An alleged drug “queenpin” accuses Miami prosecutors of misconduct before her trial

Sandra Avila Beltrán, once known as the “Queen of the Pacific” in the Latin American drug trade, is accusing Miami prosecutors of lying about her role in cocaine shipments to the United States to persuade Mexican authorities to extradite her last year.For Avila, a dark-haired beauty who stood out in a narco-trafficking world dominated by macho men, the misconduct accusation...

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Fabiola Santiago: In Spain, the truth starts to come out about Paya “accident”

At long last, Angel Carromero has broken his silence from the confines of his negotiated parole status in Spain.He was the woozy-eyed Spanish political activist seen from Havana on a prosecutorial videotape issuing an unconvincing mea culpa that he was driving too fast, that he was at fault for the deaths of two prominent Cuban dissidents in a car crash last summer.Carromero’s...

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Second eastbound lane opens on Bear Cut Bridge leading to Key Biscayne

A second east-bound lane on the Bear Cut Bridge that connects Virginia Key to Key Biscayne has been opened, giving travelers heading to the village a second lane nearly two months after structural flaws nearly shut down the bridge. Public works administrators said they reconfigured the roadway to make more room for the second lane. On Wednesday, the first day it was in use,...

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Cab drivers stage protest at Fort Lauderdale airport over safety cameras

A morning protest at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport by taxi drivers upset with technology installed into their cabs that monitors problem driving ended with two drivers being arrested, and several passengers looking for other modes of transportation.“We have to stand up for our rights,” said Davincy Metayer, 50, who has been driving a cab for 15 years...

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Temporary ban on Fla. welfare drug testing upheld

TALLAHASSEE -- A federal appeals court upheld the temporary ban on Florida’s drug-testing for welfare recipients Tuesday, saying that a lawsuit challenging the program had a good chance of succeeding.The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta sided with a lower court decision, stating that Florida failed to show that the drug testing plan was so critical that the Fourth...

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A year in, a space for sharks and stars is taking form at Miami’s new Museum of Science

Standing in the busy construction site that will become the $275 million Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science by 2015, it’s hard to imagine that sharks will one day swim in a space now filled with cranes, rebar and dust.Slightly easier to visualize is the 70-foot-tall planetarium dome, just starting to emerge as a circle of steel jutting diagonally from the ground.“It...

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Why Mr Smith ... er ... Mr. Sternad didn’t go to Washington

L amar Will Take Us Far.The catchy slogan of the congressional candidate who called himself Lamar Sternad was the earliest indication of a campaign of deception. His first name isn’t Lamar.But Justin Lamar Sternad’s slogan was spot-on in one regard. Of the hundreds of no-name political neophytes who mount quixotic bids for office in Miami, Sternad went...

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A crazy, hazy tomato battle at Tobacco Road

Here at Miami’s birthplace for blues and booze, there was a battle. A melee of Corona-soaked revelry to rid a farm of its winter excess of tomatoes.The crowd of university students, kickball leagues and business consultants stood around some 20,000 pounds of the vegetable-fruit behind the bar Tobacco Road on Saturday. The concept, simple: launch as many...

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Parents of missing Hallandale Beach baby formally charged

The parents of an infant who disappeared more than a year and a half ago were formally charged Friday in Broward County Circuit Court.Brittney Sierra, 21, faces two counts of felony child neglect.Calvin Melvin, 27, was charged with three felony counts of providing false information to police. Each could face more charges if a Texas lab confirms that DNA...

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‘Dangerous dog’ ordinance passed in Pembroke Pines

An ordinance in Pembroke Pines aimed at constraining the behavior of dogs who brutally assault other dogs and humans passed unanimously late Wednesday, in response to two dog attacks that occurred in the city last December.The nuanced regulations would require a dog owner to pay a fine and up to $750 in “dangerous dog” registration fees if a dog was determined to be “dangerous”...

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Miami imam testifies that he lied when he professed support for the Taliban

In testimony that was at turns deadly serious and comical, a Miami imam accused of aiding terrorists testified Wednesday that he lied about his ostensible support for the Pakistani Taliban because he wanted to obtain $1 million from a purported Taliban sympathizer — who was actually an FBI informant.Hafiz Khan, 77, the one-time leader of a Miami mosque, said he repeatedly...

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Shooting incident underway in west Miami-Dade; public warned to stay out of area

Miami-Dade police are working an incident in west Miami-Dade of a report of shots being fired by a suspect, who may have set his home on fire.Details were sketchy at 8 p.m., but police said there is a person shooting in the area along Southwest 154th Avenue and 57th Street, near Miller Road.There were also reports of a hopuse fire at 15415 SW 57th St. ...

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Pension reform plan put on hold

TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker Will Weatherford’s push to close the state’s $136 billion pension system to new state employees is on hold.A report released Friday was supposed to provide an estimate of how much the change would cost to pay out benefits to the employees currently in the system while switching new state employees into 401(k)-style retirement plans.Instead, the...

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Marc Caputo: A swig of water isn’t going to sideline Marco Rubio

It’s official: Marco Rubio is a national punch line.After the Florida senator’s weird decision to interrupt his Tuesday rebuttal of the president’s State of the Union speech by taking a swig from a bottle of water, he was quickly mocked on The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Late Show with David Letterman. Four days later, Saturday Night...

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Parents decry closing of two Broward schools for special-needs kids

If you ask parents why they value Broward’s Wingate Oaks Educational Center — and why they’re so furious about its imminent closure — the answer often boils down to trust. The school for medically fragile children is a place where students might need help going to the restroom, and parents trust the teachers and staff to respect their child’s dignity. David Martinez’s 7-year-old...

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Van Myers, former president of Wometco, dies at 95

Sylvan “Van” Myers spent 44 years at Wometco, rising through the ranks, first to head the data division, later as executive vice president of bottling, vending and food service operations and finally as president and CEO of the company.After retiring in 1984, Myers devoted himself to the South Florida community and working to improve people’s lives, said son Bruce Myers.“I...

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Investigators probe cash missing from Hollywood Police Department’s evidence room

Broward County and state law enforcement authorities are investigating a tip that as much as $175,000 may be missing from the Hollywood Police Department’s evidence room, prompting an investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing by police officers or other city employees, sources have told The Miami Herald.The missing money has drawn the attention of the Broward State...

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Was that Che in Beach hotel? Not any longer

Gus Exposito, 51, of Davie, couldn’t believe what he saw in the marble walls of South Beach’s W Hotel: a larger-than-life framed photograph of what looked like communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.“He was a mass murderer, killed thousands of Cubans execution-style,” Exposito wrote in an email, comparing the long-dead Fidel Castro pal to Adolf Hitler or the Ku Klux...

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State to crackdown on tutoring contractors

Florida will crack down on tutoring contractors that defraud school districts and — for the first time — require criminal background checks for people who head tutoring firms under changes announced Tuesday by the state’s top education official.Education Commissioner Tony Bennett issued a statement outlining a series of steps his department will take to rein in fraud and...

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Papal transition won’t lead to big changes in South Florida parishes, archbishop says

Like millions of other Roman Catholics, when Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski woke up Monday morning and heard the news that Pope Benedict XVI had announced his resignation, he thought it was just rumor.When he realized it wasn’t, Wenski called Mary Ross Agosta, the Archdiocese’s communications director, and told her: “ ‘Get ready for a busy day.’ ’’And so it was, as he gave...

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