As this year’s legislative session came to a close, lobbyists for Miami-Dade County’s rock-mining industry were up to their dirty tricks again. On March 15 an amendment was quietly added to House Bill 1535. It would have stripped local residents of the right to sue the industry for damage to…
Yes, I’m Ashamed of UM And yes, the sinner should pay, but don’t kill the golden-egged goose: I will admit I am ashamed of what happened at the University of Miami. I believe Andre Johnson, Hurricanes wide receiver and Rose Bowl co-MVP, should be suspended. I also think New Times…
Dean Fields and Emily Easterly never knew each other back home in ole Virginny, though both songwriters sat with a guitar on many a stool around Richmond and sang. Their paths didn’t even cross on campus at the University of Miami’s music school, where both enrolled last fall. The two…
All in the Family Feud The fire department, like the nation, is strengthened by dissent: Regarding Mike Clary’s article “Caution: Flammable Substance” (March 14), going against the status quo, especially after an act as despicable as September 11, always appears tasteless. Yet it is courage such as that expressed by…
Reading the warning that precedes ¡Caliente!: A History of Latin Jazz, I get the feeling that Luc Delannoy is ready for rocks to fly. “An author who lives in the United States and publishes a history of Latin jazz ought to have politically correct ideas,” he begins. “His survival depends…
MEMORANDUM March 7, 2002 To: Michael Satz, Kathy Rundle, South Florida prosecutors, police officers From: CES Re: Misplaced priorities It has come to my attention recently that you law-enforcement types have lost respect for a little something called the truth. No, this isn’t 9/11-related. Cops have been hassling reporters and…
Anonymous Annihilation Even football stars should know their detractors: Kirk Nielsen’s story about University of Miami football player Andre Johnson (“End Run,” March 7) had more quotes from ghosts than The X-Files. Next time you want to write a piece that butchers a twenty-year-old kid, Kirk, why don’t you get…
Guy Primus is what the Reverend Al would call one smart Negro. Elegant in his powder-gray suit and meticulous quarter-inch trim, the handsome young exec can whip through a PowerPoint presentation with the assurance of an Ivy League prof. He boasts two degrees from Georgia Tech. A Harvard MBA. Even…
Is it Billboardlive or Billboard dead? That was the question the Los Angeles Times asked in a series of stories probing the troubled club’s health. Billboardlive’s opening-night party was certainly auspicious enough, with a glitterati-packed crowd spilling out into the street. However, “a few weeks later, it quickly became clear…
Strings Attached: The Debate Rages On This string goes over the line: Regarding last week’s letters to the editor about Gaspar González’s article “Strings Attached,” it seems New Times has gone from one extreme to the other. First I agree with those readers who voiced offense at the cover illustration…
David Manson doesn’t look like the kind of guy who would mess up your ears. With his neatly trimmed blond hair, sensible shoes, sturdy belt, and pleated khaki pants he could be a model for clean-cut middle-class America; his trombone could be a holdover from any of a thousand Midwestern…
Rudolf has a novel idea for returning that elusive “cool” factor to the Beach’s nightlife. “We need more homeless people here,” he insists in his clipped German accent. Strolling down Ocean Drive with Kulchur, he casts a mischievous eye at a few lost souls crashed out in Lummus Park. “The…
Strings Attached: Unspoken Agendas It’s not about the Constitution, it’s about exclusion: I was deeply troubled by Gaspar González’s article “Strings Attached” (February 21). He seemed to miss the essential point, that the eruv is not a religious “symbol” in the sense of a visual object or image that conveys…
For nearly a year, county commissioners have been grumbling over efforts by state Rep. Carlos Lacasa to rewrite the county charter and create a strong-mayor form of government. Lacasa had hoped commissioners would give earnest consideration to his suggestions for reform. Instead they snubbed him, derisively informing him that he…
Like the wide Sargasso Sea, Miami seduces. Here float the detritus of Caribbean disaster and dream: deep undercurrents of Africa, mournful melodies of exile, bright promise of prosperity, shark bite of poverty. Many a composer has floundered, fooled by the shimmering surface into believing it a simple thing to harvest…
I Know a Thug When I See One And they don’t always have criminal records: As a former member of the Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board and a former police officer, I found Jim DeFede’s attack on county police director Carlos Alvarez and Police Benevolent Association (PBA) president John Rivera…
Since September 11, local politicians have made efforts to assure us that security at the county’s water-treatment facilities has been dramatically increased. While certainly a prudent course of action, it ignores a far greater danger. The real threat to the county’s water supply doesn’t come from terrorists but from lobbyists…
Spend enough time working in South Beach’s competitive nightlife industry, and you’re bound to make some enemies. Just ask Gerry Kelly. After arriving in Miami in 1994, the Irish-born Kelly spent the next few years cannily rising through the ranks of clubland’s promoters and managers, eventually being hired in 1998…
Don’t Be Unspooled As a Fool As someone who never knew Nat Chediak, I can tell you: The film festival was a wreck! Thanks to Brett Sokol for covering some of the problems associated with this year’s Miami Film Festival, but please don’t let festival director David Poland fool you…
“Over my dead body.” In an odd way it’s an old saying that now works for both John Rivera and Eddie Lee Macklin. The twenty-year-old Macklin was shot and killed last month by a plainclothes Miami-Dade police officer following a Martin Luther King Day celebration in Liberty City. The officer,…
It’s only the second day of the Miami Film Festival, but the event’s new director, David Poland, is already engaged in damage control. After being publicly announced, mysteriously canceled, and then just as cryptically reinstated on the fest’s schedule 24 hours earlier, famed Cuban filmmaker Humberto Solas’s new Miel para…
Openly Biased, Openly Honest You guys are no better than the commies: I read Kirk Nielsen’s article about the Cuban news show Mesa Redonda (“Live from Havana, It’s Mesa Redonda!” January 31) and was impressed with how much the issues he criticized are also true of U.S. media shows. In…
