Just when zealous county and state bureaucrats thought they had all their ducks in a row last Tuesday, up popped Kirk Swing, bandy-legged homunculus, noisy organizer, ecological heretic. Swing installs large neon signs for a living but yearns for wilderness. Lately he’s taken to toting a faded snapshot in his…
For the past several weeks radio listeners tuning in to WDNA-FM (88.9) have heard only static where once they could find Miami’s most eclectic music mix: jazz, Latin, blues, folk, rock, and funk. Not to mention Indian, Haitian, Pakistani, and more. Those curious or desperate fans of the community-sponsored, nonprofit…
Imagine Grandma, up bright and early to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies for little Timmy. She uses big, tasty semisweet chocolate chips and just a touch of cinnamon, because she knows that’s the way her grandson likes them. Still warm from the oven, the cookies are carefully wrapped…
For the past two weeks South Beach sun worshippers have had to enjoy the surf and sand the way the early settlers did — without colorfully striped umbrellas or cushions for the ubiquitous wooden lounge chairs on the sand. Comfort and shade turned to sodden ashes June 18, when a…
An unsettling stillness has befallen the Miami coast. Swimmers have abandoned the beaches of Key Biscayne and Virginia Key. Sailboats and windsurfers no longer ply the bay, the marinas are lifeless, and there isn’t a fishing boat in sight. Rotting fish and natural sponges clog the shoreline from Coconut Grove…
This past Friday, June 19, the Florida Press Association announced the winners of its annual Better Weekly Newspaper contest for material published during 1991. For the second year in a row, New Times won six awards in competition with weekly newspapers throughout the state. Two first-place awards were given to…
In its own paradoxical fashion, the Haitian Refugee Center’s lawsuit against Secretary of State James Baker was a coup. A media coup. The court action, filed in November 1991 and aimed at blocking the repatriation of refugees fleeing the September 30 military coup in Haiti, catapulted the local agency into…
It was another lesson in imprudence, taught in this tortuous miasma of hucksters and schemers called South Florida. And everything seemed so legitimate. Here were two smooth-talking guys wielding the name of Mickey Rourke like a magic wand, putting in a last-minute order for a pair of boxing trunks and…
When Richard Peacock proposed building Grove Calloway’s restaurant on McFarlane Road in 1988, he labeled the existing historic Peacock House on the site of his envisioned eatery “an old dump” and “the armpit of the Grove.” It was a termite-infested eyesore of no value to anyone, argued Peacock, a descendant…
At first blush, Kelly Vitolo would seem to be the perfect choice to model for Mary Kay Cosmetics. So when the stunning face that has graced several bridal magazine covers turned up on fliers advertising Mary Kay makeovers for young brides, it should have come as no surprise. Except for…
At least once a week for more than a year Corri Barrs has gone to the beach. Not just any beach, mind you, and not for the usual swimming and sun worship. Corri Barrs is into trash. More specifically, she’s into trash that washes up along a 100-yard stretch of…
At a time in history when South Florida’s mainstream media have devoted unprecedented resources to brainless babies and crackhouse testimonials, it’s comforting to know that at least one member of the fourth estate is determined to keep the grounds free of garbage. The Lantana-based Weekly World News scored another journalistic…
Knife-wielding youths repeatedly stab newspaper editor Jay Vail and his friend as they take in the salt air one recent spring night on the South Beach sand. Another group of kids club interior designer George Tamsitt across the face with a plank and leave him unconscious in a pool of…
In 1969 thousands of giant African snails invaded Dade County, eating lawns and shrubs, and edging hungrily toward the vegetable fields and nurseries south of Kendall. “It was nasty,” recalls Maeve McConnell, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. “You’d crunch as you drove down the…
Sixteen-year-old Bjorn DiMaio and seventeen-year-old Anthony Vincent have not killed anyone, but this Monday, June 15, they are scheduled to stand trial on second-degree murder charges. If convicted, the teen-agers could face seven to twelve years in prison. Their unusual predicament is only one aspect of the controversy that continues…
The partisan political waters of Miami have never been easy to predict or, for that matter, to navigate. As the 1990 snubbing of Nelson Mandela proved, there are political agendas to be addressed and Cuban-exile honchos to be appeased before a hero can receive his plaudits locally. Last week musician/poet…
A Miami lawyer who is dying of AIDS has sued a physician and a fellow attorney, saying the two conspired to illegally obtain hospital records, then gossiped about his medical condition to his co-workers and social acquaintances. The lawyer, who filed suit May 15 under the pseudonymn John Doe, claims…
Last Tuesday at a warehouse in West Dade, six old men broke open a storage crate. Their lives – more than half a century of aviation history – spilled out on the concrete floor in disarray. “I can’t imagine anyone packing this stuff like this,” said Kelvin Keith, one of…
The script would have sent the folks from Cops into spasms of voyeuristic glee. On September 21, 1989, a lone gunman invaded a quiet patch of Miami Beach suburbia, broke into a physician’s home, savagely beat his maid, then engaged two police officers in a life-or-death shootout. Although it was…
Frank Decker walks through the small cottage behind his house, shaking his head. Everywhere he turns, there’s more disappointment – a busted fan, a dented refrigerator, broken windows. The bars to the wrought-iron gate on the back door have been pried apart. The floor inside is littered with garbage and…
Veteran Metro-Dade homicide detective Ramesh Nyberg says his murder mystery is pure fiction, but certain corrupt judges and obfuscating bureaucrats may find it nervous reading. And local bookworms will feel right at home in the novel’s landscape, which ranges from the seedy upper reaches of Biscayne Boulevard to the tomato…
In five months as a criminal court judge in Dade County, Henry Ferro has come to expect days filled with mayhem. His overcrowded docket reads like a True Crime index: assaults, drug deals, sex battery, and all varieties of theft. But nothing could prepare the jurist for the sight that…
