The Oscar nominations came out this morning. There were some surprises, but as virtually everyone expected, Mickey Rourke got a nod for best lead actor for his role in The Wrestler. What started as a local hook for covering awards-show nonsense has turned into quite a saga detailing Rourke’s strange…
For the past 30 years or so, Miami newspapers have prepared for Fidel Castro’s death. Soon after I arrived at the Herald in 1989, I updated a lengthy obituary of the Cuban dictator that was kept on file at the newspaper. Even then, the article’s author, Guy Gugliotta, had left…
Oh, wait. Castro’s views of Obama were divulged to the press. He doesn’t doubt Obama’s honesty. [NBC6]R.I.P., Claudine Ryce, Jimmy’s mum. [Herald]The county wants to text you anytime there’s a hit and run. [CBS4]Charlie Crist is ready to veto the hell out of the budget cuts passed by Congress. [CBS4]The…
Until recently, millionaire philanthropist Michael Bienes was the toast of South Florida, a man who threw lavish parties and fundraisers at his $7 million estate on the Intracoastal Waterway, where he seemed a mixture of Gatsby and Meyer Wolfsheim. Now sources say he is a ruined man, so anguished that…
With last week’s agreed cease-fire in Gaza, there’s temporary peace in the Middle East. But in Miami, another battle is boiling. This past week, the Florida branch of ANSWER (Act Now to End War and Stop Racism) launched a campaign to get Miami Police to drop the felony battery charges…
On a sun-blasted Tuesday morning in the last weeks of 2008, four people pedal camouflage-painted bikes toward NW 61st Street and 13th Place, one of the busiest intersections for Liberty City’s booming drug trade. Donald Vamper, a jovial 46-year-old wearing a camo bandanna Tupac-style; his cornrow-tressed wife Sylvia; and Chris…
“Let us realize that history has thrust upon us an indescribably important destiny — to complete a process of democratization which our nation has developed too slowly, but which is our most powerful weapon for world respect.” This might have come from Barack Obama’s Tuesday inaugural address. It didn’t. America’s…
Royal Castle is back. You know, the tiny hamburger smothered with onions that you dreamed about after, well, a little glowing preparation. The one you could buy anywhere in Dade County from the 1950s till 1977. Arnold’s Royal Castle, the tiny restaurant on the corner of NW Seventh Avenue and…
Riptide doesn’t understand why school boards always seem to be so scandalous (the one I graduated from has dealt with the suicide of a former pedophile board member, the forced ousting of a popular superintendent, a principal who used to his school email account to send dirt fantasies about motorcycle…
Peronist Argentine President Cristina Kirchner had a face-to-face chit chat with Fidel Castro today, and told the Government’s press agency that Castro seems to be in good health. This conflicts with recent front page news that Castro is near death. She also reports that Castro watched Obama’s swearing-in ceremony. Kirchner…
Damon Weaver, the ten year old journalism superstar, snagged VIP tickets to the inauguration yesterday, but was held up in the security line and missed the main event, reports CBS4. Is the Obama administration trying to censor the most trusted name in news? Quite possibly. Why won’t Obama sit down…
In his inaugural speech yesterday, Barack Obama declared that “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals”- a statement Riptide felt spoke directly to the future of Guantanamo Bay, a place where due process and human rights laws have been kicked aside in the name of…
Albert Andre Zimmerman used to have a sweet gig being the mouthpiece for Florida’s Department of Children and Families, the department charged with the well being of kids. That was until he was indicted for producing child pornography back in February, 2008, and yesterday he pleaded guilty to the charges…
About a year ago, Mickey Rourke was just one of those quirky local fixtures, hosting karaoke nights at Rok Bar and getting arrested for drunk scooter driving. He was another has-been, which are about a dime a dozen around here, but thanks to the weird forces of fate, Rourke is once…
Riptide has this theory that if you stay in Miami long enough, something in the air infuses with your DNA, rendering you a horrible, miserable driver. Well, either the curious case of Pablo Benitez throws a cog in our little theory, or he’s the exception that proves the rule. Benitez,…
It’s not often that Republican reps Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balarts must be happy about announcements of new Democratic leadership, but the buzz today that congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be elected vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee must have them smiling. As co-chair of the Democratic Party’s Red to Blue congressional campaign…
Charlie Crist is still enjoying a quite enviable approval rating, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, with 65 percent of Floridians approving of his job performance. That’s about the percentage President Obama is getting in nationwide polls. Meanwhile, of all the names being thrown around for the 2010 Senate election, only…
President Obama found time to call up Gitmo and say, “Yo, can we just chill for a minute?” and all proceedings were instantly frozen. [Herald]Police finally caught this horrible baby-punching would-be car thief. [NBC6]Here are all sorts of pictures from the inaugural balls. Do we like Michelle’s dress? Do we…
You might remember Wayne Huizenga’s pre-election whining about how he wanted to sell of his remaining stake in the Miami Dolphins before our new socialist dictator can personally tax the hell out of him. “He wants to double the capital gains tax, or almost double it. I’d rather give it…
As Barack Obama momentarily studied his massive audience before launching into his poetic and bold inaugural speech, an unrestrainable middle-age man next to Riptide on the Capitol lawn seating area yelled out, “This is the moment!”That summed it up pretty well. This weekend in D.C. has been a raucous runup…
Connie Mack IV represents Florida’s 14th congressional district in Southwest Florida. He recently celebrated his first year of wedded bliss to California congresswoman Mary Bono (Sonny’s non-Cher wife), but the two don’t really split their time between Florida and California, instead raising their family primarily from their house in northern…
The last thing in the world Riptide wants to do is step on the feet of Rick at South Florida Daily Blog, but we have a corporate mandate to do some sort of weekly roundup of local blogs. Not that we don’t love acknowledging Miami’s many fine bloggers, but we’re…
