Miami power couple ordered to replace illegally chopped mangroves

A Miami power couple under fire for chopping down mangroves blocking their million-dollar bay view in the wake of Hurricane Irma have been cited for illegally removing the protected trees and ordered to replace them. Miami-Dade County environmental regulators, who enforce state mangrove laws, found that architects Bernardo Fort-Brescia and Laurinda Spear, who is also a landscape architect, removed the trees and filled wetlands despite numerous past warnings and citations for illegally cutting t…
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Unregulated sales of cannabis oil have been ramping up in Iowa even as state officials work to set up a tightly regulated distribution system for medical marijuana products. Several Iowa business are openly selling the oils, known as cannabidiol, or CBD, despite warnings from state officials that it’s illegal to do so in unregulated stores, the Des Moines Register reported . The regulatory system for medical marijuana won’t go into effect until next year. The system will have one state-licensed…
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MIAMI — The colorful past of a pilot who has long bragged about flying loads of drugs for Colombian cartels during Miami’s “cocaine cowboys” era in the 1980s may come back to haunt him in an auto fraud case. A federal judge agreed Friday to let prosecutors use as evidence much of Mickey Munday’s open bragging about his past in media interviews, social media posts and in the 2006 documentary “Cocaine Cowboys.” But U.S. District Judge Robert Scola ruled that most direct drug references can’…
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa farmer-turned-reality television star is fighting to avoid prison after driving his pickup into the back of a tractor and killing a neighbor. Chris Soules, who became known as “Prince Farming” during his 2015 appearance on “The Bachelor” and also appeared on “The Bachelorette” and “Dancing With The Stars,” lost a legal battle Friday in the felony case against him. A judge dismissed his constitutional challenge to an Iowa law requiring the surviv…
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Two weeks after a Rhode Island law firm said lab tests found cancer-causing asbestos in girls’ fashion chain Claire’s makeup, Claire’s declared Thursday the lab tests it funded proves the makeup is asbestos-free. Claire’s, based in Pembroke Pines, Fla., said it’ll still honor returns from customers feeling uneasy about any of the nine products it pulled off shelves in reaction to a Dec. 22 news report by Providence’s NBC10. The report said Rhode Island mother and law firm operations d…
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