Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine is having a weird month. Last week, he got into an emoji-filled Twitter fight with the Airbnb company account after accusing the home-sharing service of ruining the quality of life on his island. Today, in front of a roomful of Cuban-Americans, Levine suggested invading Havana. The mayor insists he was just kidding, though.
Standing at beach entrance points, “goodwill ambassadors” turn away coolers and floats. Police cruisers and SUVs, their lights flashing, congregate on the sand. And along the causeways, license-plate scanners monitor who’s coming into the city. Welcome to spring break 2017.
Spring break season is upon us. Starting in late February, thousands of tourists have descended on Florida to fulfill their warm weather fantasies. Between now and April, many of them will make pit stops in Miami and Fort Lauderdale before heading south to the Caribbean. For visitors who are Bahama-bound,…
Mexico will never pay for Donald Trump’s proposed wall. The country was never going to pay for a gigantic concrete monument to anti-Latino racism. Donald Trump almost definitely knew that fact from day one of his presidential campaign but just didn’t care about lying to millions of Americans. (The only other option is that Trump is way, way dumber than anyone assumes.)
Imagine every conceivable moment when your pants might spontaneously burst into flames. Got them all? OK, now which one would be the single most absurd? Here’s a good one: You’re standing in front of a jury, arguing that your client didn’t purposely set his car on fire — because it spontaneously combusted. Oops, just like your pants!
Beginning in the late 1920s, famed German fashion designer Hugo Boss supplied uniforms for the German Nazi Party. We bring this up not because Donald Trump is the next reincarnation of Adolf Hitler (not yet!), but because the decision has haunted the Boss brand for nearly 100 years. It’s etched into political and fashion history.
Life as a member of Rick Scott’s cabinet isn’t too rough. The jobs are a reliable slingshot to bigger and better gigs, whether its a gubernatorial campaign, which Ag Secretary Adam Putnam looks like set to launch, a Trump appointment in D.C., as AG Pam Bondi still seems to be…
Last month, a judge upheld Coral Gables’ ban on Styrofoam products, finding that a state law barring the city from enforcing the ordinance was unconstitutional. Now some city officials want to take on another notorious pollutant: plastic bags.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: The State of Florida is nearly ready to approve a major project from Florida Power & Light, but environmentalists are adamant that it could irreparably harm the Everglades. There are so many scandals swirling around FPL’s Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station…
Affordability is the most pressing political issue in Miami. City and county officials continue approving luxury-rental complexes in the Magic City despite a leviathan of data telling them to stop because they’re actively contributing to a housing crisis.
This past Friday, Bill Todhunter was bringing in the trash cans from the driveway when he heard his wife screaming. He left the cans and rushed out back to the couple’s deck at their home overlooking Port Everglades. There, just a short distance away, the 2,850-passenger Celebrity…
When Wade left, Heat fans didn’t burn his jersey; they stood in lines for hours to buy more of them. And Wade? He misses the shit out of Miami even if he doesn’t openly say it. In subtle ways, he’s made that much abundantly clear. We’ve been keeping track, and here just a few of the cries for help Wade has sent out.
Miami New Times is looking for a part-time copyeditor/proofreader to fill in for our regular geniuses. The perfect candidate will have strong grammar and spelling skills and knowledge of Chicago style. A sense of humor is helpful but not necessary. The position requires some in-office time. A copyediting test will be administered. If you’re interested, send a resumé and cover letter to editjobs@miaminewtimes.com.
Florida’s United for Care campaign spent two full election cycles — 2014 and 2016 — drafting, fighting, and pushing Floridians to legalize medicinal cannabis for demonstrably sick people. Last year, 72 percent of Floridians voted to amend the state constitution to legalize medical weed for people with diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. Now it’s up to the Florida Legislature to adopt medical marijuana rules.
Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine might genuinely be the nation’s closest Democratic relative to Donald Trump. Levine can’t stop himself from tweeting out garbage: He spent last week calling the right-leaning Sunshine State News “#FakeJournalism,” for one. Then he spent Friday on an emoji-laden Twitter tirade against Airbnb, the home-sharing company that Levine is working hard to ban from the city.
In South Florida, the regulated monopoly of Florida Power & Light is the only game in town when it comes to keeping your lights on. That means that despite FPL’s history of jacking up rates, fighting to store radioactive waste beneath our aquifer, and spending $8 million on a deceitful anti-solar amendment, consumers basically have no other choice but to patronize the utility giant.
For now, Donald Trump can dismiss New York Times reports about his incompetence as “fake” and get away with it, because without knowing who’s leaking White House information, Americans will always have a sliver of doubt about whether Trump’s administration can really have become such a deranged Tilt-a-Whirl.
Into the quiet, a voice rang out amid the trees. “Everyone remain in prayer!” a man in a brown jacket instructed. “Keep your prayers focused! Keep your intentions pure!” Beneath the blue Suwannee County sky, someone tapped out a beat on a tribal drum. Two young women sat cross-legged behind…
Pro tip for any organization with a public social media page: Don’t fight with critics using the company account — especially people accusing you of furthering rape culture by apologizing for someone accused of sexual assault. That’s pretty much exactly what WPLG Local 10’s Twitter account did today. The station’s official account launched a petty fight against New Times staff writer Jessica Lipscomb…
This week, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s office will release a report detailing how the county could sell or lease 2.8 million square feet of publicly owned downtown land to developers. The vague plan is already sparking outcry, but it turns out one concrete negotiation in the proposal is already underway: All Aboard Florida, the company behind the Gov. Rick Scott-tied Brightline train system, is already in talks with Dade to bulldoze part of the county hall complex.
When an audit revealed in mid-December that many Miami Police officers weren’t wearing their department-issued body cameras or downloading the footage, Police Chief Rudy Llanes told New Times he was ready to get to the bottom of the issue. But, much like Marco Rubio, he said he needed more information first about why the $1.3 million equipment, paid for by taxpayers and a Department of Justice grant, wasn’t being used.
Greg Steube is a nightmare. Steube, a lawyer and military veteran, represented Sarasota in the Florida House of Representatives for six years before earning a promotion to the Florida Senate in 2016. With larger shoes to fill, Steube now appears to be swinging for the fences. He’s chucked a remarkable number of bills against the wall in the hopes that some will stick — and nearly all of them are next-level bananas.
