SEC Accuses Miami ‘Penny-Stock’ Promoters of Fraud

Beware of what you see here in the Magic City: very little is real. The boobs? Nope. Those lips? Collagen-enhanced. Even that sweet Lamborghini is just a rental. We all know you ended up with the Datsun after your divorce.So it might not come as a shock that what little…

Andres Lopez exposes the Colombian cartels

Picture this: Dozens of drug smugglers dance and drink outside a colonial-era farmhouse in a leafy countryside near Cali, Colombia. A salsa band provides the soundtrack for a bustling wedding party. “Mama always said, ‘Mouse and cheese are friends,’ ” go the lyrics, in Spanish. “Don’t trust anybody, because when…

Censored license plates you won’t see on the road

Once every six weeks or so, a small, sober group of bureaucrats and cops gathers in a conference room in Tallahassee. Members of the group synch their iPhones to urbandictionary.com, bone up on the latest texting slang, and then laugh their asses off for an hour or two. They’re the…

Whistleblower sues insurance company for shady practices

Anyone who has ever insured anything — a car, a house, or, if you’re JLo, a sumptuously rotund rump — knows that insurance companies are about as trustworthy as automobile salesmen: You had better read the fine print lest the deal come back to kick you in the junk. As…

Skateboarding Cuba

Punk rock blares from a car radio. Graffiti is scrawled on the sides of an empty fountain. A gaggle of teenagers, some sporting tattoos, others shaved heads or short Mohawks, are skateboarding, doing tricks along the fountain’s concrete ledge. Everyone is speaking Spanish. It could be Miami. But look closer…

Brownsville is Miami’s most blighted neighborhood

For 24 years, Marion Schano and her husband Edward have owned an aviation business called Amtec Aviation Aerospace in Brownsville, a ‘hood west of Liberty City with a population of 14,000 and shrinking. It’s one of Miami’s poorest neighborhoods, and arguably its most blighted. It’s traversed by roving bands of…

Krop High Will Play On, But Coach Shakey Wasn’t Too Happy To See Us

Judge Spencer Eig this afternoon granted an emergency injunction to Dr. Michael Krop High’s basketball team, allowing the number-one-ranked squad to join three other teams in the playoffs despite eligibility issues surrounding 19-year-old guard Brian Delancy. Eig ruled that it would be “fundamentally unfair not to allow these students to…

Ex-Michigan QB Tate Forcier Transferring to Miami

Turns out that the Hurricanes will net a new QB this year after all: former Michigan starter Tate Forcier. He’s announced his decision to transfer to Coral Gables today. Forcier was a four-star recruit coming out of high school, but thanks to injuries and other complications failed to deliver for…

Rick Scott’s Budget is a Political Mess

Rick Scott introduced his budget this Monday to cheers at a Tea Party event inside a Eustis, Florida, church. Back in the reality of Tallahassee, though, the new governor’s plans haven’t been greeted with much enthusiasm. Even Republican lawmakers aren’t sure it’s a workable budget. Scott is facing criticism that…

305 Photo of the Day: Bug Off

Today’s photo comes from Dkeros’ Flickr. If you’d like to see your photo here join our Flickr group.Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes…

UM Study: Diet Soda Increases Your Risk for Stroke

Riptide is hopelessly addicted to diet soda. Hell, we had just downed a 20-oz. Cherry Coke Zero when we came across this latest study out of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine: drinking diet soda daily increases your risk of suffering a stroke by 61 percent. It didn’t…

Miami is America’s Fourth Most Fast Food Loving City

The Daily Beast opens up its latest little listicle with this supposedly stunning little factoid: “In Miami, there are twice as many Burger King locations than tanning salons.” Of course, Miami is home to both the corporate headquarters of BK and the unofficial US capitol of natural sunshine, so that…

WrestleMania Coming to Sun Life Stadium in 2012

Lets get ready to rumble! No seriously, we need to get ready to rumble. It’s just been announced that Miami is playing host to professional wrestling’s biggest event WrestleMania in 2012. It’s not quite another Super Bowl, but hosting the event means an economic boon for the city as well…

Disqualified Krop Baller Bryan Delancy’s Sketchy Living Situation

At three this afternoon at a Downtown courthouse, attorneys representing Dr. Michael Krop High will argue that the disqualification of one of the school’s basketball players over an immigration issue is illegal. Whether Florida’s number-one ranked high school team qualifies for the playoffs hangs in the balance. But Riptide has…