Every five years, Miami-Dade County convenes a task force to propose changes to the county charter, which basically serves as the “constitution” for a 2.7 million-person metropolis. In 2012, Miami’s ultrapowerful lobbyist class was banned from serving on that Charter Review Task Force out of fear they’d introduce self-serving new…
All the palm trees in the world can’t fan away the stress of maxing out your credit cards while trapped in a hateful marriage based exclusively on money, prestige, and Botox injections. Such is life in Miami: For the last eight years running, the city has ranked as one of…
The Republicans control every piece of machinery in Washington D.C., but they’ve been operating all that powerful hardware like a sketchy bus driver fresh off a five-martini lunch. Last night, their latest attempt to replace Obamacare collapsed. Their only remaining plan, according to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, is to simply…
The arrest last week of eight people for racketeering is part of a conspiracy to get back at jail escapee Dayonte Resiles for the embarrassment he caused the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the inmate said from jail. Resiles stunned attorneys and judges in the Fort Lauderdale courthouse when he fled out a…
In February, the Miami-Dade County Commission made a Faustian bargain: The county said it would start holding undocumented people in jail for the feds, all to shed its label as a “sanctuary” community and avoid President Donald Trump’s scorn. Given that some 156,000 undocumented people live in Miami, this terrified…
Caked in mud, the black Chevy pickup made a careful left turn from the main highway onto a dirt driveway in rural Southwest Florida. Four young men in jeans and scuffed-up cowboy boots hopped out to meet their new business partner, a lanky, middle-aged Hawaiian guy named Curtis Blackledge. After…
South Florida’s Venezuelan community came out in full force yesterday to take part in the opposition-sponsored referendum on President Nicholas Maduro’s attempt to rewrite that country’s constitution. The Maduro government likely won’t acknowledge the symbolic vote, but the more than 100,000 South Floridians who took part hope the high turnout will ensure…
Gentry Lane is used to getting insulting messages from strangers. That comes with the territory when you run an activist organization like her Rebel Action Network. But one recent message she got was particularly unhinged — and when she clicked on the sender’s profile, she was shocked to see that…
After a Homestead cop tried to run him off the road, Eric McDonough started keeping tabs on the local police. The Homestead resident, who has a doctorate in organic thermochemistry, started filming cops, criticizing the department at public meetings, and demanding the city institute a body-camera program. As a thank-you, McDonough…
All political scandals run through Miami. The Magic City is a lawless Casablanca of sorts, a town where the world’s worst rich people all congregate, party together, and hatch crackpot schemes to defraud taxpayers and/or tip presidential races. In 2000, a bunch of GOP operatives caused a ruckus outside County…
The public has largely forgotten that Florida Gov. Rick Scott — a loose conglomeration of bats that accidentally got trapped inside a suit — once ran a hospital system that stole a record amount of money from poor, sick people. Scott ran Columba/HCA hospital system, which in 1997 got caught…
This week, Miami was the epicenter of Major League Baseball as the 88th MLB All-Star Game descended upon Marlins Park. No one had been looking forward to the attention more than Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, who long pegged his taxpayer-robbing stadium deal on a pledge from MLB to bring the showcase to town.
While supposedly transferring data to a customer’s new iPhone one day, an employee at a Kendall T-Mobile store decided to go on a little fishing expedition through her photos and videos. When he found some that piqued his interest — nudes and videos of the woman having sex — he took the liberty of sending them to himself and then forwarded them to a few friends.
Over the past three years, ridesharing companies such as Uber and Lyft have not only decreased the demand for taxi services in Miami-Dade County, but also depreciated the taxi industry’s most valuable asset: the medallion.
Senate Republicans released a new version of their Obamacare repeal yesterday. They called the bill a “tamer” version of the barbaric law they originally pitched, but the new measure would still hack deep cuts to Medicaid funding for poor people. According to all currently available science, cutting Medicaid kills poor people…
In February, Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado proposed a law banning Airbnb-style rentals in two-thirds of his city, stunning the company, which says it previously had a cordial relationship with city officials. Regalado claimed for months that the crackdown was designed to protect residents from living next to de facto hotel rooms.
Among the safe-sex advisories and strip-club ads that line I-95 in South Florida, one billboard has always been especially eye-catching. For the past year, the text on the double-billboard screamed “SYPHILIS EXPLOSION” above a huge glittery volcano. Sadly, that sign has been taken down. But another natural-disaster-themed STD alert has taken its place. Behold the “Syphilis Tsunami.”
Miami Beach’s Citi Bike rental program is extremely simple: You pay a small fee, pick a bike off a rack, and ride it to another rack and leave it there. LimeBike, a Silicon Valley startup, is trying to streamline that process even further by removing the need for bike racks. You simply leave the bike on the sidewalk when you’re done, and the brakes lock automatically.
Among medical professionals, there’s virtually no debate: So-called conversion therapy, which claims to turn gay kids straight, is junk science — and potentially harmful. That’s why municipalities ranging from Miami Beach to the City of Miami to West Palm Beach have already banned the dubious practice.
Maybe you’ve had your attention squarely directed on the rumors swirling around the Miami Heat free-agency hunt. Maybe you’ve just been preoccupied with all the festivities that came with this week’s MLB All-Star Game. Or maybe you thought soccer in Miami was reserved for David Beckham-owned teams that will finally begin playing around the time you own a flying car.
Yesterday, Major League Baseball, the City of Miami, and our beloved Miami Marlins teamed up to provide locals and visitors alike with an opportunity to take part in South Florida’s favorite pastime: standing outside in a thick wool throwback baseball jersey as Miami’s noontime July sun cooks off the top three layers of skin.
The clock is ticking. Any minute, Andrew Schumann could get called away for a momentous occasion—the birth of his brother’s first child. But at present, he has other firstborns on his mind: 18 Florida grasshopper sparrows. A lot is riding on the survival of these tiny chicks who will be no…
