In a plot twist that feels almost too on-the-nose for Miami politics, former congressman David “Nine Lives” Rivera — once a loud and proud anti-Castro, anti-Maduro warrior — has just been convicted of secretly working a multimillion-dollar deal tied to Venezuela’s socialist regime. Yes. That Venezuela. No hace sentido, but a federal jury in Miami didn’t […]
Just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it had taken a hatchet to the Voting Rights Act last week, Florida Republicans were already lining up the next domino. And by the afternoon, they knocked it down. Tallahassee didn’t waste a minute to try to gain a GOP advantage in a threatened blue wave. […]
Everyone’s very brave when the outrage is easy: A photo. A caption. A culture-war flare-up that fits neatly into a tweet and a press release. But when things get messy — when the allegations are ugly, internal, and impossible to spin — that’s when the silence gets loud. Welcome to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, where diversity […]
Coral Gables voters, who turned out by 29% for last week’s mail-in-only election on eight city charter changes, will have another ballot to look at in November, with a mayor’s race and two commission seats already shaping up to be anything but sleepy. After years of April elections in odd-numbered years, voters approved moving municipal […]
In a move that surprised absolutely no one who’s been paying attention, the Miami City Commission voted unanimously last week to co-designate five blocks of Northwest 14th Terrace as “Angel Gonzalez Way,” honoring former Commissioner Angel Gonzalez — a man who once pleaded guilty to exploiting his public office. Because, of course they did. Back […]
Everyone at Miami City Hall loves to talk about “process.” Transparency. Best practices. Blah, blah, blah. And then Miami does Miami. Because if the chatter ricocheting through the corridors of City Hall is to be believed, the next chief of police has already been picked. Las malas lenguas say Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez, former […]
A stupid Facebook post — or, rather, the unconstitutional response to it — just got a bit expensive for the Village of Palmetto Bay. Remember the uproar over Palmetto Bay Councilman Steve Cody and his controversial satire about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk? The outrage. The censure. The political grandstanding. Now comes the lawsuit. On […]
The biggest story in the scant few Miami-Dade judicial races this year isn’t who is running. It’s who isn’t running after all. Former state rep and school board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla, who has run for judge twice unsuccessfully, made good on his April Fool’s joke filing, and failed to follow through. Qualifying […]
Downtown residents may want to invest in earplugs now — the industrial kind — because the Ultra Music Festival just got something most Miami residents never get: long-term certainty. The Miami City Commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve a 20-year agreement keeping Ultra at Bayfront Park through 2046. That’s longer than some of the condo […]
Everyone should have more cafecito than usual Thursday morning. It’s going to be a doozy of a day. There is an important Miami commission meeting where newly-elected Mayor Eileen Higgins drops her $450-million bond item. Police and firefighters are expected to show up in shiny uniforms to support the measure to pay for equipment and […]