The Cuban contingent that competed in last week's Pan American Judo Championships left Miami for Havana on Monday afternoon without gold-medal-winning judoka Yurisel Laborde, who left the group Sunday afternoon
MIRAMAR
Some husbands shower their wives with gifts when they win the Lotto. Arnim Ramdass kept the good news to himself. And when Donna Campbell found out on her own, her husband went AWOL, leaving the former beauty queen emotionally drained and financially desperate.
EDUCATION
For Bob Mandell, the bad news came on a Wednesday evening. Dial-A-Teacher, the homework-help hot line to which he had devoted nearly two decades of service, would be closing for good the following day.
FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT
The nation's chief nuclear watchdog will tour Turkey Point on Tuesday, a visit that follows recent six-figure fines imposed on Florida Power & Light for its hired guards sleeping and carrying disabled weapons while on duty.
WEATHER
Air conditioners provided the only cool breezes of the weekend for much of South Florida, with record-setting heat in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
One person was killed and three others injured in a five-vehicle accident in Miami Sunday afternoon, officials said. The driver of a stolen commercial truck was speeding north at about 2 p.m. on Northwest 12th Avenue when he sideswiped a car and then collided head-on with a red Dodge Neon traveling south on 12th Avenue at the intersection of 52nd Street, officials said.
Roman Gastesi, a former director of lobbying for Miami-Dade County who then became a lobbyist himself, is heading back to government work.
With more than 2,700 views of his environmental rap on YouTube, Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin is sticking with the green theme as he seeks reelection.
A Miami-Dade judge has awarded $94.6 million in damages to the family of Aldo Vera Sr., a former senior Havana police official murdered in Puerto Rico in 1976, allegedly by Cuban government agents.
LEGISLATURE 2008 | ANALYSIS
Before Miami-Dade's political players stepped up to the plate for the 60-day legislative session, they knew the stats were stacked against them. There was $5 billion less in the state's coffers, five legislators on their way out because of term limits, and a bevy of public agencies lobbying for the least amount of budget cuts.
MOTHER'S DAY
Beverly Watts, mother, created a family over the Internet. Unable to have children of her own, Beverly, 50, of Sunrise, was determined to adopt a child. She took classes at Calvary Chapel church in Fort Lauderdale. She got a physical exam. She filled out reams of paperwork and got fingerprinted. And then she scanned a website hosted by Broward County's privately run foster care agency with hopes of finding a son.
ECONOMY
For many college seniors donning caps and gowns this week, hunting for a job in today's economy will be an exercise in compromise and disappointment, as graduates face a challenging business climate with a rising unemployment rate.
Yanling Zhang still remembers the day -- July 19, 2000 -- when Chinese security forces came to her Beijing home asking if she planned to attend a national holiday event at Tiananmen Square, where protesters would not be welcome.
CASINOS
The casinos on the Las Vegas Strip in the 1940s, like the Flamingo and El Rancho, were dark, dingy and small compared to today's high-end glamour of the Mirage or Bellagio.
GAMBLING
At The Isle casino in Pompano Beach, the party is in full swing. Dance tunes thumping, neon lights flashing, slot machines clanging -- this is jokers-wild, Ocean's Eleven, momma-needs-a-new-pair-of-shoes territory, long enshrined in American culture.
MOTHER'S DAY
The room is the same as it has always been. There is the cabinet stocked with insulin and syringes, the narrow twin bed that never offered a full night's sleep. The shelves, home to a galaxy of porcelain angels, the walls filled with images of peaceful Madonnas.
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Tinted black windows, a traffic stop and a hotel room stuffed with jewelry, TVs and even comic books led to the arrest of a ''super burglar'' suspected of breaking into homes from Surfside to West Miami, police said.
A Miami-Dade public service aide accused of beating his girlfriend and her pregnant sister is scheduled to be in court Monday to respond to the charges.
Interview | USA Judo President Jose Rodriguez on a team member's disappearance