Opinion & Commentary

Juan Kuryla must be the happiest man working for Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who recently announced he wants property owners to swallow a 5 percent tax rate hike to balance his proposed budget. On April 29, Mayor Carlos Gimenez promoted Kuryla from deputy seaport director to the head honcho…

Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke is loving HOV’s new album. With the release of his latest opus, Magna Carta… Holy Grail, Jay-Z has…

Athletic rugby jocks, mid-aged men wearing cowboy hats, and ladies dressed in patriotic red, white, and blue costumes crowded a rectangular inflatable kiddie pool filled with bright red Jello by the back stage of Churchill’s Pub. Before the ladies of the Fort Miami Women’s Rugby League made their entrance and…

If I ever own a restaurant, it would be a lot like Pizzeria Oceano. Located in a sleepy beach town in Palm Beach County called Lantana, the teeny restaurant only accepts cash. The menu changes daily. The dining room? It’s a wooden deck lined with benches and potted herbs, all…

Word to the wise aspiring politicians: If you omit financial information when disclosing your personal net worth to voters, you will get caught. Just ask Mark Weithorn, who ran a failed campaign for state legislative seat representing Miami Beach last year. At its regular meeting in June, the Florida Commission…

While Miami-Dade residents are gearing up to celebrate American Independence, the Christian Family Coalition is making sure one group of people don’t get to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In response to a proposed amendment to the county’s human rights ordinance that would protect transgender folks from…

I hope President Barack Obama is tuning in to the George Zimmerman murder trial. It is showing off his greatest failure. Last week, media pundits, trial commentators, and internet racists ridiculed Rachel Jeantel, the 19-year-old star witness who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin right before Zimmerman shot the…

Dangerous Sugar Respect yourselves: Your piece about college women looking online for wealthy men (“Sugar Babies,” Michael E. Miller, June 27) makes it clear that Miami is reaching a new level of grime. This is prostitution. Instead of using these men and selling their bodies, there are other options these…

Boy, Steven Bateman doesn’t know when to quit. Today, the Miami Herald published an article about another suspicious deal involving the Homestead mayor that appears riddled with conflicts-of-interest. It’s becoming a pattern that has spawned separate investigations by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission into Bateman’s…

Luther Campbell, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke addresses the president’s biggest fail. I hope President Barack Obama is tuning into the George Zimmerman murder trial…

A crew of New Yorkers decked out in black baseball caps, black-and-neon muscles tees, and old-school Nike kicks, hard-core players slapping ping-pong balls, and hitting up nines on pool tables, ladies getting rowdy on a stripper pole, and guys showing off their hip-hop skills to a remix of Daft Punk…

The injustice that began with the murder of Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin continues. As the trial of George Zimmerman, the man who shot the 17-year-old boy last year, gets underway in Sanford, I find it appalling that Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson did not allow a single African-American…

Steroid City Blame Bud: Instead of persecuting Porter Fischer, the source who provided documents from Coral Gables clinic Biogenesis that indicate it was selling performance-enhancing drugs to ballplayers (“Source Code,” Tim ­Elfrink, June 20), how about going after the real crook here, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig? His whole…

Ah, there is nothing quite like a scam perpetrated in Miami. Just about any racket can thrive in this sunny place for shady people. All it takes is a little moxie and a whole lot of deviousness. The latest example involves four locals who suckered 11 banks and two credit…

Big homie is the Bawse. Except when it comes to geography. Yesterday, Rick Ross boarded a jet plane with his manager Gucci Pucci, bound for the land where mankind was born. And upon arrival, the pair “discuss[ed] how far we’ve come,obstacles,victories and new $ to get as the sun rise…

Paula Deen’s Food Network career imploded last Friday after the cable network said it would not renew her contract. Though Food Network’s simple statement, “Food Network will not renew Paula Deen’s contract when it expires at the end of this month,” did not mention a reason, it comes after a…

Ernesto Perez, founder and president of Dade Medical College, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this month. As the Miami Herald reported June 8, the Miami-Dade State Attorney and the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission are conducting separate probes into why Homestead Mayor Steven Bateman pushed officials to…

The injustice that began with the murder of Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin continues. As the trial of George Zimmerman, the man who shot the 17-year-old boy last year, gets underway in Sanford, I find it appalling that Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson did not allow a single African-American…

A red banner outside Brother Jimmy’s BBQ invites you to “Put Some South In Yo’ Mouth.” We’re talking Meat and Beats. Every Saturday night, locals and tourists alike in shorts, hats, and sandals hit up the Southern barbecue joint for some pickleback shots, Fighting Cock bourbon, and hot ‘cue. And…