk, pants-less woman who crashed into a Waffle House scores a Florida bingo, and two siblings who stole…
Ask anyone a year ago who they’d think would win the Republican primary in Florida and they probably would have told you either our Florida former Governor Jeb Bush or current Senator Marco Rubio. Both are home-state boys, and both looked like they were gearing up for well-funded, serious runs…
Trevor Darling and Jahair Jones, two offensive lineman for the University of Miami Hurricanes, found themselves behind bars last night for the dumbest reason. The pair were basically standing in the middle of the road, and were arrested after refusing orders by police to get out of the road several…
Florida Republican lawmakers have been chipping away at abortion rights for years, but yesterday the Florida legislature passed its most sweeping anti-abortion law to date. The bill is now headed to Governor Rick Scott’s desk, but significant parts of the law may be struck down by the Supreme Court by…
One of Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s most persistent tics is to start yelling, “Jobs!” over and over whenever he’s pressed with a tough question. This is the same guy, after all, who once pleaded the Fifth more than 500 times in a deposition. He’s an Olympic-level non-answerer, and most interviewers…
Fifty-one years ago this week, Alabama state troopers attacked a group of peaceful civil rights marchers on a bridge outside of Selma, Alabama. Now more than a half century later, that era’s bigotry is once again bubbling to the surface as Donald Trump transforms his campaign events into something resembling Deep South…
For three weeks, a self professed “animal rights warrior” named Danielle Daals has been living in a bathtub in front of the Miami Seaquarium to protest the marine park’s captivity of cetaceans, including Lolita the orca. Jeff Geragi, the president of the Miami-based Animal Activists Network, whose members helped plan…
Another day in Miami, another occasion to bitch about traffic. In Brickell, it’s so bad that even the valet parkers say their tips have been cut in half because the roads are so congested the cars can’t even get to a damn valet station. One brave Miamian has a public…
The two biggest stories in Miami right now and for the foreseeable future: the looming threat of sea-level rise and the gentrification and development of formerly working class ethnic neighborhoods and the dearth of affordable housing. Nothing else poses bigger problems to our city’s future, and both stories have been…
Last night, Bernie Sanders managed to pull a historical upset against Hillary Clinton in the Michigan Primary but to capture the nomination he’ll have to pull off a few more of those magical upsets. A strong showing in Florida, the state with the fourth most Democratic delegates, next week would…
It’s finally official. Cameras are coming to the bodies of Miami-Dade’s cops. Three-and-a-half years after the idea was initially proposed, the Miami-Dade County Commission has voted to approve a program to equip county officers with body cameras. “With today’s approval, approximately 1,000 Miami-Dade police officers will be equipped with body-worn…
Last month, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine asked the state ethics board for guidance on a slippery question: Could he vote on a new mega-condo project on Purdy Avenue even though he owns property next door? Although critics said the mayor’s own investments might get a significant boost from the…
Not many saw this coming. Not when the Heat lost Chris Bosh for the season. Not when Dwyane Wade was ruled out for a pair of games after the All Star break. Not when Hassan Whiteside seemed to be regressing after another suspension. Not when Luol Deng looked washed. But…
There is nothing worse about partying in Miami than running into the tourist who is just a little too excited to be partying in Miami and has lost all possible chill because of it. You know exactly what we’re talking about, but in case you don’t, well, Cuba Gooding Jr…
Miami may be a diverse and vibrant metropolis, but that doesn’t mean that we’re known for being exactly political correct. In fact, a recent analysis of derogatory language used on Twitter finds that Miami is one of the top cities for Tweets that include sexist, transphobic and anti-Hispanic language. To…
As Florida Power and Light finalized plans to expand its nuclear reactors at Turkey Point three years ago, critics were aghast. The nuclear plant already sits at a environmentally fragile spot and upping the power production would seriously threaten the ecosystem, they argued. Turns out they were right. This morning,…
