Updated: Ringling Bros. Elephant Injures Trainer

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is reporting that an elephant named P.T. attacked Ringling Bros. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey trainer Joe Frisco Jr. while the circus was at Miami’s America Airlines Arena on January 7. Ringling Bros. issued a statement Wednesday stating the Frisco “received…

Dolphins Coaching Search is a “Four-Horse Race”

The Sun-Sentinel and ESPN say the Dolphins coaching search is now a “four-horse race”: “The Dolphins’ search for a coach has apparently turned into a four-horse race, with Cowboys assistant head coach Tony Sparano leading the pack with a few strides to the finish line… they met with Titans defensive…

World of Warcraft Sucks You Back in with Patch

So by now most gamers (and actually most of the world) are acquainted with World of Warcraft and the subsequent expansion Burning Crusade. The game has about 9 million subscribers if Blizzard’s ads are to be believed. That’s the entire population of North Carolina. Back in November 2007, Blizzard released…

Anyone But This Guy

Here’s a rumor that made the rounds over the weekend and simply refuses to die: “People close to former Vikings coach Mike Tice insist he will be named the Dolphins’ head coach next week…” I’m all about trusting Bill Parcells with this team and letting him do his thing. But…

Pretty in the City – Review Arcayne Salon

Miami is filled with beautiful people. It’s true – there’s no short supply of bronzed, beautiful bodies on any local beach. It seems that everywhere you look, there are men with chiseled jaw lines, wearing slightly sheer black cotton shirts, or picture-perfect model types sashaying down our palm tree-lined streets…

Timoney Challenges Investigative Panel’s Authority

Two hours before Miami Police Chief John Timoney was slated to answer questions today about his use of a free Lexus, a citizens group learned he would be a no-show. Just last week, a circuit judge ordered the top-cop to comply with the Miami Civilian Investigative Panel’s subpoenas to testify…

Herald Continues to Skirt the Truth in Reporting on PAC

Today the Miami Herald reinforced my belief in David Simon and why so many of my brethern, us ink-stained newspaper journalists, become so bitter and disenfranchised with our profession. It was the front page story about philanthropist Adrienne Arsht’s $30 million gift to the performing arts center, Miami’s monument to…

Dolphins to Interview Schwartz

The Dolphins are set to interview Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz for the head-coaching job on Monday. Or not. Things aren’t looking so hot for Dallas heading into this weekend’s divisional playoff matchup against the Giants. Tony Sparano’s got one foot out the door, Jason Garrett’s wanted by other teams,…

Escopazzo Going Greener

“I’ve taken it in steps,” says Giancarla Bodoni, chef and co-owner (with husband Pino) of Escopazzo Organic Italian Restaurant in South Beach. As I noted in my recent review, Escopazzo uses all organic produce and dairy, no farmed fish, and meats that come from animals that have been raised humanely…

Weekly News Wrap – Seminole Gambling, Michigan, The FBI and more

1. Stronger Security for Driver’s Licenses – An initiative put forth by the Department of Homeland Security will require that all Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964 get new more secure driver’s licenses. The plan will allow state governments to share information about the person. 2. Seminole Tribe Pays Millions…

Miami Radio Host Wins Release of Cuban Refugees

Radio host Javier Ceriani (left) is trying to secure the release of Armando Pinero (center), an Cuban refugee being held in a Mexican immigration facility in Chetumal. It looks like another Che is having a big impact on the Cuban community – but not for his affiliation to Fidel Castro…

Shocking News Break: Brian Gaine Quits Cowboys

As reported here on Tuesday, Bill Parcells was trying to get Dallas Cowboys assistant director of pro scouting Brian Gaine to come join the other Dallas Cowboys here in Miami. It was even okayed by Jerry Jones. The NFL, not so much. Mainly because of some rule saying you can’t…

The Mile-High Snub

“Celebrity chefs bring plane food to new heights” blared the business section headline in Saturday’s Miami Herald. Charlie Trotter, Todd English, and our own Michelle Bernstein are highlighted in the article as pioneers of haute in-flight cuisine — and also as harbingers of “the airline industry’s economic revival”. Indeed, the…

Sick of Sicko?

Katherine Hirschfeld was enjoying Sicko, the documentary about the trials of uninsured Americans, until Michael Moore headed to Cuba. “I thought, ‘Oh no.’ It’s such a romanticized view,” says Hirschfeld, an Oklahoma professor who recently published a comprehensive book on Cuban health care. “It’s just repeating Cuban government propaganda…That, in…

Cheap Eats: Nice Mon

Where: Nice Mon. 19695 NW 2nd Ave, Miami. What $15 Gets You: Jerk chicken meal, Jamaican beef patty, a drink. As I was traveling down Northwest Second Avenue one day, I noticed this green roofed building with a big yellow sign in front that said Nice Mon: Jamaican Restaurant and…

The Deadly Road Through Mexico

Early in the day this past July 19, Luis Lázaro Lara Morejón left his sunny oceanside room at the Solymar hotel in Cancún to buy groceries at a small market nearby. The tall, heavy-set 30-year-old Cuban exile from Miami was accompanied by his pretty, young Mexican girlfriend, María Elena Carrillo…

Miami’s Top Cop Breaks the Law

For almost a month, Miami Police Chief John Timoney has ignored the rules of the city he oversees. First a citizens’ panel and then a circuit court judge ordered him to fork over hundreds of pages of records related to a city probe into his free use of a Lexus…

A Movie Guy’s Lies

Bryan Abboud was dining among the stars that weekend in July 2006. There were last-minute reservations at celeb-heavy Spago Beverly Hills. Chef Wolfgang Puck even passed by their table. Names like Anna Nicole Smith, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and French bombshell Lydie Denier swirled around his dinner companion, movie producer David…

Danger in the Redland

In 1994, Rey Rubio and his pretty Puerto Rican wife Josefina bought a one-bedroom, one-bathroom shack at 19110 SW 128 Ct. in the Redland for $57,000. Since then, the couple has methodically transformed it into a three-bedroom, two-bathroom family spread accented with a beautiful stone-paved circular driveway. “The original structure…

Dolphin Dies at Miami Seaquarium

April, the oldest dolphin at the Miami Seaquarium, and a resident of the park since 1970, died Tuesday morning. April was an Atlantic Bottlenose dolphin in her early forties. She had three offspring, Noel, Sky and Croix and four grandchildren, Denise, Aries, Rioux and Balboa. A necropsy will be performed…