In 2012, New Yorker reporter Mattathias Schwartz covered the tribunal of suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on two separate occasions at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Each time, Schwartz was permitted to sit inside a separate room behind three panes of sound-proof glass and watch the tribunal in real time, but…
You’d think Miami would have no trouble keeping green grass on its soccer fields. There’s more than ample sunlight, plenty of rain, and friendly temperatures year round. So why is Miami-Dade aggressively installing artificial turf into its parks — especially given mounting health concerns, from cancer links to ligament damage,…
Governor Rick Scott’s promise to bar Syrian refugees from settling in Florida has gotten an assist from a bill filed in the state Senate. Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, has filed a bill dubbed “Prevention of Acts of War,” that would effectively ban “certain” refugees from entering the state of Florida…
One of the most ambitious development projects slated for Miami has ditched its signature feature. The Miami Worldcenter Development has announced that it will no longer include an enclosed shopping mall. The news comes just months before the mall was scheduled to breakdown. Instead, the development will now include a…
For Miami cops, Saturday was one of those nights. By 8:15 p.m., detectives had already left one shooting in Overtown to rush to another in Liberty City, where they found a 15-year-old boy dead in an empty field. As they combed area for evidence, more gunshot rattled the night. Just…
It’s now been seven years since President Obama made the lofty promise to shut down Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, the overseas prison notorious for its inhumane treatment of terrorism detainees. But as the 14th anniversary of the prison’s opening rolls around, Gitmo still houses 104 detainees. This Saturday, South Florida…
Anyone whose spent time walking around Miami has on occasion spotted an unexplained pair of heels left sitting in the streets. We’re never quite sure how they get there, but shoes on the street here isn’t an unusual sight. Unless its hundred of shoes sitting on the Turnpike. That’s what happened…
Who can forget all those magical television moments that happen on Kourtney & Khloé Take Miami? Like that time Kourtney said something ridiculous and Khloé just looked at her with that expression that was like “Wow, you’re being so ridiculous right now.” Or that other time they had an argument but…
There are only two known populations of the Miami tiger beetle in the world. Both, as the insect’s name suggests, are located around Miami, in rare pine rocklands habitat; because of the beetle’s rarity, an effort is now underway to classify it as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, a…
Andrew Mossberg thought he was helping a young woman in distress. He was walking his dog, Snoopy, with his ten-year-old son along West Avenue in South Beach when he saw a muscular man in street clothes screaming at a thin young woman, rifling through her purse and then hitting her…
Alot of weird things in Florida happen every week, and on Fridays we’re here to bring you the weirdest. This week: Tampa gets seriously shaded, a portrait artist at Universal Studios gets seriously slashed, and some seriously uncouth Islamophobes. Tampa Named Least Sexy Travel Destination in America Poor Tampa. It…
It’s been said that some Republican candidates run their campaigns on a politics of fear. They constantly, forcibly remind their base of any potentially scary issue in the world like they’re a Boy Scout troop leader telling ghost stories around a campfire, and then present themselves as the only person…
The University of Miami’s Delta Gamma chapter has gained something of a reputation for putting out some of the most luxurious-looking recruitment videos in the entire nation, but, dear Lord, have they really out down themselves this year. This year the girl enlisted the help of Artect Media, who not only…
Registered Democrats in Florida far outnumber registered Republicans. The state has voted twice for President Barack Obama on the presidential level. Yet, up in Tallahassee, Florida’s state Government is currently controlled completely by Republicans. Governor Rick Scott and the entire cabinet belong to the party, and Republicans hold large majorities…
Last summer, environmentalists were horrified when a whole section of protected mangroves on Virginia Key were cut down by a City of Miami contractor working on preparations for the 2016 Miami International Boat Show. City officials apologized and blamed the contractor, saying it was all a mistake. But now, the…
Just after 12:30 a.m. last Wednesday, a 23-year-old chef named Alexandra Lefler entered the northbound I-95 express lanes near Miami Gardens Drive — heading in entirely the wrong direction. Minutes later, she slammed head-on into a Hyundai, killing all four passengers and herself in one of the grisliest accidents in…
In hindsight, 2015 was the year America began a long, hard discussion about police-involved deaths. Already a tough and heated conversation to have, the talk was made all the more tough by the realization that no one — not the federal government, not an NGO, not a single journalistic institution…
Just over one year ago, Tony Bosch’s lawyers pleaded for leniency from a federal judge as he was sentenced for running a secret steroid ring out of his Coral Gables anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis. Bosch had turned snitch for the feds, they argued, helping to indict seven other co-conspirators, and had…
Florida Governor Rick Scott isn’t ready to make an endorsement in the Republican presidential nomination race, but he does have kind words for frontrunner and fellow shady businessman Donald Trump. Which should surprise exactly no one. In fact, he seems so impressed by Trump he wrote an entire USA Today editorial…
Here’s the good news: Florida is no longer the most corrupt state in the nation. Here’s the bad news: We’re still corrupt as hell. In the period from 2000 to 2010, Florida led the nation with the most federal public corruption convictions. Integrity Florida reworked the number from the period from…
Ever since Miami Vice depicted Sonny Crockett cruising around town in a Ferrari Daytona, high-powered luxury sports cars have been an unshakable facet of Miami’s cultural identity (or, at least, the stereotypical postcard version of it). It seems music videos filmed down here are required to include at least one candy-colored…
Michael Gavins just wanted a hamburger. He’d worked up a growling hunger while watching the Dolphins beat the Eagles with his childhood buddies in South Miami, where he’d grown up. The 36-year-old knew he could have been a pro himself if his knees had held up. The six-foot-six behemoth was…
