Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago may say he’s not worried about the recall effort mounted against him. He may say it’s just gadfly Maria Cruz and activist attorney David Winker with a grudge against him. But don’t believe him. He is sweating it. That’s why Lago has an anonymous, cowardly blogger trashing Cruz and Winker […]
A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge last week denied a motion from former Miami Commissioner Humberto Hernandez to dismiss him from the civil case brought against former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who is already facing bribery and money laundering charges in a separate case — for shaking down the operator of the […]
Could be up to the new sheriff to fight corruption The Florida Legislature last month passed a bill that will severely hamper ethics investigations. Just what Miami-Dade needs! This self-serving bill will not only prohibit local ethics agencies, like the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics, to initiate investigations on their own, but will also require complaints […]
Hires fired, former Doral manager as his number two It wasn’t public. And it wasn’t complete. City Manager Art Noriega produced a presentation of the history of his wife’s business with the city in a slide show sent to commissioners and that was short more than $200K from the figure reported by WLRN in January, […]
City commissioners in Miami Beach will discuss increasing their own stipends and staffing at Wednesday’s commission meeting. Right now, the mayor gets a monthly stipend of $2,000, a figure that has not been adjusted in 18 years, according to a commission memo from staff. Commissioners currently get $2,250, a figure that was adjusted five years […]
Former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla lost his house to a foreclosure sale last November, even though he is fighting it now in court. And on Thursday, he lost the family farm. A Krome Avenue property owned by Diaz de la Portilla, who was suspended last September after he was arrested on a […]
For weeks, maybe months, Miami City Attorney Victoria Mendez has boasted that she has the three votes she needs to keep her job. But that may have changed recently. A source at City Hall says Tricky Vicky can read the writing on the wall and will likely announce her retirement, effective in April, at the […]
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago does not like to be challenged or criticized. He has recently taken to calling his critics — which include award-winning documentary filmmaker Billy Corben, award-winning journalist Roberto Rodriguez Tejera and yours truly — mercenaries paid to smear him. That’s old news. He’s again copying his idol, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, […]
Everybody is waiting for the other shoe to drop. By other shoe, Ladra means the tired, old, stinky loafer that is Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, who would follow his BFF, mentor and role model, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, anywhere. Maybe even to jail. Last month’s exposé of Suarez’s private life and public service conflicts […]
There’s a growing list of people who think Miami Mayor Francis Suarez ought to resign his position in light of the exposé published this week by The Miami Herald, with details about just how much he blurs the lines between his private, for-profit life and his, ahem, “public service.” Former Miami Police chiefs Jorge Colina […]