Joe Cool jurors' doubts undermine justice for dead

He could be a model. Tall, clean cut, well built. In fact, he served as an extra on a telenovela shot in South Florida -- dressed as a cop.

MYRIAM MARQUEZ | OPINION

Marquez: Sadly, McCain ignored better choices for V.P.

It should have been Linda Lingle. Now in her second term as Hawaii's governor, Lingle is the first Republican elected to that job in 40 years. She delivered a record state budget surplus, has gone to Iraq to size up the war on terror and set Hawaii on a course of foreign-oil independence.

Pride keeps storm aid from Cuba

P ride, it's the sin of sins, the one that caused an angel named Lucifer to turn against God and want to run things himself. It's been downhill ever since.

Does stripper deserve our sympathy?

Hanging next to Yessenia Cabello's little coffin was a green tulle ballerina dress with sparkles and cream-colored butterfly wings, a symbol of a sweet girl's dreams snuffed out in a misdirected jealous rage.

Too much on the line to rush Wall Street fix

Wall Street and Main Street collided in Doral amid honking horns and a smattering of protesters Tuesday outside the Federal Reserve Bank.

Obama needs women voters, lipstick or not

D AYTONA BEACH -- At his second stop in his ''women for the change we need'' blitz through Florida, Barack Obama was feisty and loose. Who wouldn't be? A charged-up audience of university students, women and blacks energized the place.

THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY

Miami nuns put politics aside to help Cubans

A Miami Catholic order ignores political differences to help storm victims in Cuba.

Opinion | Schools chief chosen way too quickly

What's the rush? It's the first item on the Miami-Dade School Board's agenda Wednesday. Board members will be asked to vote to ratify a contract with Associate Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to serve as the new schools superintendent.

Cubans caught in the eye of political storm

More than a half-million homes destroyed. Three-hundred bridges collapsed. Six-hundred municipal water wells wiped out. Almost a third of Cuba's population without electricity.

Sacred scene a reminder of work undone

The scene brought us back to a kinder, if horrifying, time. Somber, the two men who would be president walked side by side Thursday at ground zero in New York.

THE MIAMI HERALD

Ike a chance to show our compassion

The heavenly signs pierce the soul, harsh and devastating. You can see them in the eyes of a wounded Haitian child caked in mud, gasping for life after Ike, the Category 3 hurricane that killed more than 300 and left a million homeless. Feel them in the tremble of a sobbing father holding his dead little girl. Hear them in prayers of Miami's Little Haiti community to Notre Dame du Perpétuel Secours, our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Shutters can't save us from ourselves

Topped off gas tank. Check. Loaded up on water and ice. Check, check. Batteries, flashlights, candles. Check, check, check.

IN MY OPINION

The final act in Crew drama is playing out

MYRIAM MARQUEZ mmarquez@MiamiHerald.com The writing's on the blackboard. Rudy Crew's a goner. The Dollar Principal's surprise election to the Miami-Dade School Board has become a symbol of voters' frustration with the superintendent's tin ear, thin skin and oversized ego. And it's a shame, really, because Crew has good ideas on education reform.

Taxpayers can take a bow for wise spending

Inside the yellow cottage in a Kendall compound behind a chain-link fence, the children are waking up from their naps. Babies are learning to sit up, toddlers are naming their colors and 4-year-olds are gobbling up their vanilla ice cream with a smile.