As his Hialeah sugar company burned through cash and failed to pay employees, vendors, and landlords, Alexander I. Perez gave plum jobs to former drug-trafficker buddies and raised bundles of cash for Danilo Medina, president of the Dominican Republic.Two weeks ago, Perez’s Banah Sugar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reporting…
Today is it. After more than 15 years on Biscayne Boulevard, Miami New Times is headed for Wynwood. Our new HQ is the Wynwood Building at NW Third Avenue and 27th Street.You know, that zebra-striped building you see in quick cuts at the beginning of Heat games. The place is…
Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week (or thereabouts) in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro to that…
Our nation loves a good cause, and we seem to have made Rihanna one of them. This whole country is just one bad-gal Instagram photo away from a million-man march to raise awareness and call for an end to the singer’s tumultuous relationship with Chris Brown. Never mind that the…
Alba Seaside Italian’s chef/partner Ralph Pagano always has something up his sleeve (and we’re not talking about a spare “King” hidden in his orange chef’s coat — though he probably has that too).Whether it’s telling us a story about his great-grandfather Vinny D. or cohosting a show on Lifetime (yes,…
Florida has some of the nation’s toughest anti-marijuana laws. For instance, anyone caught growing at least 25 plants in their home can be charged with a second-degree felony and face a maximum sentence of 15 years. Even the feds aren’t that draconian. They at least give you 99 plants before…
Chick-fil-A and LGBT Leaders Need to End Their War
Reader Mail: Gun Control Is as Boneheaded as Prohibition
A former drug trafficker who found a lucrative career in Medicare fraud shortly after his release from prison is getting another 14 years in the slammer. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga sentenced Armando “Mandy” Gonzalez for orchestrating a $63 million Medicare scam between 2004 and 2011. He…
Things have gone sour for Banah Sugar. The fledgling, troubled Hialeah-based sugar company has filed for bankruptcy protection less than a year after city and county leaders renamed a local roadway “Banah Sweet Way” and promised to give the firm $400,000 in tax breaks if it hired 300 people. On…
Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke wants to help Chick-fil-A embrace the Rainbow Coalition.I’d like to offer my pro bono services as a mediator…
If you didn’t get to partake in any of the epic adventures that went down this past weekend at the SoBeWFF – we’re so sorry. It was everything we could have possibly imagined — nothing less than the Garden of Eden; Shangri-La; Nirvana. There were copious quantities of cocktails, edible…
Yikes! Michael Samuel has some explaining to do in New Orleans. The co-developer of Midtown Miami has reportedly been fingered in an federal indictment of Ray Nagin, the former mayor of the Big Easy who rose to national prominence in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Nagin is accused…
Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week (or thereabouts) in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro to that…
Just a week ago, Baauer and his “Harlem Shake” was simply an underground sensation. Sure, his name was on the lips of everyone in the know, but how many skinny-jean hipster trapper keepers are there? This morning, Baauer holds the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, the first…
“Welcome to Pleasureville!” It’s a magical place where everybody masturbates (solo or en masse) every minute of every day. And there is never a shortage of over-the-counter sex toys, tingly warming lube, or Ecstasy™ condoms. Or as we here at Crossfade call this autoerotic paradise… South Beach. Just listen closely…
Reader Mail: The CIA Definitely Runs Drugs
Ari Pregen picked the wrong strip club to throw his weight around. On January 26, the Miami-Dade assistant state attorney gained free admission for himself and two pals into downtown Miami’s Goldrush by flashing his work badge at the club’s executive manager, Jeff Levy. A few hours later, Pregen again…
Somebody must have been on the receiving end of a misfired shot of Guy Fieri’s Donkey Sauce and isn’t too happy about. The food television personality and his team forgot to buy all of the web addresses that could be associated with his Times Square restaurant. Hilarity ensued…
In the 1970s, Miami’s Henry Stone and TK Productions sold hundreds of millions of records around the world. Yes, hundreds of millions of records around the world. TK was a humble eight-track studio in Hialeah operated by a close-knit team of musicians and songwriters. The family worked together on each…
For this week’s cover story, I dove headfirst into South Florida’s gun culture to find out why so many people in the tri-county area — and the Sunshine State — are into firearms. While President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders are pushing to reinstate the federal assault-weapons ban that…
Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke explains why Lil Wayne is a dick.Miamians are mad as hell at rapper Lil Wayne because he said…
