Had a few state senators voted differently last February, Miami-Dade County would have had zero control over whether oil companies could build fracking wells on county soil. That’s because the Senate proposed a bill that would have banned local governments from regulating the controversial oil-drilling process. Critics blasted the measure, saying…
Hurricane Matthew is already a monster, packing 130 mile per hour winds as of 5 am this morning as its howling center inches north toward Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba. Those islands are bracing for catastrophe, with storm surges up to 15 feet and 40 inch deluges of rain possible. The…
After a month of infighting among Miami Beach citizens, media outlets, and Gov. Rick Scott, Miami-Dade County has finally released the areas in South Beach where mosquitoes tested positive for the Zika virus. They are as follows: 932 Lenox Ave., which tested positive August 22 1619 Meridian Ave., which tested…
Dr. Philip Stoddard, a Florida International University biologist and the mayor of South Miami, has released a study that shows definitively that Miami-Dade County’s spraying of naled, a controversial neurotoxic pesticide, is not working to combat the Zika virus in Miami Beach. Provided Stoddard’s analysis is correct, the study shows…
Is it possible? Just plain wrong? Sacrilege? You can no longer get a colada in Miami Beach in a Styrofoam cup. At David’s Cafe, the iconic Cuban restaurant at 9th and Alton that’s been a staple for more than four decades, the coffee is now served in tan-colored paper cups…
Harvard scientist Dr. Michael Callahan, one of the world’s preeminent experts on the Zika virus, has said in a video interview that aerial spraying to combat the Zika virus likely does not work to kill disease-carrying Aedes aegpyti mosquitoes. Callahan, who works at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical…
Governor Rick Scott visited the former epicenter of the Zika virus Monday morning to announce the area is now Zika-free, and that a Dine Out Wynwood day will be held September 30 to bring back business. “It’s a great day for Wynwood,” Scott said. Scott was joined by Miami Mayor…
In just over a month, naled has gone from a largely unknown pesticide to the most hotly debated issue in Miami’s fight against the Zika virus. The controversial organophosphate pesticide, which is banned in the European Union and could harm infants, has been the county’s main weapon against Zika virus-carrying…
Just after 11 a.m. today, a former Columbia University professor, who now serves as dean of Florida International University’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, stood in front of a packed crowd at Miami Beach City Hall. Opening his speech, Dr. Thomas R. Guilarte thanked everyone in attendance…
If Miami’s going to stop the spread of Zika, residents have to trust that the government knows what it’s doing. That’s why it’s all the more concerning that the Florida Department of Health last week published an outright lie in a Q&A on the virus and the pesticides being used to combat…
Miami Beach residents’ protest against the controversial anti-Zika pesticide naled is quickly morphing from a spirited public debate into an all-out ground war. In protest threads on social media, some protest organizers yesterday suggested that flying drones could intercept the county’s pesticide-spraying airplanes. Michael DeFilippi, the anti-naled organizer who raised…
If you’re living in Miami Beach right now, you’re probably wondering whether to freak out about Zika. That’s certainly understandable, and if an emergency Zika meeting yesterday proved anything, it’s that even the public officials we look to for guidance don’t have all the answers. Meant to be informational, Wednesday’s…
A rowdy crowd gathered today in Miami Beach to discuss the Zika epidemic and whether the city should spray controversial pesticides from planes to fight it. But there was an odd undercurrent to that talk: Many in the crowd insisted that the whole Zika phenomenon is overblown and that the…
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…
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…
Almost the minute the Zika virus hit Wynwood at the end of July, Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control scrambled low-flying planes into the sky. Trails of pesticides — one of them highly controversial and possibly harmful to humans — billowed from their wings on early weekday mornings, under the assumption that…
Almost 11 years later, Wilma is still Miami’s last brush with hurricane destruction. Earlier this week, a tropical wave in the Caribbean briefly looked like it might break that amazing streak. But now, forecasters say Florida’s chances of a significant hit this weekend are nearly gone. The system, which never…
With even more locally transmitted Zika cases announced this week in Wynwood and Miami Beach, officials are squabbling about who’s to blame and what we can do to end the outbreak. Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine accused Gov. Rick Scott of “blindsiding” him with news that Zika was on the…
It can be hard for non-pregnant Miamians to gauge how much they should really worry about Zika. On one hand, a new University of Florida study predicts South Florida’s outbreak should top out at 400 locally transmitted cases and end by the winter. But another new study paints an more…
