Public service or personal branding? There are few things more Miami than a politician using public money to create a scholarship fund bearing his own family name and then acting shocked when people start asking questions. Welcome to this week’s Miami commission meeting. Buried deep inside Thursday’s agenda — hidden beneath enough legal boilerplate to […]
Everybody loves David Rivera. Even now. Even after the guilty verdicts for acting as an unregistered foreign agent and money laundering in the Venezuela lobbying scandal. Even after prosecutors painted the once-fiery anti-communist congressman as a secret $50 million paid advocate for the Maduro regime. Even with a sentencing date looming and a tax case […]
Mayor accused of sexual harassment by commissioner For a brief shining moment Tuesday, the Coral Gables Commission appeared ready to discuss something mundane: a reappointment to a city board. Then Mayor Vince Lago grabbed the flamethrower. And just like that, City Hall once again transformed into the most expensive live-action telenovela in Miami-Dade County — […]
Could it be because of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein? There are campaign mistakes. And then there are campaign mistakes where you accidentally remind voters that one of your listed supporters was friends with Jeffrey Epstein. Welcome to the latest installment of Miami Beach political damage control. Miami-Dade Commissioner Vicki Lopez — the former state […]
Vicki Lopez vs Joe Sanchez might be only real contest Four of the seven Miami-Dade commissioners up for re-election this year might just coast back into office if they don’t get a challenge by the qualifying deadline in about two weeks. As of Memorial Day, incumbent Commissioners Micky Steinberg, Natalie Milian Orbis, Anthony Rodriguez and […]
Miguel Gabela won’t answer questions about spending Right after he was elected as an outsider and government reformer, Miami Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela promised voters he would expose the questionable spending habits at the Bayfront Park Management Trust under former Commissioner Joe Carollo. Instead, he seems to be copying those tactics now that he’s in […]
For four hours on a recent Wednesday, Miami-Dade commissioners sat around the dais debating the future of a mental health facility everybody claims they desperately want to open but nobody wants to fully pay for. And somewhere in the middle of all the speeches about compassion, fiscal responsibility, sustainability and “mission alignment,” an uncomfortable truth […]
A political action committee tied to Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo has apparently decided it is no longer enough to quietly freeze out downtown activist James Torres. Now, they want to publicly nuke him from orbit. A text blast sent Thursday paid by a PAC connected to Alex Miranda — one of the more quiet but […]
So it turns out the whispers were not whispers after all, queridos. They were spoilers. Just days after Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez announced his move to become the top cop in Miami, las malas lenguas told Ladra that Miami Springs Police Chief Matthew Castillo — who already looked less like a small-town chief settling […]
A tradition at Fritz & Franz Bierhaus could be over Apparently, Coral Gables is ready for the FIFA World Cup. Just not the people who actually gather to watch it together. On Tuesday, Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara once again kicked the can (the ball?) down the road on […]