Phil Levine’s consultant pushes marina at Rebecca Towers

Phil Levine’s consultant pushes marina at Rebecca Towers

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine was at Rebecca Towers last week, courting the elderly Hispanic voters that helped propel him to victory two years ago. He also took his whole slate of candidates — Ricky Arriola, John Elizabeth Aleman and Betsy Perez — who he wants elected so they can rubber stamp his decisions. But […]

Miami FOP endorses Mrs. Sarnoff with no screening

Miami FOP endorses Mrs. Sarnoff with no screening

The Miami Police union has endorsed Teresa Sarnoff, wife of Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, in the upcoming election to replace him. That’s not so surprising since Sarnoff last year approved raises, some as high as $10,000 more a year. What is a surprise is that they would be so obvious about the quid pro quo, giving […]

Video: Philip Levine fails to disclose properties, LLCs

Video: Philip Levine fails to disclose properties, LLCs

UPDATED: Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine is not the most forthcoming guy. He seems to have a lot of secrets and doesn’t feel like he needs to explain anything to anybody. He does not volunteer information. But, hey, you don’t get to be a millionaire by sharing all your secrets. His business is none of […]

Philip Levine’s camp blackmails challenger David Wieder

Philip Levine’s camp blackmails challenger David Wieder

UPDATED: Mayoral candidate David Wieder has gone to the Miami Beach Police with documents he received anonymously that amount to blackmail in an effort to get him to drop out of the race. Wieder told Ladra that someone had come by his office with an envelope with “For David Wieder’s eyes only” on the outside. […]

Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz arrested on DUI in Key West

Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz arrested on DUI in Key West

UPDATED: Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz is known as the road safety go-to guy at the county. He has pushed for legislation that increases the penalties on hit-and-run drivers and regularly advocates for safer bike lanes for cyclists. But on Saturday night Diaz was arrested on DUI charges in Key West. where we assume he was […]

Top 10 reasons Miami-Dade residents must buy a life vest

Top 10 reasons Miami-Dade residents must buy a life vest

If we learned only one thing from the final Miami-Dade Commission budget hearing Thursday night it is that every county resident should run out right now — do not walk — and buy a life jacket. Dozens of speakers begged the commission  and Mayor Carlos Gimenez to allocate more than $300,000 on studying and mitigating […]

Mayor Carlos Gimenez turns deaf ear to public comments

Mayor Carlos Gimenez turns deaf ear to public comments

Speaker after speaker at the final Miami-Dade County budget hearing Thursday night begged Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the commission to allocate more funds to address the climate change and sea level rise that threatens to put much of Miami under water. Some discussed other items — grants for community based organizations, the Underline parkway initiative, […]

Miami-Dade budget 2015 rally is for climate change funds

Miami-Dade budget 2015 rally is for climate change funds

Last year, it was libraries and police officers. The year before that, the pets’ trust and firefighters. This year, we’ll likely still see the pet people trying to get the mandate from the people respected by our elected commission, but the new rallying call against the Miami-Dade County budget is climate change. Or rather the […]

5 things we learned from the CNN GOP debate

5 things we learned from the CNN GOP debate

That was actually fun! Ladra loved the interaction at the GOP’s debate Wednesday night on CNN, but it’s too late to give a full analysis. We can get to that in the morning.  Right now, it’s time for the instant, knee-jerk observations, relevant or not. It felt like they talked about immigration for far too […]