A lot has changed since the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) embarked on a legal jihad against the City of Miami on behalf of 5000 vagrants in 1988. Senior U.S. District Court Judge C. Clyde Atkins, whose ruling in Pottinger v. Miami created a national stir, has died. So have…
In the evening of October 9, more than 3000 determined music lovers defied a bitter, expletive-ranting, bottle-throwing gauntlet of protesters to enter the Miami Arena. After spending a few hours getting down with Cuba’s most popular band, Los Van Van, concertgoers faced the same treatment while exiting. The toxic brew…
Think things have been tough for former United Nations ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick lately, what with soul sister Elizabeth Dole dropping from the presidential race? Consider the problems of Kirkpatrick’s son, John, a Miami lawyer. The Florida Bar recently suspended junior for three months after he improperly withdrew $9535 from client…
Many people say that Ricky Martin’s crazed career was never going to get any better than on the night of February 24, 1999, when his electrifying performance at the Grammy Awards jolted Anglo America out of its indifference to barely Latin pop music. Others say the pinnacle was achieved on…
There is a certain type of drug trafficker who doesn’t fit the popular image. These dealers aren’t rich and don’t live large. They’re underground outlaws who usually look more bedraggled than menacing. They are indigent AIDS patients who sell their sophisticated and costly HIV medications on the street for cash…
When Surfer John called on a Thursday afternoon, New Times’s plans for exclusive coverage of the 45th annual Columbus Day Regatta seemed to be proceeding auspiciously. “This is the Polack,” bellowed the legendary Coconut Grove nomad, whose waterfront connections run as deep as anyone’s. “I’m looking for your berth aboard…
New York City lawyer Russell Carbone and his paralegal, Henry Mejia, stumbled out of the federal courthouse in downtown Miami Friday somber and stoop-shouldered. Their suits were wrinkled. As they walked to the parking lot, they smiled wanly at their children. It was the end of a long, disappointing stay…
Backstage at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse, ousted Miami Mayor Joe Carollo and more than twenty of his campaign volunteers prepare to feed the media sharks. It is the first day of Carollo’s bid to convince a judge that rampant voter fraud swept him from office — and allowed Xavier Suarez…
Interstate 95 is at a standstill. Venezuelan businessman José Campos Cerrados stares angrily at the rain splattering on his windshield. After dropping his wife, Lourdes, at the hotel, he had taken to the highway like a fool. This traffic is one of the reasons they shouldn’t move to Broward, he…
Francis O’Keefe is educated, erudite, and eloquent. He also has been homeless for the past twenty years. Recently the gray-haired man with questioning blue eyes has found refuge in a park that surrounds the West Miami-Dade Regional Library in Westchester. The library regulars seem to like O’Keefe, who is sober,…
Keith Moss emerges from the garden of his north Coconut Grove home carrying a hose. “Not many people water their car,” he says, while drenching more than twenty species of herbs, flowers, vines, and weeds that completely cover his 1980 Toyota Corolla station wagon. Plants such as mallow, Moses in…
The angry and affluent bayside dwellers of Miami Shores, who recently lost a battle to install guard gates, are striking back. After the council of the Village Beautiful quashed the keep-out-the-poor effort, the swells decided to throw a shindig. Or actually a countershindig. This Saturday night, October 16, when many…
In a crowded Stock Island trailer park about 90 miles from her homeland, Juana Maria Chambrot lays on a narrow cot lamenting her losses. “I have no life here,” she says staring blankly at the ceiling. “I don’t even go outside. In Cuba I could at least walk over to…
Eusebio Escobar sits at the sewing machine in his Kendall workshop, smoking a cigarette and listening to Sarah Brightman’s pop arias with the stereo turned up loud. On his lap he holds a manila folder full of fantasies. He sifts through a sheaf of colorful sketches illustrating his designs for…
Twice a year members of the Miami Police Relief and Pension Fund (MPRPF) convene at the ultraswanky Miami Palm Restaurant in Bay Harbor Islands. They dine on lobster that sells for $80 and up and filet mignon at $29 a pop, and swig fine wine that goes for as much…
The vultures are still circling. Two months after accountant Ronald Stern committed suicide, 28 individuals and companies are demanding a piece of his estate. Although Stern was broke at the time of his death, creditors have filed claims in Miami-Dade Probate Court for almost three million dollars. First in line…
Not long ago a group of politically connected builders seemed to have a lock on developing a commercial airport at the old Homestead Air Force Base, a 1632-acre tract located between two national parks in South Miami-Dade County. But after nearly two years of preparation, the U.S. Air Force next…
United Way is in the business of breathing life into communities. It provides child care, keeps families together, and rescues the homeless. But recently United Way of Miami-Dade, the charity’s local branch, committed a murder. Well, kind of. It all began in April when the organization purchased the six-story Ansin…
Teen couriers, Orthodox recruiters, and Miami nightclub dealers fueled a multimillion-pill drug ring stretching from Amsterdam to South Beach.
The kids who attend Thomas Jefferson Middle School in North Miami call the place T.J. for short. Not all of the epithets are so cute, though. For example, many T.J. students are alumni of nearby Biscayne Gardens Elementary and affectionately refer to their alma mater as Biscayne Garbage. It may…
Imagine the peace of mind! As yet another hurricane churns toward the United States, a high-ranking government official calmly flips a switch. Instantly three or four large fans strategically stationed along the eastern seaboard crank to life. Within seconds wind speeds stronger than the storm are generated and the cyclone…
Miami Mayor Joe Carollo’s response to his critics? Throw the bums, er, commissioners, out. On Purple-Heart hero/radio host Emilio Milian’s show Que Opina Usted? (What Do You Think?), which is broadcast on La Poderosa (WWFE-AM 670), thus spoke his vituperativeness: “If you want to improve the City of Miami, then…
