While attending the University of Florida in Gainesville, he waited on tables for meals and tips. Those hard early years influenced Tate’s business philosophy in Miami.

“I owe my success and my family’s stability to this community, which makes giving back a priority. Plus, giving back and supporting the next generation is the only way to ensure our city will one day reach its true potential,” he said in an interview in 2018.

Tate, who became a Miami real estate giant and founded Florida’s Prepaid College Plan, died at his Bal Harbour home on July 26 at age 96.

Read the full story at MiamiHerald.com.

More cases are popping up across the country, including Florida, where the disease may have become endemic, experts say. Overall, the number of cases have been decreasing across the nation after a rise in several states over the past decade. A disease is considered endemic when it is consistently present in a place. A pandemic, like COVID, can spread far and quickly.

Even though most people have natural immunity against the ancient bacterium that causes leprosy, thousands across the world get sick every year from the nerve and skin disease. And across the nation, which sees about 150 cases a year, infections in the southeastern U.S. have more than doubled in the last decade, according to research published last year in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Emerging Infectious Diseases peer-reviewed journal.

For the full article, please visit miamiherald.com

That’s because the Florida supermarket’s roots stretch back to a movie theater company called Publix Theatres Corporation.

Grocer George Jenkins liked the name of the once-popular chain so much, he took it.

And so Publix the grocery store was born. Jenkins recounted the story about the supermarket name’s origins in a speech he included in his 1979 memoir, “The Publix Story.”

Read the full story at miamiherald.com.

You can soon try your hand at casino gambling while filling up on fuel, taking a bathroom break, or getting a snack at a soon-to-be refurbished Miccosukee Service Plaza, halfway across the stretch of Interstate 75 that links the southeast and southwest coasts of the state through the Everglades.

The new casino destination, at the only pit stop on Alligator Alley, is slated to open in November.

The gambling destination, to the right of the service station’s already opened Glades Cafe and Dunkin’ Donuts, will feature 150 slot machines in an 8,500-square-foot space.

For the full story, please visit miamiherald.com

One clue: the brown and beige sandals were rather heavy for such a simple looking pair.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, a man traveling from Jamaica tried to smuggle more than a pound of cocaine inside a pair of sandals.

On Friday, officers said they found a white powdery substance and a tiny drug balloon, or pellet, concealed in the casual footwear during a baggage inspection. The items weighed about 1.3 pounds and field tested positive for cocaine.

They also discovered that he swallowed more than two dozen pellets filled with cocaine.

Unlike the character in the famous Jimmy Buffett song, “Margaritaville,” this man who “blew out my flip-flop” didn’t get to “cruise on back home.”

Instead, he was sent to a Miami-Dade hospital for an X-ray before being placed in custody of the feds.

That’s because when he was questioned by customs agents, the traveler “admitted to swallowing cocaine,” officers said in their report.

The X-ray also showed the presence of foreign objects. They would soon be identified.

“The individual later passed 28 pellets testing positive for cocaine,” the customs report said.

“Swallowing drugs is an extremely dangerous method of concealment and CBP officers are highly skilled at thwarting smuggling attempts,” said Miami International Airport Acting Port Director Robert Del Toro in a statement. “It’s important to deter this type of illegal activity which can be fatal if a pellet bursts.”

Adds Miami/Tampa Field Office Director of Field Operations Vernon Foret: “Smugglers looking to bring in illicit drugs will be caught no matter what the concealment method is.”

Foret may have a point. This isn’t the first time recently footwear didn’t pass muster with customs agents at MIA.

On Feb. 11, Del Toro posted an account on Twitter of the arrest of a passenger who tried to smuggle .43 kilograms of cocaine inside a pair of sneakers.

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(c)2021 Miami Herald

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That’s how valuable — and seemingly hard to get — that appointment is given how demand far outstrips supply. And it’s also telling how technology tools are not always accessible to every member of a community.

In a world where many seniors don’t have computers or computer skills, asking an older population to constantly check websites, navigate links, monitor Twitter alerts as appointments open, close, then open again, has been a challenge.

“We are hearing more deep frustration than success stories from seniors 65-plus trying to sign up to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida,” said Jeff Johnson, state director for AARP Florida.

“The sign-up process is cumbersome and time consuming, even for younger adults helping parents or older relatives,” he said. “There is a lack of sign-up process standardization among vaccine providers even in the same city and the state’s vaccine locator does not always offer a phone option for providers.”

Lourdes Diaz knows how it is. She said Mount Sinai Medical Center reached out to her 91-year-old mother on Dec. 23 because her mom is a patient. Diaz said she called the Miami Beach hospital to get an appointment for her, left messages and emails. “I even used Twitter, but no luck.”

Her mom, she said, does not know how to use the internet.

“I was finally able to get my mother an appointment at Jackson Health. I got lucky,” Diaz said. “They were supposed to open the appointment portal at 11 a.m. but it was already open when I checked in around 10 a.m. Registering was quick and I had no problems. The appointment itself went great. We were ushered in right away and everything was very organized. My mother has her second appointment this week.”

But Diaz said trying to secure those shots at both hospitals pulled her away from her own work responsibilities for about 10 hours as she spent time researching and reaching out.

Thankfully, I was working remotely and had the flexibility to be persistent,” Diaz said. “But this has been a very frustrating experience. I believe everyone is trying their best, but there are so many barriers. It’s like winning the lotto.”

According to Pew Research Center, Americans 60 and older are spending more time with computers — on desktops, laptops or smartphones.

In 2000, 14% of those ages 65 and older were internet users. Now, 73% are, according to Pew. “And while smartphone ownership was uncommon at all ages around the turn of the 21st century, now about half (53%) of people 65 and older are smartphone owners.”

At the same time, Pew’s research found that about 30% of adults in low-income households below $30,000 a year don’t own a smartphone. More than 40% lack home broadband services or a traditional computer and even fewer own tablets. “By comparison, each of these technologies is nearly ubiquitous among adults in households earning $100,000 or more a year.”

But that doesn’t mean that seniors who have the technology use it to full benefit. Sometimes the digital divide also widens because of declining health. Maybe it’s a vision problem. Or, simply, some people of all ages just don’t care to use computers.

But even among those who do, that may not be enough. Vaccine appointment alerts are coming fast and furious on social media, in places beyond the comfort of Facebook.

Take Mirna Miranda from Miami-Dade. She has the kind of computer tech-savvy that might impress producers of a “WarGames” movie remake.

Like many of the 4.5 million seniors 65 and older living in Florida, the 70-year-old and her 75-year-old husband, Carlos, wanted COVID-19 vaccines. Seniors 65 and older are eligible for the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

The Mirandas called appointment hotlines like Mount Sinai Medical Center and left voicemails. No one ever called them back, they said.

They tried online portals in Miami-Dade and Broward, but appointment slots were always closed.

So Mirna decided to set up three computers inside her Tamiami-area home so the pair could work together to search and book appointments online. They were willing to drive across county lines to Broward, the Keys or Palm Beach to be vaccinated.

The couple’s strategy worked. Or so they thought.

Two days before they were set to receive their first shot at Baptist Health in Kendall, the hospital canceled all first-dose appointments because of supply constraints.

The Mirandas, and many like them, were back to where they started. Then Carlos saw a Miami Herald article that had tips on how to use Twitter to be notified about vaccine availability. He followed Jackson Health and set the account to send instant alerts any time Jackson tweeted. Last Saturday, while having coffee, his phone pinged with an alert: Jackson Health System was opening slots.

“We rushed to our three computers, working side by side and were able to book the appointments for that same day in the afternoon,” Carlos said.

The couple received their first dose at Jackson South Medical Center and said the process went smoothly.

After first-day bugs, common to every location, Jackson streamlined the vaccine-delivery process. Seniors, for the most part, have reported that they have been greeted by friendly staff. Well-organized, the whole process has generally taken about 30 to 40 minutes at Jackson-run sites.

But you have to get to that point — and for many seniors and their caretakers, the digital divide to secure an appointment can feel like a bridge too far.

Health care providers are trying to make it easier. On Friday, Florida opened a new website to help seniors and other eligible residents opt in to a “save their place in line” feature through a preregistration process.

Health care workers with direct patient contact and long-term care residents and staff can also preregister for the COVID-19 vaccine. The website is myvaccine.fl.gov.

To help bridge the gulf, some South Florida institutions have altered the process as they see what works and what hasn’t worked so well.

“Aside from creating an online enrollment portal for people to book appointments, we have created key partnerships to make sure people in hard-to-reach areas have access to the vaccine,” said Jackson Health spokeswoman Lidia Amoretti.

Among them: Jackson began collaborating with more than 50 houses of worship in Miami-Dade County — churches, synagogues, mosques. The goal is to reach seniors in underserved communities who may have challenges with technology and are unable to secure an appointment online, Amoretti said.

“Our goal is to continue dedicating one day of the week to vaccinate members of these houses of worship as long as we continue to receive vaccines from the state and there is demand from this group. So far, we have filled more than 5,550 appointment slots through this partnership,” she said.

There is demand, the Rev. John White of Immanuel Temple AME Church in Pembroke Pines told the Miami Herald in January.

“There is a great need in the African American community,” White said. ” I challenge all health care providers to partner with African American churches if you want inroads to get people the vaccine. We all have members who want it.”

Florida’s vaccine partnership with Publix as a major dispensary of the doses has also faced criticism for leaving large numbers of low-income and Black neighborhoods at a disadvantage. There aren’t enough Publix supermarkets in these neighborhoods or close by, an analysis by the Sun Sentinel found.

As of late January, the only Publix supermarkets in South Florida that are on board are those in Palm Beach County and two stores in the Keys — Islamorada and Key West.

In late January, Dr. Anthony Fauci told The New England Journal of Medicine that people of color in underserved communities should receive prioritization in the vaccination rollout.

Jackson Heath is trying out partnerships with a few nonreligious community groups such as Haitian Neighborhood Center Sant La, the Little Havana Activities Center, Southwest Social Services and the Center for Haitian Studies, Amoretti said. The hospital chain is also working with the Homeless Trust to expand vaccination of shelter clients who are 65 and older.

In addition, the county hospital partnered with different Miami-Dade County Commission districts as part of its outreach efforts by offering each commissioner 100 slots to fill. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also received 1,300 slots.

Levine Cava also announced a new telephone hotline option where seniors can call 305-614-2014 to book an appointment. The website, at miamidade.gov/vaccine, is still active, too.

The county is also planning to launch a website and phone system, possibly next week, that will allow people 65 and over to preregister for a vaccination appointment at county-run sites like Tropical Park and Zoo Miami.

Rachel Johnson, spokeswoman for the Office of the Miami-Dade Mayor, acknowledged the partnerships the county has undertaken are to help get more seniors vaccinated since it’s so difficult to book in the traditional sense, via online or even telephone.

“A huge priority is to make sure we are distributing the vaccines not just efficiently but … we are working to make the process more equitable. We can’t just be delivering information online and sharing the phone number but we need to reach people in other ways, where they are,” Johnson said.

“We know the online system doesn’t work for everyone. It’s frustrating for a lot of people,” she said.

As of Jan. 29, according to Florida’s COVID-19 vaccine report, more than 1.3 million people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 273,249 people have completed the two-dose series of either Pfizer or Moderna.

Of those who completed the two-dose vaccination, 41,045 were Miami-Dade residents, 28,799 were Broward residents, 17,513 were Palm Beach residents and 485 were Monroe residents.

But we’ve a way to go. There are about 454,000 people 65 and older in Miami-Dade and about 334,000 in Broward, for instance, according to Census figures.

Other savvy South Floridians have also thought outside the box to help seniors during the crisis.

Katherine Quirk, a Broward Health nurse, and her fiance, Russ Schwartz, started a Facebook group to share information about appointment availability in South Florida and help book slots for seniors. The couple’s Facebook group, South Florida COVID-19 Vaccination Info, has more than 17,000 members.

Johnson, the state director for AARP Florida, says every improvement and novel idea couldn’t come at a more critical time.

“It would be very helpful to have a standardized sign-up process for any provider in the same city, widely promoted telephone options for those that are not tech savvy or do not own a computer or smartphone, options for the homebound and those that do not have their own transportation, and finally a vaccine supply that is deployable and that matches the demand,” Johnson said.

“We have digitized most social and health services, a shift that has left older seniors and underserved communities without access,” Johnson said. “While there is efficiency in online vaccine sign-up, we must include options for those that are unable to navigate the technology or do not have access to a computer or a smartphone.”

Barbara Solomon, 72, and her church sewing group make quilts and pillowcases for children with cancer.

But since March, Solomon says she hasn’t been able to gather with her group and rarely leaves her West Kendall home because of the pandemic. Even with a mask on, she’s still scared it might not be enough protection because her heart condition and diabetes put her at “at risk” of severe COVID-19 complications.

“Everything is booked,” the retired Miami-Dade County Public Schools assistant principal said.

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(c)2021 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

For one banana.

By now you have probably heard of the now world-famous banana duct-taped to Emmanuel Perrotin’s outer gallery wall at Art Basel Miami Beach. The piece that sold to an art collector for $120,000.

The $120,000 banana — a real, rather ripe and edible one — is the work of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and titled “Comedian.” The work comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, and owners are told that they can replace the banana, as needed.

Instructions on how to replace the banana are not included.

But New York-based performance artist David Datuna ate the banana at around 1:45 p.m. in front of a convention center full of art lovers, according to gallery representatives.

While the banana was indeed consumed, apparently that doesn’t diminish the integrity of the six-figure art work, said Lucien Terras, director of museum relations for Galerie Perrotin.

“He did not destroy the art work. The banana is the idea,” Terras said.

Confused?

We were, too, but that’s where the Certificate of Authenticity comes in. Collectors are buying the certificate. The banana is not made to last.

“This has brought a lot of tension and attention to the booth and we’re not into spectacles,” Terras added. “But the response has been great. It brings a smile to a lot of people’s faces.”

Gallery owner Emmanuel Perrotin was about to head to the airport when he heard that the banana was eaten. He darted to the space, clearly upset. A fairgoer tried to cheer him up and handed him his own banana.

Perrotin and a gallery assistant re-adhered the borrowed banana to the wall just after 2 p.m.

According to Peggy Leboeuf, a partner at Perrotin Gallery, a startled, and bemused, a woman in the crowd thought the original artist — Cattelan — was eating his own banana off the wall. But that wasn’t the case. When she saw Datuna eating the banana, which still had some duct tape on it, she asked him what he was doing.

Datuna allegedly responded he was a performance artist. “But you’re not supposed to touch the art!” Leboeuf told Datuna.

The London-based White Cube gallery in the booth next door to Perrotin removed a floor installation because the crowd to see the banana was just overwhelming.

Perrotin installed a silver rope line in an attempt to keep the crowd in check Saturday afternoon. Four Miami Beach police officers also gathered outside the gallery to keep order.

“That banana has been more photographed than the Mona Lisa,” remarked Terras.

“This has been interesting,” said Miami Beach police Capt. Steven Feldman. When asked if he had ever heard of someone deliberately destroying artwork at the fair, he said, “Not that I can remember.”

He noted it was a balancing act to accommodate the crowd.

“The gallery is OK with people taking pictures of the banana. It is a delicate balancing act. We just want to make sure the area is secure,” said Feldman.

For what Cattelan’s banana fetches, Datuna could have bought 631,579 bananas at Trader Joe’s, which sells bananas for .19 cents each.

The gallery reported the incident to security, but Datuna was not arrested.

Freelance writer Ricardo Mor contributed to this report.

But a group of Florida International University researchers from the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and an international team from Japan have discovered a new broad-spectrum antibiotic that contains arsenic, FIU announced Tuesday.

Broad-spectrum means “an antibiotic is effective against many types of bacteria,” FIU’s Barry Rosen, the co-senior author of the study that was published Monday in Nature’s Communication Biology, said of arsinothricin, also known as AST.

This is important, FIU’s scientists explained, because antibiotic resistance — when the body’s immune system doesn’t react to the antibiotic’s healing properties and the germs, or bacteria, are not killed or stopped as expected — is a growing problem. The FIU medical school called antibiotic resistance “one of the biggest public health threats of our time.”

Read the full report at MiamiHerald.com

El domingo, su decisión le costó la vida, según la policía del Condado Alachua. De acuerdo con los patrulleros que llegaron al lugar, Brewer, de 41 años, se enfrascó en una discusión con Ezekiel Luke Hicks, de 25 años, dentro del Waffle House ubicado en West Newberry Road, no lejos de la University of Florida (UF).

La policía de Alachua cree que el incidente comenzó cuando una mujer se molestó porque la generosidad de buen samaritano de Brewer no llegó hasta ella, reportó el periódico Gainesville Sun. Hicks empezó a discutir con Brewer y la confrontación fue subiendo de tono hasta tornarse física. Una multitud comenzó a reunirse dentro y afuera del restaurante.

Lee la nota completa en este enlace.

Wilbert Lee, 83, died at his home in Miami on Oct. 17.

Lee was one of two black men railroaded into Florida’s Death Row for the 1963 murder of two white gas station attendants in Port St. Joe, a small Florida Panhandle town. The other man was Freddie Pitts.

The two were convicted despite the confession of a white man, Curtis Lee Adams, who admitted he killed the gas station attendants. Both Lee and Pitts spent 12 years in prison and on Death Row before Florida’s Gov. Reubin Askew pardoned them in September 1975.

The full story can be found at MiamiHerald.com.