Cat saves boy from dog attack in Bakersfield, CA

Cat saves boy from dog attack in Bakersfield, CA. (NOTE: Video has no sound.)

Do you have room in your heart for one of these guys?

Click to enlarge.

“These are great, sweet, loving dogs that really need a home.” -Gloria Rodriguez, student at Felix Varela Senior High School.

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A plea from former Miami Herald staff writer Elinor Brecher:

The Felix Varela High School vet-tech program has to place all of its animals by early June-- foster or adoption-- because of renovations on the classroom and shelter space. There are 80 dogs and puppies. Fostering would be for about three months. Many of these dogs were rescued from horrible abuse/neglect situations.

I wrote about this program several times for the Herald and was dumbstruck with admiration for Yleana Escobar, the teacher who runs it. I've never met a more dedicated educator and rescuer. Her classroom reminds me of old episodes of M*A*S*H. She's the colonel. Everyone of those kids is Hawkeye and Trapper John. Any time -- day, night, weekend, holiday, hurricane-- she and those kids are there caring for animals that come out of horrendous situations of abuse, neglect and abandonment. Miss Escobar is not only teaching these kids skills they'll need to have a satisfying career; she's teaching empathy, compassion, responsibility, selflessness and collaboration. One kid at a time, she is chipping away at Miami-Dade's abysmally low collective conscience about animal welfare (hence the nightmarish intake rate at the county's high-kill shelter and even more nightmarish problem of dumping in the Homestead area).

Please read this excellent story by my former Miami Herald colleague Carli Teproff, spread it around, and if you can, give a dog or puppy safe harbor or a new home.

The way we were...Art Deco District added to National Register of Historic Places

700 Block Ocean Drive, 1980.
Photograph by Walter Smalling
via the Library of Congress. 
(Click to enlarge)

Thirty-five years ago tomorrow, South Beach, with "the largest concentration of 1920s and 1930s resort architecture in the United States," becomes a historic preservation district.

Miami News, May 14, 1979.
(Click to enlarge.)

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The way we were...Cuban MiGs buzz Coast Guard helicopter in the Bahamas

Thirty-four years ago in the Miami News...

Miami News, May 13, 1980.
(Click to enlarge.)

Miami News cartoon by Don Wright.

Miami Beach Police are still being forced to waste time and taxpayer dollars responding to calls at the city's two towing companies

In an interview with the Washington Post last January, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine talked about his city's strengths, comparing Miami Beach to Monaco: "We also think there's great opportunity for us to attract hedge funds and private equity groups, because what do they need? They're looking for, number one, quality of life. We have it. Number two, they want beautiful places to live, Miami Beach, we have it. Number three, they want tax savings. You move from New York to Florida, you're going to save probably almost 10 percent on your income. So we're a little bit like the Monaco of America, and that's who we are."

Last March Levine told Miami Today: "Picture that Dade County is a big jewelry store. Miami Beach is Rolex. Everybody wants Rolex in their store. And the reason you want Rolex is because it brings people into the store, and, uh, I think we're Rolex. And I think that we have a lot to offer."

Last weekend, Levine was back in Washington to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner, and to, in his words, "promote Miami Beach."

Levine likes to use the term "world-class tourist destination" when describing Miami Beach.

What Levine never mentions, and what he never told the Washington Post or Miami Today - and I'm 99% certain he didn't mention it last weekend in Washington - is that Miami Beach is home to two city-sanctioned businesses that extort hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from residents and visitors alike.

On paper the two businesses are called towing companies. But in actuality they're companies that engage in legalized auto theft.

Exactly six months after winning the mayor's seat, Levine has yet to keep a promise he made during his run for office:

[S]hould I become Mayor, I will conduct a thorough assessment of all city services and operations during the first 90 days. During the course of that review, should I uncover a problem with the towing vendors I will implement corrective actions forcefully and fairly, including any necessary sanctions upon them in accordance with our city code.

How's this for a "problem," Mr. Mayor?

Last July I reported that in 2012, Miami Beach police officers were called to the city's two towing companies more than 750 times, mostly due to complaints from people who had had their cars towed.

Year in, and year out, Miami Beach Police are tied up on an almost daily basis mediating squabbles, breaking up fights and investigating reports of other crimes at the tow yards belonging to Tremont and Beach Towing.

And according to a list of calls dispatched by Miami Beach Police to Tremont and Beach Towing in the first four months of this year, 2014 looks to be on track to equal or surpass the number of calls received and dispatched by police in previous years.

List of calls received and dispatched by
Miami Beach Police to Beach Towing in Jan. 2014. 

List of calls received and dispatched by 
Miami Beach Police to Tremont Towing in Jan. 2014.

Between Jan. 1 and April 30 of this year, Miami Beach Police have responded to Beach and Tremont Towing a total of 256 times, according to records obtained by Random Pixels.

Cops were called to Tremont Towing on Bay Road 115 times in the first four months of 2014.

And police were dispatched a whopping 151 times to Beach Towing's lot on Dade Blvd during the same period.

As I noted last year, in 2005 the Miami Herald reported:

The calls and the complaints have become a public relations dilemma for the city and a drain on police.

"It definitely takes away from our resources, especially because we have to often send two officers to respond to a call," said police spokesman Bobby Hernandez.

So, how's that "thorough assessment" coming, Mayor Levine?

Six months into his term of office, Philip Levine appears to be no different than his predecessors.

Like those before him, he's more interested in protecting the thugs who run Beach and Tremont Towing, instead of doing what he should be doing: Looking out for the interests of the people who put him in office.

And in that respect, he's really no different than the dirtbags at Beach and Tremont Towing.

Most cities in the United States have a term for businesses that police are called to hundreds of times a year: "nuisance."

But if you run a "nuisance" business in Miami Beach, you get a "reality" show and a subsidy from the city.


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Random Pixels: Meet some of the thugs and goons who control South Beach's towing Mafia

Random Pixels: Miami Beach Police responded to the city's two towing companies more than 750 times in 2012

Q: Whatever happened to the family newspaper?A: What's a family newspaper?

John Mitchell: [on phone] You tell your publisher, tell Katie Graham she's gonna get her tit caught in a big wringer if that's published.
Ben Bradlee: [later] He really said that about Mrs. Graham?
Carl Bernstein: [nods]
Ben Bradlee: Well, I'd cut the words "her tit" and print it.
Carl Bernstein: Why?
Ben Bradlee: This is a family newspaper.

-Scene from "All the President's Men." - 1976

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Years ago, newspaper editors were often heard to say, "Our paper is a family newspaper."

Prior to the 1970s, Miami's two daily newspapers refused to run ads for X-rated movies.

Then, in the late 70s, ad managers at the Miami Herald and Miami News relaxed their policies but limited the size of such ads to one column wide by two inches deep.

That was then.

Here's an ad that ran on the front page of today's South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Click here (ahem) to enlarge.