It’s about nine o’clock Saturday morning and the rain pounds down. Keith Schantz, manager of the Miami-based rock band Natural Causes, negotiates the cluttered alley behind the Stephen Talkhouse, parking in front of a half-dozen tattered derelicts huddled in a Dumpster shed. Schantz tries to get in the back door…
On this windy Tuesday, as Hugh Rodham has been traveling, first to Tallahassee, then to Tampa, to announce his candidacy for the United States Senate, clouds have gathered back in Miami, and not just in the sky. For a good part of the afternoon an answering machine has been taking…
Human rights? Ha! Due process? Bite your tongue! When it comes to dealing with youthful offenders, Edna Buchanan doesn’t waste time with the little things. Juvenile crime. Everyone is talking about it. Or shouting about it. Everyone has an opinion about its causes. Everyone has ideas about how to prevent…
Two years ago on the day after Easter, Anne Lanzetta, once the mother of six children, now the mother of none, decided to end her life. She was watching soap operas at the time, drunk on vodka. A pack of single-edge razors, purchased from the drugstore down the street, sat…
The image everybody saw — the one everybody was supposed to see – was this: Lewis Schaffel standing before a pack of reporters on the last Tuesday in February, assuring the good citizens of Dade County that he was going to do everything possible to ensure that the Miami Heat…
The shadowy bulk of two pool tables dominates this space, illuminated by a single dim bulb near the door. Beneath the light stands Frankie Man, bit player in Bob Fosse movies, friend to Lenny Bruce, survivor of three decades of standup along a comedy trail that stretches from L.A. to…
A man of his age and girth probably shouldn’t be doing this, but Irv Liss has something to prove. All 66 years and 250-plus pounds of him. He’s standing in the playground of Beacon Hill, a private elementary school in North Dade, holding on to a steel, cactus-shaped climbing structure,…
A quick quiz: Of the following prospective tenants, which might a landlord be most likely to select? 1. A gang of unemployed teenage crack addicts 2. A cadre of Maoist rebels 3. A team of alert environmental regulators If you’re William I. Donner, the answer might not be at all…
On January 27, 1994, New Times published a feature story entitled “I Am Not a Meddler,” by staff writer Kirk Semple. That fact might shed some light on the attached memorandum, signed by two of the article’s protagonists…
His wardrobe runs to flannel shirts and weathered jeans, and his threadbare Chuck Taylor high-tops are so far gone that his wife Adris is only half-kidding when she says she likes them because she can nibble on her husband’s toes without taking his shoes off. No, Bill Orcutt does not…
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Move over Oprah, Phil, and Geraldo, there’s a new talk-show host in town and she’s playing to rave reviews. “Hello,” she says kicking off her weekly, Monday-evening chatfest, “I’m Katherine Fernandez Rundle, state attorney for Dade County. Welcome to From the State Attorney’s Office.” In an age where just about…
On Monday night Phillip Mortilla, 37, of Wilton Manors, was seriously injured when a southbound car turned into the path of his motorcycle. Mortilla was thrown about 30 feet by the impact and suffered severe head injuries. He is in critical condition at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale. When…
“Is this Luis?” “Yes,” Luis Rangel answers. “Hi,” says Patty Rodriguez. “Do you remember who I am?” “Of course I remember you,” Rangel responds. “I don’t forget a beautiful voice.” “Thank you,” Rodriguez says demurely. “I was calling about what you told me.” “Uh huh.” “I am in desperate need…
Two months ago the Northeast Task Force, a 35-member advisory board whose mission is to revitalize Miami’s northeast neighborhoods, was wracked with dissent. A few weeks ago nearly half the city-appointed task force’s membership had resigned. A week from today, the organization more than likely will cease to exist. The…
Comprising more than four years of legal brawling, the Nogues case can stake undisputed claim as the most tortured child-abuse battle in Dade history. The affair stems from a 1989 allegation that Kendall physician Andres Nogues sexually abused his teenage stepdaughter, Aimee; following Aimee’s accusation, child-protection workers removed the seven…
Film festivals are the newest growth industry in South Florida. From Key West to Sarasota, they’re proliferating like melaleuca trees. In Dade and Broward alone we’ve got the Black Film Festival, the Jewish Film Festival, the Queer Flickering Light festival, the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, the South Beach Film Festival,…
To me it was one of the coolest things I’d seen in 30 years of visiting the Everglades, but Lenny is from Queens. He didn’t even want to stop the Honda for a closer look. I tried to be understanding of my urbanite pal — we had been cruising around…
Paul Withers remembered meeting Greg Blue at a Broward health club. After striking up a conversation in the sauna, Blue had confided that he was questioning his sexual orientation. A gay man himself, Withers listened sympathetically. In subsequent chats Blue would confess his sexual desire for Withers, who demurred, advising…
The last day of 1988 — the last day of Miami as a town with competing daily newspapers — also marked a first: the uniting of Miami News employees, the paper’s readers, other local journalists, the entire community. On this dire day, all Miamians shared the loss that had been…
On this Monday evening at Buena Vista Elementary School, the only public school in Wynwood, the wind outside the open auditorium doors is whistling and banging. It is an apt accompaniment for the restive audience of 200 inside, where Carmen Lunetta, director of the Port of Miami and one of…
Poor Dean Grandin. He was simply trying to do his job. As the City of Miami Beach’s planning and zoning director, he has one of those unglamorous, thankless posts deep inside the gray factory of municipal government. Important? By all means. He is responsible for enforcing the city’s zoning ordinance…
