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| Miami News cartoon by Don Wright. June 21, 1970. (Click image to enlarge) |
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| via Coconut Grove Grapevine |
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| Associated Press, April 21, 1969. |
Jerry Powers strolls the sidewalk outside the stately Biltmore Way entrance to Coral Gables City Hall. An impish 23-year-old New Jersey native with a shaggy black mop top and mutton-chop sideburns, he carries a newspaper bundle under his left arm. It is the ninth issue of the Daily Planet and Miami Free Press, a fledgling underground newspaper he founded four months earlier.
Around 10 a.m. August 25, 1969, the muggy air causes his dark polyester slacks to cling to his legs. But the stifling heat does not deter him.
Near the Mediterranean-revival building's front door, Powers hands a newspaper to a heavyset, silver-maned man, who unfolds the tabloid to reveal a front-page spoof of the City of Miami's plans to annex Coconut Grove. Powers gives copies to three other passersby.
He's daring the cops to arrest him.
Inside city hall, Coral Gables City Attorney Charles Spooner addresses a gaggle of reporters crowding his desk. The well-groomed lawyer with a Brylcreem pompadour and a tightly knotted tie says the Daily Planet is obscene and has no place in Dade County. Eight merchants who carry the twice-monthly publication have been threatened with arrest. "Perhaps we are a little bit more backcountry than a big city like San Francisco," he says. "From reading [the Daily Planet], I don't know how it meets the social needs of our community."
Powers presses on as four Gables cops approach. A tall one wearing Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses takes a copy of the Daily Planet, peruses it, and then abruptly grabs Powers's right arm. "You are under arrest for distributing obscene material," he announces while walking Powers to a squad car. The fledgling publisher sits comfortably in the back seat, his right arm hanging out the window. A reporter asks if the arrest was a surprise.
"We sort of expected this to happen because the people in Coral Gables are used to burning books," Powers declares. "The city attorney, by the way, and this is a fact and I have documentation, is on a mailing list [for] sex literature. I think [this is] his motive for causing this arrest."
"Move away," the cop barks. "No one should be talking to this man."
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| Miami News, Aug. 26, 1969. |
Cops who arrested Dylann Roof treated him to a Burger King http://t.co/Infs86Wk1m pic.twitter.com/pixHMajoXW
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) June 23, 2015
In Shelby, the FBI handled Roof’s initial questioning, Ledford said. Shelby police’s lone conversation with the mass-murder suspect was about food. Earlier in the day, Roof had bought water and chips at a south Charlotte gas station. Now he was hungry. Police bought him food from a nearby Burger King, Ledford said.
“He was very quiet, very calm. He didn’t talk,” Ledford said. “He sat down here very quietly. He was not problematic.”
RECIPE FOR A CONFESSION: TWO ALL-BEEF PATTIES . . .
Miami Herald
March 24, 1996
MANNY GARCIA, Herald Staff Writer
Edition: FINAL
Section: FRONT
Page: 1A
First came the lie detector test. Now comes the "Truth Whopper."
In Dade County, more and more detectives are learning that fast food helps them solve robberies, burglaries, even murders.
"The quickest way to a confession is through a man's stomach," said Kent Hart, a Hialeah homicide detective.
Nauseated by the prospect of jailhouse cuisine, defendants are trading confessions for one last Big Mac, chicken sandwich, pizza or Whopper -- which detectives countywide swear is the meal that reels in the most confessions.
"We should open an account at Burger King," Hart said. "Every time we walk in, they ask, 'Are you taking confessions tonight?' "
The public saw the payoff of feeding a suspect during the Jimmy Ryce investigation. Metro-Dade cops made sure that Juan Carlos Chavez regularly ate during more than 50 hours of questioning before he allegedly confessed to the killing.
"If I ate, he ate," said Pat Diaz, the lead investigator in the Ryce case.
"The name of the game now is feed them and schmooze them," said David Waksman, a Dade prosecutor and former Bronx beat cop. "If you keep a guy in custody and he is hungry and you don't feed him, you have deprived him of his rights, and that is illegal."
Police, at the request of prosecutors, routinely write down everything they feed defendants. Sometimes they corroborate it with a photograph.
After Charles Pitts asked robbery detectives for a Wendy's double cheeseburger, they snapped a Polaroid.
The Chavez and Pitts cases are but one example. Court records and police files show heaps of fast-food-induced confessions. "Our trade secret," Metro robbery detective Steve Brajdic said.
Among those who have succumbed to the hamburger: Gerardo Plaza.
"Buy me a Whopper," Hialeah police said he told them after his arrest in February 1995.
Detectives Hart and Bassam Fadel bought him a Whopper combo meal, which includes fries and a Coke. Between bites, Plaza allegedly confessed to a liquor store robbery and murder.
"Well, you got your Whopper's worth," Plaza reportedly said, purposely omitting the ending of the story, so he could add, "I'm really hungry. Buy me a cheese steak."
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| Miami Beach resident proudly shows off her velour suit in Lummus Park. (Andy Sweet) (Click here to enlarge) |
Throughout the 1970s, a young photographer named Andy Sweet documented the personalities of Miami in vivid color. In 1977, Sweet returned to the area after completing his studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and set out to document South Beach’s vivid old-world culture. His subjects–predominantly the quirky, stylish, eclectic elderly residents, many of them Jewish–either grew up in the Miami area or were the snow birds who flocked there and found a nest for life.
Sweet died in 1982 at the age of just 29, but his vivid archive continues to epitomize South Beach (SOBE) culture and aesthetics. The Andy Sweet Photo Legacy was established in his memory and continues to display his work with hopes of publish a book of Sweet’s work in the future.
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| A well-dressed man crosses a deserted Ocean Drive. In the background, Andy’s well-used old car. (Andy Sweet) (Click here to enlarge) |
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| A big grin from a nautical character in the park. (Andy Sweet) (Click here to enlarge) |
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| Possible first line of Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine's autobiography: "My journey to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue began with a tacky welcome sign on 5th Street." |
Welcome to Miami Beach
“Welcome to Miami Beach” sign on 5th street is up and running again. It’s all about getting things done. #MiamiBeach #MBMayor
Posted by Mayor Philip Levine on Thursday, June 18, 2015
Variety: How Steven Spielberg’s Movie Created the Summer Blockbuster
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| Eliott Rodriguez, CBS 4 anchor and Don Corleone look-alike. Photo illustration by rakonturmiami's David Cypkin |
Favorite headline of week. He pitches righty, lefty — and evidently, also underwater. Faces Aquaman in next outing. pic.twitter.com/efxaQxFp8Z
— Neill Woelk (@NeillWoelk) June 8, 2015
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| Kienzle. |
The principal of North Miami Senior High School inadvertently injected himself into the racially charged national debate over police treatment of blacks with a social media comment — and apologized on Tuesday after hearing the backlash.
Cell phone footage from McKinney, Texas, caught white officer David Eric Casebolt throwing a black teenage girl to the ground, then briefly drawing his gun while responding to a call about an unruly pool party. The incident last week was just the latest in a string of encounters that have sparked charges of abusive police treatment of minorities.
[...]
North Miami Senior High Principal Alberto Iber — in a brief public post on a story on the Miami Herald’s web site — defended the officer’s response.
“He did nothing wrong,” Iber wrote in a comment that showed his Facebook picture, name, school and title. “He was afraid for his life. I commend him for his actions.”
[...]
Iber, who just finished his first year as the head of North Miami Senior, said he meant to write the comment anonymously.
“I regret that I posted the comment as it apparently became newsworthy and has apparently upset people,’’ he said. “That was not my intention in any way.”
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| LIFE Magazine, Aug. 17, 1962. |
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| Miami News, Feb. 1, 1962. |
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| Miami News, June 12, 1962. |
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| Minas Edward Nicolaides |
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| Click images to enlarge. |
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| Jeff Weinsier conducts an EXCLUSIVE interview with 4-year-old kindergarten student. |
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| "A roach! In a kindergarten class!!" |
Earlier: Local 10's Jeff Weinsier goes tabloid
"In fact, some two billion people eat a wide variety of insects regularly, both cooked and raw; only in Western countries does the practice retain an 'ick' factor among the masses."
LIFE AS A PD: “I went into the hallway and asked every African American woman I saw if they would do me a favor and come sit in my courtroom for a few minutes,” my friend and fellow Public Defender told me.
In this case the Pubic Defender had scheduled a non-jury trial in a driving with a license suspended case. The client was dealing with a high-risk pregnancy and the Prosecutor’s offer was to put the woman in jail for 45 days. Yes for a driving offense. The woman’s crime: She couldn’t find anyone to take her to get food for her children so she took a chance and drove while her license had been suspended.
Kim Segal
Putting people in jail for a crime that only impacts the poor is infuriating. People get their licenses suspended all the time because they can’t afford to pay tickets for nonmoving violations, child support, court costs and court fines that have nothing to do with traffic offenses. In Florida if you get caught smoking a joint, even while sitting on the beach, and the court adjudicates you guilty you will pay a few hundred dollars in court courts and lose your driver’s license for 1 year.
When the officer arrived in court to testify at the non-jury trial the PD asked him if he could identify her client. The officer said he didn’t remember what she looked like as he consulted the traffic ticked and replied but she was a black female. The PD then asked the officer if her client had any identifying features. That is when the officer admitted, “I probably wouldn’t be able to identify her if she was standing in front of me.” The Prosecutor aware of this problem tells the officer that the case will have to be dropped since he can’t identify the defendant. The annoyed officer leaves the courtroom.
The case is called up in front of the Judge for the Prosecutor to announce that the charges will be dropped. It was at that point the Prosecutor must have realized that there was only one black woman sitting in the courtroom. Instead of announcing a “nolle prose” the Prosecutor puts the case on recall then goes outside and calls the cop on the phone asking that he return to the courtroom.
The sharp PD realizes what is happening so she goes into the hallway looking for African American women. She finds two women and quickly explains to them what is going on. The women agree to sit in the courtroom next to the client. The officer returns to the courtroom where there are now 3 black ladies sitting together. The Prosecutor says some b.s. about wanting to be certain the officer didn’t remember her by sight. In front of the PD the Prosecutor asks, “which one is she?” The officer replies, “the one on the end.”
Yes the PD’s client was the one on the end only the officer picked the wrong end. The case was finally dropped and the three women ended up as new friends, they even celebrated by going out to lunch together.
Dear Mindy and Rick:
Yesterday, Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA, resigned after failing in his efforts to distance himself from the controversy surrounding soccer's governing body.
Mindy Marques and Rick Hirsch.
And on Monday, Melvin Carraway, the acting administrator for the TSA was "reassigned" after reports surfaced that "airport screeners failed to detect explosives and weapons in nearly every test that an undercover team conducted at dozens of airports."
So, here's a question for both of you, Rick and Mindy: Why do you still have jobs at the Miami Herald?
Like the TSA's acting director and the head of FIFA, isn't it time for the two of you to move on to something else?
On Monday, I picked up the paper and could find just two staff produced items in the "B" section that contained all of three pages of "local" news from the Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Bay Times, the Associated Press and Politifact.
The one piece with a Herald staff byline was just 5 paragraphs long.
The other, an explainer on 1B about the closing of the Venetian Causeway, carried this lede:
"One fewer way?" Really?
And in today's paper, there's a story - if you can call it that - on an absolutely horrific crime that occurred shortly after noon yesterday in Miami Gardens. But the best your staff could come up with was two paragraphs on 3B for the morning paper.
But for some unknown reason a story on an elementary school getting new windows is page one news.
Miami Herald, June 3, 2015, page 1A.
So, Rick and Mindy, here's a question for both of you: Aren't either of you the least bit ashamed of what you've done to this once great paper? Do you care?
Does anyone else at the paper even give a sh*t?
For the good of the paper - or what's left of it - I'm calling on both of you to resign and have someone put in charge who cares about the paper and its readers. Or at the very least, someone who understands what the first duty of a newspaper is: Report news.
Do it now before you completely destroy the paper.
Via Local 10: Four teenagers were arrested after they made a video of themselves counting stolen cash, wearing stolen jewelry and sitting in a stolen car, a Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said Monday.
The teens -- identified as Jaynell Justin, 16, of Oakland Park; Amos Marc, 17, of Oakland Park; Lamonte Scott, 16, of Oakland Park; and Machel Stevens, 18, of Fort Lauderdale -- left the stolen items in the stolen car after getting into a crash in Fort Lauderdale, BSO spokeswoman Dani Moschella said.
Among the stolen items that police found in the car was the camcorder that the teens used to record the nearly three-minute long video, Moschella said.
Deputies say a group of teenagers made a video that showed themselves wearing stolen jewelry and flashing stolen cash. Fort Lauderdale police tracked the stolen items to residential burglaries in Boca Raton and Oakland Park. When BSO detectives saw the video, they recognized each bragging burglary suspect, Moschella said.
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| Click to enlarge. |
Odd @MiamiHerald was only paper to cover Jack Warner's speech & not mention him holding up an @TheOnion article http://t.co/kgEovjbTGr
— Tim Elfrink (@timelfrinkmia) June 1, 2015