The Cooler

Just a few things from the mainstream media to start your morning.

A- Herald: Fidel Castro's time in Miami.

Castro's first visit to the Miami area came in mid-October 1948, and was typical for the times:

A newlywed, he came to honeymoon with his new bride, Mirta Díaz-Balart. The couple stayed at a Miami Beach hotel -- perhaps the Saxony, the San Souci or the Shelborne. ''Those were the hotels where well-healed, upwardly mobile couples honeymooned in the late 1940s,'' said Miami Beach historian Paul George.

Castro's bride was the sister of Castro's University of Havana law school classmate and then-close friend, the late Rafael Díaz-Balart -- father of Cuban-American congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart.

B- Sun-Sentinel: 15-year-old boy allegedly kills 14-year-old girl after sex.

FORT LAUDERDALE - One was a pudgy 15-year-old boy with an anger problem. The other, a 14-year-old girl abandoned by her parents.

Police say the middle school students had sex and then Jason Hartley strangled Neica Marie Gibbs in anger after an argument. "I know he had some anger problems," Hartley's mother, Lorraine Boggess, said.

Fort Lauderdale police arrested Hartley Thursday night on a murder charge and say he confessed to killing Gibbs on June 28 and stashing her body next to a garbage bin in the Azalea Trailer Colony in the 2700 block of Southwest Sixth Drive where he lived.

Gibbs was reported missing the next day. Her body sat by the bin for three weeks until two women investigating a foul smell found it.

C- Palm Beach Post: Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary.

Today the Lupellas live in an apartment complex on State Road A1A. They are cared for by home health services personnel from Boca Raton Community Hospital. They have five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Often they get asked by young couples about the secret of a durable union.

Michael says that whenever they didn't agree on something, they walked away and let it rest for a while.

"We knew exactly when we had to stop being together," he said.

Sure, there were arguments. Theirs is a long marriage, not a perfect one.

"But love is bigger than anything," Judith said.

D- NBC6: Fort Lauderdale is #1 in the state for foreclosures.

E- WPLG: The owner of the old Miami Arena wants to tear it down and build a new Marlins stadium on the land.

In a phone interview Friday, [Glenn] Straub said the interior of the arena has already been gutted and the building will be imploded in about two weeks.

Straub said he and his partners want to build the long-sought Marlins stadium on the property and will finance it themselves. Straub also said he wants to swap the land for the site of the demolished Orange Bowl because he has plans to develop it.

F- WPTV: The Estefans love Vero Beach.

Miami and it's sound machine made them famous in the mid 80's.

But these days Gloria and Emilio Estefan ---are enjoying the peaceful sounds of Vero Beach.

"We fell in love." says Gloria Estefan. "Vero is so quaint and quiet. We found the perfect house 7 years ago...we bought it and enjoy it very much. We bring friends and family here. This place has become our haven--really an escape."

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