A commendation for this Miami New Times article exposing unlicensed chemical hair treatments solicited via Craigslist.

There are two links in the article, one to an article from another source, and the second to a live Craigslist ad for unlicensed hair treatment.
Perhaps two isn't sufficient, but it's better than what I'm accustomed to.
What do you think?

details, what are they good for?

This Miami Herald article, while covering a something quite interesting, is devoid of important details. The owner of a construction company is arrested because he allegedly bribed Opa-Locka commissioners to receive government contracts.
Oh! Great Herald, which commissioners were those? Were they arrested? When did that all happen?

Aside from that, a lot of these questions would be answered if there were simply links in the online article to previous, related stories featured in the Herald, or other reputable sources.

The only article available on the internet (when searching for either Faustin Denis or Dante Starks [the two men arrested in relation to this case]) is from local CBS 4. But as you can see it's not really any better, and doesn't seem to have any writer credit.

After doing a tiny bit more digging I did find this article from a local blog post a few years back. It mentions Commissioner Terrence Pinder as one person receiving the bribdes from Dante Starks. No mention of Denis. This post does not have any corroborative links, though, so I don't think if they're the same Dante Starks, etc.

However, a little more digging in Google News and I found this article from 2007 mentioning the two again, and an archived Miami Herald article whose headline alludes to Pinder in fact being the/a Commissioner involved in the scandal.

I'm too tired to try digging deeper, but I want to point out how much I found with such little effort as an example of why traditional newspaper journalism can and should die.

Anyway, as the CBS article mentions, there is currently no information from "officials" as to whether Commissioners will be investigated or not. Neither the CBS nor Miami Herald article mention Pinder, although Dante Starks and Pinder are linked together in the 2007 blog post.

Me thinks Pinder was not the only person receiving kickbacks, mostly because in a bureaucracy it's not common for just one person to make decisions, and if these bribes were to avoid a legitimate bidding process, someone else must have been involved lest they would have noticed how strangely things were working in these many construction projects.

the wrong message?

A young girl who was driving during deadly hit-and-run has been given probation and community service hours, according to the AP, via the Miami Herald.

It's really disappointing. As sure as I may be that she didn't do it on purpose, what message does this send?

This comes close to a month after the fatal hit-and-run of a local student, Rodolfo Rojos, who was killed while riding his biycyle on Biscayne Bouldevard on October 30th.
That story was never reported by a news source as a simply search through google news will corroborate. Quite sad. The Transit Miami post about this tragedy has letters written by Rodolfo's family lamenting the loss, and demonstrating their deep love for him.

What's wrong with us, and what's wrong the Miami Herald? Miami New Times?

Earlier this month the Whole Foods Market in South Beach had a bit of a shit problem.

That's funny because I remember smelling shit when I was in that store about two months ago or so.

The Miami Herald: not picking sides in a battle between truth and lies

T-Mobile, the cell phone service provider I haven't paid in three months wants to build a cell phone service tower in the city of Miami Gardens, according to this Miami Herald article. But the people of that city are terrified that such a tower would give them all cancer, causing eventual and painful death.

The Herald notes though, from a pamphlet handed out to citizens by T-Mobile citing the American Cancer Association that "microwaves, FM radio transmitters, baby monitors and police radios emit more radio frequencies than a cell site."

Read this short article and note how the writer avoids offending anyone.

In most cases I think journalists should avoid picking sides because in many situations the facts are tenuous at best, and much is yet to be resolved. However, once truth is established I think it's a journalist's responsibility (if they want to go by that title at least) to not only recognize the facts, but to also point out which side of a debate is wrong.

The citizens of Miami Gardens who threatened legal action in response to this situation are wrong. These ignoramuses do no deserve equal coverage in this article because their opinion, while popular amongst the uneducated, is not supported by facts.

And this of course goes to the heart of why I dislike government. Politicians are responsible to these idiots, who care not for truth and reality, but instead are concerned with their warped views of how the world works, and maintaining some schizophrenic sense of justice and peace which coincides with their delusions.

It makes me wonder how [not] far the species has come overall when the majority still cling to folklore and urban legends in the face of cold hard evidence from impartial parties.

Perhaps they think Satan has misled the American Cancer Association to surreptitiously increase cancer rates around the planet.

ps sorry for comparing ignorant people with evangelical christians.

Too little, the day of

This Herald article highlights Homeless Awareness Day, which has been organized by the Miami Dade Homeless Trust for today.

Yes, that's right, today. The article which was published on their web page earlier today does nothing for anyone who may have wanted to participate in some of the events.

I would have taken the opportunity to get some cards for the Homeless Helpline. I wrote about this on TransitMiami recently.

Cuba, do we come?

This article in the Miami Herald talks about hearings in Congress on lifting the travel ban to Cuba.

I just wanted to comment on Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and other persons who oppose lifting the ban, especially Cuban-Americans. The travel and trade embargoes are a marketing campaign against the "Community" regime in that country.

The reality is that this embargo hurts the Cuban people who so desperately need an influx of goods (Pianos being one example) and violates the rights of any human being who wants to visit Cuba, including me.

Cuba is less than 300 miles from Miami! That would be a one hour flight, or a few hours boat ride that I look forward to taking sometime in the future.

I wonder how Ros-Lehtinen feels about the US' relationship with such violators of human rights as China, Israel, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Nigeria, and on and on and on.

My point? She's a hypocrite.