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Kathy Glasgow

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Multiple District Disorder

Divide North Miami and you also divide a burgeoning Haitian-American voting bloc. Was that the plan?

By Kathy Glasgow
Dec 13, 2001

On November 27 the North Miami City Council, after twenty minutes of discussion and public comment, unanimously passed a resolution challenging the newly drawn Miami-Dade County Commission district boundaries. The resolution, the first step in a process leading to a lawsuit against the county, charges the new district plan violates...
Timing is everything

Rolando Barral's long, bumpy ride as the Johnny Carson of Latin TV

By Kathy Glasgow
Nov 22, 2001

Y tres, dos -- cue the band, cue the host, canned applause up, and Rolando Barral strides onto the set and over to his desk, arms raised in greeting. Dressed in a gray suit and pale lavender shirt, the trim 62-year-old Barral carries himself with the low-key sureness of a...
Downy and Dirty

Emilio Plana was known to millions of television viewers as an amiable softie, not a killer

By Kathy Glasgow
Nov 15, 2001

Everyone's seen him. Everyone knows him. A friendly, middle-age man with classic Latin good looks, the type of gentleman who inspires instant trust. You've seen him on television, just being a family man: sitting around the dinner table with an equally attractive wife and children, laughing with old friends at...
The Opa-locka Three

On any other day, these black firefighters' comments on the flag might have gone unnoticed

By Kathy Glasgow
Oct 25, 2001

The news, coming as it did just days after the terrorist attacks on the United States, outraged the nation: Three Miami-Dade County firefighters -- Muslims -- refused, because of their political beliefs, to fly the flag of the United States on their fire truck. This item was first aired on...
An Old-Fashioned Mayor

Hialeah's Raul Martinez: "I don't need a machine"

By Kathy Glasgow
Oct 11, 2001

On September 14, amid the nonstop Attack on America! news coverage, at least two of Miami's TV stations paused long enough to report the results of Hialeah's municipal elections earlier that Friday: Mayor Raul Martinez and four incumbent city councilmen had been returned to office without opposition. Hialeah city clerk...
The Salsa Wars

Casino style has become wildly popular, but the real action is taking place off the dance floor

By Kathy Glasgow
Aug 16, 2001

Just before midnight on Saturday, July 21, Jacira Castro sat down at her computer to check her e-mail one last time before going to bed. Up came the homepage of the Internet site she publishes. But it wasn't her homepage. In huge type here's what she saw: "THIS IS A...
Gotcha!

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart owes the FEC 30 grand for arrogant electioneering. Finally.

By Kathy Glasgow
Jul 26, 2001

In March 2000, after a yearlong investigation, the United States Federal Election Commission (FEC) made public an eighteen-page report on its audit of the Lincoln Diaz-Balart Campaign for Congress. The audit -- only the fifth in three years to target a member of Congress -- covers the 1997-98 election cycle,...
By the Hour

It was easy for the county to pass a law requiring workers to earn a living wage. It wasn't so easy making it stick.

By Kathy Glasgow
Jun 28, 2001

In May 1999 the Miami-Dade County Commission unanimously approved a "living wage" ordinance. Laws like it are not common around the nation, and for workers in South Florida, where many businesses thrive on the backs of abysmally paid immigrants, it is truly significant. The ordinance fixes the minimum wage for...
Used, Abused, and Forgotten

What happens when you muster the courage to complain that you've been sexually assaulted at an INS facility? Not much.

By Kathy Glasgow
Jun 21, 2001

One afternoon a little more than a year ago, Ginette walked into a women's bathroom at the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service's Krome Service Processing Center in western Miami-Dade County. There in front of her, sitting on a toilet but fully clothed, was a leering, uniformed detention officer. For...
A New Political Complexion

Come next week, the City of North Miami will be a very different place

By Kathy Glasgow
May 3, 2001

The April 14 party to launch Alix Desulme's campaign for a seat on the North Miami City Council had a small-town, familiar feeling, not unlike most political events in this municipality of almost 60,000. Desulme's kickoff, just three weeks before the May 8 election, took place at the Jaycees headquarters...
Voice of a Nation

Radio and TV Martí are supposed to remain above politics and provide Cubans with unbiased news. This is not a joke; it only seems like one.

By Kathy Glasgow
Apr 19, 2001

In the summer of 1997, a Cuban government agent instructed one of his contacts in Miami to exploit a nascent division between two influential segments of the exile community: the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) and the new directors of Radio and TV Martí, the U.S. government stations beamed at...
My Name Is Victor, and I'm a Jailbird

Too bad the county makes it so hard for me to get into a recovery program

By Kathy Glasgow
Apr 5, 2001

Victor was arrested this past February for buying twelve dollars' worth of crack cocaine from undercover Miami police officers. It was his second arrest in three months for the same crime. He was taken to jail -- the Metro-West Detention Center -- and because he'd violated the conditions of his...
Addiction Affliction

You thought going cold turkey was painful? Try Mohamed Ibrahim's rehab program at the Sea Winds Healthcare Services.

By Kathy Glasgow
Feb 22, 2001

By late fall of last year, Michelle was becoming suicidal. Depressed and desperate to kick her alcohol addiction of many years, the Orlando resident picked up the Yellow Pages hoping to find a rehab program that would work this time. One of the first listings was something called "Aaron Alcohol...
A Cuban Idyll

In the island's countryside the land is lovely, the people are humble, and life is unforgiving

By Kathy Glasgow
Feb 8, 2001

Lucinda and I reached the Santiago bus terminal at about six o'clock Sunday morning, December 17, San Lazaro's Day. The predawn darkness was moist and warm. We had walked the few miles from Lucinda's half-brother's house, wending our way downhill through narrow streets. At that still hour some store windows,...
Low Pay, High Stress

The county raised parking rates for airport workers, some of whom crashed and burned as a result

By Kathy Glasgow
Feb 1, 2001

Late last year Miami-Dade County administrators announced that Miami International Airport workers would pay five dollars per month more for parking privileges, effective this February 1. No one seemed too concerned about the increase since it wasn't too steep, and, in any case, most companies doing business at the airport...
Tough as Nails

Three years after the immigrant workers at Aljoma Lumber voted to unionize, they still don't have a contract. Why? José Lamas refuses to give them one.

By Kathy Glasgow
Jan 11, 2001

From time to time the employees at Aljoma Lumber, Inc., watch nonchalantly as José Lamas descends in his helicopter, touching down in the middle of the Aljoma compound in Medley. After the rotund white-haired Lamas steps unsteadily to the ground, and the chopper has risen overhead again, a haze of...