If you’re the ultimate pessimist, J.D. Patterson’s move to reassign 16 detectives from the Miami-Dade Police Public Corruption Bureau to other units means the fight against public rackets just got weaker. Political blogger Elaine de Valle, who first broke the news, offered her cynical take: “Guess we’re done with the…
Community outrage over Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s decision to potentially shutter 22 libraries has led to his administration removing six sites from the closure list. For now, the Culmer, Opa-locka, Lemon City, Little River, Shenandoah, and Lakes of the Meadows branches will remain open unless county commissioners vote otherwise in…
Almost 200 years ago, famed naturalist Charles Darwin boarded the HMS Beagle, an exploratory vessel captained by pioneering meteorologist Robert FitzRoy, for an epic voyage to the wildly exotic, nearly untouched, species-rich Galápagos Islands. There, Darwin and FitzRoy would explore the landscape and catalog the biosphere and become renowned men…
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 assesses the fight for District Five in the City of Miami. Rev. Richard Dunn II and all of…
The sweet smell of liquor filled the smoky room as a Blondie doppelganger rocked on to AC/DCs “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.” It was karaoke night at Seven Seas, and just like the crowd you would expect to find at one of Miami’s best dive bars, former self-proclaimed rock stars…
We’re sort of obsessed with Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” In fact, we’ll even go so far as to confess to taking writing breaks to dance around the office. Maybe it’s the catchy “Got to Give It Up” sampling and the ’70s funk vibe, but it’s the song of the summer…
When it comes to George Zimmerman’s acquittal, President Barack Obama needs to go much further. Saying “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago” is not enough. Although it was nice to see the commander in chief finally address the nation about his blackness, it’s time for him to…
The Acquittal Justice, not racism: Whatever Uncle Luke may think, George Zimmerman’s acquittal had nothing to do with race (“No Justice for Trayvon,” Luther Campbell, July 18). It had to do with the fact that Zimmerman was in fear for his life. I would like to see anyone who was…
Cuban gangster Raonel Valdez won’t have to worry about his victim George Villegas testifying against him. Over the weekend, Villegas died of a heart attack in his Coral Gables apartment, the same one Valdez had been staking out for months in late 2012 hoping to catch Villegas slipping. On October…
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 has some advice for the President. While it was nice to see President Barack Obama finally address the…
If you wake up to WLRN weekday mornings, you might have noticed a familiar voice missing from the airwaves. Last week, the Miami-Dade County School Board-owned public radio station fired anchor/reporter Phil Latzman after he allegedly stormed out of a training session. Latzman’s departure follows the canning of news director…
Living in South Beach is like getting gonorrhea: it’s all fun and easy until suddenly everything comes to a painful stop. Lately, SoBe residents have woken up to find a foot of foul-smelling water inside their cars. When they bail out their rides, they still face insane traffic jams to…
Coral Gables is a city that prides itself in looking classy and keeping its aesthetics pleasing to the eye. The City Beautiful, after all, spent a quarter of a million tax dollars and fought all the way to the Florida Supreme Court in 2003 to keep its prohibition on trucks…
There’s a lot of talk about racial divides in this country. But there’s one thing that Americans of all colors, creeds, ethnicities, and walks of life can agree on: Riff Raff is a fucking embarrassment. Have you seen this confused individual? He’s supposed to be a joke (we think), but…
Cubano Crime Marielito mayhem: Your story argues that a recent gold heist shows how Cuban gangs are still running Miami (“Golden Heist,” Francisco Alvarado, July 11), but that does not mean Cubans are unique in dominating crime in Dade County. Some ethnically identifiable group always predominates in a city, for…
George Zimmerman’s acquittal for murdering Miami Gardens teen Trayvon Martin has everything to do with race. That’s why I’m offended by white people criticizing African-Americans for making the boy’s death about the racial divide that still exists in America. I was especially appalled when Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara, had the…
On his recent hit “Open Letter,” Jay-Z raps: “Politicians never did shit for me, except lie to me, distort history.” He can’t ever say that again, unless he tacks on a line about “and review my new album Magna Carta Holy Grail via Twitter at 40,000 feet on the way…
As much as we all love to hate corporate America (hell, we’re an alt-weekly, it’s kind of our shtick) — it has one big asset: convenience. After all, with 60-hour work weeks, bicycle bar crawls and that pesky need for sleep, ain’t nobody got time for consumer responsibility. And there’s…
In early May, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the County Commission delayed the certification of 11 affordable-housing developers because one of the firms, Carlisle Development Group, is under investigation by a federal grand jury. Citing a Miami Herald report, Gimenez’s administration put on the brakes because the feds suspect…
George Zimmerman’s acquittal for murdering Miami Gardens teen Trayvon Martin has everything to do with race. That’s why I’m offended by white people criticizing African-Americans for making the boy’s death about the racial divide that still exists in America. I was especially appalled when Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara, had the…
Come the second Saturday of every month, European tourists with Nikons hanging around their necks, local hipsters, art aficionados, booze seekers scouting free drinks, and just about everyone else flocks to Wynwood for Art Walk. And while the true purpose of this monthly event is allowing galleries to enjoy a…
Embattled South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez De Castro is facing new accusations that he abused his power to conduct illegal criminal background checks on his perceived enemies. Last week, De Castro pleaded no contest to Miami-Dade ethics charges that he steered police department business to his wife’s auto tag…
