Judging Milton Hirsch’s Character

Milton Hirsch will take Barbara Carey-Shuler’s money, but he’ll hold off on her endorsement.​ And the 2010 Miami-Dade judicial candidate doesn’t want Angel Gonzalez giving him the thumbs-up either.Hirsch removed their names from the official endorsement list on his campaign website, electmiltonhirsch.com, on November 27, days after two Miami city commissioners…

Flyer of the Week: Get Low with UltraBlack at the Vagabond December 17

If you thought Phoenix dubstep duo UltraBlack’s minimal moniker was some kind of warning scream against the sleek and opulent evils of future technology, you were wrong. Truth is, Bryan Marek and Nick Suddarth make dark party tracks that, perversely, seem to revel in the debauched potentialities of a not-so-distant dystopia…

Updated: Turns Out Rev. Gaston Smith’s Cup Came Up Empty

A Miami-Dade jury has convicted Liberty City pastor Gaston Smith on one count of grand theft for looting more than $10,000 in grant money intended to help the poor.Yesterday, Banana Republican caught the tail end of closing arguments by Smith’s defense lawyer Larry Handfield and prosecutor Richard Scruggs. Both lawyers…

Moron of the Week: South Florida’s Creepiest “Pastor”

Update: Jervon A. Smith wants the world to know that he wasn’t a pastor when he did all this creepy shit.We usually use this column to recklessly mock regional idiots who accidentally shoot their toes off or are busted for running pathetic Ponzi schemes. But this week, we’re issuing a…

ESPN Documentary The U Premieres at Lyric Theater in Overtown

Click here to view photos from this event.Last night, Rakontur debuted an extended version of its upcoming ESPN documentary The U inside Overtown’s historic Lyric Theater. Among the local celebrities in attendance were former University of Miami football players Melvin Bratton, brothers Brian and Bennie Blades, Kelvin Harris, and Randall Hill,…

Top Local Stories of the Decade

It’s just about 2010. Here are my choices. What do you think?1. After being snatched by federal authorities, Elian Gonzalez is sent home to his father in Cuba on June 28, 2000.2. Art Basel Miami Beach starts in 2002, an offshoot of the Swiss affair, it changes Miami’s cultural life…

Letters from the Issue of December 10, 2009

Rothstein for Governor! Spence-Jones for lieutenant: In response to “Sheeee’s Back” (Gus Garcia-Roberts, December 3): Michelle Spence-Jones is demonstrating how little she cares about her constituents by running for office again. If she had one ounce of concern, she would not run until her corruption case is resolved. The burden…

Heat Ladies Set to Embarrass Selves on VH1’s Basektball Wives

Real Housewives of the NBA probably couldn’t be used for legal reasons, but reality TV’s love affair with ladies who lunch (and then throw it at each other) continues with VH1’s upcoming Basketball Wives.Although the show might not sate our need for a Miami version of Bravo’s weave-snatchin’, table-throwin’, all-around addictin’…

Wish You Were There: Art Basel Week Music on YouTube

Last week was, of course, utter art, music, and media ridiculousness — so of course, it’s captured all over the social web. Missed out on a show? Don’t feel bad, practically all of the week’s musical events are on YouTube! Reading reviews of both OK Go’s electrified performance at Design…

Moving Units: Top Five Albums at Local Independent Music Stores

Moving Units is a weekly column on Crossfade tracking the best-selling albums at South Florida independent record stores. Top Five Albums for the Week of November 30 – December 5 Sweat Records, Miami Echo Party, Edan Blakroc, Blakroc Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures Daptone Gold, Various Logos, Atlas Sound Radio-Active…

Three Florida Telecom Execs Charged With Bribing Haitian Government

In 2001, a start-up phone company set up shop in a Miramar office park, looking to corner the market on international calls from Little Haiti to Port-au-Prince.​It was a great business plan in Miami. Unfortunately, according to the feds, the company’s execs decided there was only one way to make…

Of Luna and Lunatics

My post last week about Luna PIzza’s opening party and the entertainment provided by students from The Miami Charter School generated quite a strong reaction. I think crazy strong. Here is, in its entirety (I’ve added CAPS to a few words I think might have been missed the first time…

Rev. Gaston Smith Scores Victory Over Richard Scruggs

Late Friday, at 9:05 p.m., Miami-Dade Judge Beatrice Butchko dealt a serious blow to state prosecutors’ case against a popular pastor in Miami’s black community.Butchko ruled Assistant State Attorney Richard Scruggs cannot use digital recordings of two interviews with Rev. Gaston Smith. They were made months before the clergyman was indicted for…

Public Corruption Prosecutor Richard Scruggs Takes The Stand

Richard Scruggs is usually the guy asking people tough questions and getting witnesses to spill the beans. But today Miami-Dade’s veteran public corruption prosecutor was on the receiving end of an intense grilling. And he was not enjoying himself.It went down inside the courtroom of Judge Beatrice Butchko in the…

Daily Candy No Longer Sweet in Miami

Daily Candy, the popular listings and shopping website, is cutting its editor in Miami and six other cities. Its daily emailed suggestions of things to do will reduce in frequency to twice a week….and its editor, Brooke Siegel, will be “splitting her time between Miami and New York,” according to…

Flyer of the Week: Panic Bomber at White Room December 12

In a digitally distorted blaze of electro-house glitch, local party starter Panic Bomber, a.k.a. Richard Haig, has spent the last year going supernova. First came his six-track EP effort, Calling in Threats, a December 2008 release loaded with crunchy club killers like “Miami Stunnaz” and “Disillusionment.” (Cop it at PanicBomber.com…