Well, we’ve pretty much survived another 60-day Florida legislative session. As in most years, this lawmaking period involved hatred toward immigrants, crazy ideas about guns, extremely mean and regressive laws aimed at drug addicts, rules designed to destroy the environment, and liberal use of the N-word…
“Chuckie, I got a great one for you today.” I’ve heard it hundreds of times over the last 20 years. It didn’t matter that Bill Cooke’s health was failing. When getting around to take pictures got tough because of failing health, Bill Cooke transferred seamlessly to working as a writer…
The campaign to pass Amendment 2, last year’s state constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana for patients with illnesses including cancer and Alzheimer’s, was largely bankrolled by one of the wealthiest and most powerful trial lawyers in Florida, John Morgan.
Sure, that Styrofoam cooler is handy when it’s keeping your drinks cold. But once you’re done with it, the light-as-a-feather material doesn’t go away — it crumbles into chunks of plastic that clog waterways, threatening sea life for years to come. Mindful of the environmental ramifications, several South Florida cities have banned polystyrene products…
When Gianni Versace was shot on the front steps of his Ocean Drive mansion in 1997, Miami and the rest of the world mourned the loss of one of fashion’s most iconic and influential personalities. His horrific murder was such a defining event that many residents still think of his death as a way to mark the passage of time, almost like a local BC/AD.
On November 2, 2016, the Professional Law Enforcement Association, a police union, requested Miami-Dade County Police airport cop Mark Allen’s body-camera footage from the week of September 7 that year. According to MDPD bylaws, the department must preserve nonevidentiary footage for a minimum of 90 days — the union requested copies of Allen’s footage in less than 60.
Two South Florida congressmen are treating a vote to rip health care away from millions of Americans — the sort of thing that would kill people, including your grandparents and children — with the relative seriousness of choosing their dates for senior prom.
Charlise Stallworth was driving in Broward County when a City of Miami Police car driven by Sgt. Earnest Lawrence pulled in front of her, activated its emergency lights, and stopped suddenly. Stallworth, driving with her teenage daughter, slammed on the brakes and changed lanes.
Do-nothing, intellectually bankrupt politicians often refer to Miami as a “boom-and-bust” town. The city’s economy, which is almost entirely based on real-estate trades, rises and falls rapidly, they say. It expands as foreign investors flood the market with cash and crashes once that river of money dries up…
Renting out your house on Airbnb is a good way to make some extra money, but it can also be a real pain in the ass. Your tenants might be deranged meth heads, but even if they aren’t, your neighbors will probably still complain that the guests’ rolling suitcases are too noisy. And in certain parts of Miami, you could be fined up to $20,000 just for listing your place.
There is no more obvious symbol of the sugar industry’s stranglehold on Florida, or its waning grip on the state Legislature, than the story of the Everglades reservoir plan. The idea — to buy land south of Lake Okeechobee back from sugar growers in order to let water flow freely south to the Glades after close to a century of misdirection and mismanagement…
For now, the state’s headlong rush to allow more casinos in Miami-Dade looks to be dead in the water. But Miami Beach commissioners aren’t taking any chances when it comes to slot machines in SoBe. The commission voted this morning to push forward a zoning change that would ban all gambling establishments anywhere in the city.
Time to load up on cafecitos, Miami: Things are about to get superboring around here for sports fans. With the Dolphins draft in the rear-view mirror, the Heat and the Panthers missing the playoffs, and the Marlins, well, being the Marlins, there just isn’t much to speak of when it comes to South Florida sports right now.
For the past seven years, Florida Power & Light has battled environmentalists over its plans to build two new reactors and inject their radioactive waste 3,000 feet underground, just below the aquifers where South Florida gets its drinking water. Environmentalists have vigorously argued that science shows the dangerous waste could leech upward into Miami’s drinking water. And yesterday, those green activists finally earned a hearing before the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Florida’s House of Representatives proved today there is nothing its grubby little hands can’t screw up. After more than 72 percent of voters statewide voted to legalize medicinal marijuana for people with “debilitating diseases,” a term that includes cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s, the Florida House today passed its own series of rules regulating the state’s new medical weed industry.
Bret Stephens, the New York Times’ newest opinion writer, clearly needs to get out and experience the world. In his previous gig at the Wall Street Journal, Stephens’ writing suggested he’s rarely, if ever, hung out with anyone who isn’t white, wealthy, or Christian. He has argued that the “Arab mind” is predisposed to anti-Semitism and that the “campus-rape epidemic” among collegiate women is a myth. Both of those opinions can be changed by simply hanging out with women and Arabic people.
Mention Bal Harbour to a random Miamian, and two things come to mind: an über-luxury shopping mall and one of the most notorious speed traps on A1A. Violent drug-related shootings would certainly not appear on that list.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that federal officials won’t begin treating climate change like a real problem until a whole lot of people die or lose their homes. Donald Trump is trying to cripple the Environmental Protection Agency, and his latest budget asks Congress to strip funding from every single federal agency studying global warming.
Like the famed python that tried to eat an entire alligator, Miami is literally exploding with new residents. Census figures released in April show South Florida has grown by nearly half a million people since 2010. They’re drawn to the balmy weather, white-sand beaches, and, of course, Miami’s proximity to…
Not many politicians are willing to get on a stage with Scientology leader David Miscavige and heap praise upon his organization. After all, Miscavige is at the center of a firestorm of abuse allegations, and his church has been accused of widespread human rights violations.
If there’s one issue Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado has staked his career on, it’s unwavering opposition to the human rights abuses in communist Cuba. The same goes for former GOP Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart. So it’s more than a little jarring that both Regalado and Diaz-Balart spent Saturday enthusiastically opening a Miami megacenter for Scientology,
In December 2014, Danielle Venezia says, she was sitting in the passenger’s seat of a friend’s car on SW 63rd Court in South Miami when her fiancé walked up, ripped open the door, and yanked her out of the car. Venezia says he then began “shoving her around.”
