Dade County

Forget paradise lost. Forget a city beset by drugs and violence. The headlines that used to give image-makers headaches can now proclaim Miami the newest Tinseltown.The ultimate proof?Madonna, the world's most material girl, just joined a growing galaxy of stars who have bought or are buying homes in greater Miami.Among them: pop singer Whitney Houston, Italian movie goddess Sophia Loren, rapper Vanilla Ice, Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias, Broadway impresario Harold Prince, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, designer Paloma Picasso, author Anne Rice and Bee Gees Robin, Maurice and Barry Gibb.

MIAMI -- Defendant Donyell Desmore was a free man. For about 15 minutes.Desmore was given six months' probation after pleading no contest to battery Wednesday. He then walked out of the Metro Justice Building.On the courthouse steps, Desmore began harassing the woman he had just admitted attacking: Renee Robinson, his girlfriend. He lifted Robinson in his arms and dropped her on the sidewalk.Dade County Judge Scott Silverman, standing in a colleague's first-floor office, heard the commotion and saw the attack.

New York -- Do you need advice on how to invest? Many people turn to adult education classes or investment seminars. Sometimes they're fine. But if your "teacher" is in the business of selling financial products, you may get biased, even dangerous, advice.Consider the investment classes offered by the Dade County School Board in southern Florida and taught by James McCormick, at the time a stockbroker with Prudential-Bache.McCormick taught (as was alleged in subsequent lawsuits) that partnerships and other risky investments were, in fact, safe, conservative and high-yielding alternatives to certificates of deposit.

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- When the pioneer Matheson family gave Dade County half of this tropical island 50 years ago, it set one condition: The 900 acres stretching from Biscayne Bay to the Atlantic Ocean had to remain a public park forever.Now the family wants a chunk of the park back and filed suit recently to take it.The Mathesons insist that the county broke its promise by inviting the Lipton International Players Championships to make its home there and by agreeing to build a $16.5 million stadium for the tennis tournament by 1993.