An iPhone buzzes inside a Wynwood restaurant, and Naudimar Herrera’s bright brown eyes light up when he sees the caller: the downtown Federal Detention Center. ”Patrick, what’s up, my brother?” he barks into the phone. “You got to hang in there, man.” On the other end, Patrick Abraham sits in…
Just before 8 last night, two dozen protesters in white T-shirts stared at the hulking Federal Detention Center downtown and held their breath. From one of the highest slit-like windows cut into the massive concrete face, a pinprick of light suddenly waved back and forth. The crowd erupted. “That’s Sunny!”…
This past week, we brought you the story of Rudy and Robert Pedraza, the Miami brothers who have taken on Apple by hacking its OS X to run on cheap PCs.Although the self-funded, self-taught programmers are taking on a computer giant, we wrote, they might just have a chance to…
Back in the 1970s, while working on George McGovern’s doomed presidential bid in Texas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Taylor Branch shared a room with two driven young Yalies named Bill and Hillary Clinton. When the man from Hope won the White House in ’92, Clinton invited Branch — in secret, even from…
Robert Pedraza is a 24-year-old self-taught programmer with a thin frame, spiky dark hair, gleaming braces, and squinty eyes. His brother Rudy is a year older and a quarter-foot taller. He counters the computer-nerd image with a half-buttoned dress shirt and an intense stare. Last year, the two Miami natives…
A couple months ago, the City of Miami’s budget was about as well-balanced as Gary Busey on PCP. The Commission, Mayor Manny Diaz and the city’s three unions staged a vicious tug-of-war over who would feel the most pain in plugging a $118 million hole. But as Tomas Regalado prepares…
Police arrested a Miami Southridge Senior High School teacher today on charges that he molested a 14-year-old boy on multiple occasions. The teacher, Frank Matthew Galatas, allegedly performed oral sex on the boy twice last month, says Officer Jeffrey Giordano, a spokesman for the Miami Police Department. Galatas, who is…
In January, New Times brought you the story of a handful of indigenous Bolivians who traveled to Miami to seek justice against two well connected former leaders who were in charge during a bloody massacre outside La Paz in 2003. The Bolivians claimed that former President Gonzalo “Goni” Sanchez de…
Here in South Florida, we’ve done a number to Mother Nature that few other regions in this fine country can match. In just over a century, we’ve dammed the Everglades, plopped whole cities down in the middle of supposedly protected wetlands, funneled Niagara-worthy loads of sewage into the ocean and paved…
Riptide was feeling all warm and fuzzy this morning. No, it wasn’t just from all the vodka in our coffee. (What, like you don’t start your day with a little ‘Russian java’?) The latest employment numbers came out this morning, and it looks like our Kanye-on-the-VMAs-esque disaster of an economy…
Is Miami guy Robert Kelly a spy or a wacko?
Looks like Phil Davis is finally heading to the pen.The ex-Miami judge, who wriggled out of jail time in a federal sting operation in the early ’90s by admitting a raging cocaine habit, was found guilty of fraud today.Prosecutors built a case against Davis involving a non-profit he founded in…
The handful of City of Miami voters who bothered to roll by the polls yesterday sent an age-old but always cringe-inducing message: Cash and name recognition wins elections.Actual plans for the city? Meh. Not so important.In the four contested races in the city, voters went nuts over well-funded Tomas Regalado…
If ever the Miami State Attorney’s Office has prosecuted a lose-lose case, the ongoing trial of former judge Phil Davis is it. Getting a conviction might just make the prosecutor’s office look negligent in its past dealings with the alleged fraud organizer.If Davis’ sname sounds familiar, it’s because he was…
Let’s just get this out of the way: Riptide is the last place you’ll read any criticism of Alan Grayson, the U.S. representative from Orlando, for his raging political Tourette’s syndrome.We wish more politicians would jump on the Grayson crazy train. What’s better than hearing your local rep of accusing…
Robert Kelly certainly has the tricks of the spy trade down pat. He talks in mysterious acronyms, like “NOC” — which stands for “no official cover.” He refuses to have his photo taken. He talks about elaborate take-downs and ruses straight out of a Burn Notice plot.Getting the full truth…
Almost a month after Riptide broke the story that likely mayor-in-waiting Tomas Regalado once helped lead a fundraiser for Miami’s most infamous terrorist, it looks like Regalado has finally admitted his role on the record.Just don’t hold your breath for any real explanation from the candidate.A quick recap: in 1983, a…
Today marked the official beginning of election season, with early voting kick-starting around Miami-Dade for the November 3 general elections, and here at Riptide we’re feeling that democratic itch.But, frankly, we’re already looking forward to next August’s statewide races. Why, you ask? Because the Miami Vice lobby just weighed in,…
In this week’s New Times, you read about how difficult it is for police to break up brutal dog-fighting rings — even with tough new laws on the books. Unless cops see a fight in person, as they did in a Miami case, they rarely get the conviction.There’s a flip…
Of all the outrages perpetrated at Guantánamo Bay — which New Times explored in depth earlier this year on our visit to the prison camp in southern Cuba — one of the strangest has to be the military’s music-based “futility technique.”In case you’ve succeeded in washing the stain of Gitmo…
South Florida dogfighting rages on despite tough laws
Saying Michael Pizzi is the kind of guy who’s made a few enemies in this town might qualify as the understatement of the year.The U.S. probation officer turned criminal defense lawyer turned politician and elected Miami Lakes mayor is a full-time crusader who lives for a dirty street brawl. New Times…
