Miami Herald
School pride: Booker T. students surprised
Deafening screams filled the auditorium at Booker T. Washington Senior High School on Tuesday as two students received a big surprise. Seniors Patricia Smith and Yaz’Nique Jean Francois stepped up on stage, each the winner of a $30,000 college...
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‘PEOPLE NEEDED THIS’
Christina Brown was stressed out in 2019. Her baby son Sean died after birth. She divorced her wife shortly after. After those experiences, Brown, who lived in Atlanta at the time, went to a rage room in Las Vegas and broke things. “I thought about...
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‘That could have been my story’
The recent news reports of Black women being killed by their partners has brought back a flood of memories for Cindy Doucet. The Miami radio personality, known for years to 99 Jamz listeners as SupaCindy, knows how hard it is to leave an abusive...
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Weight loss drug use has skyrocketed.
When she was approached to create the menu for Cerveceria La Tropical a few years back, chef Cindy Hutson knew what CEO Manny Portuondo wanted to serve: Cuban food that would effortlessly complement the tap room offerings. The Wynwood brewery was...
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TRUMP IN CHINA FOR SUMMIT
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing for the first state visit to China by a U.S. leader in nine years, as the world’s two largest economies look to stabilize ties with a summit playing out against the backdrop of the Iran war. Trump...
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How Spirit’s collapse changed the economy — and lives. ‘Back to ramen noodles’
Like much of the world, Donald “Dean” Zoellers learned of Spirit Airlines’ demise on the morning of May 2. He was hit hard, certainly more than travelers who loved the Broward-based carrier’s low prices or bright yellow planes. The 63-yearold...
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BUILDING BOOM
Ten years ago, a master plan was unveiled to reimagine North Beach, the most affordable, least gentrified slice of Miami Beach that stretches from 63rd Street to 87th Terrace. Now, the neighborhood’s transformation is entering top gear. Numerous...
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Neighbors’ complaints stall county’s plan for Coconut Grove Playhouse —
Even as work crews ready the storied Coconut Grove Playhouse’s gutted front building for restoration, a group of neighbors who have been fighting a plan to reopen the historic 1927 theater for years have gotten it blocked once again. A Miami-Dade...
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HistoryMiami rebrands as Museum of Miami,
Ana of Coral Gables recalled when a reporter wrote about her father, a Cuban political prisoner. The next day, her restaurant was full of former political prisoners. Adrian of Coconut Grove has a trilingual mother and a monolingual father. He...
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20 years after opening,
Twenty years after it opened, the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is embarking on a major production that’s long been high on its patrons’ wishlist: building a dedicated parking garage at its front door. The Arsht said Monday it has submitted a...
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Pulitzer Prizes honor Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown and Brightline investigation
Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown on Monday was honored by the Pulitzer Prize Board for her groundbreaking and impactful investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and the people and institutions that enabled him to abuse girls...
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‘OUR LIVES HANG IN THE BALANCE’
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Coral Gables on Friday, marching with MiamiDade plant nursery workers as they fight for safer working conditions. Led by workers’ rights...
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GETTING ALL REVVED UP
Formula 1 is back in town with the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix taking place this weekend. On Wednesday, preparations were under way for the Miami International Autodrome at Hard Rock Stadium. Above, a view of the Grand Prix first-place...
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‘GAME CHANGER’
Ozzie Echemendia’s “second chance of life” came in the form of a wire that runs from his brain all the way to his upper chest. Echemendia is in a battle with Parkinson’s disease, a movement disorder that affects the nervous system and usually worsens...
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Developers got city land for affordable housing in Little Havana.
In his final act before leaving office last year, longtime Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo quietly put together a complex, multimillion-dollar deal to provide public land in East Little Havana to three developers to build 500 affordable apartments in...
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Boris Johnson’s in Miami. Just don’t talk to him about politics — or Cuban food
While former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson can wax poetic about the dangers of unchecked populism and hail the virtues of a city filled with billionaires, he has nothing to say about Florida politics — even while meeting this week with Gov. Ron...
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Epstein victim who spoke out against sex trafficking is remembered as a fighter
Virginia Giuffre, whose courage to speak out about her sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and other powerful men put her in the forefront of one the biggest crimes in history, was remembered Saturday in Washington, on the one-year anniversary of her...
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Wife of detained immigrant joins lawmakers in D.C. to push for immigration reform
Angela Della Valle, whose husband has been in immigration detention for nine months, joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers and other immigrant families on Wednesday in Washington, to advocate for her husband’s release and raise awareness of a...
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‘HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT’
Amy A. Dawkins had driven by the new 150,000-square-foot data center tucked in the middle of Westview several times before she knew what it was. Since New Hampshire-based information-management company Iron Mountain broke ground on the 3.1-acre site...
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Miami mayor wants a half-billion dollars for police, fire facilities
Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins wants voters to greenlight a half-billion dollars in spending to repair the city’s aging public safety buildings. But before the $450 million bond can land on the August ballot, Higgins first needs to get buy-in from the...
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This Miami midwife turns advocacy into action with mobile clinic
Huddled in a patient room inside a mobile midwife clinic outside the Overtown Youth Center, a pregnant Venezuelan woman who brought her small child speaks with a student midwife to assess her prenatal care. She gets her blood pressure checked and a...
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‘SUPERTALL’
If it seems like buildings in Miami are getting taller, that’s because they are. The Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences Miami, a skyscraper designed to resemble a stack of offset blocks, will tower above its downtown neighbors once it’s completed in...
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It’s free, and you can skip traffic
When Grace Dutton saw a sign outside her hotel near the Venetian Marina and Yacht Club in Miami promoting a free water taxi to and from South Beach on Wednesday morning, she knew she had to take a ride. Dutton, 21, of London, was in Miami for the...
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BAY OF PIGS MUSEUM OPENING SOON
An 11,000-square-foot Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506 Museum is opening Saturday in Little Havana and features interactive exhibits honoring the Cuban exiles who fought in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. It will use audiovisual technology, historical archives...
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Inside the Kendall gym that trains you to do stunts like a Hollywood action star
South Florida has no shortage of fitness centers — but how many teach you to get kicked in the gut and then properly fall? Or tumble onto the ground from a high-wire? What about getting pushed around on a crash mat? Miami Action Design, cofounded by a...
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In Florida, it’s easier than ever to gamble your life savings from the couch
Jason was hiding in a closet at work, glued to his phone. He was going “full tilt.” In gambling parlance, that means he lost a bet, was spiraling and would soon start wagering indiscriminately as he chased his money into a financial void. It was Jan....
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Implosion of Mandarin Oriental on Brickell Key was Miami’s biggest Sunday show
Will Smith, Penelope Cruz and the Real Madrid soccer team were guests. The resort’s signature restaurant Azul, which closed in 2019, was once helmed by Miami celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein. And in 2024, it was one of 10 hotels in Miami-Dade County...
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‘Never-ending’ need
Sue Hansen still thinks fondly of Polly, the “fattest beagle I have ever seen.” In the early 2000s, a woman brought in Polly, a beagle that weighed well over 50 pounds, to Abandoned Pet Rescue in Fort Lauderdale. She wanted to surrender the dog...
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An offer to tutor crown prince, a gift from Mecca
In his attempts to position himself at the confluence of money and power, Jeffrey Epstein cultivated myriad relationships among the ruling elite of the Middle East, according to an extensive Miami Herald review of several million pages of documents...
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Miami-area man’s $48,000 cancer treatment was denied by his insurer. He’s suing
Can your health insurance decline to pay for lifesaving cancer medication? That’s what Doral resident Pablo Langesfeld and his family are waiting for Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Migna Sanchez-Llorens to decide. The 60-year-old father is battling an...
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IS MIAMI BEACH SPRING BREAK A THING OF THE PAST?
For three straight years, spring break in South Beach has come and gone without major incident. Crowds were relatively small last month, especially compared to March weekends in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic, when thousands of young people...
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‘TANIA ALWAYS DECIDES’
Julia Rabell, an 88-year-old former grocery store cashier beloved for the stories she told her customers at checkout, became weak and despondent while living with other tenants in a cramped Flagami boarding house. The home was subdivided into a colony...
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A ROARING SENDOFF
A towering orange-andwhite NASA rocket blasted off from Florida, lifting four astronauts toward space and transporting spectators’ imaginations to a future in which Americans might again set foot on the moon. As they did during the heyday of the...
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‘I have got the greatest gift’
After nearly seven years, Chevon Byfield finally found his perfect match: a large, and strong, beating heart. “I feel like, even right now, it still hasn’t hit me yet,” the dad of two told the Miami Herald during a recent FaceTime call from his...
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Trump releases first renderings of massive Miami high-rise presidential library
President Donald Trump’s foundation released a teaser video for his proposed presidential library in downtown Miami, revealing plans for a skyscraper with a fully capitalized TRUMP emblazoned atop, a presidential jet in the lobby, an amphitheater where...
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Miami Beach’s Holocaust Memorial expands, offering new way to talk to survivors
Most Miami Beach residents and visitors have likely seen the giant bronze sculpture of an outstretched arm reaching to the sky as hundreds of small human figures cling to it and each other with expressions of agony. Since the Holocaust Memorial opened...
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BELIEVERS GATHER FOR PALM SUNDAY
Above, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, center, processes past the crowd toward the cathedral after the traditional blessing of the palms before Palm Sunday Mass on Sunday at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Miami. “It is easy for us to say we would’ve done...
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South Beach hotel hyped by Pharrell Williams, David Grutman now facing foreclosure
Five years after its much-hyped South Beach debut featuring celebrity frontman Pharrell Williams, The Goodtime Hotel is in bad trouble. A California real estate fund has filed a $150 million foreclosure action against the hotel’s owners in MiamiDade...
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From exile to action: Cuban Americans fill Hialeah park for ‘Cuba Libre’ rally
Longing for a free homeland, hope for change and a deep love for Cuba drew thousands to the streets of Hialeah, where chants of “Libertad” echoed through the city during a “Cuba Libre” rally Tuesday evening. The gathering at Milander Field was part...
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Rubio testifies he was ‘unaware’ of Rivera’s $50M deal with Venezuelan subsidiary
Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified Tuesday at the Miami federal trial of former Congressman David Rivera that he never would have talked with his friend about his plan for democratic elections in Venezuela if he had known that Rivera had signed a...
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Red Rooster restaurant is a crown jewel of Black Miami
In 2020, restaurateur and real estate developer Derek Fleming was excited. He planned a big party to celebrate the opening of Red Rooster, the Miami version of a popular Harlem, New York, restaurant. Patrons could see gorgeous Black art and taste...
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WHERE’S THE PARTY?
Christa Moore, 19, left, a student from Southern Union State Community College, and Kaliah Ridley, 21, from the University of Cincinnati, take a selfie as they visit South Beach during spring break on Saturday in Miami Beach. Spring break crowds have...
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GAME, SET, SUNSHINE AT THE MIAMI OPEN
Maddox Tran, 15, leans back and squints while watching on the jumbo screen several of the matches as the sun finally made its appearance after two rainy days at the Miami Open on Thursday in Miami Gardens. The tournament runs through next weekend at...
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ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Venezuela third baseman Maikel Garcia celebrates with teammates after Venezuela rallied in the ninth inning to defeat the United States at a packed loanDepot park in the final game of the 2026 World Baseball Classic on Tuesday. It was an emotional win...
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WIDESPREAD BLACKOUT IN CUBA
A street vendor attends to customers during a blackout in Havana on Monday. Cuba’s national power grid collapsed Monday, leaving nearly the entire country without electricity and compounding an already severe economic and social crisis. The outage left...
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U.S. citizen has fought seven months to free husband; ICE claims ‘flight risk’
Angela Della Valle has been crisscrossing the country since August, fighting for the release of her husband of 23 years from immigration detention. In Florida alone, he was transferred about a dozen times to various immigration detention centers,...
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RAIN CAN’T STOP CALLE OCHO
Mia Cruz and Zoe Diaz bubble around during Calle Ocho Festival on Sunday in Little Havana. The annual event is the largest Latin music festival in the nation and is put on by Carnaval Miami.
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Exiled Iranian women in South Florida push for change amid ongoing war
Sandra Madjdi spent years of her childhood in hiding. Madjdi, who was born in Tehran, fled Iran in 1979 with her family out of fear of retaliation from the Islamic regime. Her grandfather was a diplomat and congressman with ties to the Shah. After...
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BAM’S 83-POINT EXPLOSION
Heat teammates congratulate center Bam Adebayo on Tuesday night after he scored 83 points in a 150-129 victory over Washington at Kaseya Center in Miami. His total was the most in an NBA game since Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 for the Philadelphia...
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Coral Gables vacates iconic City Hall for full restoration
After 98 years, the roof, walls and windows are leaking at Coral Gables’ historic City Hall, one of South Florida’s most prominent civic and architectural landmarks. The building’s limestone and stucco exterior and concrete decorative bits are badly...
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WHAT LESSONS CAN DOLPHINS TAKE FROM TUA’S DISAPPOINTING TENURE?
The “Tank for Tua” era — or error — was rooted in failure from the very start, and that’s exactly how Tua Tagovailoa’s tenure as the Miami Dolphins’ starting quarterback should be remembered. One misstep after another, an avalanche of miscalculations,...
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GROUPS DEMAND REPATRIATION
Niurka Prestamo, friend of a detainee, reacts during a Proof of Life of Our Brothers ceremony at the Bay of Pigs Monument in the Little Havana area of Miami. Cuban dissident groups held a press conference on Sunday to demand repatriation of the bodies...
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Miami Jewish and Muslim
Plates of challah bread and bowls of dates sat in the center of each table. Manischewitz wine — a staple of Shabbat — was replaced with grape juice to accommodate those who don’t drink alcohol. Faith leaders of various religions gathered around the...
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THIS NEW MIAMI BUILDING IS INNOVATIVE, COMPACT AND PEACH
The first sign that there’s something unusual about the newly opened building in the heart of Miami’s Overtown is its color — a deep shade of peach, inspired by a bit of neighborhood soda-pop history. The second is its simple yet sophisticated modern...
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Scamming the faithful
When a man named Sergio messaged Pastor Jennifer LeClaire insisting she had promised him a personal phone call and prophetic counseling, she assumed it was a misunderstanding. Though he was an avid follower of the South Florida pastor’s morning...
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‘We’re not waiting’
Miami is still a long way from fixing its traffic and public transportation woes, but there may be a credible solution on the horizon — electric flying taxis. Companies around the world are racing to bring this technology to market, and many of them...
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‘Grateful’
A steady stream of Haitians with Temporary Protected Status poured into a Broward County library parking lot Wednesday morning, not for books but for a much-needed lifeline: the chance to renew their driver’s licenses. After a federal judge ruled that...
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‘I feel so proud.’ Miami-Dade County crowns new spelling bee champion
Logan Cox had never even heard of the word that would crown him champion of the Miami Herald Spelling Bee for Miami-Dade County. Drawing on his experience — and knowledge of word etymology — Logan powered through the final round on Wednesday like a...
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HOW JEFFREY EPSTEIN SOUGHT TO INFILTRATE THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
Jeffrey Epstein didn’t beat the justice system by accident. For decades, the New York financier curated a network of influential people — politicians, business titans, media figures and academics — whom he leveraged to build his fortune and restore...
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‘Spring break of the past is gone’
Miami Beach leaders gathered Tuesday to send a unified message about the upcoming spring break season: yes, the city is relaxing some of its strictest rules and restrictions from recent years, but no, the party is not back on. Speaking at Miami Beach...
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‘So excited to be back’
They walked into the international arrivals area of Miami International Airport on Monday afternoon in various Team USA gear — some in gray or blue hoodies or jackets, others in red Tshirts. The one piece of their outfits in common: the gold medal...
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MILAN A WIN FOR USA
Florida Panthers forward Mackie Samoskevich hadn’t missed a minute of the men’s hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics. And neither he nor the rest of his Panthers teammates were going to miss the finale Sunday, even if they had a practice...
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Ken Griffin donates $3M to Ronald McDonald House in Miami. How it helps patients
A $3 million donation from billionaire philanthropist and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has put the Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Florida one step closer to opening a multimillion-dollar complex that will provide free temporary lodging to hundreds...
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ASH WEDNESDAY WORSHIP
A woman prays after receiving ashes on her forehead during Ash Wednesday Mass on Wednesday at Gesu Catholic Church in downtown Miami. The Mass was fully packed with worshippers standing in the back of the church.
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Cardboard coffins, rotting garbage, end of surgeries: Images of Cuba’s humanitarian crisis
In Velasco, a town in the eastern Cuban province of Holguín, a man was buried in a cardboard box, his body carted on a wheelbarrow to the cemetery because of a lack of wooden coffins and fuel. In the capital city of Holguín, residents are cooking with...
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Fired BSO deputies after Tamarac triple murder want job back — with back pay
Days after Mary Catherine Gingles was hunted down and shot to death by her estranged husband, Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony vowed to “send the fear of God” to his deputies for a cascade of failures that led to the death of her, her father and a...
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SUNSHINE AND SUPERYACHTS
The Miami International Boat Show kicked off Thursday afternoon and runs through Sunday in Miami Beach. Above, an aerial view at Sailors Cove along the MacArthur Causeway on Thursday. At right, Jake Nazarian and his 8-month-old daughter Natalie tour a...
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Who gives the most political money to Miami-Dade’s mayor and county commissioners?
To raise more than $6 million for their political committees last year, the elected officials running Miami-Dade’s government relied on developers and county vendors for most of their largest contributions. A Miami Herald analysis of more than 1,500...
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Staying true to a vision
A few years ago, Linda Udell Zakheim, owner of Jaxson’s Ice Cream Parlor & Restaurant, was doing some cleaning in the restaurant’s second dining room. As she wiped down surfaces and some of the old-fashioned, kitschy decor that defines the Dania Beach...
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Bad Bunny’s halftime show reminds the world ‘America’ is more than just the U.S.
Fans and critics expected Bad Bunny to make a major political statement at the Super Bowl halftime show. With a pan-American parade of flags, he met those expectations. Just a week after his “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” became the first Spanish-language...
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Why this dad has waited longer than any other patient for a new heart at Broward hospital
Doctors told Chevon Byfield that he had only a few months to live. His heart would give out by Thanksgiving. But 10 years later, Byfield is still alive, waiting for an organ donor. His failing heart beats with the help of an LVAD, a device that helps...
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Four Miami Beach commissioners didn’t attend the mayor’s State of the City address
Four Miami Beach city commissioners did not attend Mayor Steven Meiner’s State of the City address Wednesday, noticeable absences at an event that often brings shows of unity and support for the mayor. The four commissioners missing from the mayoral...
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Call about a shooter at Columbus High is false, but panics kids, parents, school
A false call about a person with a gun on the campus of Christopher Columbus High led to Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies swarming the school Wednesday morning, administrators locking down the classrooms and anguished parents, blocked by a fence,...
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Federal judge blocks termination of Haitian TPS, keeps protections from ending Tuesday
In a pointed rebuke of the Trump administration’s push to make hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants suddenly deportable from the United States, a federal judge in Washington blocked the Department of Homeland Security on Monday night from ending...
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BUNDLED UP IN SOUTH FLORIDA
Pedestrians walk through the pathway near the HistoryMiami Museum on Monday. With a high of 56 degrees, commuters swapped their usual warm-weather looks for hoodies, sweaters, coats and jackets. Temperatures in South Florida dipped overnight as the...
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