u/Carlos_Frias

When I think of 9/11, I always think about this photo -- and the story behind it.

I think about the man in the photo. The photographer who shot it. And the writer who went about trying to figure out who the man was. These days, I'm an editor at USA Today, and I thought it was important to share the story with a generation born after 9/11. Who hasn't looked at that photo, imagining being atop the tower, and wondered: What would I do?

A lot of folks don't know Miami-Dade is home to America’s largest Haitian diaspora.

Florida is home to nearly half of the 330,000 Haitian TPS recipients living in the United States. So what happens when you tell them their protection status is over and they aren't legally able to work?

Businesses struggle with fewer workers and customers. It has kept some from venturing out to the doctor or to take their kids to school on the first day of classes, which started Aug. 13.

The U.S. government tells them they must return to Haiti -- when the U.S. itself has issued an advisory against travel because of crime, terrorism, kidnapping and unrest. The FAA halted flights to Port-au-Prince airport in November 2024 after three U.S. ​commercial jetliners were struck by gunfire.

These are the impossible choices they're facing.

What does it mean to be an exile?

I've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about this. Living it. (My folks were both Cuban exiles. Dad was a farmer and later a merchant who tried to leave on a boat and ended up serving four years in a Cuban prison for it. My mom came on a Freedom Flight in the '60s.)

So when one of our USA Today reporters, Rick Jervis (also Cuban!) got a chance to talk to this political prisoner who was exiled for protesting the government, I asked him how Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara spoke about being an exile. The guy broke down right in front of him.

The story is a pretty powerful look at what it means to love your country so much that you want to see it improve -- and then to have to leave it forever. Or rot in jail.

It's a helluva choice.

Bought a couple pieces for myself from the Cactus Jack Nike 90 FIFA 2026 collection, but I don’t think I’ll wear this one as much. The Brazil line is sold out so this is a chance to grab one if your futbol, Travis, CJ and Nike goals align.

Cuba has confirmed that the man without an official position in the government — but the right last name — is their approved negotiator with the United States. Specifically, he wants to deal with Trump.

I'm trying to think, What kind of government passes down control of a country from one generation to the next...? Give me a second, I'll think of it...

Been sitting on this one for a minute.

A team of USA Today reporters started asking the question months ago: Who is Raúl Rodriguez Castro, the man the US has quietly been negotiating with in Cuba?

We knew he was Raul Castro's grandson. We knew they called him El Cangrejo because he's got six fingers on his right hand. (No relation to Inigo Montoya's vendetta as far as we could tell). But few people outside of Cuba and a small circle of Cuba experts knew much else.

So we dug in on finding out as many details as we could unearth from people who know him, have dealt with him and who have watched him come up.

And then, one of our reporters got the most important interview: With the Crab himself, over the course of two visits to Havana last month.

I hope you'll read what our reporters found. It's eye-opening, especially to those of us in Miami, where Cuba news is always ventanita news.

A few months ago, a friend used this app on her phone to send food to her family in Cuba.

I couldn't believe it when she showed it to me. It was just like Uber Eats. You could order chicken, beef, batteries, solar-powered lanterns — she even ordered a birthday cake! And you could follow the order, like you watch your driver, all the way to the family's house.

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned this to a couple of our writers at USA Today. (I'm not writing about Miami food and culture anymore [boo!]. I'm editing our investigative team.) And they dug around to find out what the deal was with these apps (which you can find on the App Store of the Android Google Play site).

What do you guys think? Wild, right?

Powering this vintage truck is an all-electric motor.

Amaury Betancourt, an engineer who is a friend of a friend in Miami, converted this 1974 Ford F-100 into an EV. He used the motor from a wrecked Nissan Leaf. And the battery from a Tesla Model S. The result: the Kelectrik F-100. (He named it after his wife who was so patient and supportive as he built this thing on the street in front of their Little Havana house over the course of a year.)

The old V8 made about 8 miles to the gallon. His Kelectrik gets about 150 miles to the charge. And he charges it at home. I'm a freelance writer, but I reported this story just for fun. I just thought it was so damn cool to see it rolling around the streets of Miami so stealthily. Posted about it on my website, https://carlosfrias.com/blog/f/why-this-miami-man-converted-a-vintage-ford-pickup-to-electric, (where I make zero money from this lol) and made this little video Reel for Instagram. 

Hope you all enjoy.