South Florida is an invention. Even the landscape has been excavated, filled in, and moved around so that it more resembles tropical paradise than its swampy, mangrove-gnarled reality. People come here to refinish themselves too. Brooklyn hood Chris Paciello was, for a South Beach flash, the Liquid nightclub king who…..
When Greg Newlin walked through the brightly lit, linoleum-floored visiting room of Broward County’s Joseph V. Conte detention facility in Pompano Beach on April 24, his green uniform looked baggy and comfortable, like hospital scrubs worn and washed thin. The light-blond stubble on his face suggested that he hadn’t shaved…
When I called the Christian Coalition of Florida last week, the organization’s deputy director, Carolyn Kunkle, answered. “Hi,” I said, “my name’s Bob Norman with the New Times, and I’m doing a story on Mark Foley’s run for the Senate.” Without missing a beat, Kunkle said, “I imagine you’re calling…
He’ll give ’em shelter from the storm: What happens if Dave’s Rooming House closes (“Forever Flophouse,” Felicia Levine, May 1)? The residents will join the 3,000 or so homeless people in Broward County. I blame the government for not doing more to help the poor, most of whom are not…
It began with a knock on the front door, as had so many murders before it. Ciro Garcia had come to the rundown trailer on Gun Club Road in West Palm Beach to claim his wife. Kim Garcia was deep in a crack addiction. He had heard Kim was living…
A visit to Ralph Matthews’ dingy, cluttered backyard is like stumbling onto an old set from Sanford & Son. You have to be nimble to negotiate your way around the busted, black ’37 Ford, the scattered machine parts, the buckets and containers that are home to a family of stray…
I was desperate for some relief from the Iraq war on cable television. All those generals — along with quasi-governmental CIA creeps like James Woolsey — made me feel like the entire world had been taken over by the worst of my former gym teachers. Fox News Channel was worse…
Homophobic Free Weekly: It’s sad that in the year 2003, New Times would print the homophobic sensationalism of Kathy Glasgow and Lissette Corsa’s April 17 article, “Murdered in Havana.” The cover-page reference to the victim’s “flamboyantly gay life” (whatever that means) was bad enough. But the line about homosexuality’s being…
Emil Danciu says he smelled victory a year ago. He’s slouched in his chair and looks a bit out of place seated in front of his daughter’s office desk. He’s faced with a phalanx of framed baby photos. Charlotte Danciu, a Boca Raton attorney who specializes in adoption and juvenile…
Haviken Hayes unloops dozens of cords and cables as he reassembles and reconnects his turntables and one-man sound system. He and his musical partner, JG, the sole members of Over the Counter Intelligence, are still riding high this recent Wednesday evening after performing during antiwar and antiglobalization protests in Washington,…
Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series on the 2001 murder of 3-year-old Kyle Venter. The boy was killed by his mother as revenge against his father, Anthony Venter. Dunitse “Dee” Venter is currently free on bail while facing a second-degree murder charge. Anthony, after two bitter…
Respects the dead: Finally the truth about George Zirwas and his life in Cuba (“Murdered in Havana,” Kathy Glasgow and Lissette Corsa, April 17). I met George just once, about two weeks before his death, and I liked the man almost immediately. We argued for about two hours about U.S…
When Anthony Venter saw the crime-scene tape and police outside his estranged wife’s apartment, he bolted from his car toward the door. Thinking only of his son Kyle, a bright-eyed, blond-headed 3-year-old, he questioned the first policeman he came to. “I’m the kid’s father,” Venter recalls telling the officer. “Well,…
Two years ago, a 47-year-old United States citizen named George Zirwas was murdered in his apartment in Havana. The death — in a nation still legally off-limits to most Americans — made for tantalizing news, and Zirwas’ past as a Roman Catholic priest only complicated the mystery. Cuba-obsessed South Floridians…
Walking around his Riviera Beach headquarters, one can easily figure out that Warren Mosler isn’t trying to impress the buying public. The place has needed a good sweep for months. Dirt and leaves are strewn across the entrance. The white walls are streaked with greasy fingerprints. The counters look as…
Curse the Cro-Magnon: In respect to Bob Norman’s masterpiece, “An Absolute Disgrace” (April 3), I fully applaud and support this first-class journalist, who has demonstrated true patriotism in this and other recent articles like “War Pigs” (March 20). True patriotism is daring to tell the truth amid a web of…
Easing his white Ford Bronco into the lead spot of the funeral procession, red-faced, red-haired Irish Catholic priest Father Gabriel O’Reilly leaves the church on State Road 7 where he’s just officiated over the mass for Vincent “Randy” Chin. A long trail of funeral flags follows him, slowly snaking into…
As he watched the Iraq war on television, John Komyakevich had no idea he was about to become a casualty of the conflict. The 33-year-old Russian immigrant sat inside Margarita’s, a hole-in-the-wall neighborhood pub he managed on Federal Highway in Lake Worth. The clock was approaching 11 p.m. on Sunday,…
The plastering contractor, the telecommunications consultant, and the retired couple all remember that balmy evening in early March when fireworks punctured the quiet night air of their quaint Victoria Park neighborhood. Robert Barcia was walking his 10-year-old Pekinese, “Tiny Dancer,” when he heard them. Startled by the sound, the dog…
But is he awed?: Bob Norman’s article in the April 3 edition entitled “An Absolute Disgrace” was excellent, admirable, courageous — and increasingly necessary in our dangerously changing society. My family, friends, and I have been SHOCKED and OUTRAGED by EVERYTHING that Bush and his evil, lying, greedy, corporate, fascist…
“Maybe one day, the Bieler brothers will be like the Warner brothers!” Aaron Bieler says, beaming outside his new Pompano Beach headquarters. Who knows? It could happen. Maybe the goateed, fast-talking ex-tour manager will someday be another Jack Warner. But Powerline Business Park is a bizarre place to start an…
It was 10 a.m. on a steamy, sunny morning just a few days after American soldiers began dying in Iraq. Zuhrah Abdu Ahmed opened the door of her tiny Miramar house. She squinted as the aroma of curry and eggs wafted into the yard and mixed with exhaust from nearby…
