In last month’s Dinner Key boating tragedy, when a 32′ Contender powerboat slammed into the side of a 36′ Carrera the night of the Fourth of July, ultimately killing four and leaving one in a coma, all five occupants of the Contender were either thrown overboard or knocked unconscious after…
Leslye Jacobs is a longtime environmental advocate and a once-proud University of Miami Hurricane. But two weeks ago, when she learned that the university had sold a swath of endangered pine rockland forest to a Palm Beach Gardens-based developer that planned to build a Walmart, Jacobs, the director of an…
The sign on the corner of West Flagler Street and SW 35th Avenue is huge and explicit: “DESHACEMOS BRUJERIA,” it says in white block letters over a red-and-black background, with an 800 number listed below. “WE UNDO WITCHCRAFT.” It’s left many a driver doing a doubletake and mouthing, ¿Qué? Curiosity…
In the late 1940s and ’50s there was no bigger American media star than Arthur Godfrey, who had become known and loved for his intimate, folksy radio news personality and went on to host programs like the wildly popular daily CBS variety show Arthur Godfrey Time. Beginning in 1953 Godfrey…
Earlier this summer Tom Rigby, a Sarasota resident, was fishing in a local creek when he felt a hard tug on his line. After a protracted fight, Rigby was able to pull the fish onto his boat, but he was stumped at his catch. The large, grayish fish with a…
One morning in the summer of 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics were set to kick off, Juan Zapata, then a Republican Florida state representative, found himself having breakfast with Zhou Wenzhong, the Chinese ambassador to the United States. Someone floated the idea of a Chinese consulate in Miami. Zapata…
One morning in the summer of 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics were set to kick off, Juan Zapata, then a republican Florida state representative, found himself having breakfast with Zhou Wenzhong, the Chinese ambassador to the United States. The breakfast delegation was talking business, and someone floated the idea…
On weekends and holidays Miami-area sandbars like Nixon and Haulover frequently transform into some of the area’s hottest water party spots. But policing the areas is exceedingly difficult, and after a spate of high-profile accidents at Nixon — including the May 4 death of 23-year-old Ernesto Hernandez, who was killed…
Around 4 a.m. last Sunday, neighbors of suburban Grand Junction, Colorado, were awakened by a man desperately running from house to house and knocking on doors, pleading for help as he tried to flee another man. The two eventually ended up in a front yard, where the man who had…
Around 4:30 a.m. Monday police were called about an extremely drunk man outside Mango’s Tropical Cafe, the famous jungle-themed Ocean Drive club. The drunk turned out to be Sergeant Mike Muley, a uniformed Miami Beach police officer who was working off-duty security. The embarrassing arrest sparked the first real reform…
By 2 p.m. on the Fourth of July, the bacchanal at Nixon sandbar just off Key Biscayne is in full swing. A few hundred feet from the sprawling waterfront mansions of Harbor Drive, dozens of women in bikinis gyrate atop boats, strangers with supersoakers generously squirt rum into one another’s…
The “puppy mill” regulation wave continues. Last week, in a move that mirrors several other recent initiatives, Miami-Dade County commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance aimed at cracking down on unethical commercial pet sales. “We’re going as far as we legally can to regulate an industry that is currently unregulated,” said…
The site had been lost to researchers for nearly a century. Tony Pernas had been looking for a decade. His team had logged nearly 100 search hours just this year. But last Monday, deep in the Everglades, miles from any sign of people, Pernas and two other amateur historians found…
Around noon on Monday, several cars belonging to relatives and friends were lined up outside a grieving family’s suburban Palmetto Bay home, and Craig Karpiak was still coming to grips with a bleak new reality. “Nothing matters except she’s gone,” a somber Karpiak said. “That’s my daughter.” More than three…
More than 48 hours after four people were killed and several others injured in a gruesome boat collision near Dinner Key, authorities are still working to determine details of the crash. “Now it’s just a matter of putting the pieces of the puzzle together,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission…
The site had been lost to researchers for nearly a century. Tony Pernas had been looking for a decade. His team had logged nearly 100 search hours just this year. But last Monday, deep in the Everglades, miles from any sign of people, Pernas and two other amateur historians found…
One long night in the late ’90s, Coconut Grove native Robert “Beau” Thompson was “absolutely hammered” and about to get very lucky with the beautiful daughter of an oil tycoon. In the darkness Thompson fumbled for a condom, but he couldn’t tell which side was up. Forced to resign himself…
Just before noon July 20, 2012, Aurora, Colorado police chief Dan Oates stood before a microphone in the parking lot outside the suburban Century 16 movie theater where, less than 12 hours earlier, a maniac in a gas mask had thrown smoke bombs and opened fire during a midnight screening…
Just before noon July 20, 2012, Aurora, Colorado police chief Dan Oates stood before a microphone in the parking lot outside the suburban Century 16 movie theater where, less than 12 hours earlier, a maniac in a gas mask had thrown smoke bombs and opened fire during a midnight screening…
Mark Gadala had a bad Monday afternoon. The 25-year-old founder of Lucid Digital, a Brickell Avenue web design company, typically eats at the Brickell Plaza Chicken Kitchen a couple of times a week. Around 3 p.m. Monday he once again visited the location and ordered a Mexican Chop Chop, a…
Miami’s status as Latin America’s media hub keeps getting bigger. BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the global media behemoth, has now opened a new Latin America headquarters at Alhambra Circle in Coral Gables, bringing in more than 50 employees to run the service’s sales and content distribution for a…
One long night in the late ’90s, Coconut Grove native Robert “Beau” Thompson was “absolutely hammered” and about to get very lucky with the beautiful daughter of an oil tycoon. In the darkness Thompson fumbled for a condom, but he couldn’t tell which side was up. Forced to resign himself…
