Miami, FL
Dolphins Get Defensive in Latest Mock Draft
While the Miami Dolphins are concentrating on making a run for the playoffs this season, it is never too early to start thinking about the 2025 NFL draft.
The Dolphins have area scouts on the road, attending various college games and visiting campuses to evaluate the best for 2025.
USA Today has come out with its latest first-round mock draft Wednesday.
Writer Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz based his mock draft on the draft order based on the current standings, and the Dolphins currently would have the 10th selection with their 3-6 record. With that 10th overall pick, Middlehurst-Schwartz projected safety Malaki Starks from the University of Georgia going to the Dolphins.
Part of his reasoning is Jevon Holland is a pending free agent, as are fellow safeties Jorday Poyer, Marcus Mayes and Elijah Campbell.
“While the NFL hasn’t had a safety selected in the top 10 since Jamal Adams went sixth overall in 2017, Starks should earn consideration to go early on Day 1 as a do-it-all defender who constantly puts himself in position to make big plays,” Middlehurst-Schwartz wrote.
Starks has 31 tackles this season, one interception, and one pass broken up. His statistics are down this season compared to the last two seasons when he was involved in more passes broken up and had more interceptions.
Starks had one of his best games against then-ranked No. 1 Texas when he had seven tackles and led the Bulldogs to a 30-15 upset victory in Austin.
The Dolphins’ only safety under contract for 2025 is rookie sixth-round pick Patrick McMorris, who was placed on injured reserve on August 29 but began practicing again last week.
Miami Dolphins On SI on Social Media
Miami, FL
New bodycam video shows fatal 2023 Miami Police shooting as officer cleared
New bodycam video shows a fatal police shooting in Miami back in 2023 as prosecutors say the officer was legally justified in the killing.
The footage was released this week after the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office determined the Oct. 11, 2023 shooting of 20-year-old Arnicious Xavier Odom, Jr. was justified.
Family Photo Family Photo Arnicious Odom Jr.
According to a Feb. 3 close-out memo from the state attorney’s office, Odom and another man had been seen jaywalking on Northwest 2nd Avenue near Northwest 60th Street while wearing ski masks and hoodies.
A detective approached and the other man was found with a loaded gun in his pants but Odom fled on foot, prompting a pursuit, the memo said.
The bodycam footage shows Det. Sthephany Canizares running after Odom with her weapon drawn.
At one point, Odom threw a gun over a fence and then hopped over the fence at a field at Miami Edison Senior High School.
The memo said Canizares ordered him not to pick the gun up but Odom went to pick it up and that’s when Canizares shot and killed him.
“I told him not to go for that gun!” Canizares is heard telling other officers in the footage.
The state attorney’s office said Canizares’ actions in shooting Odom were legally justified because “it was reasonable to believe that he posed an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to the officers,” the memo said.
After the shooting, Odom’s mother, Antionette Jones, told NBC6 she wanted answers.
“Witnesses out there said that my baby was running across the field and collapsed,” she said. “If he was running from you, what harm can he do to you? What can he do? Why didn’t you tase him?”
Miami, FL
Miami never trails in 75-66 win over No. 11 North Carolina
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Malik Reneau scored 16 points, Ernest Udeh Jr. had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Miami never trailed while beating No. 11 North Carolina 75-66 on Tuesday night for the Hurricanes’ first victory over a Top 25 opponent in two years.
Tre Donaldson finished with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Shelton Henderson added 12 points for the Hurricanes (19-5, 8-3 Atlantic Coast Conference).
Udeh made a free throw with 2:11 remaining, then rebounded his missed second attempt and scored on a layup to put Miami ahead 66-60.
After Donaldson’s layup with 1:20 left made it 69-62, Jarin Stevenson’s layup 5 seconds later got the Tar Heels (19-5, 7-4) within five. Despite finishing 14 of 23 from the foul line, Miami clinched the win with six free throws in the final minute.
As soon as the horn sounded, Hurricanes fans stormed the court, celebrating their first win over a Top 25 team since beating No. 16 Clemson 95-82 Jan. 3, 2024.
Stevenson scored 13 points, Caleb Wilson had 12 and Henri Veesar added 11 for the Tar Heels.
Wilson, the Tar Heels’ leading scorer with 20 points per game, left briefly for the locker room midway through the second half and had his left hand wrapped when he returned with 8:47 remaining.
The loss snapped North Carolina’s five game-win streak.
Miami outscored North Carolina 46-28 in the paint. Udeh made seven of eight shots, including five on dunks. After shooting 7-of-13 from 3-point range in the first half, the Tar Heels were 1 of 14 from behind the arc in the second half.
The Hurricanes opened a 10-point lead on Reneau’s three-point play seven minutes into the first half that made it 22-12.
North Carolina chipped away and stayed within striking distance the remainder of the half. Kyan Evans’ 3-pointer with 1:01 remaining got the Tar Heels to 41-40 before Timo Malovec’s two free throws with 27 seconds left gave the Hurricanes a 3-point lead at halftime.
Up next
North Carolina: Host Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Miami: At North Carolina State on Saturday.
Miami, FL
I took a “gigcation” to see Lady Gaga in Miami. It was awesome.
I’m sitting at lunch at Lattanzi Cucina Italiana in Manhattan, inspired by Lady Gaga and fiancé Michael Polansky’s dinner date there during the week she hosted SNL. My mom and I are reliving the night before, where we attended the first Mayhem Ball at Madison Square Garden, reeling from her piano rendition of “Hair” over glasses of Pinot Grigio and plates of pollo con peperoni.
My friend Julie texts me.
“How was it?” she asks, referencing the show from the previous night.
“Incredible,” I respond.
“Want to come to Florida and go to the Miami show next weekend?”
I laugh, and hypothetically say, “Um yes.” But despite my light take at her suggestion, the conversation quickly turns serious, and before the bill even arrives at Lattanzi, I’m on the Delta app booking a flight to Fort Lauderdale.
While Gaga was the driving factor, there was another incentive in it for me, too. Despite having traveled to over 90 countries across all seven continents, I had still never been to Miami. Truth be told, Miami was never at the top of my list. I imagined the city to be the Las Vegas of Florida: a kitschy, overpriced theme park for adults with ridiculously good looks and workout routines that consumed half their day to keep up with said good looks. Someone like me, a gritty, tough-as-nails New Yorker with a loud Italian-American accent and the attitude to match, would never fit in in a place like Miami. But for Gaga and Julie, I was finally willing to find out firsthand.
Less than a week later, I landed in Fort Lauderdale. Julie was one of my closest friends in NYC, but she made the move during the pandemic for a more comfortable life. My gigcation to see Gaga was a perfect excuse to double it as a chance to see Julie’s new stomping grounds, and of course, to see her two adorable cats.
We hit the town in Fort Lauderdale, first heading to Pier Sixty-Six to check out Pier Top, a rotating rooftop bar offering 360-degree views of the Atlantic. We sipped mermaid-inspired cocktails made with Lalo Tequila Blanco and grapefruit sherbet, and I got my legally required lobster roll that I need every time I’m in a seaside city. Afterward, Julie brought me to The Pub, the best gay bar in town, and her husband even convinced Brian Mason, the bar’s weekly entertainer and host, to let me jump onstage to sing a song (where I obviously sang “You and I” by Lady Gaga).
The next day was show day. In a sluggish state, we drove down to Miami and needed a cure from our wild night out, which came in the form of chicken tenders and champagne from American Social. Providing just enough relief from our questionable decisions the night prior, we then checked into the Four Seasons Hotel Miami and promptly ordered a bottle of Moët to the room, since, at that point, it didn’t make sense to get ready for a Lady Gaga show without some bubbly. You can imagine the man working room service’s surprise when he opened the door to deliver our precious goods, only to see me half dressed in fishnets and leather as I was slowly transforming into my Little Monster gear.
Simply needing more cocktails, we headed to The Elser Hotel’s Bayview Terrace Rooftop for espresso martinis and empanadas before our short walk to Kaseya Center, where Lady Gaga would be performing.
We made our way to our nosebleeds, which wound up being incredible seats (never let being in an upper section trick you, my view here was just as good as my one at Madison Square Garden). Julie and I scream-sang through her entire two-and-a-half-hour set, losing our voices during “Bad Romance” and “Disease,” holding each other’s hands during ballads like “Million Reasons” and “Die With a Smile,” and singing Ariana Grande’s harmonies in the surprise piano rendition of “Rain on Me.”
The next day was for rest and recovery, and when you’re staying at the Four Seasons, that means rotting by a pool. We went ahead and reserved a cabana for ourselves as soon as we made our reservation at the Four Seasons, knowing we would need the day to sweat out champagne and chicken fingers in the sun. Hey, what can I say? Being in your 30s and 40s looks a lot different than partying in New York in your 20s. We got a plate of fresh Floridian fruit and a smashburger for balance, and naturally, we ordered drinks.
The day after the show was one of those glorious days where I lost track of time, the most “vacation” part of my gigcation. Julie and I bopped around the pool with cocktail in hand, catching up on the mundanities of everyday life, digging into deep conversations about our current struggles, and laughing just as hard as we used to when we were at dinner or bars in New York when we lived in the same city. As one last hurrah, we had our most civilized moment of the trip with dinner at Nuna, a Nikkei-style restaurant (blending Peruvian and Japanese cuisines), where we indulged in Wagyu and truffle dumplings and so many rounds of tuna nigiri that we lost track.
I love Lady Gaga for many reasons, and I wonder if she knew the impact she has on people like me: a gal who has traveled near and far but only popped her Miami cherry due to her being the driving factor. Not only did the Mayhem Ball give me the opportunity to see a show, a cathartic experience in itself, but it gave me the perfect excuse to hang out with one of my best friends in a city I can now finally say I’ve visited. And yet, the show was only a droplet in an ocean of my long weekend in South Florida, providing me with the perfect excuse to explore somewhere new, and a city I’m now excited to return to.
Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball starts its North American reprise on February 14 in Arizona and wraps up on April 13 in New York.
-
Politics6 days agoWhite House says murder rate plummeted to lowest level since 1900 under Trump administration
-
Indiana1 week ago13-year-old rider dies following incident at northwest Indiana BMX park
-
Alabama4 days agoGeneva’s Kiera Howell, 16, auditions for ‘American Idol’ season 24
-
Indiana1 week ago13-year-old boy dies in BMX accident, officials, Steel Wheels BMX says
-
Politics1 week agoTrump unveils new rendering of sprawling White House ballroom project
-
Culture1 week agoTry This Quiz on Mysteries Set in American Small Towns
-
San Francisco, CA1 week agoExclusive | Super Bowl 2026: Guide to the hottest events, concerts and parties happening in San Francisco
-
Massachusetts1 week agoTV star fisherman’s tragic final call with pal hours before vessel carrying his entire crew sinks off Massachusetts coast