As I pondered early on Thanksgiving Day the things that I was thankful for, and after I listed the usual suspects — health for me and my loved ones, family support, a talented and beautiful (and smart-ass) daughter, love, good friends that stick by you, passion for what I do, growth in readership — it gave […]
‘Tis the season — for a barrage of emails wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving. You think your inbox is getting heavy? It would be worse if you were a county employee. Every holiday — and not just Thanksgiving and Christmas, here, but we are talking Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Martin Luther […]
In what seems like a poetic turn, the Miami Beach Commission aide fired by newly elected Mayor Philip Levine on his first day is also a member of the city’s Charter Review Board — and he’s recommending an amendment. After Alex Fernandez read in the Miami Herald that Levine had told the reporter, via text […]
Hialeah will have a budget hearing tonight to announce a raise in taxes. That’s right. Tonight. As in almost two months too late. And also a couple of weeks after an election in which Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez and Council Vice President Luis Gonzalez vowed never to raise taxes. Coincidence? Yeah, riiight. The Florida Department […]
As expected, Alex Fernandez, the aide to Miami Beach Vice Mayor Deede Weithorn, was fired from his city job by the newly-elected mayor Tuesday for endorsing the opponent in the recent mayoral election. The city will defend its action by saying that Fernandez was an at-will employee. But everybody knows that it was because he […]
Several other electeds came from near and far to pay their respects and roll out the red carpet as the newly-elected mayor and commissioner were sworn in Monday at Miami Beach City Hall. They included Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, his son, Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez (who let me kneel down next to him so I […]
New Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine thanked former Mayor Matti Bower and Commissioner Michael Gongora — who he ran a nasty campaign against — for their service to the city. Newly-elected Commissioner Michael Grieco thanked his predecessor, Commissioner Jorge Exposito. And newly-elected Joy Malakoff, who beat Bower in the runoff, said some words in Spanish […]
While you can still participate in Political Cotadito’s first ever reader survey, Ladra has already learned something about you, dear readers. More of you are men than women. More of you are college graduates than non-graduates. More of you are U.S.-born (with Cuban-born being a close second). Most of you tune in two to five […]
Dear Mayor Elect Philip Levine: In a matter of hours, you will take your duly elected office as the newly named mayor of Miami Beach and I would like to take this opportunity to extend an olive branch and make some recommendations and requests. I know my words may fall on deaf ears. After all, […]
It’s not the likeliest of starting points for one of the most closely watched races in the nation. But in shiny, new senior center, in a bright room full of viejitos and political nobodies, former Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Joe Martinez officially launched his 2014 congressional campaign Thursday. It’s “officially” because Martinez has been talking about […]