Elvy Mussika is a former South Florida resident who uses medical marijuana — grown and supplied directly by the federal government. As detailed in our October “Legalize It” issue, the government started a program in 1982 that supplied pre-rolled joints to patients with chronic conditions. George H.W. Bush cut all…
A coalition of immigrant-rights groups is publicizing data obtained after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that shows a new program that aims to identify dangerous criminals who are here illegally is having major side effects, intended or not.The “Secure Communities” program is…
“This is a person who was suicidal, he wanted to kill himself and he decided to have a deputy do it,” BSO spokeswoman Dani Moschella told a TV news station shortly after the death of James M. “Matt” Perdue, who was 42.But behind every police shooting, there is a story:…
Well, that’s a relief. Good to know that the City of Hallandale Beach wasn’t covering up some massive intrigue when it covered up charitable contributions in public records with no explanation. No, they were just covering up a good old blunder: taking money from the wrong bank account.When Dr. Judy…
The Broward Sheriff’s Office is referring to a man shot by deputies in Hollywood on Sunday as “agitated” and “suicidal,” but has not released information about his mental condition that would confirm what his intentions were when he allegedly threatened to shoot a cop, evaded deputies in a vehicle chase,…
“I didn’t fight to become Gov. of the greatest state in nation to settle for a status quo that doesn’t promote the potential of our people,” tweeted Rick Scott in a typical bout of unsubstantiated braggadocio. See also: “Florida can become the most innovative and effective place in the country…
After a statewide immigration raid in December netted 95 arrests — eight of whom were supposedly in Broward — New Times submitted a request to the federal government under the Freedom of Information Act for the records containing any biographical information about those arrested in Broward or Palm Beach counties.Immigration…
Ever wish there were more establishments on Fort Lauderdale beach than just swanky resorts, cut-rate motels, and those shops that sell “FBI: Female Body Inspector” shirts and mysteriously manage to stay in business?Two international hedge-fund managers are here to help. As Scott Wyman at the SS reports, Swedish investor Par…
Like the saga of adverse-possession guru Mark Guerette, another South Florida story has attracted the attention of a New York Times reporter. This time, the tragedy is unquestionable: A man named Lataurus Randall was shot by masked robbers near the 17th hole at the Deerfield Country Club on Thursday, January…
Most people are proud of their charitable donations and don’t mind publicizing them a bit. But the people who run the city government of Hallandale Beach are not most people.All of the donations that a city makes to charity are supposed to be available as public records, including who the…
You’ve got to hand it to a federal drug enforcement official who actually travels around and talks to people instead of just sitting in an office thinking up ways to scare dope-smoking high-schoolers. U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske recently took a trip to Appalachia, where prescription-painkiller abuse is rampant. And…
Belle Glade is a small outpost nestled among the cane fields near the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. “Muck City,” as it’s also called, houses a large number of the low-wage workers who tend the fields and produce America’s largest supply of sugar cane.Some of those workers live in deplorable…
Robert Levinson’s family says that the retired FBI agent was in Iran to investigate a cigarette-smuggling case when he disappeared in Iran in 2007. Since then, his family has urged the Iranian government to cooperate with an investigation, to little avail. No news of his whereabouts or whether he was…
Jimmy Dac Ho, the 47-year-old Vietnamese-American man who has been charged with fatally shooting escort Sheri Carter a month ago, resigned from his job as a Florida Atlantic University police officer after confessing to the shooting.Ho met Carter through the escorts listing section on Backpage.com. He and Carter were allegedly…
To document the depth of the housing crisis, New Times is profiling some of South Florida’s forgotten homes.Location: A half-block of unfinished cinder-block foundations — for 24 unbuilt homes — stretches along NE 16th Avenue from Eighth to Ninth streets in Fort Lauderdale, a block south of …
In this week’s feature, we tell the story of Mark Guerette, who saw a glut of empty houses and people with no place to go and decided to take the matter into his own hands. After moving more than a dozen families into foreclosed houses and collecting rent for a…
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A bunch of grizzled veterans sit around in a hot room, bending into strange contortions. No, it’s not an off night at the Elks Club. It’s a new program that offers free yoga classes to armed-services veterans.The “Connected Warrior” classes, currently at Yoga South in Boca Raton, are led by instructor…
Our feature article this week is about Mark Guerette, who decided to take advantage of an old squatter’s-rights law called “adverse possession” to move low-income families, some with checkered pasts, into empty foreclosed houses around Broward County. Mark was eventually charged with fraud because he charged rent for property that…
Terry Smith gunned his late-model Chevy down the Ronald Reagan Turnpike toward a house that wasn’t his, racing to move his family and all his possessions. Minutes earlier, he had been driving a tractor-trailer in Fort Pierce when he noticed four missed calls on his cell phone from his son…
The feds have taken note of South Florida’s illegally run “pill mills,” and a yearlong undercover investigation culminated in an early-morning raid today. It focused on mills that flouted prescription laws. Rounded up in the sweep was Zvi Perper, a Delray clinic owner and son of the Broward medical examiner…
While it may be exaggeration to say he wants Florida’s “pill mills” to stay open, Rick Scott has smacked down a whole bunch of rules that would regulate and monitor their activity. First he announced a freeze on new rules that would help the state crack down on fly-by-night clinics,…
