Reefs are underwater rainforests that are mostly inhabited by corals. These fascinating little creatures can hunt, poop, and have sex. Since the 1970s, corals on the Florida Reef Tract have declined more than 80 percent and six South Florida coral species are listed as threatened on the Endangered Species list…
Vera Arias glides north along Federal Highway during morning rush hour, her black Republic road bike fast and light beneath her. All her senses are heightened at this intersection near the Miami-Dade/Broward County line, the worst part of her daily ride to work. Cars zoom past and honk aggressively. To…
David Mech is a former porn star with an encyclopedic knowledge of First Amendment law. Ask him about, say, the differences between “government” and “private” speech, and he’ll rattle off legal statutes for ten straight minutes. Enduring multiple lawsuits will do that to a person. “Lots of people will spend…
Since the Dolphins selected Ryan Tannehill with the 8th overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, he has been something of an enigma. At times, he looks like the next Aaron Rodgers; other times he looks closer to the next Chad Henne. As is tradition around these parts, Dolphins fans are…
In 2008, a Lauderhill man named Joel Waul earned the Guinness World Record for having made the world’s largest rubber band ball. Waul named it “Megaton,” and it stands six feet, seven inches tall, with a circumference of 26 feet. Megaton weighs 9,032 pounds, is made of 730,000 rubber bands,…
A Fort Lauderdale man says Broward’s coastal cities should ban smoking on public beaches. Bobby Lieberman says that he has spoken to numerous city officials in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood Beach in an effort to get smoking banned — and when he does, he brings along a clear, coffin-shaped container filled…
John DeGroot is an eminent journalist, He not only was a city editor of the old Fort Lauderdale News, and Pulitzer finalist, but he was part of a team that won the coveted award that won the Pulitzer for fro Kent State shooting at the Akron Beacon Journal. Back when…
Roger Stone may be the greatest political thug in history. He has worked in politics for decades, and yet does not seem to aspire to higher office. Instead, he sticks to the tasks he knows — spreading near-libelous rumors through anonymous sources, threatening to sue people for no good reason,…
My conversation with Gervan “G-Funk” Moise, a man who will clearly end up running the entire state of Florida, ended when he shut down the phone call. We’d been speaking for one minute. I reached Moise by phone at around 3:50 p.m. Wednesday. He announced this week that he’s running…
Thomas Wenski, Archbishop of Miami, has put an end to a salacious Catholic school scandal by asking a controversial priest to resign. Since January, there has been turmoil at St. Rose of Lima, a Catholic church and school in Miami Shores. After it was announced in January that several nuns…
In 2004, Michele Lazarow purchased a Maltese from Puppy Palace, a pet store on Hollywood Boulevard. Lazarow says that the clerk assured her that her puppy did not come from a so-called “puppy mill,” where pets are bred in inhumane conditions. But three years later, Lazarow’s dog was diagnosed with…
Three weeks ago, Stephen Nagy was driving along A1A when he noticed a row of sea grape saplings freshly planted on the beach near his house. Right now, the plants don’t look very menacing—just pathetic branches with a few leaves on them. But according to Nagy, it’s just a matter…
What a difference a year makes. Last summer, the Miami Heat and Dwyane Wade had an uncommon falling out over the future of the Hall of Fame guard. Wade wanted to stay in Miami, but he wanted more years and more money than the Heat were comfortable handing out at…
If Dick Cheney spent the 2000s as the Republican Party-equivalent of Darth Vader, then Karl Rove was the GOP’s dough-fingered Emperor Palpatine. Rove, the famed political strategist-turned-TV talking-head, helped organize campaigns for Rick Perry, John Aschcroft, and, most notably, George W. Bush. (I suppose Bush is Grand Moff Tarkin in…
Florida wildlife officials last year allowed a highly controversial black bear hunt. Officials had said that the state’s 3000+ bears needed to be managed, while environmentalists argued that the real problem was not bears, but rather, habitat loss and fragmentation. The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has since released updated…
The average American women uses approximately 16,800 tampons in her lifetime. Most women know little of a tampon’s ingredients, even though anything touching the skin, especially on a regular basis, is absorbed into the bloodstream. It’s all because the FDA considers tampons and other menstrual hygiene items to be “medical…
Mickey Axelband may be the Miami Marlins’ biggest fan. Ever since the baseball team’s first game in 1993, the 59-year-old, bald veterinarian with lively green eyes has been a season ticket holder. He’s attended every single home opener and final game of the season. He sweated through thousands of brutal…
Kodak Black does what he wants. When the cops try and pull him over for possibly buying weed, the Pompano Beach rapper peels off at 60 mph. (Probably shouting skrt! as the cops zip behind him in pursuit.) He’s not afraid to down MDMA and codeine all at once. And…
Demetrius Ivory is a 43-year-old single dad. He’s proud that his son wants to go to college to study engineering, but he’s afraid that he won’t be able to finance it. Ivory works as the maintenance supervisor at Koinonia Worship Center in Hallandale Beach and takes on odd jobs catering…
Some rappers are clearly not as “hard” as they claim to be. Ice Cube almost became an architectural draftsman. Rick Ross used to be a corrections officer. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with embarking on a rap career if you didn’t grow up in a gang. If anything,…
Fishing guide Mike Conner putters his skiff across the Indian River Lagoon near Stuart, about a two-hour drive north of Miami. He used to bring clients from all over the United States here to stalk delicious pompano, yard-long snook, and the Holy Grail of inshore fishing: sea trout longer than…
The Archdiocese of Miami is probing claims that a priest at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church had improper, intimate relationships with a maintenance worker whom he hired, as well as three others associated with the church and its associated school. A group, called Christifidelis, hired a private investigator to compile…
