Miami: City overview

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Miami has come a long way since its heyday as a gaudy symbol of 1980s excess, synonymous with pastel suits, big hair, soft-top sports cars and speedboats. Older and wiser, leaner and cleaner, the city has never looked better following an extensive facelift that has seen historic South Beach architecturally-botoxed back to its former Art Deco glory. Once synonymous with a trashy world of drug lords and Latino soap actresses, Miami now demands to be taken seriously as an internationally recognized city of culture. The Design District has been transformed from urban dereliction into a creative hub for artists, designers and trendsetters. Of course, beyond the palm tree-lined fashion shoots and pop videos, Miami is the same city it always was; a continental crossroads where North America meets Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe and a city flavored by generations of immigrants. But if Miami once had a reputation as a place where millionaires retired to blow their spoils in the sunshine, it's now a place where the young, hungry and ambitious come to get noticed. "It's a city of the future," says Miami-born property developer Craig Robins. "There's so much coming out of Miami now that I think it's really part of the direction the world is going. Miami was known as a town where you could have a lot of fun. And not only is it a lot of fun, but this city is emerging as a great city of substance."

Missed signals cleared way for suspect to board plane To understand how the suspect in the botched terror attack was able to board a plane, you have to understand how the counterterrorism system that President ...

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