Miami News Blog

Coral Gables Police Department

The BB gun shooter rode in this silver Volvo, cops say.

About 200 students are locked inside a gym at University of Miami as we speak, thanks to an alleged BB gun shooter. School President Donna Shalala sent text messages and e-mails around 3 p.m. today asking folks to "stay away from windows."

Students are becoming restless. From inside the gym, Senior Joey DiFrancesco says: "To be honest, I'm getting a little pissed off; it's just a B-B gun. I've got somewhere to be and were stuck in here."

It's the second time the campus has been on lock down in the past ten days. Two University of Miami students returning from a Miami Heat game were robbed at gunpoint around 10:30 p.m. on November 10. On campus, windows are shut, doors are locked and nobody is outside.

Update: The suspect is in custody and campus is now open.

Every year, the media works itself up over any odd cloud formation, and more often than not, it turns out to be nothing. It's almost like the boy who cried wolf, in that the hoopla so often turns out to be nothing and then when a real storm hits, residents of vulnerable areas are caught off-guard. 

• 83 percent said they have not taken any steps in the past year to make their homes stronger, even after last year's active season. 
• 66 percent have no hurricane survival kit. 
• 62 percent don't feel vulnerable to a hurricane or related tornado or flooding. 
• 55 percent do not have a family disaster plan.

If you were in the area in 1992 -- or even in 2005, for that matter -- we don't have to remind you that big storms do actually hit, and things go much more smoothly if you're prepared.

From a local standpoint, the recently concluded hurricane season seemed to be a non-event, but less lucky locales such as Cuba and Haiti got hit hard by strong storms. Overall, it was an above average season, and next year is shaping up to follow in its path.

A well-respected Colorado State University team is predicting 14 named storms. This year produced 16, while the average is only 10 or 11. Of those 14, they predict three will be major hurricanes, Category 3 or stronger. Of course they can hardly predict the path of a storm while it's active, let alone six months in advance, so no word on how many might mess up Miami. Let's just hope Hurricane Joaquin, Odette, and, uh, Fred steer clear.

-- Kyle Munzenrieder

That tropical depression is officially Tropical Storm Kyle. Look at him out there in the middle of nowhere, so sad and lonely with out any particular direction in his life. Racing no place fast until he dissipates somewhere over the cold, harsh reality that is Nova Scotia, never to achieve anything worthwhile in his short little existence.

It's like the stupid, symbolic incarnation of every fear my mother had for me.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

"Possible depression no threat to Florida"

The optimist in Riptide was really hoping that this News-Press article was about the economy, but, no, it's only about that storm system out in the Atlantic. The one that may or may not end up being Tropical Storm Kyle. Which raises the personal question: if a storm shares your name do you want it to be a behemoth or a weak collection of hot air?

The system has already caused some damage in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, but is expected to continue on a path towards New England. Meaning that, likely, I will be the only Kyle who's a minor annoyance in this town.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Every year the National Hurricane Center gets a lot of crackpot suggestions for how to deflect oncoming storm systems. According to Scripps, they’ve had geniuses call in and suggest things like “setting up banks of giant fans to blow the storm back to sea.” Is that the best they can come up with?

Scientists are actually working on plans that could reduce the strength of storms, but they’re hardly entertaining. Riptide has some suggestions for scientists willing to step outside the box:

1. Make Larry Coker the coach of the actual hurricanes. They’ll go from unstoppable forces of nature to minor disturbances in a six-year span.

2. Send Sarah Palin out to the Atlantic with her moose gun. Either she’ll shoot, skin, and serve them for dinner on a table with a Jesus-and-American-flag centerpiece (Republicans will apparently eat up anything she dishes out), or they’ll be so offended by her right-wing stances they’ll hit Alaska instead.

Gustav, Hanna, Ike and Josephine are the biggest names in the news right now who don't have pregnant teenage daughters, but get ready for Kyle, Laura, Marco, and even the bone-chillingly named Nana too. Hurricane forecasters are predicting that September could be an unusually busy month for storms, with possibly twice as many of the named suckers as last year. The crystal ball they look into shows five more named storms, four of them hurricanes, and two of 'em major. So stock up on the plywood, bottled water, and anti-anxiety pills now, because chances are we're going to need them, especially the latter.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Today is the third anniversary of the day Katrina struck New Orleans. That's in the news, news,, news.

And Gustav is headed in the city's general direction.

Well, all Riptide has to say is: "Shut up!

I mean, Miami has been ravaged by Andrew and whacked by Wilma. We know what major hurricanes are -- and we know that they are virtually never what they are claimed to be....We in South Florida are at the end of hurricane alley. Hey, we're a kind of defense for those wimps in New Orleans. The hurricanes that hit them are kinda like bowling balls with A LOT OF SPIN. Ours are the dead-on type.

So hey. I have my eye on Hanna, which is lurking out there in the Atlantic. And I have water at home. But I also have an eye on this NOAA article, which says hurricanes are growing less frequent.

I'm relaxed, and I wish all those Bayou types and reporters would join me.

-- Chuck Strouse

An effort to deflect criticism is turning the University of Miami football team into its own worst PR enemy. On Sunday the Canes announced the suspension of seven players, including starting QB Robert Marve. Don't the Canes know how bad those headlines look? There's a lot of people out there who subconsciously finish "UM suspends seven players..." with "...for raping and pillaging a small town".

Second year head coach Randy Shannon explained the reasons for the suspensions.

"Like I said before when I took the job at the University of Miami, we hold everyone to higher standards than most teams in the country. We have our rules and regulations, as far as curfew, study hall, and doing the right things in the classroom. We won't have seven players taking part in Thursday's game for those reasons, and we'll move forward."

Though the team hasn't announced the names of the other punished players or the reasons for their suspensions, it did indicate that Marve was being punished for an incident that happened 10 MONTHS AGO. Marve was a red shirt last year, so technically this is the first game they could suspend him (conveniently, the game is against a division FCS, formerly I-AA division, team). As for the other players, well maybe they really did pillage that small town, but Shannon's words make you think they didn't turn in a homework assignment on time. The Canes are trying to prove that they don't take discipline lightly, but announcing the suspension of seven players at that beginning of the season only adds to the out of control image they're trying to shake. Discipline should be taken, but in at least one case they had 10 months to do so.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

University of Miami is sitting just outside the top 50 on US News & World Reports' list of America's Best Colleges, but perhaps the Canes can take solace in the fact they made it to number two on another list. Radar ranked UM as the runner-up to USC in the "most superficial" category of its snarky college review.

Tucked away in Miami's posh Coral Gables neighborhood, the University of Miami is built primarily on artifice and, presumably, swampland. Intellectuals are generally regarded as lepers, according to one student reviewer, but if you love "cell phones, Prada, Us Weekly, and have a mindless herd mentality, then by all means this is the place for you!"

Some students might actually be more proud of this accolade than the school's continued climb up the US News' ranking. Last Spring, Matt Hall, a graduating senior, lamented to The Miami Hurricane that the worst thing that happened to the school during his education was the increased concentration on academics at the expense of hot girls.

“With our rising standards and Shalala trying to make it a good school, we’re getting smarter and less attractive, and it’s so disappointing.”

--Kyle Munzenrieder

What do you do to put a positive spin on a potentially controversial action? Break out a brush and paint yourself a pretty shade of environmentally friendly green. That's what the University of Miami did when it banned all resident freshmen from keeping cars on campus. To appease the daddy's Mercedes drivers, they invited car-sharing service Zipcar on campus, and started selling green and orange bikes for $59 a piece.

But UM doesn't want you to think this is about planning or a lack of parking spots. They hope to convince you they're Captain Planet.

"This is about changing student and faculty habits, and ultimately changing and saving the planet,'' said UM's vice president for business services Alan Fish to The Herald. Really is that what it's about? Because earlier reports by the campus paper, The Miami Hurricane, quotes school officials giving another reason.

"Parking on the interior of the Coral Gables campus is very limited," said Richard Sobaram, director of parking and transportation services. "Restricting first-year resident students from parking on campus is only one part of an overall strategic plan to ease the parking crunch on campus."

Don't get Riptide wrong, the end result is eco-friendly. But we hate spin. And these guys are making us dizzy.

-- Kyle Munzenrieder

Hip university presidents piss me off. They walk down sorority row and share their hope that Chuck and Blair get back together on Gossip Girl. They drop by the student radio stations and after a few listens, are totally into that new XXXChange remix of Gang Gang Dance. They're so into Facebook now that they're starting to annoy the Dean of Architecture with the shear number of pokes.

And now they want to be able to grab a stool at the bar next to their 18 year old students. In fact, over 100 College President and Chancellors recently formed the Amethyst Initiative, which asks lawmakers to bring the drinking age back down to 18. They reason the current drinking age is creating a culture of binge drinking.

The new CBS series that debuted last night stinks – even if it came with reduced commercials.

Problem is, the damn thing has no sense of humor. And it doesn’t let any of the drama really develop. It just kinda rushes along.

The good news: some of the Cuban accents sound really authentic. Jimmy Smits – as favorite son Alex Vega – has a really cool goatee. Hector Elizondo is great as his dad. And, hey, you can’t lose with Rita Moreno as the matriarch.

My favorite fact, though is that the series debut was sponsored by Chevy, which kept coming back again and again. Now, if you’re up on the news, you know that it debuted on the very same day the United Auto Workers went on strike for the first time in decades.

So let’s get this straight – the show’s about a family modeled on the Cuban Fanjul clan, which runs the American sugar industry – and allows subcontracted workers to be paid slave wages. And it’s sponsored by a company that is battling with its union like never before.

Maybe in the next episode, the crazy Duque clan will fight a union. Or get drunk and kill somebody. Think CSI : Miami or Miami Vice. -- Chuck Strouse