Miami Herald
‘Freedom is worth celebrating’
Barbara Williamson learned about Juneteenth from her grandfather who told her of the holiday’s history when she was a little girl living in Boca Raton. Since then, Williamson, 85, has celebrated the holiday instead of Fourth of July, often holding a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
STEP UP IN HAITI
United Nations SecretaryGeneral António Guterres arrived in Haiti on Tuesday wanting to deliver a message of reassurance to the Haitian people amid surging gang violence, rising displacement and deepening hunger. Hope was on the way, he said, as he...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
After $12 million renovation, Overtown community sues contractors over leaks, mold
In Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, a small Section 8 housing community of 17 buildings stands out for its bright blue facades. Children play outside, and neighbors know one another by name. But the low-income community has been plagued by water damage,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
MIAMI’S WORLD CUP SAGA BEGINS
Top, soccer fans rush through the Miami Stadium gates to attend Monday’s Uruguay-Saudi Arabia FIFA World Cup opening-round match, the first of several to be played at the Miami Gardens stadium. Right, Christopher Noria’s flag is examined by security on...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Affordable housing replacing public housing as developers address Miami shortage
Miami-Dade has a shortage of affordable housing — and the land to build it on. Bounded by Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Everglades to the west, the county doesn’t have much space for the estimated 90,000 new units needed to...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Haiti to debut redesigned World Cup jersey after FIFA rejects initial design as ‘political’
Once more Haiti’s efforts to express its national identity and fighting spirit on the global stage have run into resistance from an international sports governing body. Months after qualifying for its first FIFA World Cup in more than 50 years, Haiti’s...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘It’s overwhelming’
The lines outside Curley’s House Hope Relief Food Bank in Allapattah have never been longer. After 30 years of feeding Miami residents in need, Lavern Spicer, founder and executive director for Curley’s House, says demand for food assistance has...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Miami-Dade, Coral Gables crack down on fraudulent disability parking permits
As a parking enforcement officer peered into the windshield of a black Chevrolet Camaro parked along Miracle Mile on a recent weekday, he noticed that the handicapped permit information didn’t match the expiration of the car’s registration. He called...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
3D-PRINTED BONES?
Inside the University of Miami’s newly opened 3Dbioprinting lab, the future of medicine looks a lot like science fiction. Think minuscule robotic devices that repair the body. Molecules designed to hunt down cancer cells. And a printer capable of...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
How a tiny police force in Miami-Dade posted big immigration arrest numbers
Miami Springs is often described as a quiet suburb of Miami, with some 13,000 residents, tree-lined streets, mid-century homes and small-town charm. Yet the tiny municipality has emerged as one of Florida’s most active participants in immigration...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘He is Columbus’ The Shark is retiring — and students say he made them leaders
Christopher Columbus High School without The Shark? Brother Kevin coached future University of Miami and Florida International University basketball coaches when they were teenagers. He guided future U.S. politicians, Miami business leaders,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
HURRICANE SEASON IS HERE, AND THE WORLD CUP IS COMING
As hundreds of thousands of soccer fans prepare to travel to South Florida for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, officials are warning visitors to watch out for more than ticket scams. Monday marks the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, and National...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Haitians gather to meet Haiti National Team soccer stars ahead of World Cup
Miami-Dade’s Saturday rain showers could not damper the spirit and energy of dozens of Haitians, Haitian Americans and soccer fans crowded together waving flags, beaming expectantly at North Miami’s Moca Plaza to meet players on the Haitian National...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘People have lost everything’
With evictions looming for approximately 200 families living at a Miami trailer park, dozens gathered Wednesday to stage a protest outside City Commissioner Ralph Rosado’s office in the hopes that the city might intervene — or at least help buy them...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘Nickel and dimed’
Restaurant bills don’t look the way they used to. Not so long ago, you’d glance at the bill and see the cost of your meal and a blank line to leave a tip. Restaurants in some touristy neighborhoods like Miami Beach might slap on a tip of their own for...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Mother blames health groups’ dispute for daughter’s $11,500 ER bill
Go to the nearest ER first, figure out billing later. That’s often the advice that people hear when it comes to potential medical emergencies. A federal law requires health insurers to cover care for medical emergencies at in-network rates, including...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
HONORING THE FALLEN
Nearly 150 people showed up at the Miami Beach Police Headquarters on Monday morning to pay respects to active, retired and fallen members of the Armed Forces. During the event, a moment of silence was held in honor of those who have died, and a 21-gun...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Clubs face Tropical Park sticker shock. County rents soar under private operator
Putting on a weekend dog show at Tropical Park’s Equestrian Center used to cost the South Dade Kennel Club less than $3,000, but that was before Miami-Dade County hired a private events company to run the place. Earlier this year, volunteer club...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
After more than 20 years, Venezuela’s longest-serving political prisoners are freed
Three police officers, accused more than 20 years ago of conspiring against the government of the late President Hugo Chávez, have been released in Venezuela along with dozens of other political prisoners amid promises from authorities that some 300...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
U.S. CHARGES RAÚL CASTRO WITH MURDER
Cuban Americans in South Florida celebrated the federal indictment Wednesday of Cuban leader Raúl Castro as a long overdue reckoning for his alleged role in the 1996 killing of four Cuban American men — a shoot-down over the Florida Straits that has...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
School pride: Booker T. students surprised
Deafening screams filled the auditorium at Booker T. Washington Senior High School on Tuesday as two students received a big surprise. Seniors Patricia Smith and Yaz’Nique Jean Francois stepped up on stage, each the winner of a $30,000 college...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘PEOPLE NEEDED THIS’
Christina Brown was stressed out in 2019. Her baby son Sean died after birth. She divorced her wife shortly after. After those experiences, Brown, who lived in Atlanta at the time, went to a rage room in Las Vegas and broke things. “I thought about...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘That could have been my story’
The recent news reports of Black women being killed by their partners has brought back a flood of memories for Cindy Doucet. The Miami radio personality, known for years to 99 Jamz listeners as SupaCindy, knows how hard it is to leave an abusive...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Weight loss drug use has skyrocketed.
When she was approached to create the menu for Cerveceria La Tropical a few years back, chef Cindy Hutson knew what CEO Manny Portuondo wanted to serve: Cuban food that would effortlessly complement the tap room offerings. The Wynwood brewery was...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
TRUMP IN CHINA FOR SUMMIT
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing for the first state visit to China by a U.S. leader in nine years, as the world’s two largest economies look to stabilize ties with a summit playing out against the backdrop of the Iran war. Trump...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
How Spirit’s collapse changed the economy — and lives. ‘Back to ramen noodles’
Like much of the world, Donald “Dean” Zoellers learned of Spirit Airlines’ demise on the morning of May 2. He was hit hard, certainly more than travelers who loved the Broward-based carrier’s low prices or bright yellow planes. The 63-yearold...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
BUILDING BOOM
Ten years ago, a master plan was unveiled to reimagine North Beach, the most affordable, least gentrified slice of Miami Beach that stretches from 63rd Street to 87th Terrace. Now, the neighborhood’s transformation is entering top gear. Numerous...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Neighbors’ complaints stall county’s plan for Coconut Grove Playhouse —
Even as work crews ready the storied Coconut Grove Playhouse’s gutted front building for restoration, a group of neighbors who have been fighting a plan to reopen the historic 1927 theater for years have gotten it blocked once again. A Miami-Dade...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
HistoryMiami rebrands as Museum of Miami,
Ana of Coral Gables recalled when a reporter wrote about her father, a Cuban political prisoner. The next day, her restaurant was full of former political prisoners. Adrian of Coconut Grove has a trilingual mother and a monolingual father. He...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
20 years after opening,
Twenty years after it opened, the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is embarking on a major production that’s long been high on its patrons’ wishlist: building a dedicated parking garage at its front door. The Arsht said Monday it has submitted a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Pulitzer Prizes honor Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown and Brightline investigation
Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown on Monday was honored by the Pulitzer Prize Board for her groundbreaking and impactful investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and the people and institutions that enabled him to abuse girls...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘OUR LIVES HANG IN THE BALANCE’
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Coral Gables on Friday, marching with MiamiDade plant nursery workers as they fight for safer working conditions. Led by workers’ rights...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
GETTING ALL REVVED UP
Formula 1 is back in town with the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix taking place this weekend. On Wednesday, preparations were under way for the Miami International Autodrome at Hard Rock Stadium. Above, a view of the Grand Prix first-place...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘GAME CHANGER’
Ozzie Echemendia’s “second chance of life” came in the form of a wire that runs from his brain all the way to his upper chest. Echemendia is in a battle with Parkinson’s disease, a movement disorder that affects the nervous system and usually worsens...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Developers got city land for affordable housing in Little Havana.
In his final act before leaving office last year, longtime Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo quietly put together a complex, multimillion-dollar deal to provide public land in East Little Havana to three developers to build 500 affordable apartments in...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Boris Johnson’s in Miami. Just don’t talk to him about politics — or Cuban food
While former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson can wax poetic about the dangers of unchecked populism and hail the virtues of a city filled with billionaires, he has nothing to say about Florida politics — even while meeting this week with Gov. Ron...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Epstein victim who spoke out against sex trafficking is remembered as a fighter
Virginia Giuffre, whose courage to speak out about her sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and other powerful men put her in the forefront of one the biggest crimes in history, was remembered Saturday in Washington, on the one-year anniversary of her...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Wife of detained immigrant joins lawmakers in D.C. to push for immigration reform
Angela Della Valle, whose husband has been in immigration detention for nine months, joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers and other immigrant families on Wednesday in Washington, to advocate for her husband’s release and raise awareness of a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT’
Amy A. Dawkins had driven by the new 150,000-square-foot data center tucked in the middle of Westview several times before she knew what it was. Since New Hampshire-based information-management company Iron Mountain broke ground on the 3.1-acre site...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Miami mayor wants a half-billion dollars for police, fire facilities
Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins wants voters to greenlight a half-billion dollars in spending to repair the city’s aging public safety buildings. But before the $450 million bond can land on the August ballot, Higgins first needs to get buy-in from the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
This Miami midwife turns advocacy into action with mobile clinic
Huddled in a patient room inside a mobile midwife clinic outside the Overtown Youth Center, a pregnant Venezuelan woman who brought her small child speaks with a student midwife to assess her prenatal care. She gets her blood pressure checked and a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘SUPERTALL’
If it seems like buildings in Miami are getting taller, that’s because they are. The Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences Miami, a skyscraper designed to resemble a stack of offset blocks, will tower above its downtown neighbors once it’s completed in...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
It’s free, and you can skip traffic
When Grace Dutton saw a sign outside her hotel near the Venetian Marina and Yacht Club in Miami promoting a free water taxi to and from South Beach on Wednesday morning, she knew she had to take a ride. Dutton, 21, of London, was in Miami for the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
BAY OF PIGS MUSEUM OPENING SOON
An 11,000-square-foot Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506 Museum is opening Saturday in Little Havana and features interactive exhibits honoring the Cuban exiles who fought in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. It will use audiovisual technology, historical archives...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Inside the Kendall gym that trains you to do stunts like a Hollywood action star
South Florida has no shortage of fitness centers — but how many teach you to get kicked in the gut and then properly fall? Or tumble onto the ground from a high-wire? What about getting pushed around on a crash mat? Miami Action Design, cofounded by a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
In Florida, it’s easier than ever to gamble your life savings from the couch
Jason was hiding in a closet at work, glued to his phone. He was going “full tilt.” In gambling parlance, that means he lost a bet, was spiraling and would soon start wagering indiscriminately as he chased his money into a financial void. It was Jan....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Implosion of Mandarin Oriental on Brickell Key was Miami’s biggest Sunday show
Will Smith, Penelope Cruz and the Real Madrid soccer team were guests. The resort’s signature restaurant Azul, which closed in 2019, was once helmed by Miami celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein. And in 2024, it was one of 10 hotels in Miami-Dade County...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘Never-ending’ need
Sue Hansen still thinks fondly of Polly, the “fattest beagle I have ever seen.” In the early 2000s, a woman brought in Polly, a beagle that weighed well over 50 pounds, to Abandoned Pet Rescue in Fort Lauderdale. She wanted to surrender the dog...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
An offer to tutor crown prince, a gift from Mecca
In his attempts to position himself at the confluence of money and power, Jeffrey Epstein cultivated myriad relationships among the ruling elite of the Middle East, according to an extensive Miami Herald review of several million pages of documents...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Miami-area man’s $48,000 cancer treatment was denied by his insurer. He’s suing
Can your health insurance decline to pay for lifesaving cancer medication? That’s what Doral resident Pablo Langesfeld and his family are waiting for Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Migna Sanchez-Llorens to decide. The 60-year-old father is battling an...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
IS MIAMI BEACH SPRING BREAK A THING OF THE PAST?
For three straight years, spring break in South Beach has come and gone without major incident. Crowds were relatively small last month, especially compared to March weekends in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic, when thousands of young people...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘TANIA ALWAYS DECIDES’
Julia Rabell, an 88-year-old former grocery store cashier beloved for the stories she told her customers at checkout, became weak and despondent while living with other tenants in a cramped Flagami boarding house. The home was subdivided into a colony...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A ROARING SENDOFF
A towering orange-andwhite NASA rocket blasted off from Florida, lifting four astronauts toward space and transporting spectators’ imaginations to a future in which Americans might again set foot on the moon. As they did during the heyday of the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
‘I have got the greatest gift’
After nearly seven years, Chevon Byfield finally found his perfect match: a large, and strong, beating heart. “I feel like, even right now, it still hasn’t hit me yet,” the dad of two told the Miami Herald during a recent FaceTime call from his...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Trump releases first renderings of massive Miami high-rise presidential library
President Donald Trump’s foundation released a teaser video for his proposed presidential library in downtown Miami, revealing plans for a skyscraper with a fully capitalized TRUMP emblazoned atop, a presidential jet in the lobby, an amphitheater where...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Miami Beach’s Holocaust Memorial expands, offering new way to talk to survivors
Most Miami Beach residents and visitors have likely seen the giant bronze sculpture of an outstretched arm reaching to the sky as hundreds of small human figures cling to it and each other with expressions of agony. Since the Holocaust Memorial opened...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
BELIEVERS GATHER FOR PALM SUNDAY
Above, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, center, processes past the crowd toward the cathedral after the traditional blessing of the palms before Palm Sunday Mass on Sunday at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Miami. “It is easy for us to say we would’ve done...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
South Beach hotel hyped by Pharrell Williams, David Grutman now facing foreclosure
Five years after its much-hyped South Beach debut featuring celebrity frontman Pharrell Williams, The Goodtime Hotel is in bad trouble. A California real estate fund has filed a $150 million foreclosure action against the hotel’s owners in MiamiDade...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
From exile to action: Cuban Americans fill Hialeah park for ‘Cuba Libre’ rally
Longing for a free homeland, hope for change and a deep love for Cuba drew thousands to the streets of Hialeah, where chants of “Libertad” echoed through the city during a “Cuba Libre” rally Tuesday evening. The gathering at Milander Field was part...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Rubio testifies he was ‘unaware’ of Rivera’s $50M deal with Venezuelan subsidiary
Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified Tuesday at the Miami federal trial of former Congressman David Rivera that he never would have talked with his friend about his plan for democratic elections in Venezuela if he had known that Rivera had signed a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Red Rooster restaurant is a crown jewel of Black Miami
In 2020, restaurateur and real estate developer Derek Fleming was excited. He planned a big party to celebrate the opening of Red Rooster, the Miami version of a popular Harlem, New York, restaurant. Patrons could see gorgeous Black art and taste...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WHERE’S THE PARTY?
Christa Moore, 19, left, a student from Southern Union State Community College, and Kaliah Ridley, 21, from the University of Cincinnati, take a selfie as they visit South Beach during spring break on Saturday in Miami Beach. Spring break crowds have...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
GAME, SET, SUNSHINE AT THE MIAMI OPEN
Maddox Tran, 15, leans back and squints while watching on the jumbo screen several of the matches as the sun finally made its appearance after two rainy days at the Miami Open on Thursday in Miami Gardens. The tournament runs through next weekend at...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Venezuela third baseman Maikel Garcia celebrates with teammates after Venezuela rallied in the ninth inning to defeat the United States at a packed loanDepot park in the final game of the 2026 World Baseball Classic on Tuesday. It was an emotional win...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WIDESPREAD BLACKOUT IN CUBA
A street vendor attends to customers during a blackout in Havana on Monday. Cuba’s national power grid collapsed Monday, leaving nearly the entire country without electricity and compounding an already severe economic and social crisis. The outage left...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
U.S. citizen has fought seven months to free husband; ICE claims ‘flight risk’
Angela Della Valle has been crisscrossing the country since August, fighting for the release of her husband of 23 years from immigration detention. In Florida alone, he was transferred about a dozen times to various immigration detention centers,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
RAIN CAN’T STOP CALLE OCHO
Mia Cruz and Zoe Diaz bubble around during Calle Ocho Festival on Sunday in Little Havana. The annual event is the largest Latin music festival in the nation and is put on by Carnaval Miami.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Exiled Iranian women in South Florida push for change amid ongoing war
Sandra Madjdi spent years of her childhood in hiding. Madjdi, who was born in Tehran, fled Iran in 1979 with her family out of fear of retaliation from the Islamic regime. Her grandfather was a diplomat and congressman with ties to the Shah. After...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
BAM’S 83-POINT EXPLOSION
Heat teammates congratulate center Bam Adebayo on Tuesday night after he scored 83 points in a 150-129 victory over Washington at Kaseya Center in Miami. His total was the most in an NBA game since Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 for the Philadelphia...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Coral Gables vacates iconic City Hall for full restoration
After 98 years, the roof, walls and windows are leaking at Coral Gables’ historic City Hall, one of South Florida’s most prominent civic and architectural landmarks. The building’s limestone and stucco exterior and concrete decorative bits are badly...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WHAT LESSONS CAN DOLPHINS TAKE FROM TUA’S DISAPPOINTING TENURE?
The “Tank for Tua” era — or error — was rooted in failure from the very start, and that’s exactly how Tua Tagovailoa’s tenure as the Miami Dolphins’ starting quarterback should be remembered. One misstep after another, an avalanche of miscalculations,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
GROUPS DEMAND REPATRIATION
Niurka Prestamo, friend of a detainee, reacts during a Proof of Life of Our Brothers ceremony at the Bay of Pigs Monument in the Little Havana area of Miami. Cuban dissident groups held a press conference on Sunday to demand repatriation of the bodies...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Miami Jewish and Muslim
Plates of challah bread and bowls of dates sat in the center of each table. Manischewitz wine — a staple of Shabbat — was replaced with grape juice to accommodate those who don’t drink alcohol. Faith leaders of various religions gathered around the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
THIS NEW MIAMI BUILDING IS INNOVATIVE, COMPACT AND PEACH
The first sign that there’s something unusual about the newly opened building in the heart of Miami’s Overtown is its color — a deep shade of peach, inspired by a bit of neighborhood soda-pop history. The second is its simple yet sophisticated modern...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Scamming the faithful
When a man named Sergio messaged Pastor Jennifer LeClaire insisting she had promised him a personal phone call and prophetic counseling, she assumed it was a misunderstanding. Though he was an avid follower of the South Florida pastor’s morning...
Read Full Story (Page 1)