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Study: Stem Cells Used To Fix Your Broken Heart It's Called The Marvel Study The Largest Clinical Trial Investigating Adult Stem Cells To Treat Congestive Heart Failure For More Info, Call Jim Moran Heart & Vascular Center At (954) 229-8400 MIAMI (CBS4) ― Doctors are discovering a new way to fix your broken heart. A study is underway in South Florida that could revolutionize the way heart attack patients help their damaged hearts by using their own stem cells. It's called The Marvel Study and under the direction of Dr. Alan Neiderman with the Jim Moran Heart & Vascular Research...

Hammered by the same financial problems facing newspapers across the country, The Miami Herald announced it plans to reduce its workforce by 250 full-time employees -- 17 percent of its staff. Publisher David Landsberg said the reduction includes 190 full-time and part-time employees being laid off, plus the elimination of other open positions, because of dramatic reductions in revenue. ''This is a painful but necessary step,'' Landsberg wrote in an e-mail to employees. ``We're operating in a time of great change and challenge for our operations.'' The Herald is owned by McClatchy, the third-largest newspaper company in the country. The...

Using a crumpled-up newspaper as a fake gun, Carlos Marin, 20, walked into a South Beach Dunkin' Donuts Monday morning with a shirt half wrapped around his face, police say. ''You know what this is! Give me your register,'' he said. (snip) Marin ran off, but not before he asked: ``How you gonna describe me?''

The City of Miami says it plans to give $150,000 to a civilian patrol group known as the Peacemakers, to be run by the Progressive Land Development International, an organization that shares a mailing address with the Nation of Islam in Miami. ... While the Peacemakers say they are not officially affiliated with the Nation of Islam, the group is headed by Rasul Muhammad, a prominent Nation of Islam member and the son of former leader Elijah Muhammad, and its corporate offices are at the group's Miami mosque

Seeking a balance between outreach and enforcement, Miami is launching a nearly $1 million crime-fighting initiative in Overtown that will mix police patrols, video cameras -- and suit-and-tie wearing Muslims. The stepped-up policing seeks to deter would-be lawbreakers without making Overtown residents feel ''invaded,'' in the words of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. Which is where the Muslims come in. Along with budgeting hundreds of thousands of dollars for increased police patrols and the installation of surveillance cameras, Miami is spending $150,000 on a ''Peacemakers'' pilot program run by a nonprofit with ties to the Nation of Islam.

Seeking a balance between outreach and enforcement, Miami is launching a nearly $1 million crime-fighting initiative in Overtown that will mix police patrols, video cameras -- and suit-and-tie wearing Muslims. The stepped-up policing seeks to deter would-be lawbreakers without making Overtown residents feel ''invaded,'' in the words of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. Which is where the Muslims come in. Along with budgeting hundreds of thousands of dollars for increased police patrols and the installation of surveillance cameras, Miami is spending $150,000 on a ''Peacemakers'' pilot program run by a nonprofit with ties to the Nation of Islam.

Meynardo Garcia's ambitious dreams of becoming an artist are on hold, while he fights the U.S. government over his mother's decision years ago to break the law. His mother slipped Meynardo, then age 10, into the United States illegally from Mexico. He's now 18 years old, a senior at Broward's Coconut Creek High School. Meynardo's saga as an undocumented immigrant would have largely gone unnoticed but for his art teacher, his fellow classmates and his prize-winning artwork. Nearly 1,000 classmates have signed a petition to allow Meynardo to stay in the country and his art teacher has gotten him an...

MIAMI — A judge ordered jurors to keep deliberating Tuesday after they announced a second time they were deadlocked in the retrial of six men accused of scheming to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard refused a defense request for mistrial, instead urging them to reach verdicts if at all possible. "If you fail to reach a verdict, this case will be left open and may have to be retried again," Lenard told jurors in a set of instructions known as an Allen charge. The ethnically diverse panel of seven men and...

I have Miami Heat season tickets for the remainder of this year and all of next year. I can't make it to many of the games so I wanted to donate most of them to military veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I would love some recommendations on good charities. Thanx FReepers. :-p

Muslims students at the University of Miami have organized for the Islamic call to prayer, broadcasted each Friday afternoon this month from Richter Library's clock tower in commemoration of Islamic Awareness Month. The call to prayer, or Adhan, is spoken in Arabic and is meant to resonate throughout the area. "It serves as constant reminder of when we have to pray, because prayer itself is a reminder of our religion and how we practice it," said Selima Jumarali, the vice president of the organization. According to the teachings of Islam, Muslims are to pray five times a day. In Muslim-majority...

Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime. A small pilotless drone manufactured by Honeywell International, capable of hovering and "staring" using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to make its debut soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades. If use of the drone wins Federal Aviation Administration approval after tests, the Miami-Dade Police Department will start flying the 14-pound (6.3 kg) drone over urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting...

Also compares Muslim terrorists to religious 'radicals' in Oregon JERUSALEM – Sen. Barack Obama's military adviser and national campaign co-chairman has implied U.S. politicians are afraid of Jewish voters in Miami and New York City and that American Jews are the "problem" impeding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Merrill A. McPeak, a former Air Force chief of staff, also compared the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations to what he described as religious radicals in Oregon and claimed "born-again [Christians]" supported the war in Iraq to help Israel. Discussing Middle East politics during a 2003 interview with the Oregonian newspaper...

Almost four months before Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a sex scandal, a lawyer for Republican political operative Roger Stone sent a letter to the FBI alleging that Spitzer ''used the services of high-priced call girls'' while in Florida. The letter, dated Nov. 19, said Miami Beach resident Stone learned the information from ''a social contact in an adult-themed club.'' It offered one potentially identifying detail: the man in question hadn't taken off his calf-length black socks ``during the sex act.'' Stone, known for shutting down the 2000 presidential election recount effort in Miami-Dade County, is a longtime Spitzer nemesis...

The sordid details: In March of '07 my house in Homestead, FL was broken into by a thug gang-banger and a handgun was taken. I called Homestead PD and they came right out and filed a report. A Homestead detective followed up a week late to gather more info. I didn't figure to ever see the gun again, so I gave up on it. Late September I received a letter from the State Attorney's office requesting that I call in. They had arrested the thug up in Miami and needed to ask me some questions. I called and answered all...

FOX cover the story, reporting over 60 police vehicles from surrounding agencies have responded in riot gear, with multiple arrest of students being made. Miami Edison High school

<p>Widespread power outages were reported Tuesday from Miami to Jacksonville on Florida's east coast and as far north as Tampa on the Gulf Coast, police and utility officials said.</p> <p>As many 800,000 Florida Power & Light Co. customers are without power Tuesday afternoon, the company said.</p>

Florida Power & Light is reporting massive power outages throughout South Florida, including Miami, Doral, Westchester, and Pembroke Pines. Reports of outages extended into Palm Beach, an FPL spokeswoman said. The company said it was investigating the problem.

MIAMI (AP) -- A man with multiple passports was arrested Monday after he bolted from security screeners at Miami International Airport, jumped from a second floor concourse and broke his arm and ribs, authorities said. Transportation and Security Administration officials became suspicious of Faid Beydoun as he stood in a security line, waiting to board a Los Angeles-bound flight. When Beydoun's travel documents also raised concerns, agents asked him to step out of line for a secondary screening. Beydoun, who was carrying multiple passports, then ran from security screeners, jumped 25 feet off the second floor concourse and broke his...

<p>A man bitten by a shark while diving over the weekend has died, the U.S. Coast Guard in Miami announced on Monday.</p> <p>The 50-year-old man "passed away from his injuries sustained by a shark bite," said Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson.</p>

First there was the menacing claim broadcast on Spanish-language television that "someone might crack your head like a coconut." Next came three death threats. Finally, as the peace loonies recently piloted their Dodge Ram pickup onto SW Eighth Street, an angry crowd composed mostly of Cuban exiles — spitting and wielding makeshift weapons — ripped away a banner and chased them for blocks. "It was mayhem," says 50-year-old peacenik Tighe Barry. "I took a right-hand turn, and there were hundreds of crazy people rushing us with poles that had points at the end."

A little-publicized Miami charter change proposal on the Jan. 29 ballot includes a gay-rights component. Miami voters are being asked Jan. 29 to approve a 'Citizens' Bill of Rights'' that would, among other things, promote religious freedom, clean air and scenic beauty. It would also ban discrimination on the basis of domestic relationship status, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression -- though relatively few people are aware of it. The proposed city charter change hasn't drawn much attention. The actual ballot wording never mentions gay or transgender rights. On Monday, even some leading gay and Christian activists didn't know...

Owners of nine Miami healthcare companies have been sentenced to prison in the past two weeks in a string of cases that reveal the area still leads the nation in healthcare fraud, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. Medicare data shows that Miami-Dade County alone had more paid durable medical equipment claims than 44 states combined. Only the most populous states -- California, Texas, New York, Michigan and Ohio -- bill Medicare more than does Miami-Dade for DME claims. The average Medicare recipient in Miami-Dade each year is named in paid DME claims worth $6,200. In the rest of the nation, the...

Peace activists in pink dresses and tiaras demanded the arrest of anti-communist militant Luis Posada Carriles Saturday, but aborted plans for a demonstration in Little Havana after Carriles supporters rushed their vehicle.The six activists, of the Codepink anti-war group, had planned to speak to reporters outside the landmark Versailles restaurant to publicize their campaign against Carriles-- a former CIA operative wanted in Venezuela in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. However they were met by some 200 irate Cuban-Americans who consider Carriles a champion of freedom. Some ran at the activists' truck as they arrived, tearing off...

MIAMI (AP) - Protesters demanding the arrest of Luis Posada Carriles called off a planned demonstration Little Havana after they were confronted by supporters of the anti-Castro Cuban militant. Women from an anti-war group known as Codepink had planned to discuss with reporters their campaign against Posada -- who is wanted by the Cuban and Venezuelan government on charges that he plotted the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner while in Caracas. About 15 Codepink activists were met in front of a Little Havana restaurant yesterday by some 200 supporters of Posada. Several of the Posada supporters charged at...

The 2,000-year-old site remains under temporary protection laid in 2003. Nine years ago, an array of American Indians, environmentalists, preservationists, New Age spiritualists, diviners, even Cub Scouts rose up to save the Miami Circle, a 2,000-year-old artifact that many embraced as America's own Stonehenge. But today, the Circle -- a series of loaf-shaped holes chiseled into the limestone bedrock at the mouth of the Miami River -- is interred beneath bags of sand and gravel, laid over the formation in 2003 to protect it from the elements. And though taxpayers shelled out $27.6 million to purchase the 38-foot Circle and...

Two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Parcells is returning to the NFL, but this time he won't be roaming the sidelines. Parcells signed a four-year contract on Thursday to become the Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the Miami Dolphins. Parcells, who will work for ESPN through Monday, Dec. 24, is expected to hold a news conference Dec. 27 at the Dolphins' facility. Parcells will oversee the club's football operations and report directly to owner Wayne Huizenga. The move becomes official one day after Parcells turned down essentially the same role with the Atlanta Falcons. "Bill's accomplishments put him...

Drunk and missing home, construction worker Juan Carlos Franco stripped naked, broke into a house and tried forcing himself onto a young girl so he would be deported back to Guatemala, police say. He is jail for now -- in Miami-Dade. Franco was arrested by Miami Officer Ivan Camilo Monday afternoon on the 1600 block of Northwest First Avenue. A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge on Tuesday granted him $57,500 bail. He was still jailed Tuesday afternoon. According to an arrest report, the girl was in her parent's bedroom when she heard strange noises. She noticed her bedroom light turn on....

One of seven Miami men accused of plotting to join forces with al-Qaida to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower was acquitted Thursday, and a mistrial was declared for the six others after the federal jury deadlocked. Federal prosecutor Richard Gregorie said the government plans to retry the six next year. The Bush administration had seized on the case to illustrate the dangers of homegrown terrorism and trumpet the government's post-Sept. 11 success in infiltrating and smashing terrorism plots in their earliest stages.

4 Accused in Miami Of Trying to Hide Illegal Contribution LIMA, Peru, Dec. 12 -- The United States on Wednesday said it had evidence that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's government tried to secretly funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to the campaign of Argentina's new president....U.S. prosecutors accused four men arrested Wednesday in Miami -- three Venezuelans and a Uruguayan -- of involvement in a conspiracy to cover up an illegal campaign contribution on behalf of the Venezuelan government. The complaint offered the first evidence for an allegation often leveled against Chávez but never proved: that he uses his country's...

MIAMI (CBS4) ― A dangerous high-speed chase that at times seemed would result in tragedy on Wednesday actually ended with what appeared to be a violent police takedown of the suspect by Miami-Dade Police; the ACLU and even the police department itself is raising questions.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A grand jury Tuesday indicted four suspects on charges of first degree felony murder and armed burglary in the slaying of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor. The three adult suspects -- Venjah K. Hunte, 20, Jason Scott Mitchell, 19, and Charles Kendrick Lee Wardlow, 18 -- appeared in court Tuesday via videoconference wearing thick green vests, which defense attorneys said were suicide safety smocks. -snip- The fourth suspect -- Eric Rivera Jr., 17 -- remained in custody in Fort Myers, Florida. His attorney, Wilbur Smith, told CNN he expected his client to be moved to a...

The tragic night began routinely enough. Bound for Miami, Flight 401 took off from New York's JKF airport at 9:20 p.m. In the cockpit: Capt. Robert Loft, 55; First Officer Albert Stockstill, 39; Second Officer Donald Repo, 51, all of Miami-Dade. Loft, an Eastern employee since 1951 when Eddie Rickenbacker was his boss, spent the morning doing yard work before heading to MIA. The flight had 163 passengers and 13 crew members, with 50 empty seats. Raposa and Ruiz, along with some of the other flight attendants, slipped aboard at the last minute, arriving late to New York from a...

The crying came later. First, Mel Reeves, of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP, talked about racial hatred. ''He lies here because he was black and he was not seen as a human being,'' Reeves told mourners preparing to bury 19-year-old Gracia ''BG'' Beaugris, who was killed near his North Miami home on Oct. 25 by a Miami-Dade police officer. Then, Jack Lieberman, a lawyer and community activist, stepped to the pulpit, demanding that the police be punished. ''If we are to see justice in this case, Officer [Christopher] Villano must be prosecuted,'' he said comparing the officer's conduct to...

BY ERIKA BERAS eberas@MiamiHerald.com Rudy Giuliani's presidential committee on Wednesday morning unveiled its national campaign, dubbed ''Viva Rudy,'' to reach the nation's Hispanic voters. The Miami event kicked off with an 11 a.m. news conference at La Carretta restaurant on Bird Road in Westchester. There was a similar event in Orlando. Giuliani was not present. Several local politicians and public officials were on hand to endorse the former New York City mayor. A 30-inch-by-50-inch Viva Rudy sign hung on the wall in a private second-floor room. State Rep. Rene Garcia, statewide Hispanic chairman for Giuliani's campaign, was at the event....

Anger and grief were just some of the emotions expressed Tuesday night by a crowd that gathered at the site of a police-involved shooting in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.... Miami-Dade police said two officers who were working a robbery suppression detail pulled the SUV over after the driver ran a red light near 65th Street and North Miami Avenue. The officers approached the SUV on foot, but investigators said the SUV accelerated at a high rate of speed towards the officers, who then opened fire in self-defense.

Super Bowl rings stolen in theft Posted: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 at 11:47 a.m. The Camden County Sheriff's Department is looking for a burglar who stole several items, including two Miami Dolphins Super Bowl rings from a lake-area condo. The theft occurred Thursday in the Horse Shoe Bend area. The resident of the condo reported the break in. Items taken include a Rolex wrist watch, the Dolphins championship rings from the 1973 and 1974 Super Bowls, and a small amount of cash. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Camden County Sheriff's Department at (573) 346-2243.

MIAMI - A group of men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower were in the final stages of forming a homegrown terrorist cell dedicated to waging an Islamic holy war before they were arrested, a prosecution terrorism expert testified Tuesday. Raymond Tanter, a Georgetown University professor and terrorism scholar said suspected ringleader Narseal Batiste and the other six had nearly completed the "radicalization process" and moved toward acts of terrorism before their arrests in June 2006. Hallmarks of this process include religious conversion, operation within a military-style hierarchy and adoption of goals shared by al-Qaida and other terrorist...

Today Fred Thompson received the endorsement of two experienced members of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners. Commissioner Natacha Seijas and Commissioner Joe Martinez have both announced their support for Fred Thompson for President of the United States. Commissioner Natacha Seijas was elected to the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners in 1993, becoming the first Hispanic woman to be elected to the County Commission. Representing the Hialeah, Miami Lakes, Palm Springs and Country Club regions, she serves as Chairperson of the Infrastructure and Land Use Committee and was recently appointed to the Governmental Structure Task Force. "I am proud to...

NAPLES (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast. Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes. "We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy. "If there's no problem having...

President Bush traveled to Miami this morning to attend a RNC fundraiser and to speak about free trade. (Transcript)First Lady Laura Bush spoke at the National Italian American Foundation Luncheon this afternoon in Washington. (Transcript)Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in Moscow today and met with Russian President Putin to discuss Iran and missile defense. President & Mrs. Bush will spend the weekend at their ranch in Crawford, TX.Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Background: I've previously covered the "Elian Gonzalez II" case in Miami--a battle over a 4-year-old Cuban immigrant girl which pits her Cuban father, Rafael Izquierdo (pictured), against wealthy Cuban-American foster parents Joe Cubas, a well-known sports agent, and his wife Maria. Just as Elian's father Juan Gonzalez faced numerous unfair hurdles to get his son back, Izquierdo has been manhandled by the child welfare system, in part because of the system's anti-father bias. In 2005, the girl's mother brought the girl to Miami from Cuba. The Florida Department of Children & Families removed the girl from her mother's custody in...

The man suspected of killing one Miami-Dade cop and wounding three others Thursday morning in a shootout in south Miami-Dade was cornered and shot dead in a Pembroke Pines apartment complex sometime before midnight, a law enforcement source told The Miami Herald. Miami-Dade police would not confirm the information about suspect Shawn Sherwin LaBeet, but scheduled a news conference for 12:30 a.m. at its headquarters in Doral. After receiving a tip Thursday evening that LaBeet was hiding in an apartment complex in Pembroke Pines, Miami-Dade sent its SWAT team, the source told The Herald.

Two Miami-Dade police officers have been injured in a so-called Tactical Operation gone bad in Cutler Bay. This is currently a developing story that began at SW 281st Street and 143rd Court in Cutler Bay where the two officers were possibly shot, reportedly with an assault rifle. Other officers may have also been hurt but only with minor injuries. At least one officer has been transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital. After the shooting, one suspect barricaded himself inside a building at 280th Street and Southwest 143RD Court. The other suspect took off in a White Honda Accord and began driving...

(CBS4) DORAL Miami-Dade police have arrested four people in connection with the shootings of four Miami-Dade police officers, one of whom died.According to CBS4’s news partner The Miami Herald, three of those arrested are charged with aiding the suspected cop killer Shawn LaBeet.. Those suspects are Alba Bello, 47; her son, Alain Gonzalez, 24; and Bello’s boyfriend, Lazaro Guardiola, 35. The Herald reports all three have been charged with accessory after the fact for harboring LaBeet and are being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Basically, investigators believe, they helped hide LaBeet as he hid from police in...

A man shot at a Miami-Dade County police officer trying to pull him over Tuesday, just hours after the agency buried another officer shot dead while on duty, an official said Wednesday. Eloy Saltare, 36, a former law enforcement officer for three different Florida agencies, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of aggravated assault with a firearm, said Miami-Dade police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta. The incident that landed Saltare in jail, with bruises all over his face, occurred about 10 p.m. when he argued with an ex-girlfriend near Miami Lakes Drive and Northwest 67th Avenue. The woman got in her car...

The International Association of Chiefs of Police urged Congress to pass `an effective assault weapons ban.' The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a report Wednesday calling for a ban on assault weapons, arguing it will make officers safer by reducing the ``firepower available to criminals.'' The report hits home this week in South Florida, where law enforcement officials are still reeling from the murder of one of their own. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a former police officer and police director, gets angry when he talks about the fact that the gun used to kill Officer Jose Somohano was...

Miami-Dade Officer Jose Somohano was shot and killed with a Mak-90 assault rifle three years to the day after the federal law prohibiting the sale of such weapons expired. The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a report at noon Wednesday calling for, among other things, a renewal of the ban, arguing that it helps keep police officers safe by reducing the ``firepower available to criminals.'' The report hits home for South Florida law enforcement officers, who have been facing an increasing number of these guns on the street since the ban expired. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a former...

MIAMI, Sept. 16 (AP) — Patrol officers here will have the option of carrying assault rifles as they try to combat the rise in the use of similar weapons by criminals, the city’s police chief said Sunday. The chief, John F. Timoney, approved the policy last week, before a Miami-Dade police officer was killed on Thursday in a shootout with a man wielding an assault rifle. “This is something we do not do with any relish,” Chief Timoney said. “We do this reluctantly.” The policy had been under review for about a year after officers began seeing an increase in...

Other than the right to bear children well into one’s 60s and unashamedly express the love of one’s own mama, former Sen. Fred Thompson and I agree on just about nothing. He’s anti-choice (and would overturn Roe v. Wade), he doubts humanity’s responsibility for global warming and he not only supported the invasion of Iraq, but wants to keep boots on the ground till the proverbial cows come home, which, hope-soaked hearings to the contrary, seems to be when the whole Middle East is turned to pasture. Granted, the man thinks “mistakes have been made,” but he also believes that...

MIAMI (AP) - The spray of bullets that killed a police officer and hurt three others this week came from something increasingly common on this city's streets: a high-powered assault weapon, fast becoming the gun of choice for gang members and violent criminals. And when the guns, once found solely in the hands of soldiers, are aimed at officers on patrol, there's little authorities can do to escape. "It's almost like we have water pistols going up against these high-powered rifles," said John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association. "Our weaponry and our bulletproof vests don't match...