Lead Stories *New York City special-effects artist Matt McMullen, age 28, has been offering on the Internet his life-size, authentically detailed, steel-skeleton silicone dolls for around $4000 each, plus options. So far, “Real Dolls” Stacy, Natasha, Nina, and Leah are available with a choice of hair and skin color and…
After 43 days in federal prison, West African millionaire Foutanga Dit Babani Sissoko this past Friday returned to his Brickell Key condominium to begin serving four months of house arrest. Sissoko will be confined to his posh, bayview pad through February — unless his attorneys are successful this week in…
Lead Stories *According to an October communique from the North Korean Communist Party, “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il, age 55, has been promoted to “Great Leader,” which, according to the official government news agency, is cause for “jubilation,” even in the midst of widespread famine. The news agency added that…
Looking for the Truth Can Be Hazardous to Your Health Jacob Bernstein’s “Dateline Havana” (October 16) offered a point of view that one rarely has the honor of experiencing: men risking everything to get at the truth. Sadly, in Cuba today such things as honor and integrity get you thrown…
On November 16, 1994, newly elected County Court Judge Ellen Venzer strolled into a $250-per-person AIDS fundraiser in Miami Beach without paying, scanned the crowd at the private home to see who was in attendance, and quickly recognized a recent acquaintance, William Ofgant, a retired IBM executive who maintains homes…
Gonzalo: What About the Cubans Who Can’t Play Piano? Judy Cantor’s piece on pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba (“The Quiet Cuban,” October 9) was very well-done. I have not heard him play but I am sure he is a gem. As I read the article I thought of the night he played…
Lead Stories *The University of Minnesota is seeking more “specialists” to work on its three-year, $390,000 program to establish an “odor emissions rating system” for regulating the state’s 35,000 animal feedlots, according to an August Minneapolis Star Tribune story. Sniffers will develop objective standards for types of odors and their…
Lead Stories *In July a group of lawyers and state legislators petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court to halt all executions immediately and appoint a commission to study why, in the twenty years since the state reinstated the death penalty, more death row convicts have subsequently been found innocent and freed…
What the World Needs Now Is More Gonzalitos Bravo New Times and Judy Cantor! Now I have something to read without worrying about its content being pro-Castro or anti-Castro. And bravo to Gonzalo Rubalcaba (“The Quiet Cuban,” October 9) for his courage, for his lesson in democracy and cubanismo. This…
Lead Stories *In September a judge in Santa Monica, California, ruled that test-tube baby Jaycee Louise Buzzanca, age two, has no legal parents. She is the result of donor sperm fertilizing a donor egg in the womb of a surrogate mother. The judge said John and Luanne Buzzanca are “parents”…
After seventeen years of duty as director of the Port of Miami, Carmen Lunetta deserves a testimonial that will stand as a reminder of his managerial skills and his dedication to protecting taxpayers’ money. What would be appropriate? A plaque? Too meager. A bust? We’ll let the FBI take care…
IRP: Bark, No Bite We of Dignity for the Disabled are recommending the termination of Dade’s Independent Review Panel because it is ineffective and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Reading Jacob Bernstein’s article “Why Can’t We All Just Go for the Jugular” (October 2), I was amazed that the IRP…
Over the past twelve months, Dade County Commissioner Bruce Kaplan has asked officials at Jackson Memorial Hospital to treat at least six indigent patients from Bolivia. One of those patients, a fifteen-year-old girl suffering from cancer, cost Dade taxpayers more than $99,000. A thirteen-year-old boy with leukemia accounted for nearly…
High-Flying Hogwash I was quite disturbed by reading Jim DeFede’s “The Baba Chronicles” (September 25). I am very upset with Mr. DeFede, especially after he conducted a telephone interview with me and still published several erroneous details about the Air Dabia Boeing 747 aircraft. It is now apparent that Mr…
On the morning of September 23, Dade County Commissioner Bruce Kaplan made a motion to dump Peggi McKinley from the county’s Film, Television, and Print Advisory Board because she had expressed her support for allowing Cuban artists to participate in next year’s Midem Latin American and Caribbean Music Market. Officials…
Lead Stories *One of four annual Pennsylvania rattlesnake-bagging tournaments was held in Curwensville in June. (Amateurs in teams of two pay an entry fee and race the clock in an eight-foot-by-eight-foot cage to bag five rattlesnakes; one person holds the bag above knee level while the other puts the snakes…
Passed last week with all the subtlety of a kidney stone, Dade County’s $4.1 billion budget immediately sparked a debate as to its political winners and losers. Tops on everyone’s list of winners was Dade County Interim Mayor Alex Penelas. The big loser, by general agreement, was the county commission,…
Lead Stories *Environmentalist blues: The August fire that burned through 700 acres in the Angeles National Forest near Los Angeles was started, said state officials, by an environmentally conscious camper who was dutifully burning his used toilet paper. And in Oregon clean-water activist Patrick Shipsey is awaiting trial for shooting…
Natacha: Moooooo! Regarding Jacob Bernstein’s article “Remains of the Day” (September 18), I agree with Dade County Commissioner Natacha Millan that democracy and freedom prosper in South Florida. But they do so because of the very people she attacks. While the Cuban American Defense League advocates for a dialogue with…
Mash Note I am writing in response to Paula Park’s informative story about Deborah Mash’s valiant effort to do research on ibogaine (“Addicted to Addiction,” September 11). Since the controversial psychedelic has been used widely by addicts in Europe to reduce the craving for cocaine and heroin, why hasn’t the…
Lead Stories *Extreme political protest: At the Eugene, Oregon, city council meeting on August 6, an unidentified man who had been sitting in the audience walked up to controversial Mayor Jim Torrey, leaned over, and vomited on his shoulder. He then walked out, unpursued. One council member who was watching…
No Mo’ Blamin’ Mo We must have been doing something right to have lasted four and a half years in this swamp where couch potatoes are the major crop — not only to survive, but to be voted Best Jazz Club three times by two major publications and be given…
