photo by Jonathan Mannion

Buju Banton

Seven months after a judge sentenced Grammy-winning reggae artist Buju Banton to ten years in Miami's Federal Correctional Institution on drug charges, an appeal by Buju is raising concerns that the feds entrapped the iconic and controversial performer.

In this week's New Times, an investigation explores why the government needed two weeklong trials to secure its celebrity conviction and tells the tale of Alex Johnson, the shady, financially troubled confidential informant who set up Buju in exchange for a huge payout.
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​Miss USA was hosted in Miami Beach for over decade between 1960 and 1971, but America's second most important beauty pageant won't be coming back to this year even after a strong push from the city's tourism and cultural development. Looks like we'll have to make do with all the non-competing young woman in tight-fighting, sparkly dresses we naturally attract.
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courtesy of Carlos Miller

The Miami Dade cop who screamed for Miller's arrest

Local journalist Carlos Miller has a blog called Photography is Not a Crime. Apparently Miami-Dade police officers are not avid readers.

County cops arrested Miller on Tuesday night as he was filming the Fuzz forcibly evacuating Occupy Miami protesters from Government Center downtown. But he says the police are the ones who messed up.

"They took a routine bullshit arrest and turned it into a huge constitutional violation and a possible federal lawsuit because they deleted my footage," Miller says. "They messed with the wrong reporter."

UPDATE: We are embedding video of Miller's arrest, which he says he recovered this weekend. In another strange twist, the cop who had Miller arrested appears to be a public information officer.
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​Don't say Miami city commissioner can't get something done if they put their minds to it. Miami City Commissioner Frank Carollo has emerged victorious after a months-long fight to get diaper changing station installed in the men's bathrooms at city buildings.
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​A recent GQ profile of once-high-flying NFL star Terrell Owens -- who's now close to broke despite earning more than $80 million -- has shined a national spotlight this month on his South Florida agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and financial advisor, Jeff Rubin. T.O. has lambasted Rosenhaus's management and sued over an investment gone sour that Rubin set up in a gambling company where he was an executive.

But it seems Rubin's record is even sketchier than T.O.'s high-profile accusations. Not only did he spark a raft of lawsuits by allegedly snookering T.O. and other top-flight football players into investing in the bingo outfit, but also he's facing drug charges in Alabama connected to an August rape complaint.

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S. MiRK via wikimedia commons

​The Susan G. Komen Foundation's decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood has set off a firestorm of debate across the country. Some Komen chapters have rebelled and several top Komen executives have already resigned in protest. So it's no surprise that in Miami -- where we don't even have to disagree to fight -- tensions are high.

Komen's local Facebook page has been flooded with angry comments (and some in support, too). Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood South Florida has raised thousands of dollars in two days.

UPDATE: Komen announced this morning that it was reversing its decision, thereby restoring breast cancer funding to Planned Parenthood. "That is what is right and fair," the group's founder, Nancy G. Brinker, said in a blog post.
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​Since Riptide broke the news in October that an Ohio-based developer wants to build a massive new Walmart in booming Midtown Miami, the firm has kept quiet about the plans. That doesn't mean they've backed down after residents angrily flooded our story and others with anti-Sam Walton comments. This week, the company's attorneys sent the city a request to make some changes to the nearby neighborhood to help the giant retailer fit in.

Specifically, Walmart wants permission to re-build a 350-foot segment of NE 1st Avenue so Walmart's delivery trucks can get in and out without changing the area's "pedestrian friendly" feel. Click through for the letter.
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​Controversy seems to follow North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre wherever he goes. So, naturally, now he's managed to get himself in a public feud with his kid's science teacher.

Laurie Futterman, a science teacher at the David Lawrence Jr. K-8 Center, showed up last week at a city council meeting to speak against controversial plans to privatize garbage pickup. In a seeming bit of retaliation, Pierre called up the school and demanded that Futterman be brought into the principal's office.
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via You Tube

Ali and Dundee back in the day.

​It's easy to forget now, but Miami Beach was once the nexus of the world boxing scene thanks mostly to Angelo Dundee, the Hall of Fame trainer who opened the legendary 5th Street Gym with his brother Chris. Dundee trained dozens of elite fighters at the SoBe gym -- most notably Muhammad Ali. Dundee died late last night at the age of 90.

"Angelo Dundee is one of the best in the world," Ali says in one interview while he was still fighting. "A real trainer, when he gets a great fighter he doesn't have to train him, he just has to coach him on what to do based on who he's fighting."
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​Some of the most enriching experiences student have in college come outside of the classroom and in various campus clubs and activities, but students at Florida A&M University may be missing out on those opportunities. In a perhaps overzealous way of battling hazing at the school in the wake of band member Robert Champions' death, president James Ammons has decided no one can join any club whatsoever until next fall.
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