Lead Stories *An ancient fear of penis-shrinking sorcery periodically surfaces in Ghana, the latest instance in December. Mobs beat seven men to death in Accra and injured others in Tema, all because of rumors that the men had the power to make others’ disappear by a mere touch. Police said…
Mayor Alex Penelas flew to New York two weeks ago to tell anyone on Wall Street who would listen that Dade County is being led by ethical people whose honesty is beyond reproach. Hoping to distance himself and the county from the negative publicity swirling around the City of Miami,…
Lead Story *Texas A&M student Jonathan Culpepper and his fraternity, Kappa Alpha, were indicted in College Station, Texas, in December on a criminal hazing charge — inflicting a severe wedgie. The grand jury found that fraternity members lifted a candidate off his feet by the waistband of his underwear, resulting…
A few years ago in these pages I described Joel Cheatwood as “the evil genius behind Channel 7’s lurid news style.” The occasion was the release of a Hurricane Andrew documentary Cheatwood and WSVN-TV produced that was about as melodramatic, self-absorbed, and manipulative as you might have expected — just…
She Made Cuba Sing Again I am Julia and Ramon Sabat’s oldest daughter. It is absolutely incredible how Judy Cantor captured not only my father’s personality and dreams, but the pulse of a nation and its people during the Forties and Fifties (“When Cuba Sang,” December 26). Also, without ever…
Still Screaming Over Mimy Regarding Paula Park’s article “What a Lovely Neighborhood” (January 16), people need to realize that there is a societal impact when property owners take a single-family home and re-establish it as a complex to house twenty people. The amount of trash accumulated far surpasses anything imagined…
Standing before U.S. District Court Judge Norman Roettger last Friday, Miller Dawkins appeared sullen and repentant. Three months ago Dawkins resigned from the Miami City Commission after pleading guilty to federal charges that he had traded votes for bribes during an FBI sting dubbed Operation Greenpalm. Now it was time…
Lead Stories *The Brooklyn, New York, organization Shalom Bayis (“Household Peace” in Hebrew) closed down its 24-hour mistress hotline in January after an unfavorable New York Daily News story. A Shalom Bayis spokesman said the hotline’s purpose was to place its 40 volunteer mistresses with unsatisfied husbands in order to…
Building Rights and Wrongs Thanks to Kirk Semple for covering the efforts of the Save Miami Beach PAC to give voters a say about waterfront development. I would like to respond to some of the issues raised in the article (“Arrested Development,” January 16). An anonymous lawyer who is “intimately…
Lead Stories *The New York Police Department announced in December that it has been stepping up enforcement of a little-known ordinance that makes it illegal for a subway passenger to occupy more than one seat (such as by putting a package or one’s feet on an adjacent seat), even if…
Lead Stories *Can’t hold it in: The school board in Durham, North Carolina, suspended a substitute teacher at Hillside High School in November after she urinated into a trash can during class, allegedly because of a medical condition. And fifth-grade teacher Dow Ooten, age 36, was suspended in Charleston, West…
You Don’t Have to Be a Kook to Hate the Sanctuary It’s a shame that Sean Rowe’s article “A Key Battle” (January 9) portrays such a narrow view of why the referendum on the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was defeated in the last election. He didn’t seem to talk…
No Rabbis, No Exiles, No Way It’s encouraging to read positive ideas to make this town more livable, especially the thought of a competing daily newspaper (“New Year’s Revolution,” January 2). But Kirk Semple did not include suggestions from Jewish clergy or Cuban activists. With the calls for forums, community…
Lead Stories *Township supervisors in East Marlborough, Pennsylvania, proposed an ordinance in November to ban offensive smells within the town, requiring that a panel of people with “ordinary and reasonable sensibility” be convened to determine which odors are unacceptable. The issue arose when one supervisor complained about the smell from…
Ever wonder what the initials J.L. stand for in Miami City Commissioner J.L. Plummer’s name? For the longest time, I thought it stood for Just Loquacious. Attend any city commission meeting and you will soon realize that Plummer loves the sound of his own voice. He’s a redneck Chatty Cathy…
If She’s Such a Great Psychic, How Come She Didn’t Know She’d Be Appointed Queen? I suppose Ray Martinez felt compelled, in his article on King Mango’s new queen, Ellen Whitmore, to get into the spirit of the Strut and zero in on the zanier aspects of Ms. Whitmore’s personality…
Lead Stories *Officials at the Central Penitentiary in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, revealed in October that they are encouraging male inmates to marry each other in order to hold down HIV infections. Eight couples have taken the plunge so far. The marriages are valid only in prison because Honduran law does not…
Lead Stories *In October Miriam Flores, serving six years for robbery in Mexico City, was selected Miss Mexico Jailhouse in a pageant that featured fourteen of the city’s foxiest female inmates. A week later Pham Ngoc Tam won first place in a nationwide beauty contest of female jail guards held…
Would You Like Totally Start Making Sense Please? I was totally appalled by Jim DeRogatis’s article “Bush Whack” (December 19). Bush has one thing in common with Nirvana: They both have made great and original music. Bush is the best band to come along since Kurt Cobain died. The group…
A week before Thanksgiving, on Thursday, November 21, the Miami Herald ran a rather laudatory story on the front page of its business section. “BRANDSMART EXPANDING” the headline blared above a large picture of the company’s smiling president Michael Perlman. Below the picture was a secondary headline: “Thriving chain outgrows…
Lead Stories *People getting too much sleep: Michele and Tony Phebus were arrested in Lafayette, Indiana, in August after they fell asleep in their car between the microphone and the pick-up window at a White Castle drive-thru; police found numerous marijuana butts in the car and a brick of the…
No Reservations Regarding Empathy for Native Americans I am writing in response to Paula Park’s informative story about the Miccosukee Tribe in the Everglades (“The Last of the Indian Wars,” December 12). I have done a lot of research on the plight of American Indians. They are unnecessarily confined to…
