Lead Story *Since 1996 accused murderer and paranoid schizophrenic Eric Brown has been rendered incompetent to stand trial, but officials at Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts said recently that he had made enough progress while on medication that a trial can be scheduled. In December, however, Brown demanded to be…
To Find the Real McCoy, Head South … Way South I am writing in response to Judy Cantor’s article “Home for the Holidays” (January 21). May Ochun and all orichas bless them, but the days of the Sonora Matancera and Celio Gonzalez will never return to Cuban music, in Havana…
Lead Stories *Since July the Totenko Chinese restaurant in Tokyo has been offering an all-you-can-eat luncheon buffet (that regularly costs sixteen dollars per person) to the first 30 diners each day at the price of about 30 cents per minute, measured by a time clock that diners punch when entering…
January 1, 1999, brought with it a noteworthy change in Miami’s civic landscape: David Lawrence, Jr., took leave of 1 Herald Plaza. In his nine years as boss man at the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, he held an exalted position of influence in this town, and as we…
StreetSmarts: Keep Them Invisible I enjoyed Kathy Glasgow’s article about StreetSmarts magazine (“Brother, Can You Spare a Byline?” January 7). I read the first issue and found it interesting and well written. How curious, then, was the reported reaction of Lynn Summers, executive director of the Community Partnership for Homeless…
Lead Stories *In November Wichita, Kansas, police removed four children from their parents’ mobile home, which was littered with animal feces. When police arrived they noticed stacks of Star Trek posters and magazines and heard the parents and kids speaking fluent Klingon, the language created for the Star Trek series…
Lorion: I Was Slimed I was flattered that esteemed New Times writer Jake Bernstein and your exceptional publication found my resignation from the formal environmental movement newsworthy enough for an article (“Resignation Indignation,” December 31). But I was sad to read that unnamed former peers question whether my opposition to…
Lead Stories *In December a deer hunter in upscale Nantucket, Massachusetts stumbled across the hatch that leads to the eight-by-eight-by-seven-foot-deep underground squatter’s apartment of Thomas Johnson, age 38. Johnson said he built the place ten years ago when he was on the lam from drug charges in Italy. His apartment…
Lead Stories *In November to improve lagging sales, the Liko-L tourism company in Kiev, Ukraine, announced a new attraction: a daylong visit to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which has been closed to the public since the catastrophic accident there in 1986. Liko-L said the government, in need of tax…
Attorneys R Us In her cover story, “Street Sweepers” (December 24), Kathy Glasgow did an excellent job portraying the difficult choices faced by homeless people, their advocates, and the police. We felt, however, that your readers should be informed of another important service available to homeless people living anywhere in…
If It Works for Tupperware, It’ll Work for Crack Cocaine Kirk Nielsen’s article “Drug Bizarre” (December 24) was excellent, and Robert Dowd’s arguments against the war on drugs seem so logical. The reason drug dealers are harder to control is that, unlike illegal vendors of cigarettes and alcohol, a drug…
Lead Stories *The November Canadian Finals Rodeo in Edmonton, Alberta, featured the very popular “Cowboy Poker,” in which four men sit at a table in the middle of the arena “playing cards,” while a particularly aggressive bull is turned loose. As the bull rushes them, the last cowboy to stay…
As Gov.-elect Jeb Bush ponders whether Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Millan merits a position in his administration, he may first want to make sure the state’s travel budget can afford her. Millan loves to visit faraway places, especially when somebody else is paying. In the past two years she’s taken…
Lead Stories *A November Associated Press dispatch described the work of commercial leech and maggot suppliers who sell to hospitals for medical treatments. A Welsh firm, Biopharm Ltd., moves about 20,000 three-inch-long leeches a year at seventeen dollars each to suck blood through delicate, clogged veins to restore circulation. A…
Place Date Cost Madrid, Spain October 20-27, 1996 $2000 Secaucus, NJ March 15-16, 1997 $566 Tampa, FL April 3, 1997 $134 Madrid, Seville, Spain April 11-22, 1997 $4300 Cascais, Portugal April 26-29, 1997 $600 Philadelphia, PA May 27, 1997 $150 Key West, FL May 28-29, 1997 $480 New York, NY…
Go Ahead Willy, Sell Out the City! Regarding Kirk Nielsen’s “Cloistering the Commodore” (December 17), perhaps the cash-strapped city commission and Commissioner Willy Gort are so short-sighted that they only consider tax dollars these days. Maybe Willy doesn’t get out anymore for fear of being harangued by his long-suffering constituents…
Call it trickle-down corruption. After years of watching politicians and senior county officials line their pockets — a few getting caught, most not — a group of low-level, rank-and-file county employees apparently decided it was their turn. New Times has learned that a ring of eight employees at Miami International…
Obviously a Stranger in Paradise Jay Cheshes’s “The Scary Side of Paradise” (December 3) was a great story. I was born in the Bahamas, so I found it very interesting, probably one of the best articles I’ve seen that describes the situation in Nassau. At the same time, it disturbed…
Lead Stories *The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (Alberta, Canada) announced in November that this year’s single permit to hunt an Alberta big-horn sheep was won by Sherwin Scott of Phoenix, Arizona with a high bid of $405,000 (U.S.). The foundation will use the money for conservation. Scott said he was…
Lead Stories *Calgary, Alberta, construction worker Michael Pearse, age 22, an admitted hothead, pleaded guilty to making threats in 1996 while trying to find a friend’s ex-girlfriend, but at his sentencing hearing in November 1998 he claimed to be a gentle man and had the report of a government neuropsychologist…
Less than ten minutes after the county commission voted to pass the gay rights ordinance, a stunned Miriam Alonso rose from the dais, walked solemnly to her office, closed the door, and threw an old-fashioned, wall-rattling temper tantrum. She screamed. She ranted. She raved. According to several bystanders who walked…
Michael Band: When the Clouds Clear, He’ll Shine Brightly In his article “Prosecution Complex” (November 26), Tristram Korten referred to former Assistant State Attorney Michael Band as a “ruined prosecutor.” He is anything but. I have had the privilege of knowing Michael Band for nearly ten years, since my days…
