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Miami Wasted Thousands on Untested Pesticide That Didn’t Kill Zika Mosquitos

By Jerry Iannelli

When the Zika virus struck last year, Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control immediately began fogging with three pesticides: BTI, a group of bacteria that kills mosquito larvae; naled, a controversial chemical compound banned in Europe over links to developmental disorders in children; and permethrin, the active ingredient in home bug-killers such as Raid. Permethrin was sprayed at least seven times in Wynwood and five times in Miami Beach, but by the end of August, the county realized the poison had little effect and stopped using it.

MDPD Scraps Plan for Aerial Spy Planes After Public Outcry

By Jerry Iannelli

The details of Miami-Dade County’s proposed plan to surveil poor, black neighborhoods with semipermanent spy planes were grotesque. MDPD had asked for a federal grant for so-called wide-area surveillance (WAS) planes, which can record up to 32 square miles at once and were first used to track Iraqi insurgents.

Best of Miami 2017: Miami’s Best and Worst Politicians

By Miami New Times staff

Even in a year when Donald Trump vacuumed up all available political oxygen like a voracious orange Roomba, Miami’s local politicos still made some unbelievable headlines. From (maybe joking) promises to invade Cuba to bold stands against Florida Power & Light to failed attempts to trick voters into torpedoing solar power in South Florida, it was a hell of a year in South Florida’s halls of power.

Protesters Organize Rallies Against Trump and Pence Visits to Miami This Week

By Tim Elfrink

Donald Trump has a curious relationship with Miami. The Magic City, in many ways, represents everything Trump rails against. We live in a chaotic melting pot of people from around the world — and have one of the highest percentages of undocumented residents in the United States. Miami also voted heavily for Hillary Clinton, which is not the kind of move to endear yourself to a guy pathologically obsessed with whether he won the popular vote.

Getting a Boot Off Your Car in Miami Might Soon Cost Even More

By Brittany Shammas

A few weeks ago, Tatiana Arcia parked her car in what she thought was a public lot near McFarlane Road and South Bayshore Drive in Coconut Grove. When she returned less than ten minutes later, boots were locked on three of her wheels. A Premier Booting Services employee was about to affix a bright-orange sticker to her window. “Warning: Your vehicle has been immobilized!” it read.

Mosquito Pesticide Sprayed All Over Miami Linked to Autism in Kids

By Tim Elfrink

Every year toward the beginning of rainy season, dense clouds of black salt marsh mosquitoes begin rising from the Everglades and coastal wetlands and descending upon Miami. For years, Miami and the Keys have fought back with a powerful tool: permethrin, a pesticide effective at killing the insects before they can make life miserable for South Florida.

Five Studies That Prove Miami Renters Are Totally Screwed

By Tim Elfrink

Even under ideal circumstances, finding an apartment or house to rent is an utter nightmare. You spend weeks poring over misleading Craigslist ads with retouched photos, haggling over deposits and monthly fees, and trying to please NIMBY condo boards that hold your entire living arrangement in their hands.

Overrun by Peacocks, Miami-Dade Cities Consider Sterilization and Feeding Bans

By Brittany Shammas

South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard has somewhat of a love-hate relationship with the peacocks that roam his city. On the one hand, they’re beautiful and act as a kind of traffic control as drivers slow down to gawk at them or allow them to cross the street. On the other hand, they shriek “like someone is committing an ax murder” at 4:30 in the morning, attack their reflections on shiny cars, and leave poop all over the place.

Minimum-Wage Earners Must Work 80-Hour Week to Afford One Bedroom in Miami

By Jerry Iannelli

To be poor in America is to give up every second of your free time. It means working ten- or 12-hour shifts folding towels at luxury Miami Beach resorts, only to ride multiple buses two hours there, two hours back, waking up at 4 a.m., and getting home at 8 every night. It means skipping voting or your kids’ graduation because you don’t get paid time off.

Here’s Video of Some Lunatic Towing a Flaming Boat on a Miami-Dade Highway

By Jerry Iannelli

To live in Miami is to constantly feel as if you’re trapped in an abandoned David Lynch film. Seminude men with face tattoos rollerblade through traffic in broad daylight, dilapidated buildings could be infested with anything from peacocks to bears to trained circus seals, and flaming boats just sometimes drive down the highway and everyone acts like things are cool.

Miami Beach Debates Whether to Shut Down Ocean Drive Liquor Sales at 2 a.m.

By Tim Elfrink

After another Memorial Day weekend marred by gunshots, a stabbing and a fatal police shooting, Miami Beach politicians’ responses ran the gamut from straight-up racist to deeply misguided to reactionary. This morning, the city will debate where exactly on that spectrum falls Mayor Phillip Levine’s call to roll back drinking hours on…

A Five-Step Plan for the Heat to Challenge the Golden State Warriors

By Ryan Yousefi

We are three games into the NBA finals, and to no one’s surprise, it looks as if the Golden State Warriors are simply on another level than every other team. With Kevin Durant already verbally committed to returning next season to the most dominant team in the NBA, it’s clear that for the foreseeable future, all roads to a championship lead through Oakland, California.

Miami-Dade Approves $9 Million Land Sale to David Beckham for Stadium

By Tim Elfrink

After four years and an absurd hopscotch around Dade County in search of a stadium site, David Beckham and his partners are closer than ever to finally bringing a Major League Soccer team to Miami. Commissioners voted 9-4 this afternoon to sell a county-owned parcel of land in Overtown to Beckham’s group for $9 million — the final piece of land needed to begin work on a stadium next to the Miami River.