Six days ago, on December 4, the Florida Department of Education released its 2013-2014 teacher evaluations. These findings, which take into account student test scores and classroom evaluations, are useful for two reasons: 1) They provide parents with a comprehensive list that can help them choose the right school for…
Last Friday during Art Basel in Miami, Pembroke Pines graffiti artist Delbert Rodriguez Gutierrez — AKA Demz — was struck by an unmarked Miami Police Department car while fleeing from cops. Demz had run from the officer after he was spotted tagging a building in Wynwood. The accident caused severe…
Lake Worth Mayor Pam Triolo’s decision to walk out of a commission meeting before atheist Preston Smith gave his invocation last Tuesday is causing a ripple effect. In response to Triolo’s walkout, atheist and blogger Chaz Stevens has now asked the city for permission to give a satanic invocation at…
There are nearly 2 million people spread across 1,320 square miles and 30 cities in Broward County. That’s a lot of ground to cover. Chances are, you haven’t seen every inch of Broward, but that’s OK. Because we’re here to help make sense of it all. We’ve ranked all 30…
It’s looking likely that gay marriage in Florida can proceed after January 5, and court clerks around the state have been seeking advice from legal experts about exactly how and when they will issue marriage licenses and let weddings proceed. Yesterday, the Broward Clerk’s Office posted a memo on its…
The mayor of Lake Worth and a handful of commissioners walked out as an atheist was about to give an invocation before a meeting last week. Like many cities, the commission allows a religious invocations to be given before holding their meetings. But as atheist Preston Smith walked up to…
As with his first trial, convicted polo magnate John Goodman’s retrial wasn’t without drama. Among the bigger issues was over a Vermont con man who offered to screw up the trial for big cash. The man, James Perron, 48, allegedly texted a witness and Goodman confidant Kris Kampsen saying he’d…
If same-sex couples can get married in Florida, like everyone else, they can get divorced too. That’s what Broward Judge Dale Cohen essentially ruled on Monday when he overturned the state’s ban on gay marriage while presiding over the divorce of a same-sex couple who had been married out of…
A Royal Palm Beach man who called himself “King” was convicted of pimping women, keeping their money, and beating them when they didn’t do as he said, sometimes even using a hair iron. He got 37 years in federal prison. Jesse Lewis, 28, was sentenced to 30 years in federal…
The python — a speckled four-footer who’ll go down in the books as “Ibzan” — twists viciously in Tom Rahill’s gloved hand like a downed power line. Rahill sucks in his gut, stretches out his arm, and grips the snake’s tail. Wiggling furiously, the angry animal releases a shower of…
Inside a Miami Shores Starbucks, a 34-year-old with tangled hair and a slight limp shakes his head at the green-aproned baristas while he tries to order a simple coffee. “The one with milk. A latte? A macchiato?” Travis Donald has been homeless around Fort Lauderdale since 2011, though he prefers…
By Kat Bein Update: Police have suspended their missing persons search after photos of Malika James surfaced. In these photos she was alone and appeared unharmed. Original Post: Malika James, 28, is a regular face in the Miami nightlife scene but has officially been missing for about 38 hours. James’…
Tallahassee attorney Seven Andrews has been on a crusade to prove that Gov. Rick Scott used his private Gmail account to circumvent around Florida’s public records law. Andrews convinced the courts to have Google subpoenaed to turn over basic information about Scott’s private email accounts. And now, just a couple…
Back in October, New Times published a feature on people doing hard time for marijuana. One of the men profiled in the piece, Richard DeLisi, was sentenced in 1989 to 90 years for marijuana-related crimes, including trafficking and conspiracy to traffic. Aging and in declining health, the 65-year-old DeLisi’s fate…
A former Broward College student who would become one of the most wanted men in the U.S. government’s war on terror was reportedly killed in Pakistan Saturday morning during an attack orchestrated by that country’s military. Adnan el-Shukrijumah, 39 at the time of is death, was said to have been…
In December 2011, Jared Bretherick and his family were tooling around Orlando when the visitors from Indiana were cut off in a road rage incident. According to reports, a driver named Derek Dunning almost sideswiped the car Bretherick’s father was driving. Dunning allegedly slammed his car to a halt, got…
Several people were airlifted to Broward County hospitals following a bizarre and deadly accident that involved a black bear and multiple vehicles out in the Everglades According to reports, a Cadillac SUV traveling on Big Cypress Seminole Reservation struck a black bear Sunday evening. Tragically, three people who were traveling…
A Broward graffiti artist is reportedly in critical condition after being hit by an unmarked Miami Police Department car Friday morning. The man, 21-year-old Delbert Rodriguez Gutierrez of Pembroke Pines, was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital after he was seen tagging a wall in Wynwood. Wynwood is the site in…
Planting Peace, the group best-known for trolling the Westboro Baptist Church bigots with its rainbow-colored Equality House in 2013, has come up with a similar campaign to go after an Arizona pastor whose antigay rhetoric from a sermon he delivered has gone viral. Pastor Steven Anderson made headlines this week…
The 2014 Miami Dolphins season is well underway! And while lots of other sites will be breaking down each game and listing reasons the Dolphins will or won’t win while analyzing players, coaches, and match-ups against their respective opponent week to week, we won’t. Not us. Not here. Instead, we’re…
If you were the kind of person who liked to sniff out plots and nefarious designs in headlines, you might raise an eyebrow over the recent actions of Florida’s utilities. Over the course of the summer and fall, Florida Power & Light and others basically blocked the state’s private solar…
Last year, Deerfield Beach activist, blogger, and self-proclaimed “militant atheist” Chaz Stevens made headlines when he put up a Festivus pole in the Florida Capitol rotunda. Now Florida officials have approved Stevens’ request to put up the pole in the rotunda again this year. Last year’s pole — which was…
