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…
A sign on Griffing Boulevard in the Village of Biscayne Park warns drivers in bold, italicized black-and-red letters: “Don’t even think about speeding.” This suggests the tiny burg is a place where the police department sternly enforces the law so the village’s 3,500 or so residents can safely roam the…
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…
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…
On the fifth floor of the Federal Detention Center in Miami, a short and stocky inmate stood sweeping the floor. Her name was Shonda Ross, and in her 32 years, she had seen the inside of more than a few prisons like this one — Tallahassee, Raleigh, and Danbury, Connecticut,…
Airplane fear can make a lot of money. Just ask the folks at Secure Wrap of Miami, who raked in $7 million for swathing suitcases in a cellophane-like material that prevents unscrupulous baggage handlers or others from pilfering travelers’ belongings. The once tiny company works in dozens of airports around…
Today Bill Cooke at Random Pixels took a shot at New Times and editorial jefe Chuck Strouse. He wrote: I used to love Miami New Times. When I lived in Coconut Grove I knew where the paper was delivered on Wednesday and usually snagged a copy by early afternoon. Since…
When Banana Republican is not out trolling the streets of Miami in search of corrupt politicians, inept bureaucrats, scoundrels, outlaws and other riff-raff that deserve exposing, I like to check out the hipster scene. I’ll roll up a nice fat banana peel, pour a little Macallan’s malt scotch whiskey into my…
This past March 4, the Miami-Dade County Inspector General’s Office announced it had nailed a county vendor falsifying his insurance paperwork in order to get a county contract. Thanks to the inspector general’s investigation, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office was able to charge Eddy Joe Allen Sr. with eight counts…
In Biscayne Park, the village council enjoys taking steps to ensure the residents don’t mess up their enclave’s rustic appeal — even if it means trampling all over the U.S. Constitution. Incorporated in 1933, the Village of Biscayne Park, tucked between North Miami and Miami Shores, is a community of…
Okay I just finished reading the Miami Herald’s latest report on the Florida Marlins stadium boondoggle and Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess needs to call it quits. Seriously. There comes a point when a top executive just has to come clean and tell his shareholders – in this case Miami-Dade…
Recently, I noted the Florida Marlins were in desperate need of a good closer to seal the deal in the team’s decade long quest for a new ball park. Well, they have an opportunity to get themselves one of the wealthiest relief pitchers in the real estate game to help…
In the Fifties and Sixties, North Bay Village was a place where seedy mobsters and corrupt politicians came home to roost. At one point in its 63-year history, a law-enforcement report concluded North Bay Village, a man-made three-island city along the John F. Kennedy Causeway, had “Dade’s largest concentration of…
With the $630 million Florida Marlins stadium deal teetering on collapse, one would think the agreement’s chief architect would be around to quell any concerns elected officials might have about giving away the farm for the ballpark. But it seems Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess is not sweating it. This…
The Florida Marlins are in desperate need of a great closer. Someone who can seal the deal with the Miami City Commission and the Miami-Dade County Commission over the team’s sweetheart $630 million stadium deal. Right now the Marlins dreams of a new domed home on the former Orange Bowl…
For the past two days, I’ve noted all the work Miami-Dade County awards Brazilian engineering and construction firm Odebrecht. Despite a history of completing jobs behind schedule and over budget, the company continues to get the nod to build county-funded projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Part of the…
Madonna mia! Mobster Al Capone, who died 62 years ago in his palace on Palm Island, has a gay grandson. So claims Chris Knight Capone, author of the memoir Son of Scarface, who has been staying at the notorious gangster’s Miami estate for more than a month. Standing by the…
For more than 10 years, Brazilian-based construction firm Odebrecht has made tons of money from Miami-Dade County public works projects. If anything, the company is consistent…at completing jobs behind schedule and charging the county more money to finish. For example, Odebrecht accepted responsibility for having to repair 96 massive concrete…
Imagine you hire a contractor to build your house. And that contractor goes over budget, continually misses deadlines, and then tries to charge you more for it. Logic dictates you wouldn’t hire that contractor again, unless you’re a sucker. Well, Miami-Dade County government is the biggest sucker when it comes…
William “Bill” Perry III is the consummate insider. Once head of the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority and a county mayoral candidate, he has been at the center of a passel of questionable deals. In 2002, he received a last-minute $98,000 loan from the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust to stop foreclosure…
What if the guy investigating bad cops broke the rules? Miami-Dade Police Maj. Donald Rifkin recently lost his job overseeing internal affairs probes into county cops accused of misconduct. Seems he was hitting on a fellow cop, Carmen Pichardo, using sensitive information about her ex as bait. According to the…
Today, Miami Herald reporter Daniel Chang wrote about the South Miami-Dade Cultural Center boondoggle that I swear I read somewhere else nine days ago. Oh yeah! Right here. And it’s not the first time the Herald has been one step behind New Times this week either…
