More than an hour after sunset the temperature inside the gym at Booker T. Washington Middle School is still over 90 degrees. Trapped like most everything else in Overtown, the air is heavy and damp. On the floor, two dozen teenage boys race up and down the basketball court, running…
Odio: Enough of the Pointless Poor Taste! I am tired of your unrelenting coverage of Cesar Odio. I thought your article on his family (“Dynasty,” October 10) was pointless and in poor taste. Please write about someone or something else. Enough already. Barbara De Leo Hamra Miami Odio: New Times…
Lead Stories *Dangerous minds: In the same week in September, Southwest Elementary School in Lexington, North Carolina, suspended a six-year-old boy for kissing a girl on the cheek (“sexual harassment”), and the New York Supreme Court disallowed the suspension of a fifteen-year-old boy who was carrying a loaded gun at…
The Odio Clan: Lowly, Stupid, and Vile After reading the unsigned article about Odio family members (“Dynasty,” October 10) in which you made fun of their history, their family, and made jokes at their expense for your own gain, I was struck at how little you must know about the…
Lead Stories *Conspicuous getaways: Armed with descriptions of the perpetrators, police made arrests fairly quickly in robberies in Chicago and Oshawa, Ontario, because thieves were unable to blend in with the crowd as they walked away with their loot. According to police, Jude Bradshaw was still wearing the green hat…
Hello, registrar’s office.” “Hi, is this the registrar’s office at Columbia University?” “Yes, it is.” “Well, I was hoping you could help me. I’m calling from Miami and I was trying to track down some information about a former Columbia professor, Alex Cooper. I believe he taught bullshitting.” “Excuse me?”…
Want Not, Save Not I was so surprised to read that an average of only two people on every flight abstain from the famous airplane food (“Getting Wasted at 35,000 Feet” by Kirk Semple, September 26). I was expecting something like only two people would take it from every flight…
Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Him I enjoyed reading Sean Rowe’s article “Gimme Subterranean Shelter,” (September 26) but I must clarify one or two things. My wife, three cats, and I lived in the bomb shelter on Hibiscus Street from April 1993 to June 1994, and…
Lead Stories *In Chicago transportation analyst Steve Lewins, using the stationery of his employer, the investment firm Gruntal & Company, said he had information on alleged federal government complicity in the crash of TWA Flight 800 and the explosion of the Challenger. He said he deals with death threats against…
Lead Stories *Singapore began a clean-lavatories campaign in August. Officials said the measure of a nation’s social progress is the cleanliness of its public restrooms and its appreciation of music. And in April, the government of Shanghai, China, opened several “hotel-grade” public restrooms, charging about two cents per visit, that…
Otherwise Kathy Thanks You I very much enjoyed Kathy Glasgow’s entertaining and informative story about the coterie of Cuban boxers who now call Miami their home (“Freedom Fighters,” September 19). It was another example of what makes this such an interesting city and what makes New Times such a valuable…
This past Sunday Rev. Cleo Albury, Jr., of the Bible Baptist Church in Liberty City, exhorted his congregation to believe in the power of prayer, and he used the parable of Daniel in the lion’s den as an illustration. Daniel, the pastor reminded everyone, was a servant of the Lord…
Info:Correction Date: September 26, 1996 Letters The Jean Rich Story, Getting Richer I would like to congratulate and personally thank New Times for having the courage to publish the article regarding my family name and Rich International Airways (RIA), a subject that appears to be taboo for the Miami Herald…
Lead Stories *The London insurance firm of Goodfellow Rebecca Ingrams Pearson announced in August it would offer policies covering people worried about alien abduction. A premium of $155 a year would pay off $160,000 to an abductee (provided the abductor was not from Earth) and double that if the insured…
Less Garbage In, Less Garbage Out Sean Rowe’s article “Why Recycle?” (September 5) was interesting. Instead of recycling, why don’t we place more emphasis on reducing the amount of rubbish we create? Purchase good-quality, long-lasting products and wear out everything we buy. Require building owners to properly maintain their structures…
Lead Stories *Coincidental middle names: Conan Wayne Hale, age twenty, a triple-homicide suspect who allegedly confessed to a priest in Portland, Oregon, has been fighting for three months now to have the confession ruled inadmissible in court on the grounds of freedom of religion. And escaped murderer Michael Wayne Thompson…
Lead Story *Hillsborough County, Florida, sheriff’s deputies charged Jeffrey Alan McLeod, age 29, with robbing a Chevron gas station in August. He was caught after a brief chase when his car ran out of gas. Said a sheriff’s spokesman: “When you’re going to rob a gas station, you’re supposed to…
A Smoldering Odio Should Never Be an Obedient Puppy I just finished reading Robert Andrew Powell’s article “Petty Cash” (August 22). Now, I know one cannot always believe everything one reads, but I also know that where there is smoke there is fire. I suspect that the facts behind the…
Lead Story *Three fishless bass-fishing tournaments were held last winter with anglers casting lines into indoor swimming pools and a computer determining whether the bait had struck water where a fish was. Dave Beuckman, publisher of a tournament fishing magazine, held the contests in Kansas City, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; and…
Lit Over What That Brit Twit Writ I haven’t read any of the books about Miami mentioned in Sean Rowe’s article “Paradise Found” (August 8), but it’s true the general public here resents outsiders making naive observations about the Miami scene. And so he raises many interesting points about British…
Next Tuesday, for the fourth time in their political careers, Maurice Ferre and Xavier Suarez will appear on the same ballot, their futures left to the fancy of an electorate that in the past has been both loving and cruel to each man. On three separate occasions — in 1983,…
Nothing about Arthur E. Teele, Jr., is simple. He is a black Republican. He is mercurial, Machiavellian, and manic. He is paranoid, but often with good reason. He is charming in person, but can be abusive toward his staff, and he once punched out a lobbyist. He is married, but…
