Your Evening Sift

This time next week Art Basel will be over. Just something to look forward to, readers. Here's your evening Sift.

A- The Cuban Triangle discusses the latest developments in the Alan Gross case.

Only in the case of Cuba are the U.S. programs built on an explicit regime-change premise contained in the 1996 Helms-Burton law. We can like or dislike the law, and we can like or dislike the Cuban political system, but we can’t avoid the operational consequence: a program like that is going to be hard to operate within Cuba if the Cuban government cares about its own survival and if it cares to defend Cuban sovereignty. As Mr. Gross found out too late, it cares about both.

B- No matter what the hardliners continue to say, things are changing and the old, dog-eared views of U.S.-Cuba relations are evolving, according to On Two Shores.

It is now indisputable that the old hardliners on both shores are being replaced by people who think differently than their parents; who have little interest in prolonging the political conflicts of the past and are oriented solely toward building a better life for themselves and their families; who believe you cannot promote democratic values in a foreign country by denying the rights of your own citizens; who see engagement as a good thing, and travel in record-breaking numbers every year to visit loved ones in Cuba; and who are looking for ways to boost economic opportunity, from selling spare parts for old Russian cars out of Hialeah, to financing their relatives’ fledgling businesses on the Island through remittances.

In short, they are the people who strengthen the cultural and economic ties between Miami and Havana day-by-day. They represent the future of our communities, not the past.

C- Shorter Gun Free Zone...

If a professional football player shoots and murders his wife then kills himself with a self-inflicted shot to the head in front of friends and associates, how dare we mention the terrible toll that guns inflict on America.

D- David's Cafe is opening a pop-up place at The Standard hotel, says The305.Com.

E- Did you know that Car2Go now has a "home area" just off of Lincoln Road? If you don't you should read Curbed Miami.

F- But is Annush getting married on the causeway?

On September 29th, Hugh asked me to marry him and I haven’t written a blog post since.

As you can expect, I said yes and I have been a happy engaged woman since. Surprisingly, the role of future Mrs. MacLeod has been one I’ve stepped into with no problem and I’m as happy as can be. But to tell the story of us, and what it means to me is so much bigger than any story I have ever told and I would not be fair to him or to our relationship if I shortchanged it and just said “we are engaged.”

G- Art Basel photos from the last few years, only at Beached Miami.

H- Transit Miami highlights Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's commitment to improving public transit.

The fiscal cliff and election cycles have left most of Washington, D.C. silent on the critical needs of our nation’s infrastructure, but Wasserman-Schultz named local bridges in need of repair and livable communities as priorities when she returns to the House Appropriations Committee next term. “We must increase our investment in public transit NOW,” she said.

I- Eater Miami reports that there is a mysterious Italian restaurant getting ready to open on South Beach.

J- An interesting look at poverty in Miami-Dade County by commission districts...at Eye on Miami.

K- Discourse examines House Speaker John Boehner's negotiating strategy.

House Speaker John Boehner acts like he’s a customer at the Obama Emporium of Budget Plans. Shopper Boehner doesn’t like the wares he offered. “Bring me a better one,” he commands. Strangely, this is more or less how negotiations between the Obama administration and the GOP used to work. Now, however, the Obama people have reverted to claiming they want actual negotiations, the sort that requires both sides to have an actual opening bid. “Bring me a better one” will not do. Shopper Boehner, and the House GOP in general are finding this shift hard to cope with.

.