TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Three tickets, two purchased in Broward County, matched all five Fantasy 5 numbers to collect a jackpot worth $92,069.38 each, the Florida Lottery said Sunday.
The winning tickets were bought in Plantation and Tamarac and in Homosassa, lottery officials said.
The numbers drawn Saturday night were 1-3-16-18-25
The 463 tickets matching four numbers won $96 each.
There was no Florida Lotto winner. The jackpot is now $16 million for Wednesday’s drawing.
A Miami-Dade police officer, who routinely stopped women drivers without cause and engaged in lewd conversations, was convicted in federal court Friday.
Prabhainjana Dwivedi, a seven-year veteran, was found guilty on six of seven counts of depriving people of their civil rights. He was found not guilty on the seventh count involving an undercover police officer.
Following the ruling, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez immediately remanded Dwivedi back into custody pending sentencing scheduled for sometime in April, according to prosecutor Karen Gilbert. The trial began Monday.
Dwivedi faces up to a year in prison for each count.
A grand jury indicted Dwivedi after he was arrested by FBI agents Sept. 5 at Miami-Dade police headquarters.
Dwivedi, 33, was charged after an investigation into complaints filed for stops made in May and June of 2011 in which he detained “numerous women” for “unreasonable” length of time “without probable cause, reasonable suspicion or other lawful authority to conduct a stop,” a criminal complaint said.
None of the questionable stops were ever listed on his daily reports or called into dispatch.
According to the complaint, Dwivedi who worked overnight patrolling an area from Key Biscayne to Jackson Memorial Hospital, stopped a 24-year-old bartender who was driving from South Beach to Broward County on her way home from work at about 5:30 a.m. on June 25, 2011, in the area of the Golden Glades interchange.
The bartender, identified as M.F., was accused by Dwivedi of driving under the influence. Pleading her innocence, she requested to have a sobriety test performed. Her request was refused.
Noticing a child’s safety seat in the back seat, Dwivedi threatened M.F. that she would lose custody of her son if she were to be arrested on DUI charges, the criminal complaint said. Then the conversation turned sexual.
According to the complaint, Dwivedi, began to inquire about her surgically enhanced breasts and asked “if she had any scars or incisions from the surgery.”
Dwivedi then asked to see the scars. M.F. obeyed, lifting her shirt and exposing her breasts.
According to the complaint written by FBI special agent Susan Funk, “M.F. stated that Dwivedi did not touch her breast.”
, Dwivedi then allowed her to drive home, but said he would follow her to make sure she got safely home. Once at M.F.’s residence, Dwivedi said he was thirsty and asked for a glass of water. Once inside her home, he lingered for an hour speaking of his personal life.
In the end, Dwivedi left without ever reporting anything to dispatch or making any notes of the stop in his daily reports, the criminal complaint said.
A month earlier, Dwivedi made another questionable stop.
According to the complaint, Dwivedi stopped a19-year-old woman at 2:20 a.m. on May 27, 2011, on her way home from a nightclub with two friends. The woman, identified, as A.R., was informed the traffic stop was a result of a failure to turn on her headlights.
Dwivedi also claimed she was driving under the influence, but A.R. disputed the accusation.
A.R. was instructed to sit in the back seat of his marked cruiser and then Dwivedi “instructed A.R. to lower the zipper on the front of her dress down past her breasts to her mid-stomach” according to the complaint.
An hour and 20 minutes later, A.R. was on her way home without any citation and Dwivedi again made no mention or note of the stop, the complaint said.
Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.
Three gunmen open fired in front of a Miami Gardens home on Super Bowl Sunday, killing Brandon Bryant, a local promoter, and injuring his father and brother.
At a press conference Friday morning, police released graphic footage of the shooting.
From a red four-door sedan, gunfire can be seen coming from the passenger-side back-seat window. The car stops and the driver, dressed in dark orange or red, jumps out with a gun and disappears from the screen. The passenger slides over to the driver seat and also begins to fire. As the driver returns to the car, the passenger exits with a long barreled gun and continues to shoot before he too gets back in the car, and they drive off.
In all, police say they are looking for three gunmen.
Miami Gardens police and Bryant’s family at Friday’s press conference asked for the community to come forward with any tips about the shooting.
“We believe that someone out there has information that can help bring closure to this family and bring these violent individuals to justice,” said Police Chief Matthew Boyd
Bryant and his family were at a Super Bowl barbecue watching the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers face off in New Orleans. Witnesses told police at least 30 shots rang out near the home on the 2300 block of Northwest 204th Street
Police say one of the victims remains in the hospital, but declined to say which one. Police would not release their names or a motive for Sunday night’s shootings.
A Miami Gardens pastor who has spoken publicly about the prevalent no-snitching culture pleaded with Miami Gardens residents to break the cycle.
“Remember today is their day, tomorrow could be your day,” he said.
Bryant’s family describe the 25-year-old as a beloved member of their family who had an entrepreneurial spirit.
He ran a marketing and artist-development firm that worked with local hip-hop artists. He was the father of two young boys, ages 15 months and 4 months.
“It’s very difficult for us right now to endure this,” said Nina Packer, Bryant’s aunt and the family’s spokesperson.
“As lifelong members of this community, this has got to stop,” she said. “This is a problem”
Police ask anyone with information to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers anonymously at 305-471-8477 or Miami Garden Police at 305-474-4673.
A Miami-Dade school bus driver may be ticketed for an accident that left a Sweetwater police officer hospitalized Thursday morning.
According to Sweetwater police chief Roberto Fulgueira, the school bus was making a “three point” turn in the parking lot of a McDonald’s restaurant at Southwest 112th Avenue and 152nd Street in South Miami-Dade.
During the turn, the driver backed into the roadway and into the path of the police car.
Fulgueira said the officer had “nowhere to go” and could not avoid hitting the back of the bus.
The officer, a corporal who has worked for at Sweetwater for four years, was not at fault, according to Fulgueira.
The bus driver will likely be ticketed.
The officer was cut by flying windshield glass and also had a minor injury to his arm caused by the airbag that inflated.
He was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in stable condition.
The school bus driver wasn’t hurt and there were no students on the bus.
A Miami-Dade circuit judge has approved a private adoption allowing three people — a gay man and a married lesbian couple — to be the legal parents of their 23-month-old daughter.
“We’re creating entirely new concepts of families. If you have two women seeking to be listed as Parent One and Parent Two, that does not exclude listing a man as father,” said Miami family lawyer Karyn J. Begin, who represented dad Massimiliano “Massimo” Gerina in a two-year paternity case involving lesbian friends who had his baby.
Maria Italiano and Cher Filippazzo, who married in Connecticut, and their attorney, Kenneth Kaplan, declined to be interviewed.
The women, according to Begin, are longtime partners who unsuccessfully attempted to become pregnant through professional fertility clinics.
Instead of giving up, they decided to try again at home and approached Gerina about fathering a child.
“They asked me,” Gerina said. “I was flattered by it. I thought what a great opportunity for me to have a baby.”
A single Bay Harbor Islands hair stylist, Gerina explained why he desires children: “It’s nature — the same reason a woman wants to be a mother.”
Gerina grew up Cagliari, Italy, where he never thought he could become a father. Eight years ago, though, he moved to South Florida and encountered many gay parents raising children.
“It’s not unusual here. Where I am from it’s unusual. I grew up with the mentality that it would never happen,” he said. “When I moved here, I saw gay couples, lesbian couples having families.”
On only a verbal agreement, Gerina gave the women his sperm and Italiano conceived. The lesbians planned for Filippazzo to later adopt the baby and they would both raise the child.
Florida law specifies that sperm donors have no legal rights in artificial inseminations. Thus the hitch: Gerina says he considered himself a parent, not simply a donor. The women, he claimed, “wanted a father for the baby, not just the sperm.”
Two weeks after insemination, Italiano learned she was pregnant. About seven months later, the women called Gerina and asked him to sign a contract.
“When they gave me the paper to sign that I had to give up all my rights to the baby, I didn’t,” he said.
Gerina began to ponder the legal consequences of siring a child. He hired Begin and presented the women with papers of his own.
“My papers said I would have parental rights, a visitation schedule,” he said. “They hated it. They said this wasn’t what they wanted. I said, ‘Now that you’re already pregnant, you should have thought about that before.’ ”
Their daughter, Emma, was born March 10, 2011. “The paternity lawsuit was filed right after the birth of the child,” Begin said.
The three parents feuded in court for nearly two years. A trial was set for Jan. 31, 2013.
A week before trial, Gerina, Italiano, Filippazzo and their attorneys settled the case privately.
Before posing for photos with the three parents and Emma, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Antonio Marin approved the settlement and the court adoption clerk submitted paperwork for Emma’s new birth certificate:
• Birth mother Italiano, a retail saleswoman, received “sole parental responsibility,” Begin said.
The Sunday school teachers at New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens are well-versed in Biblical tales such as the Good Samaritan or Noah’s Ark.
But this year, a police officer will preach to the youngest members of the flock, telling them about a contemporary version of the Golden Rule: to respect their neighbors and their neighborhood, and to report wrongdoing rather than uphold the informal no-snitching code.
In a city that saw 25 people killed last year — grandfathers, mothers, fathers, a college-bound freshman — city leaders and community elders have not only been grappling with how to stem the violence, but how to shift a pervasive culture of not cooperating with police.
So far, this year, three people have been killed in Miami Gardens — a man killed on New Year’s Day, a 15-year-old boy who was shot multiple times and a man killed Sunday night after a Super Bowl party.
At New Beginning, a working class congregation, the head pastor is hoping to start small, with a monthly visit from a Miami Gardens police officer.
“It is very necessary,” said senior pastor Eric Readon, of his nontraditional approach. “It’s not just about preaching Jesus, we need to change our methods to get to these kids. We need to save them before they go in the wrong direction.”
Even as overall crime rates have steadily declined in Miami-Dade County’s third largest city — and Florida’s largest predominately black city —Miami Gardens is burdened with a high murder rate per capita.
In the past five years, Miami Gardens has ranked among the top Miami-Dade cities with the highest murder rates per 100,000 residents. In 2011, the city was second in murders per capita in the county, with 24 murders. First was nearby Opa-locka, according to statistics compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. By comparison, Hialeah, which is roughly double the size of Miami Gardens’ population of 110,000, had four murders in 2011 and seven in 2012, according to records.
Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, a lifelong resident, said his city, as with many communities, is not immune to crime.
“We won’t allow an entire community of people to be identified by the horrible actions of a small minority of people,” said Gilbert. “Most of the people in Miami Gardens are great decent people. This isn’t a bad area because some bad things happen here.”
And so clergy members called for an end to the violence at a press conference, police hosted meetings with local crime watch groups and at an all-night prayer vigil last month, pastors and city leaders memorialized the victims killed in the city last year.
Among the casualties:
An eight-month pregnant mother who succumbed to her injuries after being shot on her boyfriend’s porch. The unborn baby did not survive.
A Carol City high school football player who was gunned down while he sat in a car in front of his friend’s house. On the same day, blocks away, a 26-year old woman was walking on the sidewalk when she was approached from behind and was shot several times in the head and torso.
A local car wash owner was killed while trying to stop a robbery; a corrections officer was shot dead in front of his home.
Lost are the days when neighbors bought into the idea, “I am my brother’s keeper,” said Bishop Sylvester Sampson, whose son-in-law, Andrew Johnson, the corrections officer, was fatally shot near Northwest 211th Street and Northwest 27th Avenue in his driveway.
Two people from Florida's West Coast area died Monday morning in a single-vehicle crash at Card Sound Road and State Road 905 in North Key Largo, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and Florida Highway Patrol.
Troopers said Lakeland resident Joshua Patchell, 29, was driving a 205 GMC north on 905 with Brittany McLeod, 25, from Brandon riding as a passenger around 12:20 a.m.
"For unknown reasons, after traveling through a curve in the road, [he] proceeded to travel right and onto the shoulder," Trooper David Riso wrote in a report. " He then overcorrected back into the northbound lane, then found himself "back towards the same shoulder."
The GMC hit a tree line while still heading north and became airborne, then struck a tree. The auto "continued forward, overturning" and ended up on the northbound shoulder upside down.
Troopers didn't say who found the crash site and are investigating more.
The two deaths apparently are the first two auto fatalities in the Keys this year.
After a block and a half they came to the Clevelander, a legendary South Beach bar bearing no resemblance to anything that has ever existed in Cleveland. On a small stage next to the packed bar a woman wearing a basically invisible bikini was writhing to inhumanly loud pounding music. Nearby, beneath a sign that said D.J. BOOGA WOOGA was a man wearing black lace-up boots and a purple thong held up by orange suspenders. He was shouting into a microphone: “LAST CALL FOR THE MISS HOT AMATEUR BOD CONTEST! LADIES COME ON UP! FIRST PRIZE IS ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS! COME ON LADIES! LET’S SEE WHAT YOU GOT!”
Standing near the DJ were a dozen young women wearing garments that, if all of them were combined, might have provided enough fabric to make a sock.
“We should stop here,” said Kevin.
“No we shouldn’t,” said Seth. “We need to get to the Ritz.”
“We can’t get to the Ritz,” said Kevin. “Admit it. We tried, and we failed.”
“Plus,” said Marty, “they don’t have Miss Hot Amateur Bod at the Ritz, not to mention D.J. Booga Wooga.”
Seth looked back out at Ocean Drive. Still no taxis.
“Maybe there’s a bus to Key Biscayne,” said Big Steve.
“Shut up, Steve,” said Kevin.
“Come on, Seth,” said Marty. “One drink.”
“OK,” said Seth, dragging his suitcase toward the bar. “One drink.”
* * *
Three hours later, they were on their fifth pitcher of margaritas. The pitchers were $50 apiece, plus a generous tip for Vicki the bartender, with whom Kevin had fallen deeply in love. Kevin was also in love with Cyndi Friend Gonzalez, an outgoing young woman who had finished fourth in the Miss Hot Amateur Bod competition, and who was wearing a dress made from roughly one square inch of some extremely stretchy material. At Kevin’s invitation, Cyndi had joined the Groom Posse at the bar; she had in turn been joined by a friend of hers, a large bald man named Duane.
The posse was not thrilled about Duane, but nobody told him to leave, because in addition to being large, he had an 11-foot Burmese albino python named Blossom draped over his shoulders. Duane made his living collecting tips from tourists who wanted to have their pictures taken with Blossom. He’d been doing this for eight years and considered himself a professional. He also considered himself an ambassador for Miami, and upon learning that Seth was about to get married, he had appointed himself as tour guide.
“This is my town,” he said. “ ¿Se hablo españolo? You need weed? Oxy?”
“I think we’re good,” said Seth.
Duane brandished Blossom. “You want to hold her? No charge for the groom, man.”
“Maybe later,” said Seth, leaning back to avoid Blossom’s flicking tongue.
“Just say the word,” said Duane, pouring Seth and himself another glass from the pitcher, finishing it. Kevin waved to Vicki for another.
The Clevelander was now very crowded and making far more noise than the entire state of Nebraska. The sea-salted night air was warm and sticky and thick with the aromas of spilled beer and cigar smoke and Axe body spray and billowing clouds of do-me perfume worn by women who were not wearing a whole lot else. Seth was staring at one of these women, wondering how she sat down in that dress and hoping she would attempt to do so soon, when he realized that Big Steve was shouting something into his ear, trying to be heard over the all-obliterating boom-boom issuing from the coffin-sized speakers of D.J. Booga Wooga.
“WHAT?” said Seth.
“THE HOTEL!” said Big Steve. He held up his phone so Seth could see the time: 9:30. Seth frowned. He swiveled toward Marty, grabbing the bar to keep from falling off the stool.
“MARTY.”
“WHAT?”
“WE NEED TO GET TO THE HOTEL!”
“WHAT?”
“THE HOTEL!”
Marty frowned deeply for several seconds, processing this concept, then said, “WHAT?”
“Never mind,” said Seth. Realizing it was time to take matters into his own hands, he turned away from Marty and slid smoothly off the stool. He continued sliding smoothly until he found himself on all fours under the bar. He decided to remain that way for a bit, collecting his thoughts.
He’d been down there a while and had yet to collect any when he became vaguely aware of voices shouting above him in the thumping din. He heard his name, and realized that the voices belonged to Marty, Big Steve and Kevin, who, apparently unaware that he was under the bar, were trying to figure out where he was.
“Hey!” said Seth. “Down here!”
They didn’t hear him. Their voices were louder now, and more concerned.
“Hey!” Seth repeated, again going unheard. He thought about attempting to stand up, but at the moment that didn’t seem to be a good idea, or even possible. He decided to collect his thoughts some more and soon fell asleep with his back against the bar.
Police are investigating details surrounding the death of an elderly woman found inside her home near midtown Miami.
Shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, Miami Police officers went to the home of Carmen Diaz, 78, whose adult son decided to visit her after not hearing from her in a few days, according to a news release. When he arrived, he found Diaz dead inside her home of 50 years at 120 NW 34 St.
Miami Police spokeswoman Kenia Reyes said although the death appeared “somewhat suspicious,” the department isn’t releasing details until the county medical examiner determines the cause of death.
WSVN-Channel 7 reported that the adult son found Diaz’s house ransacked and her body wrapped in a blanket in her bathroom.
Police confirmed the house was in disarray, but wouldn’t say if there had been a burglary.
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner is currently investigating the scene.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
The National Urban League announced today that Fort Lauderdale edged out nine other cities to attract its 2015 conference.
“There were some strong cities and affiliates,” Rhonda Spears Bell, the senior vice president for the National urban League said Friday during a news conference held at the Urban League of Broward County’s headquarters. “But everything seemed to line up for Fort Lauderdale.”
The organization currently holds a mid-winter conference in Fort Lauderdale every year.
“It’s time to bring the big game,” Bell said.
In the past, the national conference has attracted well known guests such as Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
TALLAHASSEE --
The Florida Supreme Court unanimously rejected an argument that would have allowed the Board of Governors to set tuition rates without limits, saying the Legislature could restrain the board or even set the rates itself.
The ruling in the case, Graham v. Haridopolos, resolves a key question about the board’s power under the 2002 constitutional amendment that created the panel, replacing the Board of Regents. Former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham had argued that the BOG could set tuition rates without interference from lawmakers.
But writing for the majority, Justice Barbara Pariente said the Legislature’s authority to control how state money is spent was tied to the ability to raise money to pay for those expenses -- including tuition.
"Nothing within the language of article IX, section 7, of the Florida Constitution indicates an intent to transfer this quintessentially legislative power to the Board of Governors," Pariente wrote.
Her opinion was joined by Justices Peggy Quince, Jorge Labarga and James Perry. Chief Justice Ricky Polston and Justices Charles Canady and Fred Lewis agreed with the result of the decision but didn’t necessarily adopt its reasoning.
Labarga also wrote a brief concurring opinion that he said was meant to emphasize that the Legislature also faced limits on its authority.
"The power to attach contingencies to funds appropriated to the university system may not be employed to impair the constitutional authority of the Board to operate and manage the university system," he wrote.
The court case had been a flashpoint between the Legislature and the board, which was originally a part of the lawsuit but dropped out after reaching a separate deal with lawmakers.
The Legislature has granted the board more power in recent years, most notably through the state’s “differential tuition” law, which allows increases of up to 15 percent, but with a limit on how that money can be used.
The ruling also comes amid a renewed focus on tuition, with Gov. Rick Scott focusing on lowering the cost of higher education at the same time that some legislative leaders have endorsed the idea of allowing tuition to rise at research universities.
A Miami Gardens woman is being held in jail after police found her toddler son wandering alone outside.
Mathieu Anice, 28, was arrested Tuesday night after she told police she was not aware her 2-year-old was found on the streets, according to Miami Herald news partner CBS4. Police were tipped off after getting several calls from people who noticed the toddler.
“After a while they asked questions in the neighborhood and they came to a house where they pointed where the child lives,” said Miami Gardens Police Capt. Ralph Suarez told CBS4.
“The units brought the kid to the house and it was at that point she realized the child was missing.”
Officers located Anice in the 3400 block of 177th Terrace. According to the station, Anice was arrested in March 2012 on felony child neglect charges.
Anice is being held on $5,000 bond. Her son and other children in the home have been removed by the state.
Florida would save money over the next decade — not lose billions as Gov. Rick Scott has argued — by accepting Medicaid expansion under federal healthcare reforms, according to a detailed economic study.
Miami-Dade legislators and healthcare industry leaders, getting together on Monday, heard about the report by Georgetown University — the most positive yet on a highly debated provision of what is often called Obamacare.
Jack Hoadley, a senior researcher with the Georgetown Health Policy Institute, said the study was the first to calculate spin-off savings in other state programs if Florida accepted the expansion, which over the next 10 years could bring $26 billion in federal funds to provide insurance to an estimated 815,000 to 1.3 million Florida residents who are now uninsured.
In Miami-Dade, expansion would cover an additional 150,000 to 225,000, according to the Georgetown projections. That reduction in the uninsured would bring huge relief to the county’s hospitals, which by federal law must treat anyone who comes to the emergency room, regardless of ability to pay.
The top-level meeting, at the United Way of Miami-Dade headquarters, was convened by United Way, Health Council of South Florida and Health Foundation of South Florida.
At the very least, the Georgetown findings and other recent analyses have some critics reconsidering opposition to the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act.
State Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, who previously was an “absolute no” vote against Medicaid expansion, said after the meeting that he was now “open to the thought” that expansion makes sense.
State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, said he was still concerned about the debt-ridden feds’ ability to fund Medicaid over the long term, but “we are looking at all the options.”
Estimates about the real costs of expansion have varied wildly based on the law, which requires the federal government to pay all costs of the expansion for the first three years. Starting in 2017, the state will start paying a small share, which will reach 10 percent of the expansion costs for 2020 and beyond.
Gov. Scott, who has long been critical of Obamacare, contended in December that expansion would cost Florida taxpayers more than $26 billion over 10 years. Opponents and healthcare experts criticized that estimate as way too high, and earlier this month the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration gave a much lower estimate of $3 billion for the decade.
That was lower even than a report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, a Washington research group, which in November estimated that expansion would cover an additional 1.2 million residents at a cost to the state of $5.4 billion over 10 years.
Georgetown’s Hoadley said Monday that the Kaiser study used only rough data for all 50 states, while the Georgetown study, funded by two Florida nonprofit foundations, looked in detail at how Medicaid expansion would save money in other areas. The Georgetown study found that the state would have to spend less for safety-net hospitals such as Jackson Health System, mental-health and substance-abuse programs and the medically needy program.
Hoadley said the savings calculations were “a very cautious estimate.”
The Georgetown report projected that the state would save $300 million in 2014, the first year of Medicaid expansion, and $100 million in 2020, when the state would be paying for 10 percent of the expansion costs.
The Georgetown study found that expansion was especially important in Florida, where almost one in three — 30 percent — of nonelderly adults are uninsured, compared to 18 percent nationwide.
In South Florida, the figures are even higher for uninsured non-elderly adults: 57 percent in Hialeah, 50 percent in the city of Miami, 48.5 percent in Deerfield Beach and 31.2 percent in Kendall.
Hospitals strongly support the expansion. On Monday, Phillis Oeters, an executive with Baptist Health South Florida, told legislators that hospitals have already seen their Medicare and Medicaid payments reduced greatly in other areas.
“Enough is enough,” she said. “Hospitals can’t take it anymore.”
A study done for the Florida Hospital Association estimated that the infusion of federal funds from Obamacare would add 56,000 jobs to the state.
Four No Name Key residents filed a $10 million discrimination lawsuit against Monroe County Thursday in Circuit Court.
Jim and Ruth Newton, along with Robert and Julianne Reynolds, allege the county has for years willfully denied the Lower Keys island commercial power without proper cause. Currently homes there are powered by solar and generators.
"The county has a long history of discrimination against that island and the residents and its very flagrant. And if it's not discrimination, it's ignorance," Reynolds said Friday.
The crux of the plaintiffs' argument is Chief Circuit Court Judge David Audlin's ruling in 2011 that the state Public Service Commission has jurisdiction over the matter, not the county.
That ruling came about from a county filing asking Audlin to decide whether county law allows commercial electricity on No Name. County officials say the law doesn't allow it and that it can't issue permits for it.
The suit concentrates on Monroe County fighting the installation of 62 Keys Energy Services power poles last year, as well as a 2001 county ordinance creating a coastal barrier overlay district prohibiting commercial utilities in federal coastal barrier areas.
Congress created the Coastal Barrier Resource System in 1982, and updated it in 1990, to protect undeveloped coastal barrier areas.
The lawsuit also addresses the Newtons' controversial application last year for an electrical building permit from the county. Originally granted, it was revoked when county officials realized their home is on No Name.
In addition to the $10 million in damages -- which Reynolds called a "low" number-- the plaintiffs want Audlin to void the county's coastal barrier overlay district law and grant homeowners electrical permits.
"If you knew what this has done to the friendships and relationships there ... it's pretty much the only thing they think about and talk about. I don't know what the value of my peace of mind is, but in my mind it's pretty significant," Reynolds said.
He's owned a house on No Name since 2005.
The Miami Heat will be in suits and ties when they visit the White House on Monday. Unless, of course, someone invites them to play some ball.
After all, President Barack Obama does enjoy some pickup games.
"Everybody will bring their shoes - just in case," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
The basketball-fan-in-chief will be providing his personal congratulations to the Heat, when the team picks up one of the traditional perks of winning a championship.
Miami will fly to Washington after playing the Boston Celtics on Sunday afternoon, then remain in the city for parts of two days before heading back north for a game in Brooklyn on Wednesday night.
"I've never been to the White House," Heat forward Mike Miller said. "It'll definitely be an interesting experience that I've always wanted to do."
At the 1:35 p.m. event, the White House says Obama also will recognize the franchise's support of military members. The Heat will meet with wounded soldiers during their trip to Washington.
Honoring soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a pregame tradition at Heat home games for several years, part of team president Pat Riley's program called "Home Strong."
"It's the pinnacle of the things that we've been able to experience together," Spoelstra said of the White House visit. "Thankfully we have the majority of the team back. I think it's a great experience and a culmination of that year for our organization."
When the Heat last visited the White House after winning the 2006 title, then-President George W. Bush attempted to dribble a ball that Heat players had signed. Problem was, the ball wasn't exactly inflated - and fell to the floor with a thud.
"It's always cool to be able to go," Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. "It's special any time you get invited to the White House, but especially to go as champions, it doesn't get any better than that."
Several members of the Heat organization, including Wade and LeBron James, openly voiced support for Obama's re-election campaign last year.
Politics aside, though, there is one policy where the opinions of the Heat and Obama - who supports Chicago teams - differ.
"We won't hold it against him that he's a Bulls fan," Spoelstra said.
The Miami Herald will have a reporter with the Heat on Monday as they visit the White House. Follow our tweets at @MiamiHerald
Eight years have passed since Michelle Spence-Jones was elected to the Miami City Commission.
She isn’t willing to leave just yet.
Spence-Jones — who was charged with bribery and grand theft in 2009, suspended from office, acquitted and reinstated to her post — is seeking reelection, she announced Friday. She represents District 5, which includes Overtown, Little Haiti and Liberty City.
Whether Spence-Jones could run again has been the subject of much debate. The Miami city charter limits commissioners to two terms and Spence-Jones has twice won election. But City Attorney Julie O. Bru opined that Spence-Jones could run again because her second term was interrupted by the suspension.
“Our charter prohibits a commissioner or the mayor for running for reelection after that commissioner or mayor has served two consecutive terms,” Bru reaffirmed to Spence-Jones at a City Commission meeting Thursday. “You are eligible to seek reelection because you did not serve two full consecutive terms.”
Spence-Jones’s opponent isn’t buying it.
“The bottom line is, Michelle is term limited,” said the Rev. Richard P. Dunn II, who held the commission seat in Spence-Jones’s absence. “She received financial compensation for the time she was away and she was fully vested in the pension. Are the citizens of Miami going to pay her twice?”
Dunn plans to file a legal challenge “immediately,” he said.
Spence-Jones wants the additional term, she said, “to finish what I started.”
She pointed to the improvements she’s spearheaded along Northeast Second Avenue in Little Haiti. “We cleaned the place up, repainted many of the buildings and recreated a Caribbean feel by adding steeples,” she said.
The ultimate goal, Spence-Jones said, is to make Little Haiti a destination for tourists akin to Little Havana’s Calle Ocho. She has a similar vision for Overtown, which was once the cultural hub of Miami’s black community. To that end, Spence-Jones pushed for improvements to Northwest Third Avenue and provided grant money for local businesses.
“Now we’re going to move forward with a marketing campaign and build relationships with cruise lines and tour operators,” Spence-Jones said. “But these sorts of things take time.”
Other big projects are in the works.
Earlier this year, Spence-Jones pushed through a $50 million bond issue for improvements in Overtown — the largest investment the blighted community has seen in decades. The money will go toward affordable housing and some retail projects.
But Spence-Jones takes an equal amount of pride in some of her smaller initiatives, including a project that brought Hollywood director Robert Townsend to Overtown to film an independent movie. Students from the University of Miami and several local high schools had the opportunity to serve as interns. The film will debut this summer.
She plans to focus future efforts on Liberty City. She is already laying the groundwork for a program that will train residents to become laboratory technicians. A second program will help people with criminal records pursue careers in the automotive industry.
Spence-Jones’s tenure has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. After being elected to her second term, she was charged with bribery and grand theft in two separate cases and removed from office by then-Gov. Charlie Crist. Jurors later acquitted her of bribery, and prosecutors dropped the grand-theft charges.
A vindicated Spence-Jones returned to City Hall in August with newfound political heft.
Spence-Jones is now suing Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle and Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, accusing them of conspiring to destroy her political career via the prosecutions. She declined to talk about the suit, saying only: “I’m going to let my lawyers fight that battle.”
She may have another legal fight ahead.
Dunn believes the city attorney’s opinion giving Spence-Jones the go-ahead to run again won’t withstand a legal challenge. He says Spence-Jones has served two consecutive terms because she was paid for two consecutive terms.
Dunn also criticized the city attorney, saying she likely felt pressured to give that opinion because Spence-Jones is her boss.
“If it stands up in a court of law, I will respect that,” said Dunn, who attended Thursday’s commission meeting and took notes on a legal pad. “But I’m not going to be whitewashed by a city attorney’s opinion that’s biased by her boss’s posturing position.”
Dunn, who also sat on the commission in the mid-‘90s after Commissioner Miller Dawkins was removed from office, pointed to his own accomplishments as a commissioner. He said he helped secure funding for Gibson Park,and quelled racial tensions after Miami police officers shot and killed seven black men in 2010 and 2011.
“Michelle Spence-Jones does not own that seat,” he said. “It’s owned by the people of District 5.”
No other candidates have announced they are running for the post.
A suspect accused of shooting a woman in the face after taking her purse in Liberty City was arrested Friday by Miami police.
Kamiah Lanier, 20, was charged with attempted murder, armed robbery with firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and use of firearm during the commission of a felony.
At about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Evelyn Matamoro was leaving Café Ruyi, a Chinese restaurant in the 5300 block of Northwest Seventh Avenue.
As she reached her car, a robber pointed a gun at her and made several statements, which Matamoro, the mother of two young children, didn’t understand because she doesn’t speak English, according to a Miami police arrest report.
Fearing for her life, Matamoro handed over her purse. The suspect then shot her once in the face, police said.
The suspect, who Matamoro later identified as Lanier, ran through the rear parking lot and escaped in a gray Dodge Charger driven by his sister, police said.
At about 7:45 p.m., a Miami officer stopped the car and arrested Lanier’s sister, who admitted picking up her brother but said she had no knowledge of the robbery and shooting.
At Jackson Ryder Trauma Center, where she remained in critical condition, Matamoro identified Lanier from a series of photographs. Police arrested him at 1:55 a.m. Friday.
He denied robbing Matamoro, according to police.
Matamoro was in stable condition Friday afternoon, said Miami police spokeswoman Kenia Reyes.
This report will be updated as more information becomes available.
Last week’s column generated several emails from you asking if Youth Crime Watch is in every school. Unfortunately due to budgets, we are not, but we do service those that contact us. Therefore I asked our program director, Joel Mesa, to write my column for today to enlighten my readers about our program.
Youth Crime Watch of Miami-Dade County serves nearly 35,000 students per school year via youth crime prevention presentations, safety projects, YCW club meetings, assemblies, rallies, and special events. Our YCW School Coordinators conduct more than 500 presentations per school year at the Miami-Dade schools on: YCW orientations, YCW installation, YCW appreciation, reporting crimes, school safety, school violence prevention, bullying and cyberbullying prevention, sexting prevention, stranger danger, personal safety, drug prevention, gun prevention, character education, cyber safety, anger management, McGruff the Crime Dog, and much more.
I have experienced at first-hand the dominant factors that youth crime prevention education has in molding our future leaders to strive for success and strengthen our school communities. The students are the “eyes and ears” of our schools. They are the primary stakeholders in preventing crime at their schools by educating their peers on safety topics and by anonymously reporting threats and warning signs that can lead to violent incidents. However, they cannot do this without adequate training. YCW of Miami-Dade County’s primary mission is to provide them the training and skills to make their safety visions an observable reality. It is a mission that has been possible year after year.
Children and young people can be so vulnerable to fall for the ills of school crime. Youth Crime Watch of Miami-Dade County has been healing those ills throughout the last 33 years by implementing programs in the Miami-Dade schools. YCW of Miami-Dade County was selected as the National Crime Prevention Program of the Year by the National Crime Prevention Council. YCW educates students on safety skills which in turn the youth apply those skills in their schools to promote safe school environments, educate their peers on youth crime prevention, and curb school crime. The organization also provides students and faculty a multitude of crime prevention materials so the safety education can be reinforced in the classroom lessons and in YCW club activities. YCW is also the premier organization which has McGruff the Crime Dog appear at Miami-Dade school safety functions and help kids “take a bite out of crime.”
School crime statistics and survey assessments have continuously demonstrated that schools with YCW programs have lower crime rates and safer school environments. This in turn is a contributing factor in academic achievement. A child that is fearful of being bullied and harassed will prioritize their fear over their academics. On the other side of the “safety spectrum”, those children that feel comfortable and safe in their school environments will be more motivated & determined to focus on their academics.
Crime Prevention is a holistic process, working with teachers, counselors, parents, administrators and schools police, but the most important participant is the parent. For more information, feel free to call our office 305-470-1670 and we will be happy to send you a brochure.
Many AT&T U-Verse customers still did not have Internet, TV or phone service Wednesday, the result of a mass outage that began Monday and has affected users in Florida and about 13 other states across the Southeast and Southwest.
“I’m living in a prehistoric age with AT&T,” vented Sabrina from Miami on her Twitter account.
Many customers have been frustrated with the lack of communication from the communications giant. Over the past three days, the company has provided little information about the cause of the outage or the timeframe for when customers might see their service restored.
Tuesday, the company provided an email to The Miami Herald that stated the problem was with a server that supports U-Verse, which uses fiber-optic technology. It also stated that the company’s technicians and engineers were working to restore the service, and included an apology to its customers for the inconvenience.
The outage has caused more than an inconvenience for many customers who use the fast Internet service for their businesses.
On Twitter, AT&T U-Verse posted that some customers might be able to restore service by restarting their systems. “More to come ASAP.” That post was about 8 p.m. Tuesday. There had been no update as of early Wednesday afternoon.
“Not a happy camper,” Michael Johnson of Little Rock, Ark., posted on AT&T’s U-Verse Facebook page. The page has yet to post any information about the outage.
On an AT&T support forum, one post said the outage was caused by authentication servers that went down in Texas. It states if the residential gateways can’t authenticate, they can’t get IP addresses. Other angry social media posts have suggested the problem may be due to hacking of the system.
A Twitter post from Carrie Carlton Schumacher of Boynton Beach said it’s no use calling customer service because a recording says that agents will have no information about the outage.
By 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, AT&T issued a statement that said the outage was at that point affecting “less than 1 percent of our U-verse subscribers."
The statement continued: "But that is too many and we are working hard to fix this. We are making progress in resolving the issue which is related to a server complex, and are working to determine when service will be completely restored. “
Meanwhile, AT&T’s U-Verse refer-a-friend sweepstakes continues.
TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet will be asked on Wednesday to agree to a no-bid contract to allow two major agriculture companies to farm on Everglades land for another 30 years, a deal that would include pouring tons of phosphorous-laden fertilizer onto the site the state is spending billions to clean-up.
The request from Florida Crystals and A. Duda and Sons is supported by the state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel Vinyard and South Florida Water Management District officials. But environmentalists aren’t happy.
“The State of Florida is putting 13,952 acres of state land off the table as a possible solution to future problems,’’ said Charles Lee, director of advocacy for Audubon of Florida at a meeting of the Cabinet aides last week. “It is passing up an opportunity.”
Environmentalists have agreed to allow Florida Crystals to continue sugar farming 7,862 acres in the Everglades Agricultural Area because they believe the company is “holding the state hostage” and won’t allow a crucial next step to go forward in the Everglades clean-up plan if they don’t get the deal.
But environmentalists strongly oppose the Duda deal, which would allow that company to continue to grow vegetables farm 6,089 acres of land and pump 339 tons of fertilizer each year into the Everglades, exacerbating the clean-up problem the state is spending billions to fix. They want the state to require Duda to reduce its phosphorous run-off in exchange for the favorable no-bid contract.
According to emails obtained by the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee bureau, Tracy Peters of the Division of State Lands initially suggested that Florida Crystals reduce its pollution levels in exchange for the lease extension. But the attorney for the company, Silvia Morell Alderman of Akerman Senterfitt, responded that such requirements “would be deal breakers” because the company has been improving its phosphorous levels for 17 years.
Peters then backed off and, on several occasions, asked Alderman’s permission to make other minor changes to the proposal, the emails show.
Under a 1994 Everglades Forever Act, the companies were to give 20-year leases to farm land in the Everglades Agricultural Area in exchange for reducing polluted run-off that is choking the Everglades. The proposal to be voted on by the governor and Cabinet Wednesday will extend five of those leases, which are set to expire between 2015 and 2018, and allow them to continue for another 30 years.
In September, Scott formally signed off on $880 million worth of Everglades cleanup projects that will expand efforts to stem the flow of polluted farm, ranch and yard runoff into the famed River of Grass. The agreement between the state, sugar growers and the Environmental Protection Agency, would allow the state to move forward with building stormwater treatment projects and meet a series of discharge limits beginning in 2018.
Lee told the Cabinet aides that the state may not have the legal authority to negotiate the lease renewal in the first place but, if it does, it should attempt to reduce phosphorous loads onto the land. A similar deal was cut three years ago when the state renewed agricultural leases as part of a land-purchase deal with U.S. Sugar and the company agreed to reduce phosphorous levels on the land in exchange for the deal.
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