Recently dismissed ethics complaints against three lobbyists provide a glimpse into how developers will pay off so-called community activists to win support for their projects.In finding that zoning lawyers Juan Mayol, Joseph Goldstein, and Richard Perez did in fact register to lobby on behalf of their client Q2 — a group…
We once heard a comedian say all Mexican food was pretty much the same ingredients put together under different names. For example, what are nachos? Umm, beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, tortillas, meat, salsa. And what are tacos? Umm, beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, tortillas, meat, salsa. And what are enchiladas, burritos,…
Moving Units is a weekly column on Crossfade tracking the best-selling albums at South Florida independent record stores. Top Five Albums for the Week of December 6 – December 12 Sweat Records, Miami 1. Getting On My Mind, Panic Bomber 2. No Mercy, Raffa & Rainer 3. No Seasons, Jacuzzi…
Seems like two life partners of Miami Heat players won’t be joining the ranks of Jose Canseco, Flava Flav, that guy who killed his girlfriend, New York, and various people with porny pasts in the pantheon of VH1 Reality shows after all. When VH1 and Shaunie O’Neal, Shaq’s wife announced plans…
Milton Hirsch will take Barbara Carey-Shuler’s money, but he’ll hold off on her endorsement. And the 2010 Miami-Dade judicial candidate doesn’t want Angel Gonzalez giving him the thumbs-up either.Hirsch removed their names from the official endorsement list on his campaign website, electmiltonhirsch.com, on November 27, days after two Miami city commissioners…
If you thought Phoenix dubstep duo UltraBlack’s minimal moniker was some kind of warning scream against the sleek and opulent evils of future technology, you were wrong. Truth is, Bryan Marek and Nick Suddarth make dark party tracks that, perversely, seem to revel in the debauched potentialities of a not-so-distant dystopia…
A Miami-Dade jury has convicted Liberty City pastor Gaston Smith on one count of grand theft for looting more than $10,000 in grant money intended to help the poor.Yesterday, Banana Republican caught the tail end of closing arguments by Smith’s defense lawyer Larry Handfield and prosecutor Richard Scruggs. Both lawyers…
It’s inevitable … Sometime this Saturday-night-slash-Sunday-morning your half-drunk ass will find itself wandering, like a partied-out zombie, through the near-abandoned labyrinth of weird, winding roads that buffer Transit and those temporary Miami Music Festival tents from the banker-bustle of Brickell. But wait, before you pass out and puke on that…
Update: Jervon A. Smith wants the world to know that he wasn’t a pastor when he did all this creepy shit.We usually use this column to recklessly mock regional idiots who accidentally shoot their toes off or are busted for running pathetic Ponzi schemes. But this week, we’re issuing a…
Mandolin Set To Play Turkish/Greek CuisineIt is a white-washed 1940’s house with blue trimmed windows. There are bougainvillea boasting bright colors, greek oil canisters turned into flower vases, traditional taverna chairs at wooden tables beneath a lantern-lit tree. Mandolin Aegean Bistro, serving rustic dishes authentic to the villages of Greece…
Click here to view photos from this event.Last night, Rakontur debuted an extended version of its upcoming ESPN documentary The U inside Overtown’s historic Lyric Theater. Among the local celebrities in attendance were former University of Miami football players Melvin Bratton, brothers Brian and Bennie Blades, Kelvin Harris, and Randall Hill,…
It’s just about 2010. Here are my choices. What do you think?1. After being snatched by federal authorities, Elian Gonzalez is sent home to his father in Cuba on June 28, 2000.2. Art Basel Miami Beach starts in 2002, an offshoot of the Swiss affair, it changes Miami’s cultural life…
Rothstein for Governor! Spence-Jones for lieutenant: In response to “Sheeee’s Back” (Gus Garcia-Roberts, December 3): Michelle Spence-Jones is demonstrating how little she cares about her constituents by running for office again. If she had one ounce of concern, she would not run until her corruption case is resolved. The burden…
When New Times featured Music is a Weapon over the summer, the Magic City hustlers were giddy with go after a 7-day Netherlands stand that saw the band treated like the rock stars they’re destined to become. You could see the sparkling stars in their eyes, refracting back from the…
At this Thursday’s Miami city commission meeting, Mayor Tomás Regalado and Commission Chairman Marc Sarnoff will sponsor city legislation that would require elected officials and lobbyists to complete an ethics training course. No one is going to argue that ethics reform is long overdue at 3500 Pan American Dr.In fact,…
Real Housewives of the NBA probably couldn’t be used for legal reasons, but reality TV’s love affair with ladies who lunch (and then throw it at each other) continues with VH1’s upcoming Basketball Wives.Although the show might not sate our need for a Miami version of Bravo’s weave-snatchin’, table-throwin’, all-around addictin’…
Last week was, of course, utter art, music, and media ridiculousness — so of course, it’s captured all over the social web. Missed out on a show? Don’t feel bad, practically all of the week’s musical events are on YouTube! Reading reviews of both OK Go’s electrified performance at Design…
Moving Units is a weekly column on Crossfade tracking the best-selling albums at South Florida independent record stores. Top Five Albums for the Week of November 30 – December 5 Sweat Records, Miami Echo Party, Edan Blakroc, Blakroc Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures Daptone Gold, Various Logos, Atlas Sound Radio-Active…
In 2001, a start-up phone company set up shop in a Miramar office park, looking to corner the market on international calls from Little Haiti to Port-au-Prince.It was a great business plan in Miami. Unfortunately, according to the feds, the company’s execs decided there was only one way to make…
My post last week about Luna PIzza’s opening party and the entertainment provided by students from The Miami Charter School generated quite a strong reaction. I think crazy strong. Here is, in its entirety (I’ve added CAPS to a few words I think might have been missed the first time…
Late Friday, at 9:05 p.m., Miami-Dade Judge Beatrice Butchko dealt a serious blow to state prosecutors’ case against a popular pastor in Miami’s black community.Butchko ruled Assistant State Attorney Richard Scruggs cannot use digital recordings of two interviews with Rev. Gaston Smith. They were made months before the clergyman was indicted for…
Richard Scruggs is usually the guy asking people tough questions and getting witnesses to spill the beans. But today Miami-Dade’s veteran public corruption prosecutor was on the receiving end of an intense grilling. And he was not enjoying himself.It went down inside the courtroom of Judge Beatrice Butchko in the…
