There I stood, in my “dream cabin,” freezing on a late winter morning, balancing on a stack of boxes as bulky as a loveseat. The cardboard shifted beneath me. As I raised the shovel, my palms sweated against the wooden handle. Construction workers peered in through the window. No way they were coming back in. Not until …

George Caceres does not look like a man about to risk his life. He’s casually shaking out his arms, letting them flail at his side like hooked mackerel. As calm as the Intracoastal on a windless morning, he straightens his white spandex shorts, pulling them down …

Vikram Thadani first came to Miami from Chile on vacation when he was 17, and he swore right then that someday he’d open a restaurant here. That was in 2002, and after opening four restaurants back home, he decided in 2021 he’d attempt to pull off his dream. Eighteen months later, after endless red tape …

When Mike Williams vanishes on a hunting trip, authorities presume he was eaten by alligators. But one woman begins to suspect the true predators may lurk much closer to home. It sets her on a tireless crusade to uncover what really happened to Mike.

The day 17 people were shot to death inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the only armed officer on the property stood outside, apparently doing nothing. He can explain, and he does—at length. Is he trying to convince the victims’ parents? The survivors? Other cops? Or himself?

In the early days of his bar, before he even opened the doors, Harrison Snow would shake up a new creation and slide it down the bar. Sitting at the end was Brother Cleve, a legend in the bar scene. Born Robert Toomey, Cleve was a musician, DJ, and bartender. Legend goes that Cleve discovered classic cocktails…

There’s a look people get when they see somebody famous, a hero or a sports legend. The woman who approached had it -- eyes wide, smile stuck on high, an equal mix of awe and excitement. “Could I, is it OK, can I ask, a photo,” the woman stammered shyly.

The New York Times came to town in 2008, and Scott Joseph hoped Orlando would finally get some recognition. Joseph reviewed local restaurants for the Orlando Sentinel for 20 years. Now he runs the city’s definitive dining guide, the suitably named Scott Joseph’s Orlando Restaurant Guide. It’s frustrating …

Ten hours before chef Michael Beltran, 36, begins an all-night shift at his acclaimed Miami seafood restaurant Navé, he backs his ’61 Cadillac out of the garage and then slips on a pair of boxing gloves to start his day off right. Soon he’s striking his gloved fists into mitts held by trainer Jacob Hasbrouck as they spin on a concrete floor …

West Virginia has the highest average elevation of any state east of the Mississippi. That’s not due to the mountains—its tallest peak is still lower than Denver—but the hills that roll out like endless moguls. More than a century ago, towns rose up in the valleys, built from coal fortunes. In the late 1800s, the city of Bramwell used to …

In the depths of it, Rodrigo Garduño wouldn't even leave his house. Garduño had played soccer since he was four and signed his first pro contract with the Mexican team Necaxa at age 16. But after a contract dispute in 2007, he ended up retiring earlier than he expected. At just 29 years old, his pro sports career was over, and …

Billy Powell didn’t become a hero or a mass murderer—which version you hear depends on who’s telling his story—until he walked among all those dead bodies. Almost everyone he had ever known died that Saturday, July 27, 1816. Two hundred and seventy bodies lay strewn about—soldiers, babies, mothers, kids like …

When Tony and Abby Sharamitaro helped throw a church fund-raiser last summer, they wanted to offer more than just brats and burgers on the grill. They settled on a Louisiana crawfish boil. The only problem: The Sharamitaros live a day’s drive from fresh Gulf seafood. So the morning of the party, a friend drove to the …

For most of his life, Anthony Abbate faced a dire reality. No man on either side of his family had lived beyond his 50s, mainly because of heart issues. It hung over Abbate like a time bomb: He was unlikely to see his 60th birthday. As he got older, doctors urged Abbate to begin a workout routine that got his heart pumping. But …

The Michelin Guide finally arrives in Miami in 2022, correcting a vile oversight of a city, we’d argue, with one of the finest food scenes anywhere. To help them get started, we compiled a list of deserving Miami restaurants. Our initial list started with a whole lot of deserving spots, like about 30, seriously. Then we ruled out …

A big man who usually has an unhurried gait, Stacey Moore picked up his pace to a near jog. It was, after all, what could be one of the most important nights of his life. Wearing a blue-and-white-striped dress shirt and black slacks, Moore led me through a maze of hallways connecting Pennsylvania’s Valley Forge Casino …

Every Christmas, Ryohei Ando gathers his family together for a holiday tradition. Just like their father did as a child, his two children will reach deep into a red-and-white bucket and pick out the best piece of fried chicken they can find. Every Christmas season, an estimated 3.6 million Japanese families treat themselves …

Everyone told Tom Kennedy to expect flooded trails when he hiked through Big Cypress National Preserve in the spring of 2015. But as he sloshed through miles of waist-deep swamp water that hid alligators and aggressive snakes, the trail quickly got the better of him. Right from the start, at the Oasis Visitor Center, in the …

When Jason Moore heard about the shooting in a Fort Myers, Florida, nightclub that killed two and injured more than a dozen others, his reaction was immediate. He had the employees at his gun shop move roadside signs to just outside the club’s parking lot that said: “We come to you, concealed weapon permit.” …

Janet Kowal had a personal connection to the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). Even though she’s now living outside Chicago, working for the Village of Burr Ridge town hall, Kowal has Iowa in her blood. The 2013 route would take her through her hometown of Des Moines and skirt …

Back when Dr. Paige Kreegel was a state representative in 2009, he had an idea that he thought simply made sense. Florida, the Sunshine State, should become a model for solar power. As chair of the state House’s Committee on Energy, Kreegel was in a position to change Florida laws that have restricted the growth of …