Ladra has spent months asking one question: How did Miami-Dade County end up contemplating spending $400 million to buy an old industrial property it could have purchased a couple of years earlier for so much less? The answer may not begin at County Hall. It may begin behind the gates of Fisher Island. Long before […]
For a while there, it looked like Miami-Dade Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins was going to coast to another four years. The fundraising was humming. The endorsements kept coming. The social media was polished. The labor unions were happy. The police unions were happy. Even the progressive groups were happy. In Miami politics, getting all those […]
Ah, Miami-Dade elections. Where every race comes with baggage. Sometimes it’s carry-on. Sometimes it’s oversized. And sometimes it needs its own baggage carousel. The race for Miami-Dade County Commission District 5 has all three. On one side is incumbent Commissioner Vicki Lopez, the former state representative appointed by the other commissioners after Eileen Higgins was […]
There are policy debates. And then there are reality checks. Miami-Dade may be about to get one of the latter, based on the former. By Friday, thousands of Haitian immigrants in South Florida who have lived and worked here legally under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) could begin losing authorization to work if Congress and the […]
The political establishment has spoken. The endorsements have been handed out. The campaign checks have been cashed. The consultants have been paid. And after all that, more than a third of Democratic voters in Congressional District 24 are still saying, “Meh.” A new St. Pete Polls survey commissioned by Florida Politics shows what is shaping […]
The audacity. That may be the most remarkable thing about HRP Group CEO Roberto Perez‘s recent Miami Herald op-ed defending his company’s Fisher Island fuel depot project. Not the eloquent tribute to capitalism. Not the lecture on the Constitution. Not even the sermon on property rights. The audacity. Perez would have Miami-Dade residents believe his […]
There’s a new sheriff holding the gavel at City Hall If anyone still wondered who was running Miami City Hall, wonder no more. Mayor Eileen Higgins has officially taken the Commission chair away from Commissioner Christine King and handed it to… herself. In a memo sent Monday to commissioners and City Manager James Reyes, Higgins […]
First in a series on the Miami-Dade 2026-27 budget Budget season is back. Hide your wallets. The annual ritual has begun. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has unveiled her proposed $14.3 billion budget for fiscal year 2026-27 (Ladra suspects it is higher), and if last year’s budget process felt like a root canal without anesthesia, […]
Anthony Rodriguez pitches making same-day permits permanent Miami-Dade County government may actually be considering doing something that makes life easier for homeowners who now have to make three trips to the permitting office, take two blood-pressure medications and get a notarized affidavit from their great-grandmother when they want to put up a backyard fence. County […]
For decades, judicial races in Miami-Dade have been the political equivalent of background music. They’re on the ballot. Most voters know they’re there. Few know or care much about the candidates. This year, that changed. The race for 11th Judicial Circuit Court Group 67 has evolved from a little-noticed contest into one of the most […]