Attorney for dad of missing Hallandale Beach baby says evidence was damaged

The tiny bones recovered from a backyard grave have a story to tell: Are these the remains of Dontrell Melvin, a baby whose family didn’t report him missing for 18 months? And how was the baby killed?According to notes in the Hallandale Beach police lead investigator’s file, there was blunt force trauma to the child’s cranium after his death, likely caused during the search...

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Florida man vanishes after being sucked into sinkhole under his bedroom

SEFFNER -- A sheriff's deputy plucked a man from an expanding sinkhole, but neither was able to save the man's brother from being sucked into the rubble, authorities said.Early Friday, authorities said the site at 240 Faithway Drive had become too unstable to continue rescue efforts and the focus would instead shift to a recovery operation.The sinkhole opened late Thursday...

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Miami-Dade mayor says partnerships, technology will move county forward

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez will deliver his annual speech to the county Thursday, laying out his goals for revving up the local economy, promoting regional cooperation and improving a public transportation system that is, at best, inadequate.In a wide-ranging interview previewing his state-of-the-county speech, Gimenez told The Miami Herald that he is optimistic about...

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Two charged with taking protected live sharks from the Keys

For the second time in weeks, federal prosecutors have ordered the arrest of people for illegally taking live sharks out of the Florida Keys.Two officials of Idaho Aquarium Inc. in Boise were indicted on federal charges of conspiracy and illegally purchasing four spotted eagle rays and two lemon sharks, all protected species and all from Keys waters.Ammon Covino, 39, president...

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Miami businessman who pleaded guilty to stealing millions from Medicare is sentenced to 14 years in prison

A local businessman who moved his mental health chain from Miami-Dade to North Carolina after the feds suspected him of a Medicare scam was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday and ordered to reimburse the taxpayer-funded program $28 million.Kept behind bars since his arrest because of fears he might flee to Cuba, Armando “Manny” Gonzalez pleaded guilty in December to...

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At least one wounded in Miami shooting

Miami police detectives Monday morning are on the scene of a shooting that wounded at least one person.Police have cordoned off the area of Northwest Avenue at 43rd street as they investigate.Still visible on the street: a bloody rag next to the tire of a Ford sports utility vehicle. This bulletin will be updated as more information becomes available. ...

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Miami Dolphins hopeful on stadium referendum date

The Miami Dolphins are hopeful the Miami-Dade County Commission will approve a May 14 date for a referendum on the $400 rehabilitation of their stadium, time enough to get South Florida in play for Super Bowl 50, a Dolphins spokesman said Saturday.Spokesman Ric Katz said the language of the proposed referendum has yet to be decided, and ultimately the commission decides the...

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Miami police union challenges officer’s firing for fatal shooting

The Fraternal Order of Police filed a lawsuit against the city of Miami on Friday, asserting that an officer who fatally shot an unarmed motorist in 2011 was improperly fired from the police department.Officer Reynaldo Goyos shot and killed Travis McNeil as he sat in a car at a Little Haiti intersection. It was one of a string of seven deadly shootings of black men in the...

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Bishop Dorsey dies in Orlando of cancer

Bishop Norbert M. Dorsey, who served as an auxiliary bishop with the Archdiocese of Miami in the late 1980s, died Thursday night in Orlando after a long fight with cancer.Born Leonard James Dorsey on Dec. 14, 1929 in Springfield, Mass., he was 83.His religious studies led him to Munich, London and Rome, and he was ordained a priest in April 1956. In addition...

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Davie criticizes town attorney, but doesn’t fire him

Davie’s town attorney will keep his job while the Town Council considers setting up an in-house legal department or hiring a private legal firm.Council member Bryan Caletka brought a motion to terminate town attorney John Rayson at Wednesday night’s Town Council meeting, Feb. 20, but it did not receive a second.“He gives different opinions to different members of council,”...

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Election reform, bridge repairs top Miami-Dade Commission agenda

Miami-Dade commissioners are expected Wednesday to urge the state legislature to allow Election Day voters to drop off their absentee ballots at their local precincts, and ask the mayor to identify funding to repair and upgrade the county’s 203 bridges. Returning absentee ballots to local precincts was one of 13 recommendations in a report by an Election Advisory Group that...

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‘Animal walk’ to help rescue groups find homes for pets

When Laurie Hoffman decided to foster Gracie, a 3-year-old mixed toy greyhound who was found running in the streets and getting caught in the grates of a bridge in downtown Miami, she didn’t expect to keep her.But she couldn’t help it.“Many of us have gotten to a point in our lives where we want to give back. We want to be able to help others who can’t help themselves,” said...

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Leader of Coconut Grove school to be honored

After 45 years of educating children at Vanguard School of Coconut Grove, Director John Havrilla will retire. His life’s work of helping over 3,000 students with varying learning difficulties will be celebrated at the school’s upcoming annual gala.Havrilla and four other teachers from Vanguard School in Pennsylvania opened the Miami school with just 13 students in 1968. Along...

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Speaker to discuss the Jews of Zimbabwe

You are invited to hear Modreck Zvakavapano Maeresera and Tudor Parfitt, as they lecture on "The Lamba Jews of Zimbabwe" at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Jewish Museum of Florida, 301 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. You will want to attend this event; Maeresera is a leader in the Lemba Jewish community in Zimbaabwe. He coordinates a program of Jewish cyber-learning, studying...

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Joe Martinez says he’ll challenge Joe Garcia

Joe Martinez, the former Miami-Dade Commission chairman who lost his bid to become county mayor last year, said Friday that he intends to run against U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia in 2014.“I’m meeting with different people and feeling them out, seeing what the level of support will be there,” Martinez told The Miami Herald shortly after announcing his intentions on Facebook. He wants...

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Little Havana families stuck in crumbling condos

The owners of condominiums in the Havana Palms complex in Little Havana feel as if they are living aboard the Titanic. Everything is sinking.“We’re afraid to walk in our own living rooms, to step into the bathroom, to gain weight, because our floors sink deeper every day,” said Mario Pineda, 53.At the peak of the real estate bubble, between 2006 and 2009, about 20 neighbors...

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Feds catch convicted Miami lawyer-banker on lam for 27 years in Mexico

Back in the 1980s, Miami lawyer Manuel Lopez-Castro was convicted of racketeering charges for helping a marijuana ring flush with cash buy a majority interest in Sunshine State Bank during the heyday of drug trafficking and money laundering in South Florida. But rather than surrender to start his 27-year prison sentence in early 1986, Lopez-Castro fled to Mexico and eventually...

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Key West’s ‘Scrub Club’ reportedly scrubbing debit cards of adult-entertainment clients

Key West has a long-held reputation as an anything-goes party town that tolerates -- and in many cases facilitates -- an array of bawdy pastimes.A stroll down Duval Street yields strip clubs, clothing-optional bars and establishments catering to alternative lifestyles. But the Adult Entertainment Club, formerly and colloquially known as the Scrub Club, at 1221 Duval is different.In...

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Woman gets 55 years in Rilya Wilson foster-child abuse case

Geralyn Graham was sentenced to 55 years in prison Tuesday in the Rilya Wilson kidnapping ad abuse case.The Kendall woman, 67, was convicted by jury last month in a case that roiled Florida’s child welfare agency, which was supposed to monitor the child. The body of Rilya, who was 4 years old when she vanished, has never been found.Graham got 30 years for kidnapping and 25...

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Former state GOP chairman Jim Greer pleads guilty to theft

ORLANDO -- Former Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer pleaded guilty Monday morning to four charges of grand theft, avoiding trial in a case that could have potentially embarrassed former Gov. Charlie Crist and much of the state’s Republican elite.Greer stood next to his lawyer Damon Chase a little before 10:30 a.m. and entered four separate guilty pleas as part of a last-minute...

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