MIAMI — While the ex-premier of the British Virgin Islands remains locked up in Miami after being convicted of cocaine smuggling, a federal judge still cannot figure out how to resolve doubts raised by a couple of jurors about their guilty verdicts nearly two weeks ago. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said this week that she wants both sides — federal prosecutors and defense attorneys who are at loggerheads — to return to her courtroom on March 7 with a potential legal solution to the seemingly intractable problem. “From the start, this has been an unusual case in many respects,” William...
Miami Herald
Lionel Messi and his pink clad Inter Miami teammates kicked off the 2024 MLS season Wednesday night and showed why they are the league’s main attraction, dazzling the Chase Stadium crowd with precision passing, juking defenders left and right, looking at times like a team in mid-season form as they beat Real Salt Lake 2-0. All the fans’ concern about Inter Miami players starting the season exhausted after a 24,000-mile five-nation preseason tour were put to rest. Messi looked fully fit and highly motivated as he ran hard for 90 minutes and eluded defenders time and time again, threading passes...
Miami Herald
What should Inter Miami fans expect of Lionel Messi in 2024 with his first full season in Major League Soccer now underway? Everything, that’s all. Matters not that he will turn 37 in a few months. Time is the constraint of mere mortals. This is Messi: Greatest of all time and greater than time itself. Are we serious? Another question: Can there be too much hyperbole when applied to this man? And now Messi is joined not only by Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba again, but by new attacker Luis Suarez to form a Big 4. The superteam on paper looked the part on grass in much of Wednesday night’s seas...
Miami Herald
JUPITER, Fla. — Trey Mancini last season watched what the Miami Marlins did from a distance. He saw a scrappy team with an underdog mentality push its way into the playoffs and defy the odds they were given. After being inside the clubhouse for one week of spring training, he has a better understanding of how they got to that point. “It’s such a close-knit team,” Mancini said. “It’s always great to come in into a situation like that.” Mancini is with the Marlins on a minor-league deal. The 31-year-old first baseman has a track record for being a professional hitter and can play solid defense b...
Miami Herald
MIAMI — Legislation that aims to reveal the evidence and testimony presented almost two decades ago to the South Florida grand jury that charged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein with just one felony count of soliciting a prostitute is making its way to the governor’s desk. On Wednesday, the Florida Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 234, making it ready to be either signed into law or vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. If signed, SB 234 and its companion that already passed in the House, HB 117, would change the current state law that keeps most grand jury proceedings a secret. Lawmakers are hoping...
Miami Herald
MIAMI — The Miami Beach City Commission voted Wednesday to prevent visitors from using public parking garages and lots in South Beach during two weekends in March, a major new initiative on the eve of spring break that goes further than measures the city had approved last month. Officials had previously said city-owned garages and parking lots in the entertainment district would close after 6 p.m. to everyone except Miami Beach residents and employees from March 7-10 and March 14-17, the weekends that are expected to bring the highest volume of visitors. But during a discussion Wednesday to ap...
Miami Herald
MIAMI — World No. 1 Novak Djokovic is expected to return to the Miami Open this year for the first time since 2019. The winner of a record 24 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic is on the entry list for the upcoming tournament at Hard Rock Stadium, March 17-31, as is women’s No. 1 Iga Swiatek. Djokovic has won the Miami Open six times but was unable to play the past few years because he declined the COVID vaccine and U.S. COVID travel laws did not allow unvaccinated non-U.S. citizens to enter the country. The United States was among the countries that required COVID vaccination without the option of p...
Miami Herald
The brazen coup attempt that took the life of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse holds all the elements of a three-act Shakespearean tragedy: plots and subplots, ambition and betrayal, gore and death, all ensnaring the circle of people closest to him, including his wife. Martine Moïse, who was wounded in the middle-of-the-night attack in the president’s home on July 7, 2021, was indicted Monday alongside several allies of her late husband. They include his former prime minister, the Haitian national police chief, the head of a state environmental security brigade, and an adviser so close to the f...
Miami Herald
MIAMI — As Miami Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. sat down for his scheduled media availability ahead of Friday night’s Rising Stars event to kick off NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, the first three questions came to him in Spanish. That’s because Jaquez wasn’t just representing Heat culture at All-Star weekend, he was representing his own culture as only the sixth person with Mexican citizenship to play in the NBA. The five who came before Jaquez are Eduardo Najera, Horacio Llamas, Gustavo Ayon, Jorge Gutierrez and Juan Toscano-Anderson. Jaquez is the first of those six players to be select...
Miami Herald
SUNRISE, Fla. — A win like the the one the Florida Panthers pulled out Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators is the sort of luxury the best teams get to enjoy. Paul Maurice was blunt about the way his team played in Sunrise — “We just weren’t really good,” the coach said, before admitting he “was grasping at straws” with some lineup changes in the third period — and still the Panthers were never really in danger of losing to the lowly Senators. They led for more than 48 minutes, got to overtime despite blowing a two-goal lead in the third period and finally pulled out a 3-2 win with a highlight-...
Miami Herald
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