Café Martorano, Broward's Most Successful Restaurant, Goes Global

Steve Martorano's heroes are tattooed across his six-foot, 240-pound frame. Frank Sinatra looks out from under his trademark fedora on one shoulder; on the other, the title of an Intruders song reads "I'll Always Love My Mama." Most of Martorano's right calf is taken up with the image of Padre Pio, the modern-day saint who bled from his hands and heart for 50 years — until death finally put an end to his public suffering. Only Martorano's left calf is ink-free: A mean pink scar where surgeons stole a vein for a triple bypass last year runs seven inches below his... full story >>

A Killer F5 Tornado Rips Through Dallas County -- How Ready Are We for this Nightmare Scenario?

Tim Marshall and his wife, Kay, were bickering like seagulls when the cow dung flew inside their pickup's passenger-side window and splattered across his face. "Put the vehicle in drive," Marshall said in a hectoring tone that any spouse would find annoying. "No. No. No. We are fine. We...are...fine."

About a half-mile away, a wedge-shaped tornado was heading straight at them, cutting across a field peppered with some low-slung farm and industrial buildings that were about to be blasted into oblivion. To Marshall, who's been keen on weather since his boyhood, this was no time... full story >>

For Colorado's largest power co-op, going green will mean taking down the King of Coal

Sprouting up through the haze along the horizon, the three smokestacks of the Comanche coal-fired power station rise far above anything for miles and miles on the dry, empty prairie on the outskirts of Pueblo. Two of them, attached to units 1 and 2, have been puffing away for more than thirty years, generating 660 megawatts of electricity to homes and businesses across Colorado. The third one is brand-new and tops off the nearly finished Comanche 3 coal plant, which will produce a whopping 750 megawatts when it is fired up later this year, making it the most powerful power plant in the... full story >>

Boys and girls in the 64130 are still waiting for their new club

The ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Crown Center sparkles with Kansas City's philanthropic elite. A quick scan of the room picks up familiar faces from the business pages, such as Embarq CEO Tom Gerke with his wife, Rhonda. The open bar is rocking the way an open bar should be when guests pay $300 a ticket.

They're here for "Kids Night Out," the fundraiser for the nonprofit Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City. The group spends approximately $2,397 annually for each member — the cost of services and maintaining a safe place to hang out after school. But it charges only... full story >>

The Dead Among Us

Between September and November last year, an anomaly occurred in Miami. For 38 days straight, no one was murdered within city limits. It was one of those rare occurrences that had newspapers around the state buzzing. But while the Magic City enjoyed a small respite from people getting killed, the rest of Miami-Dade was as deadly as ever. In fact, homicides in unincorporated areas of the county rose significantly in 2008. There were 97 people murdered last year compared to 79 in 2007, a 23 percent increase. This year, death has slowed down a bit, but not by much. As of April 3, the... full story >>

Former Judge Bud Lee Would Rather Go to Jail Than Give Up His Fight for Off-Res Poker Parlors

It infuriates them that the 64-year-old Tombstone resident continues, as they see it, to break the law and laugh in their faces as he does so.

According to outgoing ADOG director Paul Bullis, "Harold Lee and his cohorts have attempted to expand their criminal enterprise of illegal gambling halls throughout Arizona. These are not casual poker games among friends."

Poker rooms are against the law in Arizona, except at... full story >>

Stem-cell stalemate: The push for cures may produce only disappointment - or worse

The first few months of 2009 have been among the most auspicious for stem-cell research since the field's inception. In January, the Palo Alto–based biotech firm Geron Corporation announced it had received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to begin clinical trials of a stem-cell–based spinal cord therapy in humans. Just last month, President Barack Obama announced that he was reversing Bush administration restrictions on government funding for embryonic stem-cell research.

In light of such developments, you might expect that these would be exciting days for... full story >>

Lit Up: Keisha Ervin's gritty tales of the St. Louis streets have made her one of the nation's hottest purveyors of urban fiction

Keisha Ervin wants to move. She shudders and shakes her head and blurts "Ah!" just thinking about it.

Don't get Ervin wrong, her little Eminence Drive abode in St. John, with the walls she painted pumpkin and the colonial-style furnishings, has served her well since she ponied up seven months' rent, and the landlord looked at her funny, like, She's 24 and an author? Yeah, right.

That was 2006, right after a $30,000 royalty check arrived for sales on Ervin's second novel, Chyna Black, which opened like this:

All my drama began when I was fifteen, that's the year... full story >>