Juan Carlos Zapata, a state representative from the Kendall area, is gunning for Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez’s job. The legislator is going to be termed out of office in 2010, so he’s laying the groundwork for a run at Martinez’s seat in 2012. Already, the first Colombian-American elected to the…
It’s probably safe to add “shipping military aircraft parts to Iran” to your running list of “Bad Business Plans.”Traian Bujduveanu, a Romanian citizen living in Plantation, learned that the hard way, pleading guilty in downtown Miami federal court today of plotting to ship sensitive military parts to Iran, the U.S…
This Little Piggy Pays your taxes: Gus Garcia-Roberts’s March 26 feature story, “Pork Pirates,” misses the point about people on farms who raise pigs, cows, and other animals. They need to make money in order to support themselves and their families. If the writer enjoyed the barbecue pig, he should…
So, what exactly is a deal breaker? If you ask Peter, an anxious, sniffling, and sharply suited 36-year-old with a prominent mole that floats above his arched left brow, he’ll tell you it’s “a woman with bad breath.” Fair enough. “Or someone who’s taller than five-three… or well, she needs…
Today marks the end of the gayest squabble in TV history since the great Paul Lynde-Charles Nelson Reilly game-show feud of the ’70s. The Weinstein Company and NBC Universal have finally settled their legal battle over Project Runway. The Result? ProjRun’s sixth season will air as planned on cat-lady channel Lifetime, while Bravo…
In 2007, the Healthy Start Coalition of Miami-Dade reported that certain cultural pockets of Miami-Dade really see no problem with teenage pregnancy. “However, some groups did not acknowledge that teen pregnancy is a problem. Most importantly, they expressed knowledge on frequent births to teens but do not feel that births…
OK, so over here, we have the Marlins stadium, the port tunnel, and the Design District cable car. Cost: More than $1 billion. Then over here, we have the paltry $5 million that Brazilian racecar driver Helio Castroneves is trying to get away without paying taxes on. Yesterday in Miami…
Note to Tim Ryan: Maybe just stay home next February. Ryan, Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation chief since 2006, hasn’t exactly built a mountain of goodwill with his majority black workforce during his three years in charge of one of the nation’s largest prison systems, with a $315 million budget and…
Riptide usually tries to stay away from the celebrity gossip stuff, unless it’s amazing. It seems that fate has sent us lots of amazing celeb gossip this week:Paris Hilton tried to get a House/Techno DJ to stop playing House and Techno during the biggest Techno and House event in America,…
I’ve just learned that three old friends are leaving South Florida’s daily newspapers: one-time Miami bureau chief David Cazares and columnist Ralph De La Cruz are moving on from the Sun-Sentinel….and editorial page editor Joe Oglesby is retiring from the Miami Herald. That’s on top of editor Manny Garcia, who…
Forget Edison, Franklin, even Steve Jobs. If there’s one innovator we truly love and respect here in South Florida and the Caribbean, it’s Charles Ponzi.The guy, let’s face it, invented pretty much the best scheme ever. Why do complicated stuff like “invest money” when you can just take it and…
On March 7, just a half-hour past midnight, stormtroopers from the Hallandale Beach Police Department and the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco raided the Cheetah gentlemen’s club.The cops busted 16 dancers and two managers, arresting the girls on prostitution charges and the managers for allegedly running a whorehouse…
Prison Scared Me Straight Good job: In response to Francisco Alvarado’s “Unequal Justice” on March 19: This is a great article and all true, I’m sure. How do I know this? I turned 18 in jail back in the early ’80s. I was busted with a whole lot of Quaaludes…
Luis Montealegre poured a café Cubano on Tuesday, paid a delivery guy for croquetas, and peered east a few blocks from his corner cafeteria. There was only blue sky where a $634 million Marlins baseball stadium will soon rise. “This is the poorest part of the city, the one that…
So at around the 7:04 p.m. mark of the Miami-Dade County Commission’s nine-hour bull session to approve the Florida Miami Marlins’ new stadium, Commissioner Sally Heyman posed a rather simple business question. She asked what would happen to the ballpark’s projected $1.9 billion cost if the municipal bond interest rates…
My favorite moment in yesterday’s nine-hour discussion of the new $2 billion Marlins Stadium came at 9:27 p.m., when Commissioner “Space Cowboy” Javier Souto began defending himself from concerns that Mayor Carlos Alvarez runs him like an Italian train: “My vote is not for sale, rent, or lease,” Souto said. “Whichever…
Today the Miami-Dade County Commission will vote to build the Florida Marlins a new stadium. Or not. I hope they don’t. This deal is such a stinker I don’t know how Mayor Carlos Alvarez, the stadium’s chief cheerleader, doesn’t walk around wearing a gas mask every time he is out…
To read past installments of Miami According to Brooklyn, click here. This week is addressed to my haters. First off, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read my column. Second, the things that I write and talk about are just one man’s opinion. I just throw…
If you weren’t paying attention to any news media in town yesterday, you might have missed that Miami commissioners voted 3 to 2 in favor of the new baseball stadium in Little Havana.But even those who were watching probably failed to notice a salient fact: Joe Sanchez basically locked up…
Deserters Get Their Just Deserts You darn crybabies: In response to Megan Feldman’s March 12 story, “Move Out!”: I have no sympathy for people who volunteer for duty and then want to use bullshit excuses like “illegal war” to shirk their responsibility. During Vietnam, many were drafted and in spite…
It’s an easy, breezy Tuesday evening at Monty’s (2550 S. Bayshore Dr., Coconut Grove) when Chris, a short, 27-year-old Cuban-American with a handlebar mustache, jitters past a circle-jerk of about 15 middle-age shrimpers hunched over the tiki-thatched patio’s main bar. Their necks are the same color as the pink sunset…
Before we posted on College Hill yesterday we had never heard of BET’s Real World-esque show. We still haven’t seen an episode. Yet, the upcoming season filmed on South Beach may be our next favorite guilty pleaser, teevee train wreck. That’s what happens when you get fightin’ cast member and…
