The videos were aired on repeat on local cable news channels as Hurricane Irma battered South Florida: small groups of people breaking into shoe stores and leaving with boxes of stolen sneakers. As WPLG and WSVN replayed the incidents, the footage quickly made its way into the national news cycle.
A recently leaked group chat shows that brothers of Tau Kappa Epsilon, or TKE, a fraternity at Florida International University, were exchanging sexually explicit messages and nude photos of female students. After the thread was sent to university administrators, FIU launched a full investigation into the disgraced fraternity. Now the New Times visits FIU’s campus to ask the student body what some of their reactions were to the group’s messages.
Thousands of flights jet to Miami every day. Hundreds of them come from the New York area. On airlines such as JetBlue and American, it’s easy to find a round-trip ticket from MIA to LaGuardia for less than $300. If you’re willing to schlep to Fort Lauderdale and avoid a carry-on, you can snag a seat on Spirit for even less.
As sea levels continue to rise, Florida has taken a licking for its bad habit of climate-ignorant development. But despite warnings from the state’s most brilliant and respected scientists, Gov. Rick Scott has more or less disregarded the issue, infamously banning the Department of Environmental Protection from using the term “climate change” in 2015. And though national publications such as Scientific American have taken developers to task for their reluctance to stop building along the coast, state law does little to discourage the practice.
If the Harvey Weinstein case has taught America anything about sexual assault and rape culture, it’s that the Hollywood stories are only the tip of the iceberg. Consider the latest uproar at Florida International University, where someone leaked a fraternity’s group chat full of nude photos of female students, derisive messages about a deceased FIU sorority member, and jokes about anti-Semitism and rape.
It shouldn’t be this way. Watching Dwyane Wade play basketball was never supposed to hurt. It was never supposed to make Miami Heat fans’ pettiness flare. There was never supposed to be so much animosity toward the greatest second-greatest athlete in the history of South Florida sports.
Last Tuesday, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine presented a resolution to Miami Beach’s City Commission calling on Miami Seaquarium to release Lolita, the beloved orca, from captivity. This came after the park left her exposed to the elements during Hurricane Irma. Late last week, Levine announced the resolution passed with a unanimous vote.
The short videos were sent to an FBI agent by a confidential informant. In the clips, a man in a black mask stands in front of an ISIS flag and outlines a brutal plot: He wants to copy the Boston marathon terrorists and detonate a bomb in Miami in the name of ISIS. The man says his motivation is simple: Donald Trump’s policies have driven him to support the Islamist terrorists.
Point Blank Enterprises, a Pompano Beach body armor manufacturer that makes bulletproof vests and body cameras, faces a class-action lawsuit from police unions in Florida and Ohio. The case, filed last week in federal court, claims officers across the nation are being sent out on patrol in faulty bulletproof vests that cost $700 a pop.
By the time George Miyares was hired as a police officer for the Village of Biscayne Park in March 2013, he’d been rejected by nine other law enforcement agencies across South Florida, a recently filed federal lawsuit alleges.
In late 1982, Phil Sandlin was doing paperwork when a young, clean-cut Vietnam War veteran who worked as a parking valet in South Beach walked into the Associated Press office with some negatives. He said he’d snuck onto a film set on Ocean Drive and snapped a few shots of…
For the past two years, three miles of roadway, including Flagler Street, has been under massive reconstruction to replace a 74-year-old water main, sidewalks, and traffic signals. Since then, dozens of Little Havana businesses have closed because of lost customers and revenue. Unfortunately, in May, Edukos, a Venezuelan gastropub, opened on West Flagler, just a block from Marlins Park. Because of the construction, John Guilarte, Edukos’ owner, struggles to keep the restaurant open.
After moving from Manhattan to Fort Lauderdale last month, Stephen Dietz and his wife were excited to snag a two-bedroom apartment in the 30-story Amaray Las Olas, a new luxury tower said to be one of the most expensive apartment buildings ever built in the city. Barely a year old, their home at 215 SE Eighth Ave. boasted private pool cabanas, a yoga studio, and a dog spa.
Early in the first quarter of the Dolphins’ 31-28 comeback win over the Jets, Kenny Stills punched his ticket to the ESPYs with one of the most spectacular catches you’ll ever see. At first, the pass was ruled incomplete, but while the officials were watching the video that proved otherwise, Stills was busy making more headlines as he took off his helmet to unveil a Mad Max look.
When North Miami residents received their power bills earlier this month, their statements came with a welcome surprise: Florida Power & Light was issuing a special credit to all households within city limits. It turns out the utility company has been accidentally overcharging customers in Miami-Dade’s sixth largest city for nearly 20 years.
This past Wednesday, newly minted Miami Police Capt. Javier Ortiz, the most infamous, nakedly rude, and loudmouthed cop in South Florida, stepped down from his post as head of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police. But “stepped down” might be giving him too much credit: He voluntarily demoted himself to vice president and put his well-known buddy, Sgt. Edward Lugo, in charge of the union.
John Rivera, president of the union representing Miami-Dade Police officers, is more interested in politics than upholding his oath to protect the community. The head honcho of the Miami-Dade County Police Benevolent Association recently sent an email to his union members expressing his “disgust” with three Miami Dolphins players…
After getting a call from someone about trash piling up in a Miami canal, environmentalist Dave Doebler turned to Google Maps to get the GPS coordinates. What showed up on the screen shocked him: The massive clump of trash could be seen in satellite images.
For months, Miami Beach commissioners have been waging war against a crime wave they insist is sweeping the city. They’ve voted to curb alcohol sales and close the beach earlier, and agreed to let voters decide whether last call on Ocean Drive should come at 2 instead of 5 a.m.
After New Times exposed squalid conditions at a tent city of homeless sex offenders near Hialeah, Homeless Trust head Ron Book finally said he wants to close the encampment. Two months later, the hurricane-ravaged colony hasn’t left. With little hope, offenders have begun adding amenities and reinforcing the tents with tarps and garbage bags.
This past April 21, Frank Artiles resigned from the Florida Senate after getting caught using the N-word in front of black colleagues. Mere hours after he stepped down, the Miami Herald nailed him for hiring Hooters waitresses as campaign “consultants.”
On Labor Day weekend 1935, a massive Category 5 storm rocked Florida, killing more than 400 people. Residents of the tiny, five-acre Pigeon Key a few miles west of Marathon fled just before their homes were hit with 200 mph winds and a storm surge 20 to 30 feet high.
