David Ovalle

Although Miami-Dade has bucked the national trends of sharp increases in homicides, domestic homicides have nevertheless increased, alarming victim advocates who point to the long grind of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic uncertainty as contributing factors.

The sentencing trial for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz begins Monday, with the start of the jury selection process. There’s only two possible sentences: life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty.

When virulent anti-Semitic fliers began showing up on lawns in Miami Beach earlier this month, the city’s police department urged residents to call detectives. But if history is any lesson, criminal charges will be difficult to make.

Frank Pichel, a former Miami police officer who is now running for mayor, is wanted on a warrant from Monroe County, accused of impersonating a law enforcement officer. The charge is a felony.

Arrested was Rashaun Jones, 35, of Lake City, a former UM defensive back. He’d long been a suspect in the Pata case — he’d once gotten into a fistfight with Pata and also dated the slain player’s girlfriend — but had never before been charged.

But within minutes, as water was gushing through the parking garage over the pool deck and dropping chunks of concrete, the scope of the unfolding disaster at Surfside’s Champlain Towers South began to emerge. Caller after caller began frantically relaying their stories to emergency dispatchers. One woman could be heard saying “it’s an earthquake outside.”

With a tropical storm headed toward South Florida, the upright portion of the doomed Champlain Towers South building will be demolished within days to allow rescue crews to eventually resume searching the site safely, officials said.

So far, five lawsuits have been filed stemming from the catastrophic collapse of the Champlain Towers South building on June 24. As of Thursday morning, the bodies of 18 people have been discovered and 145 remain missing in the unprecedented condo collapse. Rescue work was halted early Thursday over concerns that the remaining structure could topple.

Miami-Dade County reports another deadly weekend after police responded to a shooting that happened near a graduation party.

Frank Artiles, the Republican political operative suspected of secretly arranging a sham candidate to run in a key 2020 state senate race, surrendered to a Miami-Dade County jail on Thursday to face felony campaign finance charges.

One federal law enforcement source said at least five agents were shot during the raid.

Over decades he became a revered figure fighting on behalf of Miami’s Hispanic and minority communities. Soto, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died Saturday of natural causes at age 91.