Top Miami Area Local News Stories
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<p> Officers in Southwest Miami-Dade are investigating a police-involved shooting that sent one person to the hospital early Monday morning.</p><p> It happened at SW 72nd St. and 160th Ave.</p><p> According to police, a man was walking down the street when an officer spotted a shiny object coming out of his waistband. Thinking it may be a weapon, the officer asked him what it was. Police said the man then reached for the object in his waistband, at which point the officer shot him.</p><p> The shiny object the officer saw was not a gun but a baseball bat, investigators say.</p><p> The man was taken to Kendall Regional Hospital. He is listed in stable but critical condition.</p><p> The east and westbound lanes at SW 72nd St. were shut down while police continued their investigation.</p>
Published: Mon, 28 May 2012 12:11:59 GMT
<p> Tropical Depression Beryl is gradually weakening as it continues to move further inland.</p><p> It made landfall in northeast Florida late Sunday.</p><p> At 11 a.m. Monday, Beryl was about 60 miles west-northwest of Jacksonville with maximum sustained winds near 35 mph.</p><p> All tropical storm warnings have been discontinued at this point.</p><p> Beryl continues to move west-northwest at about 6 mph, and is expected to turn toward the north later today. It could move into southeast Georgia later tonight or early Tuesday.</p><p> VIEWER PHOTOS: Storms in S. Fla. | Stormy Sunday| 10 deadliest U.S. hurricanes</p><p>Hurricane HeadquartersJustWeather.com Tropical UpdatesDOWNLOAD: 2012 Hurricane Survival Guide </p><p> Beryl is expected to bring 4 to 8 inches of rain to parts with some areas getting as much as 12 inches. Forecasters predict the storm surge and tide will cause some coastal flooding in northeastern Florida and southeastern Georgia.</p><p> For Tropical Updates 24-hours a day and a look at how Beryl will affect our local weather, visit JustWeather.com.</p>
Published: Mon, 28 May 2012 15:45:51 GMT
<p> A Budweiser truck got stuck under the overpass at Alton Rd and 6th St in Miami Beach after the driver failed to clear the bridge.</p><p> Both the truck and a street light were damaged.</p><p> While police said the driver was at fault, they have not yet said whether or not he will be ticketed.</p><p> Another Budweiser truck is being brought in to unload the beer.</p>
Published: Mon, 28 May 2012 13:15:13 GMT
<p> A witness says that the man who was shot and killed by police near Downtown Miami on Saturday was biting off parts of another man's face.</p><p> VIDEO: Witness describes attack</p><p> Police said the man bit off parts of the victim's cheek bone, ear, and nose. Officers said they couldn't take any chances because it appeared the attacker was enraged and that he ripped off his own clothes and refused orders to back off. </p><p> Surveillance video showed an officer approach the men underneath the metro mover rails. The officer took six steps, then quickly backs up and grabs his gun.</p><p> "When the officer approached him, told him to stop, pointed a gun at him. He turned around and growled like a wild animal and kept eating at the mans face," said Fraternal Order of Police President Armando Aguilar.</p><p> The officer on the scene believed the attacker was on drugs. </p><p> The victim was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition.</p><p> The incident happened near the west end of the MacArthur Causeway and Biscayne Boulevard, near the Miami Herald building.</p><p> Larry Vega said he witnessed the attack.</p><p> "When I looked forward, there's a guy on top of another person, eating him up like, just tearing, tearing his face apart," said Vega. "It's going to take some time to forget. I never thought I would see someone else eating someone. It was really, really horrific."</p><p> He said there was blood everywhere, and that he couldn't make out the victim's face. Vega added that the attacker was pulling flesh from the victim's face and tossing it to the side.</p><p> "He was tearing it up and just throwing it away," said Vega.</p><p> Vega said the victim's legs were moving.</p><p> Vega also wrote to Local 10 on Saturday, saying, "I stopped a City of Miami police officer and informed him that a homeless man was killing another person by biting and ripping his face to death."</p><p> Vega also wrote, "The police officer confronted the aggressor, and he was like a rabid dog and confronted the officer. Then the officer shot the person four times."</p><p> Vegas said he may move his family out of South Florida after witnessing the incident.</p><p> The Miami Herald reports similar details: "The officer, who has not been identified, approached and saw that the naked man was actually chewing the other man's head, according to witnesses."</p><p> The Miami Police Department confirmed they shot one man after police tried to stop an assault.</p><p> "They attempted to separate them, there was some sort of confrontation," said Det. Willie Moreno of the Miami Police Department.</p><p> Police have not released the identities of the men or officers involved.</p>
Published: Mon, 28 May 2012 03:56:28 GMT
The Best of the Best Concert drew thousands of hip hop fans to downtown Miami on Sunday.
Published: Mon, 28 May 2012 14:29:24 GMT
Are tornado sirens the answer in South Florida?
Published: Mon, 28 May 2012 03:57:25 GMT
<p> Dear Miami Beach residents: stick around during Urban Beach Week.</p><p> It's pretty sad when businesses on a normally bustling Lincoln Road are empty; aren't those haunts you normally frequent?</p><p> We think they are.</p><p> My husband and I went out on our usual Sunday night tour and were surprised to see all the empty seats on Lincoln Road. Our friends who work the bars and restaurants suffer when you, fellow neighbors, are not there.</p><p> After we hit Lincoln Road, we walked to Ocean Drive. As South Beachers, that wasn't outside the realm of our normal night. This Sunday, though, the whole street was shut down to traffic for Urban Beach Week revelers. </p><p> And, guess what?</p><p> We had a blast.</p><p> We met a guy from Atlanta at Mangos who reminded me of my hubby's girl-crazy little brother, a couple of young women from New Jersey who were having a girls' weekend away from their husbands, and a group of guys who were Redskins fans (yay! Sorry, I'm a D.C. native). </p><p> We asked one visitor what he thought of the scene, and he said, "Much better than last year."</p><p> That one quote is not, by any means, a scientific analysis of how the traffic blockages and police presence was received by visitors.</p><p> But, from my perspective of a South Beach resident, Urban Beach Week was mostly a success.</p><p> So, what's keeping people away? Likely the reputation that the weekend got from shootings and police incidents from years' past.</p><p> Let go of that. Embrace the visitors. Lead them to Lincoln Road and to places where they can spend money and have fun.</p><p> Let cabs travel through residential zones to pick folks up. Make parking garages, like the one at 6th and Alton, more well-known so folks can park and then cab or walk to where they want to be.</p><p> We're getting there.</p><p> But, as someone who loves South Beach, I think we ought to do a better job of helping visitors know we want them here.</p><p> The first step in doing that: be here.</p><p> You might just have a little fun.</p>
Published: Mon, 28 May 2012 03:43:29 GMT
<p> In 2010, Boston ousted Dwyane Wade in the first round and LeBron James in the second round. A year later, Wade and James were teammates and turned the tables, sending the Celtics into the offseason.</p><p> Here comes the tiebreaker.</p><p> PHOTOS: Heat practice on Saturday</p><p> READ: Eastern Conference finals preview</p><p> Celtics-Heat, one more time — with a berth in the NBA finals as the reward.</p><p> For the fifth time in seven years, it'll be Boston or Miami winning the Eastern Conference championship. Game 1 of that title series is Monday night in Miami, with the Heat saying it almost seemed predestined that they would be seeing the Celtics again, and Boston's perspective being that the team in green is exactly where it expected to be as well.</p><p> "Inevitable. It's the matchup the game of basketball wants," Wade said Sunday afternoon. "Obviously, with the Chicago Bulls being out, this is the biggest matchup the Eastern Conference can have. So we accept the challenge and we look forward to the series."</p><p> Added Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: "Was there any doubt that it'd be us and Boston?"</p><p> Well, maybe a little.</p><p> Spoelstra watched Boston's Game 7 East semifinal matchup against Philadelphia without a notepad, not wanting to start game planning until the winner was decided. And that didn't come until late in the night, when Rajon Rondo — forced into the closer's role after Paul Pierce fouled out with 4:16 left — delivered time and again down the stretch, carrying the Celtics to an 85-75 closeout victory.</p><p> "This is a good time right now," Celtics forward Kevin Garnett said. "This is the cream of the cream. This is what it's all about, you know, conference finals. We definitely didn't like the way we left last year. So we'll see what happens, man. We'll see what happens. Let's get it on."</p><p> Miami beat Boston in five games in last year's East semifinals, and the Celtics took three of four games from Miami this season. Both sides cautioned against reading too much into any of those results.</p><p> James said the game changes in the playoffs, even more so as teams get deeper into it. The Celtics know what he wants to do, he knows what the Celtics will try, familiarity born from James having already faced Boston in 18 playoff games — more than any other active player, and more than any club the reigning MVP has squared off with in the postseason.</p><p> "I wouldn't have it no other way, personally," James said. "It's really the only team I'm accustomed to playing in the playoffs. No matter where I go, I find a way to play Boston. ... We've got a lot of history."</p><p> James and the Cleveland Cavaliers lost in seven games to Boston in 2008. In 2010, the Celtics topped the Cavs in six games, one round after easily beating the Heat in a series punctuated by Wade vowing that he wouldn't lose another first-round series for a long time to come. Last season, Miami's five-game win was far from easy. And this time, the perception of the Celtics is that they're old, tired and weary.</p><p> The Heat dismiss those notions as "ridiculous," Spoelstra said.</p><p> "No. Get out of here with that," Wade said. "I don't believe none of that. No feet hurtin', no tired, no nothing. This is the Boston Celtics. They're all 100 percent to me because when they play the Miami Heat, different ballgame and vice versa. Ain't no story lines, no excuses. ... Last year, yeah, we beat them in five, but man, it was like a nine-game series, it felt like."</p><p> Boston did not hold practice Sunday, instead handing out scouting reports and flying to Miami. Celtics coach Doc Rivers was packed with the hopes of making a Miami trip even before Game 7 of the Philly series, just so he could take every possible moment after the game Saturday night to watch film of the Heat, and he planned more of the same on the three-hour flight from Boston.</p><p> "We'll be ready," Rivers said. "It's going to be a tough turnaround, but listen, we're not an excuse team. We'll be ready on Monday."</p><p> His players said they welcomed the short turnaround.</p><p> Ray Allen is hurting and Boston will be without Avery Bradley for the remainder of the season, but the Celtics indicated they would rather just jump into a Miami series and not wait around.</p><p> "I kind of like it for us," Pierce said. "It keeps us in rhythm. It keeps us playing. We're an older team so we get kind of stiff when we sit around for too long. We like the fact that we're going to go right into it."</p><p> The Celtics are averaging 88.1 points in the playoffs. James and Wade are averaging nearly 53 in the postseason by themselves, and combined to score 197 in the last three games — all Miami wins — in the second-round series against Indiana, responding to the Heat's need for them to carry more of the scoring load with Chris Bosh still sidelined indefinitely by a strained lower abdominal muscle.</p><p> Clearly, a clash in styles is possible, and the Celtics are leery of what Miami can do in the open floor.</p><p> "We will lose in a track meet," Allen said. "This team, they get up and down the floor. They want to score in transition. They pride themselves off of getting easy baskets. Defensively, we have to get back. Offensively, we can't play with the ball, we can't turn the ball over, we can't not execute."</p><p> All the ingredients are there for drama.</p><p> Boston's Big Four against Miami's Big Three (minus one). A possible end to this Celtics run, at least with this current core. Miami trying to return to the title series, after falling last year. James' still-unfulfilled quest for a championship.</p><p> Both sides agree, this won't be easy for either club.</p><p> "It's great theater for the fans and everybody out there," Spoelstra said. "For us, it's great competition. That's what you want at this time of year."</p>
Published: Sun, 27 May 2012 23:35:55 GMT
<p> As the nation remembers the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military, thousands of people will flock to South Florida during Memorial Day Weekend.</p><p> This holiday was not always known as "Memorial Day." From 1938 to 1954, it was known as, "Armistice Day," a day created to honor veterans of World War I and to stress the need for world peace. </p><p> After World War II, "Armistice Day" was changed to "Memorial Day" in order to honor veterans of all wars, not just World War I.</p><p> Let's take advantage of this weekend to show the pride and appreciation we feel for all of our veterans. </p><p> Get involved -- walk in a parade, attend a ceremony, bow in silence or teach your kids about Memorial Day's history.</p><p> Events: Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach</p><p> VIDEO: Hot Happenings</p><p> Safety Tips: 5 things to keep in mind</p><p> Miami Beach: Preparing for Memorial Day Weekend</p><p> Miami Beach info: Road closures, police regulations</p><p> Weekend Forecast: JustWeather.com</p><p> Boating information</p><p> PHOTOS: Memorial Day in Pictures</p>
Published: Fri, 25 May 2012 21:56:31 GMT
As you prep for the holiday weekend, look back at the history of Memorial Day through old and new images.
Published: Thu, 24 May 2012 16:15:22 GMT
See the latest mugshots in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Published: Sun, 27 May 2012 22:23:01 GMT
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