Robaina returns in robocalls for notary

He’s baaaaaaack. Again. Hialeah voters got a blast from the past on the phone Saturday when former Mayor Julio Robaina — a relative recluse after his ruinous run for county mayor — reached out with a recorded robocall for his former sister-in-law Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Muñoz on  Saturday, the day that early voting started at the JFK library. […]

Hialeah’s AB machine whirs again

The numbers are simply staggering. Ladra took a stroll down the Miami-Dade election department’s website and the absentee ballot report as of Tuesday’s totals show that a whopping 17,780 absentee ballots have been mailed in Hialeah. That’s 20 percent of the 88,565 or so voters registered. There are more than twice as many ABs already […]

Ack! The PAC attacks are back!

While everyone is watching the candidates and their campaigns, PACs have proliferated at an alarming rate as four cities known for raunchy races — Hialeah, Homestead, Miami and Miami Beach — get within the two week mark of Election Day. We will get to the other cities later (really, we will… there is just too […]

Checks, lies & videotape in Hialeah

Not everyone was so surprised to hear about Hialeah alcaldito Carlos Hernandez‘s loansharking business. What surprised some people was that it took so long to come out again. But we can probably thank el alcaldito himself for that — and the campaign. And TV news host Oscar Haza, perhaps. And former Mayor and front-running candidate […]

More no-bid $$ in Hialeah handouts

Tuesday’s episode of As Hialeah Churns was [almost] a real sleeper. There was (of course) no restraining order awaiting Ladra at City Hall when she went — without incident — to the city council meeting. There was no verbal sparring between the Dark Prince and the man who thinks he’s king. There was no sea of red […]

Election starts today with ABs

Forget Nov. 1. The election in Hialeah starts today. That’s when absentee voters will begin to get their ballots in their mail. Then, they’ll each probably get a phone call from one campaign or the other to ask if they received their absentee ballot and if they know what to do with it — or maybe want help to fill […]

Abuse of power & police in Hialeah

When we in South Florida read about a place where government officials use the armed forces to investigate and intimidate opposition leaders and independent journalists because they threaten their iron-fisted rule, we are usually reading about Havana or Caracas. Not Hialeah, U.S.A. But Ladra’s suspicions that the mayor and perhaps one or more council members are abusing their […]

El alcaldito’s AB play with fire

At the 11th hour — and on the eve of the all-important absentee ballot mailing in Hialeah — el alcaldito Carlos Hernandez stood for a photo op on the back of a fire rescue truck with the president of the firefighters’ union, a man he has maligned for weeks, and basically thumped his chest. He’s […]

Robaina raises $$$ for incumbents

He’s baaaaaaaack. Former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina has been lying low since he lost the county mayoral race against Carlos Gimenez in June. Save for one radio interview — where he declined to say who he was going to support (but, c’mon! We know it’s el alcaldito!) — he’s been kind of MIA on the […]

Candidates comingle cordially

What? It can happen! Ladra saw it with her own very eyes. Eight council candidates were at the Hialeah Association of Commerce and Neighbors for the group’s 30th anniversary dinner Saturday night — including the four Back to the Future slate mates who mugged for the camera with incumbent Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Muñoz. And Ladra really, really wishes […]