Cash for Trash

The view from the top stinks. That sweet, sulphuric stench that can come only from a 225-foot-high, mile-wide mound of garbage. At Sample and Powerline roads in Pompano Beach, this is Mount Trashmore, the tallest landform in South Florida, a monolothic monument to the region's waste, which has been fermenting for most of the past half-century.

This property belongs to Waste Management, the $20 billion company that rules the industry in South Florida and most every other market in America. John Albert, a company spokesman, points uphill, where a compactor's spiked wheels are... full story >>

Un-Super Size Me: One Week of Eating Local

It began with a chicken. Or to be more precise, dreams of a chicken. I wanted a plump red bird with a healthy sheen, a thick neck and green tail feathers. I would build it a coop, give it crushed corn and keep its water clean. And then, when the time was right, I would feed the bird to my family for Sunday supper.

The chicken was part of a larger plan: To see if I could eat food grown or raised within 100 miles of where I live for a week straight—consume only that and nothing else. This is called eating local, and those who abide by the practice are known as locavores.... full story >>

Rex "Wrecks" Bell Is Just Playing

"I do have a sick brother and two dogs. I will take them with me to a Motel 6 north of Houston. The Ramblin' Jack show is tentative, he is taking Amtrak from L.A. I will know by Saturday. Right now, they are not... full story >>

KC: Big Small Town

One Saturday evening early in the summer, 32-year-old Rachel Cahill went to Kauffman Stadium to see the Royals take on the Indians.

Cahill went to the game with Amy Laws, one of her best friends from St. Thomas Aquinas High School. Rounding out the group was Laws' fiance, T.J. Meyer, and his father. It was a gorgeous night, and as they drove over to the stadium, they joked about Laws and Meyer showing up on the Kiss Cam.

As they parked in the stadium lot, another car pulled in behind them. Out stepped the brother of one of Meyer's childhood friends from Wichita.... full story >>

Let Terrorist Eduardo Arocena Go

Prickly late-fall air rustles through a block of blue-collar homes in Union City, New Jersey, and butterflies swarm 13-year-old Richard Negrín's stomach. It's late November 1979, and soon his dad, Eulalio José, will watch him play football for the first time.

He tugs on the corner of his black and gold Terry Bradshaw jersey and strolls with his father past gray row houses that are dwarfed by New York City's distant, hazy skyline.

They talk about girls while walking to a Buick parked in front of Eulalio's modest home on 10th Street. As Eulalio approaches... full story >>

Simon Says

Russell Simon didn't look like a thrice-convicted felon. With his gelled, spiked hair, hardy build, and cocksure cadence, he more closely resembled a high school football coach. On a slushy early spring day in 2002, his coal eyes peered at the 14 or so slack-jawed high schoolers assembled before him. There was no podium to lean on, no microphone or prop for his hands to fidget with. Perched on a three-foot-high stool, the tanned and toned 39-year-old was totally exposed—a fitting pose for a man whose emotional vulnerability and raw, candid delivery had made him one of the most... full story >>

Has Phoenix Finally Arrived? Feel the Love

Laura Spalding's paintings are more roundabout celebrations of our town. Onto old Arizona license plates and tin trays, she paints skies cluttered with telephone poles and electrical wires. Her cityscapes are testimonies to how amazing it is that... full story >>

Bougie Nights

At the previously troubled corner of 11th and Folsom streets on a recent Sunday night, Baki Lepolo, patriarch of San Francisco nightclub security, marvels at the difference a remodel makes. "Wowww," he rumbles in his bass voice that lays down sentences with all the speed of a steamroller. "It's the rich gettin' richer."

Tonight is a sneak preview party for a new club called Mist, and the hype is hot. Promotion cards read "Rising up from the heart of the SoMa district comes a new beginning in nightclub culture ... sexy & stunning." The cocktail menu lists the Mist Mai Tai and... full story >>