Miami, FL
10 residents are closer to getting their dream home thanks to Miami-Dade lottery
![10 residents are closer to getting their dream home thanks to Miami-Dade lottery 10 residents are closer to getting their dream home thanks to Miami-Dade lottery](https://media.nbcmiami.com/2024/09/Applicants-selected-for-Miami-Dades-Dream-Homes-lottery.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&resize=1200%2C675)
Residents of Miami-Dade are one step closer to getting their dream home.
On Friday, 10 applicants were selected to be part of the final round of a Dream Home Lottery.
“It would be a dream,” Claudio Fernandez said from Miami-Dade County’s Main Library.
Claudio said he currently rents.
“I want to purchase a house and this is a great opportunity,” he said.
Erika said she is currently living with family.
“We are looking to start a family, so I think this is a great opportunity,” she said. “I think it’s the right time for us, and it would really mean a lot for us.
She’s one of the hopefuls who are looking to be given the opportunity to purchase one of two newly constructed homes in Homestead. Each home – with four bedrooms and two bathrooms – is going for $394,000.
“In Miami, it means a lot. It’s a great opportunity for people to have a dream home,” Erika said. “It’s a lot of things that people are suffering from right now, high-interest costs, it’s just very difficult.”
A virtual randomized drawing was held Friday to see who would be selected. Those at the county library watched on in anticipation as 10 applicants were selected out of more than 23,000 individuals.
The 10 applicants that were selected were ranked from 1 to 10. The first two will move to the financing and closing phase, and if they can’t meet the requirements in a certain amount of time, the county will continue to move down the list until both homes are sold.
Miami-Dade County says that this is just the first dream home lottery and that there are potentially 72 other plots of land they are looking to include in future home lotteries.
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Miami, FL
Official Word on Dolphins Week 1 Offensive Line
![Official Word on Dolphins Week 1 Offensive Line Official Word on Dolphins Week 1 Offensive Line](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1986,h_1117,x_0,y_135/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/all_dolphins/01j73zky72dq53p7a5dz.jpg)
The Miami Dolphins starting offensive line for their Week 1 game appears to be set.
Head coach Mike McDaniel confirmed before practice Friday that Liam Eichenberg would start at right guard, this coming after new center Aaron Brewer told reporters the previous day he would be ready for the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars after missing most of training camp with a camp injury.
So, barring any late-minute setbacks, the Dolphins offensive line against the Jagars at Hard Rock Stadium will look like this, from left to right: Terron Armstead, Robert Jones, Aaron Brewer, Liam Eichenberg, Austin Jackson.
Brewer being back is good news for Eichenberg, who made clear in training camp that right guard was his preferred position even though he always would be willing to do whatever was needed of him.
Eichenberg had never played center until he stepped into the lineup in the Week 3 blowout victory against the Denver Broncos last September after Connor Williams sustained a groin injury.
Eichenberg finished out the season at that position after Williams sustained a torn ACL in the Monday night loss against the Tennessee Titans in mid-December.
There still remain some mysteries about the Dolphins starting offense because it’s unknown what personnel grouping they’ll open the game with.
We know, of course, that Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill also will start, and it’s a good assumption that Raheem Mostert will start at running back, but then it could be De’Von Achane as well if the Dolphins open with two backs, Durham Smythe and/or Jonnu Smith will start at tight end, Alec Ingold will start at fullback or the “F” position if the Dolphins want to go with a bigger personnel package at the start, and Jaylen Waddle will start if the Dolphins open with at least two wide receivers.
One thing that isn’t a question anymore, though: the offensive line.
Miami, FL
MLS power rankings: Inter Miami’s ambitious plans are paying off
![MLS power rankings: Inter Miami’s ambitious plans are paying off MLS power rankings: Inter Miami’s ambitious plans are paying off](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/416ee9e48224d9fe1f8f370a684c26b1612d9f42/0_309_7104_4261/master/7104.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=d3d8e41f15b3828a4a2ba14ca9495361)
Welcome back to the Guardian’s MLS Power Rankings, where I have a beef with your specific team and your specific team alone. Please address your complaints to the desk of Garth Lagerwey, who really has nothing else on his plate. He’ll have time to address each complaint, I’m sure, because he definitely doesn’t have a roster to retool, a manager to hire, and a brand-new front office vacancy to fill.
Now, as a reminder, these aren’t your standard, run-of-the-mill power rankings. We’re still ranking teams from worst to first. But along with the rankings, we’re diving deep into a handful of teams from around the league who are doing particularly interesting things.
What to do when you have nothing to play for
29. San Jose Earthquakes
28. CF Montreal
27. New England Revolution
26. Sporting Kansas City
25. Chicago Fire
24. Nashville SC
Forgive me for being blunt, San Jose, but you have nothing to play for. You’re sitting dead last in points across both conferences. One public postseason probability model gives you less than a 1% chance of making the playoffs, which is about as close to flashing a big neon sign that says “ELIMINATED” as you can get with one number and one percent sign. When hopelessness sets in, where do you turn? In MLS, a league without any real consequences for being bad enough that you start to feel hopeless, you turn to next year.
In their final seven matches, San Jose have to sort out how club-record signing Hernán López is being used before the wheels turn towards 2025.
The Quakes splashed a reported $6m fee for the Argentine No 10 earlier this season. The issue? He doesn’t create many chances. He progresses the ball through midfield at a high level, but the guy isn’t producing in the final third. One way to tweak Lopez’s usage is to feed him more often. He takes 15.1% of his team’s touches in the final third, according to American Soccer Analysis, well below the league’s best attacking midfielders. Lucho Acosta averages 23.7%. Carles Gil averages 21.7%. Evander averages 18.7%.
Encouraging López to stay higher – and encouraging the players around him to find the Argentine more often – could be the first step towards a brighter future for the Quakes.
The West’s best bubble team
23. Toronto FC
22. DC United
21. Austin FC
20. FC Dallas
19. St. Louis City
18. Minnesota United
There are a few teams I tune into each and every week simply because they’re fun. I didn’t expect Minnesota United to be one of those teams when Emanuel Reynoso left the club earlier this year, but here we are.
Under the guidance of first-year chief soccer officer Khaled El-Ahmad and first-year manager Eric Ramsay, the Loons have become more tactically intricate than they were at any point under former boss Adrian Heath. And after adding several key pieces in the summer transfer window, they’re building quite the deep and balanced squad, too.
Ramsay has settled on a 3-5-2 shape. In that setup, Minnesota United want to move the ball quickly upfield when in possession – they have the seventh-fastest direct attacking speed in MLS, according to Opta.
Ramsay wants his team to play forward quickly, but it’s not just about spamming hopeful long balls into the opposing half. No, Minnesota almost always seem to have a sense of control in possession. With a slew of players comfortable breaking lines on the ball and forwards who love to break in behind, including new Designated Player Kelvin Yeboah, Minnesota United can carve through an opposing block at a moment’s notice:
Sitting in ninth out West, they’re still far from being a playoff lock. But make no mistake: Minnesota United are dangerous. They’re noticeably stronger now than they were before the window opened, and that’s before new DP central midfielder Joaquín Pereyra’s debut.
The Loons are the most entertaining (and the best) bubble playoff team in the West.
Change, change and more change
17. Philadelphia Union
16. Seattle Sounders
15. Orlando City
14. Charlotte FC
13. Atlanta United
12. New York City FC
Atlanta United have cleaned house this year. The latest individual to exit the club is vice-president and technical director Carlos Bocanegra. Bocanegra joined Atlanta United as their technical director way back in 2015, helping to construct their roster for the 2017 expansion season and beyond.
Though the Five Stripes were a smash-hit in the early days under the leadership of then-president Darren Eales, vice-president of soccer operations Paul McDonough, manager Tata Martino and Bocanegra, success became hard to come by after winning MLS Cup in 2018 and finishing second in the East in 2019. Since 2019, Atlanta United have finished 23rd, ninth, 23rd, and 10th in the Supporters’ Shield standings. This year, they’re in 20th.
Of that foundational leadership group, Bocanegra was the only through-line to 2024. No doubt, he deserves some credit for the initial roster builds. But things have soured since then.
Atlanta spending big-money on flops like Ezequiel Barco, Pity Martínez, and Luiz Araújo didn’t pay off. The same goes for higher-priced squad players like Jürgen Damm and Matheus Rossetto. They’ve whiffed on U22 Initiative signings. Their managerial hires haven’t worked. Bocanegra didn’t even call Marcelo Bielsa back, for Pete’s sake.
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With club president and CEO Garth Lagerwey in his second season, it’s no surprise that he wanted to erase the board and start over. Lagerwey inherited a poor roster last year, one with Bocanegra’s fingerprints all over it.
It sure looks like Bocanegra helped hold Atlanta United back in recent years. His exit, then, should help them move forward. Knowing Atlanta, they’ll take some big swings in an effort to leap back up the table as quickly as possible – Inter Miami sporting director, who worked with Lagerwey in Seattle, could end up replacing Bocanegra. But there’s growing pressure, and a growing to-do list, around Lagerwey as he amasses more control.
There’s a technical director to hire. There’s a manager to hire. There are two DPs to sign. There are multiple U22 Initiative players to land.
Atlanta United aren’t back yet. But they sure are about to be busy.
Love and hurt in Houston
11. New York Red Bulls
10. Houston Dynamo
9. Portland Timbers
8. Vancouver Whitecaps
7. Colorado Rapids
6. Real Salt Lake
Ben Olsen’s Dynamo are lighting teams on fire. Not far removed from their promising performances in Leagues Cup, Houston absolutely dominated LAFC in Los Angeles last week. Sure, there’s important context around LAFC’s performance: it was their sixth game in three weeks and came after they spent real emotional energy in the Leagues Cup final and the US Open Cup semis.
But as I watch this sequence from the 24th minute, all of that context just seems to melt away. This. Is. Gorgeous.
The Dynamo do a better job of controlling games with possession than anybody in this league not coached by Wilfried Nancy. They’re second in MLS in possession, only behind the Crew. Up until this point in the year, all of that possession has primarily acted as a defensive mechanism. Houston sit eighth in MLS in non-penalty xG allowed per 90 minutes, according to FBref.
But now? After adding a couple of key pieces and getting time off after Leagues Cup? Now they’re starting to turn their possession into chances. They dropped three goals on Real Salt Lake last month, scored two against Toluca, and just bested LAFC by a wide margin.
Things are looking up for Houston. Or, at least they were before newly signed 22-year-old winger Lawrence Ennali went down with an ACL tear over the weekend. Ennali, along with striker Ezequiel Ponce, was a crucial summer addition for the Dynamo. He scored the game-sealing goal against LAFC. His injury is a sizable blow, for the player and club.
Houston and LAFC meet again on Saturday. How the Dynamo respond to a rollercoaster of a week will tell us a lot about their status as a potential contender.
More than a flash in the pan
5. LA Galaxy
4. FC Cincinnati
3. LAFC
2. Columbus Crew
1. Inter Miami
However you, dear MLS fan, feel about Inter Miami, you can’t deny this simple truth: they’re never dull.
Inter Miami weren’t good when they joined MLS as an expansion team in 2020, but they did break a handful of roster rules by playing with five DPs, two more than you’re allowed. They were caught and sanctioned, which doesn’t sound dull to me. They sure weren’t dull when Lionel Messi and friends arrived last summer. And now even with Messi still not quite returned from injury, they still haven’t been dull. They’ve won a crazy number of games without him and have three fingers on the Supporters’ Shield.
The latest example of the constant stream of intrigue that swirls around Inter Miami is the longest-lasting of all: Miami Freedom Park.
The Herons ditching their temporary home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and moving into Miami proper has been in the works for some time now. But word circulated, along with new renderings, earlier this week that the new 25,000-seat soccer-specific stadium will house the club starting in 2026.
Between Inter Miami opening a soccer-specific stadium in Miami and New York City FC doing the same thing in Queens in 2027, MLS continues to march towards an era of permanence that seemed impossible when the league first began play in 1996.
There are plenty more MLS teams in large markets with less than ideal stadium situations – New England Revolution and Chicago Fire, I’m looking at you. But to have one of the league’s most ambitious clubs sprinting closer to playing in one of the league’s best venues? That’s progress.
Even when Messi and his pals (and maybe even the man who made room for them all) are gone, Inter Miami are positioning themselves to be an attractive destination in the long term. They’re not leaving the headlines anytime soon.
Miami, FL
Opening statements begin in Miami-Dade trial of man who killed Rickenbacker cyclist
![Opening statements begin in Miami-Dade trial of man who killed Rickenbacker cyclist Opening statements begin in Miami-Dade trial of man who killed Rickenbacker cyclist](https://res.cloudinary.com/graham-media-group/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/c_thumb,w_700/v1/media/anyclip/lGFdxJEBCn68at4TJr7a/1725576494491_1920x1080_thumbnail.jpg?_a=DATAfRfiZAA0)
MIAMI – The opening statements in the Miami-Dade County trial of a man accused of fatally shooting a 48-year-old father of three about five years ago were on Thursday.
The prosecution accused Kadel Piedrahita of the “calculated, rage-filled, unjustified killing” of Alex Palencia on Aug. 14, 2019, along The Rickenbacker Causeway.
Palencia had sold Piedrahita home insurance, and when it lapsed Piedrahita blamed him. The conflict spilled publicly on Facebook Live and along a road full of witnesses, police said.
“This case was captured on several different cameras,” Assistant State Attorney Conor Soper told jurors in court. “It was captured on cell phone cameras from witnesses. It was captured on GoPro cameras from the bicyclists… and part of it was even captured on the defendant’s own video.”
The defense claimed it was self-defense. Piedrahita was riding a motorcycle with the group of cyclists, known as the “Don Pan Riders.” Palencia and Piedrahita’s son were among the cyclists.
“He has one hand on the bike and one hand on the selfie stick recording on Facebook Live,” Assistant Public Defender Yanelis Zamora told jurors in court about Piedrahita.
Zamora said Palencia “put his hands” on Piedrahita causing him to lose his balance. Soper said Piedrahita kicked Palencia from his motorcycle. The two got into a scuffle.
“Two other cyclists, actually, jumped into the fight as well. At one point, it’s actually three against one. Mr. Piedrahita is hit in the head with something hard. He is getting punched in the face with fists multiple times,” Zamora said.
Soper said Piedrahita commanded his son to get him his gun.
“He takes out his gun to show force not to use force,” Zamora said adding Cesar Sosa, a cyclist, then handed Palencia a gun.
Witnesses said Pedrahita shot Palencia in the abdomen and threatened to shoot Sosa.
“He did the only thing that he was able to do to defend himself,” Zamora said.
Miami Detective Ariadna Rodriguez, who was the first witness, disagreed. Testimony resumes on Monday. Piedrahita is on trial for second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a firearm.
Copyright 2024 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.
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