Does John Renfrow suffer from a severely impaired memory? Or does Renfrow, director of Miami-Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM), just want people to believe his memory is shot? Either way, it wouldn’t be good news for the complex and fragile ecosystem he is supposed to be protecting…
Chris and Robin DiFranco operate a small contracting business from a worn second-story suite in North Miami. A couple of blocks from Dixie Highway, their cream-colored building is surrounded by a hodgepodge of auto-body and machine shops. The deadbolted first-floor door opens to a long flight of bare-wood steps. Their…
Every weekday morning for two years Becky Wyatt’s monotone voice radiated from thousands of South Florida clock radios tuned to WLRN-FM (91.3), repeating a condensed version of the local news. Twice an hour between 6:00 and 10:00 a.m. (during Morning Edition), she would read to public-radio fans stuck in rush-hour…
Thomas R. Spencer, Jr., sighs gently into the phone and tries again to explain what his group, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), actually does. “We’re about educating the public about what the intelligence community does and doesn’t do,” he says. Yes, I grant, but what you mainly do…
Will-Bob was cursing himself as he rustled through the flotsam of photo albums and manila files in his floating studio apartment, also known as Tigua, a 35-foot sailboat anchored a few hundred yards offshore in one of Marathon Key’s harbors. He was trying to find pictures of his and Donna’s…
Kulchur’s Top 10 of 2002 1. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 2. White Stripes, The Peel Sessions 3. Juan-Carlos Formell, Las Calles del Paraíso 4. Bob Dylan, Live 1975 5. The Screamer, Greatest Hits 6. Beck, Sea Change 7. Jay-Z, Unplugged 8. The Walkmen, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is…
With winter here, these are the glory days in Everglades National Park. Cold fronts chase the mosquitoes, alligators congregate where visitors can easily see them, and, as if on cue, anhingas and herons preen and pose to accommodate anyone toting a camera. “It is very peaceful, and so different from…
Heatseekers drummer Chuck Loose pounds away at Churchill’s on this Saturday night. Lurching into the beat, he threatens to bounce over his kit every time he hits the crash cymbal. Loose’s crazed energy washes over his bandmates and into the mishmash of punk kids and jaded scenesters crowding the stage…
Dr. Stanley Feinman is chuckling into the phone. “Sure, come on over,” he says. “Make sure your laugh meter is on. I mean, I know this is serious stuff, but thank God I’ve got a distorted sense of humor.” It is just that kind of unrepentant attitude that has put…
It’s never been a secret that Heat boss Pat Riley has anger issues. So when he melted down after a tough loss to the Knicks on December 13, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. What was surprising is what Riley said. Coach contended NBA officials were biased against his…
He’s our skinny one, and he has no idea what he’s in for. That’s part of what makes it hard. Seeing him looking so healthy, watching him swing on the monkey bars. He gets his legs going like a crooked pendulum, lets go with one hand and stretches forward, skips…
Coconut Grove is nearly unrecognizable as the charmingly seedy, artsy beach town it once was in the Sixties and Seventies. Back then, most of the irascible old guys who hang out at the Taurus now had just begun to walk upright, and drink beer legally — let alone bitch about…
On Friday night, December 13, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Dorrin Rolle pulled his Mercedes-Benz sedan into the carport of his residence in one of Liberty City’s more middle-class sections — the corner of NW 90th Street and 10th Avenue. As he left his car, according to Rolle and Miami-Dade County Police…
Twice a day, six days a week during its 6:00 a.m. and midnight newscasts, Radio Martí broadcasts the current winning Florida Lottery numbers, each slowly repeated three times. Radio Martí is the federally funded shortwave station (also heard on some AM frequencies) mandated by Congress to transmit balanced and objective…
Life is good among the dead. Just ask the red-haired man. He’s happy standing next to the body on the beach with the jagged gash in its neck. Why shouldn’t he be? He was dead himself, or almost, not too long ago. Anyone who gave him any thought at all…
The sun beams overhead and an azure Atlantic is just visible through a verdant screen of palm trees and bougainvillea bushes to the west. Lush topiary covers the east side of Ocean Boulevard as well, shrouding gated spreads that line the avenue like new wedding cakes. On days like this…
Chuck Martinez, Willy Bermello, and Peter Yanowitch, the masterminds behind the Grand Prix Americas — the three-day racing extravaganza that commandeered the streets of downtown Miami October 4-6 — have boasted that 75,000 to 100,000 people attended their event, pumping more than $28 million into the local economy via ticket,…
“Huh-lo?” mumbles Alvin Midas when he answers the phone on a recent sunny afternoon at the statewide headquarters of the group that aims to legalize pot. Midas isn’t the leader of Florida Cannabis Action Network (FLCAN). In fact he’s just the Web administrator at the office in Melbourne. But he…
One of the world’s biggest and most prestigious art fairs is splash-landing in town today, and its arrival will mean a lot to you and me. Yes, Miami has long been a convention and tourist destination, but this event’s different. Art Basel, named after the Swiss city in which it…
Don’t even think of trying to see everything in one night or day. The easiest way to get optimal sensory exposure may be to carve the county into geographical chunks. For instance, try out a southern slice on Friday. You could catch the solo show of rising star Hernan Bas…
What would happen at this stage of our war on terrorism if a group of clerics, claiming to represent all members of their ethnic community, publicly appealed for the freedom of suspects jailed for attempting to blow up the head of an evil empire? They would be blasted to the…
Guards at the Miami-Dade County Jail would seem to have enough to think about, right? After all, they are charged with watching over some of the area’s most dangerous criminals, as well as more than 300 mentally ill inmates, in what amounts to one of the state’s largest psychiatric units…
