The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office recently spent $81 million on a sparkling new palace of law enforcement on Florida’s Gulf Coast. There’s a state-of-the-art 911 center, top-of-the-line hurricane protection built to withstand Category 5 devastation, and a high-tech data center. There are also some spiffy accoutrements, such as a bright-green…
As Jeb Bush’s all-but-certain run to the White House ignites for liftoff, one of the biggest lingering questions is whether he’ll hit any serious turbulence over his decades of sometimes questionable financial dealings since leaving Tallahassee. Well, it didn’t take long for Bush’s first financially tied mini-scandal. Last week, Jeb…
Lazaro Cancela was eating at a Cuban restaurant in Sweetwater when the meal was rudely interrupted: Gerard Brito, who was formerly married to Cancela’s mom, became enraged at the sight of his former step-son and decided to take action, according to a recent complaint reported on by Courthouse News. Cancela’s…
Dear person reading this on either their WiFi-connected laptop or smart phone after having been directed here likely either by Facebook or Twitter: tech, alongside science, math, and engineering, is one of the fastest growing industries in the world right now. Sadly, Miami is doing a horrible job or attracting…
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The Miami-Dade Charter’s Citizens’ Bill of Rights prohibits local politicians from lying to the public under the “Trust in Government” clause. Yet the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust has never actually targeted an official for breaking that trust in government. Well, until now. Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez has…
Same sex marriage is now legal in Florida, but that doesn’t mean the state is now a haven for gay rights. In fact, it’s still perfectly legal for an employee to fire someone simply for being gay in the state unless there are local protections in place. Now a bill…
There was a brutal scene in front a Westchester strip mall Party City last night. A man gunned down his estranged wife in the busy parking lot while the couple’s 15-year-old daughter looked on. He then turned the gun on himself in an apparent suicide attack…
For two decades, Gerald Bailey compiled a sterling reputation with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, including over the past eight years as the force’s commissioner. Until last month, that is, when he abruptly and quietly left office. What happened? “He resigned,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters yesterday after confirming…
On March 6, 2014, a gray-haired Japanese man in wire-rimmed glasses swept past a swarm of television crews that had been staking out his home. He jumped into a car and led a chase through Los Angeles, the likes of which had not been seen since O.J. Simpson’s white Bronco…
They said you wouldn’t stick around after LeBron James left. They called you a front-runner. They scoffed at the thought that you might continue to support your team, even if said team was no longer a championship contender. So far, you’ve proven them wrong, Heat fans…
Hey, Florida, remember Jeff Kottkamp, your former lieutenant governor? The mustached politician served alongside Charlie Crist and was chosen mostly because he was a reliable conservative in contrast to Crist’s more moderate stance. Well, after a failed run for state attorney general in 2010, Kottkamp has emerged from political obscurity…
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The relationship between Donald Trump and the City of Doral has more drama than an episode of Celebrity Apprentice. Mayor Luigi Boria originally planned to give Trump a key to the city yesterday before changing his mind within hours, claiming, “Trump doesn’t deserve my key.”…
Sometimes a politician introduces a bill that makes you think, Yes, that seems like a very sensible idea, before you realize, How big of a problem could that actually pose anyway? That was our reaction to Florida Rep. Bob Cortes’ “All-American Flag Act,” which forbids Florida or any county, or…
In October, New Times published an investigation chronicling a rash of passenger injuries on Miami-Dade County’s public bus system — and worse, the county’s habit of retaining bad drivers. Through the first eight months of 2014, we found, county buses hit pedestrians and bicyclists seven times in “preventable” accidents; 97…
On a cloudy afternoon in late October, South Florida’s most recognizable fast-food magnate approaches a chainlink gate outside a waterfront property on ultra-exclusive North Bay Road in Miami Beach. Christian de Berdouare scrolls his finger and thumb along a large padlock. After several seconds, the lock drops with a clank,…
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Developers are busy dreaming up ways to fill downtown Miami with even more mega-skyscrapers. Airplanes taking off and landing at Miami International Airport regularly fly above downtown. It’s someone’s job to make sure skyscrapers and airplanes don’t become tragic problems for each other, and that someone is the Federal Aviation…
In the past decade, Donna Shalala and the University of Miami have gone out of their way to let students know that their institution is in full support of students’ right to freedom of speech and other basic civil liberties, even releasing a press release in 2006, then again in…
With the Miami Hurricanes football team marred by mediocrity, it seems everyone on campus wants a piece of the school’s basketball team. Even the football players. Cornerback Corn Elder and receiver D’Mauri Jones are reportedly in the process of joining the basketball team. They’ll be practice squad players at first,…
The dead birds are back. A year after a slew of brown pelicans were found in the Keys with their pouches slashed, the bizarre bird mutilations have resumed. In recent weeks, more than a dozen pelicans have been found with their gullets fatally cut. “It’s a mystery,” Maya Totman, director…
