Miami Marine Stadium sits abandoned on Virginia Key, battered by Hurricane Andrew, trashed by vandals, picked over by scavengers. Though it is surrounded by a fence with locked gates, gaining entrance is easy. Jack Luft, Miami’s planning and development director, quickly finds his way to a gaping breach in the…
On the sidewalk lie seven cats, completely motionless. They appear to be dead cats, their bodies slumped flat as puddles, each a pool of cat hair and decomposing cartilage. It’s puzzling to see so many dead cats in one place. Perhaps, in an amazing coincidence, all seven chose the same…
Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and their licensing agents wanted a federal judge to stop a Coral Gables entrepreneur from selling autographs they claimed were bogus. To prove that such an extreme step was warranted, the golfers hired an expert who declared that some of the memorabilia sold by…
For three months South Miami Senior High’s Bobby Paschal refused to tell his family, his girlfriend, and his buddies the topic of his student film. His loved ones were mystified: The fifteen-year-old freshman had enrolled in the media arts class as a lark, but now he was missing football practices…
Info: Dumb Luck In 1992 Bernardo Paz hit the Lotto, bought himself a brand-new BMW, and headed down the road to ruin. This year he finally got there. By Robert Andrew Powell If Bernardo Paz felt lucky on April 24, 1992, it didn’t show. In fact, the 36-year-old Cuban immigrant…
On the morning of August 5, Cuban state security officials arrived at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport. Their orders were simple: Make sure that two of the country’s best-known independent journalists and their wives boarded a United States-bound plane to exile. The journalists, Lazaro Lazo and Olance Nogueras, had said…
Since 1982 Dirk Neugebohrn and his wife Barbara Addington have collected and cared for cats. Very big cats. Now they own 23 cougars, 2 male lions, and a spotted African serval — virtually all of which have come from Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission officers who have confiscated them…
The carnage began at NE 99th Street. They came with chain saws and wood chippers. Blocking off one lane of traffic along Biscayne Boulevard, the three men hacked and sawed for nearly three weeks, working their way south through Miami Shores. When they were done, the long row of majestic,…
When jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba walks up to the entrance of the Van Dyke Cafe on Lincoln Road, no one wields a Cuban flag like a weapon, throws a bottle, or spits, the way protesters in front of the Gusman Center did the night he performed in Miami last year…
Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigour, and industry which began long since in the east; they will finish the great circle. — De Crevecoeur 1. The Fugue State Watching American movies in the Nineties may remind you of…
Picture the Florida Marlins playing home games against the Atlanta Braves in a brand-new stadium in downtown Miami, protected from early-evening rain showers — and always in front of a sellout crowd. Marlins president Don Smiley has imagined just such a scenario, and he’s attempting to make his vision a…
Brother Paul Johnson, executive director of the venerable homeless shelter Camillus House, says he’s never had a problem firing people. During the seventeen years he has led the charitable organization, he has canned employees for a variety of reasons, from shoddy work to theft. Never, though, has he been forced…
Any day now the Clinton administration is expected to announce a decision that may determine no less than the fate of South Dade and the Everglades. The question is whether the administration will allow the redevelopment of Homestead Air Force Base to proceed apace or will halt the project indefinitely…
The glitter on the black painted board glints like silver in the light of the DJ booth. The booth rises from the barroom floor of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 8195 in west Hollywood. In the room’s shadows, patrons rock back and forth as rhythm and blues tunes pour…
Cafe Iguana. Thursday, August 28, 9:00 p.m. It’s surprisingly easy to forget that this nightclub is located in the middle of a suburban mall. The place is packed, all booze and libido and mainstream dance music so loud that a woman has to scream, “It’s been like this since seven!”…
A stack of pamphlets entitled “Citizens Guide to County Accountability” sits on the desk of Eduardo Diaz, executive director of Dade’s Independent Review Panel (IRP). The brochures explain how this little-known agency uses fact-finding and dispute resolution to reconcile complaints against Dade County departments or employees, including Metro police officers…
The legends and truths (but mainly legends) that tell the story of Stiltsville represent local history at its most colorful — from the entrepreneurial fisherman known as Crawfish Eddie, who made some good of a bad thing in the early 1930s by building a bait shack on a barge that…
The drive from Brickell Key, in downtown Miami, to the federal prison in South Dade normally takes about 30 minutes. But for Foutanga Dit Babani Sissoko the journey took a full year. This past Friday the West African millionaire entered the minimum-security facility, where he will serve 43 days for…
Robert “Chick” Weiner is a veteran Coral Gables attorney. Like more than half of all his fellow attorneys in Dade County, he reserves a portion of his practice for clients who can’t afford legal services. In fact, Weiner is somewhat of an overachiever in the pro bono arena, having been…
Florida law sets precisely three hiring standards for public school principals and their bosses: They must complete three years as classroom teachers, hold a master’s degree from an accredited college, and study a specified core curriculum. Though the core curriculum requirement has been in effect only since 1986, the others…
Back on April 11, the long nightmare on the Miami River appeared to be over. Under mounting pressure from state and federal authorities, the owners of the decrepit freighter Rex Bear had finally found a terminal willing to rent them space to dock their 40-year-old German-made hulk, which for a…
New Times staff writer Robert Andrew Powell and restaurant critic Jen Karetnick have won prizes in the Association of Food Journalists’ competition for stories published in 1996. The awards, presented September 6 at a banquet in Washington, D.C., are open to all journalists and are offered in two circulation divisions…
