INS: Incompetent Nonsense ServiceAnd I should know because I worked there: I am a former immigration inspector at Miami International Airport and am writing in response to Bob Norman’s article “Admitting Terror” (October 18). I agree with Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector José Touron’s assessment of the persistent problems that…
Pushed back from the original September date, the Fourth Annual Mix Show Power Summit finally went down this past weekend, bringing to town more than 100 commercial radio mix-show DJs for some high-profile politickin’. The Eden Roc meet-and-greet sessions were closed to the public, but late-night Thursday through Sunday, jocks…
High and InsideIn perpetual awe of the slugger: I read Gaspar González’s article about Ted Williams (“America’s Past Time,” October 11) and just had to say it gave me chills. I have been a die-hard baseball fan since I was old enough to hold a bat, and ever since then…
On September 5 Emilio Estefan, Jr., and his niece, Univision host Lili “La Flaca” Estefan, made the short list of guests at the Bush administration’s first White House gala, boosting the Latin factor at the dinner honoring Mexican President Vicente Fox. Cowboy to cowboy, the Mexican leader was pushing the…
Investigators on the trail of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Miriam Alonso have uncovered a dizzying array of front groups and secret bank accounts apparently used by Alonso to generate and then hide a private slush fund. Prosecutors and police discovered the existence of these bank accounts while researching Alonso’s connection to…
What’s the tasteful way to make a buck during a time of national tragedy? That’s the question the pop culture industry has been gingerly grappling with a month on from the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In those strikes’ immediate aftermath, entertainment practically vanished from…
Trauma + Emotion = Sincere SentimentAnd Now This Word from Your Pinko Weekly Beware confusing the message with the messenger: In last week’s issue, I was surprised to see a full-page open letter next to the regular letters section that appeared to be endorsed by New Times. It wasn’t signed…
You don’t need to tell the staff at the Delano Hotel that a recession is here. One look at the pool makes it pretty obvious. Gone are the days when only a strategically placed tip would snag you a prime deck chair as the $400-per-night set splashed and sweated in…
Orwellian RageStill, I’ll defend her right to be wrong: My first response to Susan Eastman’s article “1984 and Counting” (September 27) was anger. But upon reflection I realize she had every right to disagree with all the patriotism and fanaticism that follows it. She is correct in her assessment of…
In the dark days of slavery, Carnival offered release. For two days and nights before Lent every year in Trinidad, sorrow gave way to bacchanal as the horrific face of reality was hidden by the mask of fantasy. Now, less than a month after the terrorist attacks, Carnival’s music and…
Even through a closed door you can still hear DJ Greo’s angry voice thundering away. “I got no life!” he hollers. “I got no girlfriend! I got no kids! I’m a grown-ass man now, and all I got is this!” This is Blaze 104.7 FM, the hip-hop station Greo has…
Ferré: Can This Leopard Change His Spots?Not if history is any measure of the future: Ashley Fantz let Maurice Ferré off the hook too easily in her profile (“That Old Familiar Face,” September 13). Ferré is a man who, once upon a time during his early campaigns in the Seventies,…
The most powerful statement made at last Friday’s all-star telethon, “America: A Tribute to Heroes,” was unspoken and unsung. Simulcast by more than 35 networks and cable outlets and 8000 radio stations, the two-hour program quietly provided 89 million viewers with a definition of heroism based solely on saving lives…
From Secret Service to Public ServiceScribe praised, demands promotion, big fat raise: Thanks to Rebecca Wakefield for accepting the challenge of investigating and writing about the plight of my son Patrick Cruise regarding the illegal conduct of the Secret Service (“Life in the Secret Service,” September 13). She did a…
Hoping to keep politics from drowning out the music, the Latin Grammys moved from Miami to Los Angeles. Then the suicide-hijacking of four commercial airliners on the morning of the event blasted the sound of Latin music out of the sky. With more than 5000 bodies buried beneath the rubble…
The silhouette of a go-go dancer shimmies above the broad staircase that leads to Billboardlive. Her ponytail flips as she bends, grabs her ankles, and jutts her posterior toward the promoters, producers, politicians, journalists, and stars waiting for their names to be checked off at the velvet rope below. So…
The condominium was ideal. Located on the twelfth floor, overlooking the ocean, it was in the heart of Miami Beach at 5701 Collins Ave. Two bedrooms and two baths, a cozy 825 square feet of space in a building that came with its own restaurant, fitness center, and beauty parlor…
Emilio: Convenient TargetFree weekly nukes another Cuban success story: I’ve got to hand it to New Times. You certainly don’t discriminate among Cuban Americans. You go after Cuban politicians, businesses, athletes, and now musicians like Emilio Estefan (“Los Producers,” September 6). If only your own biases and insecurities wouldn’t get…
Miriam Alonso, the Miami-Dade County Commissioner whose politics are as shrill as her voice, is under criminal investigation for allegedly misusing campaign contributions collected during her successful 1998 run for re-election. The investigation is being conducted by the public-corruption unit of the Miami-Dade Police Department. Sources close to the inquiry…
It seemed harmless enough at the time. Sitting with Source magazine head David Mays and Source Youth Foundation director Edward DeJesus earlier this summer, Kulchur noticed both men wearing the same distinctive medallion necklaces — an M set inside a black shield. Was there a third Musketeer missing from our…
Those Crazy ArtistsPhenomenological multimedia blitz flummoxes critic: Alfredo Triff’s piece about art events “The House at MoCA” and “The Sears Building” (“In the House,” August 30) was at once supportive, instructional, and full of hope. He used his position as a critic to inform the community about aspects of the…
Will the real thugs please stand up? After two and a half months of fearful teeth-gnashing preceding the arrival of last week’s Source Hip-Hop Music Awards, South Beach endured … just another weekend. There were no hotel trashings, no melees with police, and aside from the occasional woman about to…
