In the final three months before his re-election last week, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago raised more than $389,000 for his political action committee, Coral Gables First, spending almost $330,000 on direct mail, email, text messaging, digital ads, political consulting, canvassing, polls and fundraising. These contributions did not become public until two days after the […]
At first blush, the item on the Miami City Commission agenda for Thursday’s meeting about expanding the pool of tow companies for the Miami Parking Authority — which currently only uses one company with political connections — sounds like a good idea. It just seems like too sweet a deal to let one company with […]
Former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla just keeps on winning. After getting 11 felony charges, including bribery and money laundering, dropped in November, Diaz de la Portilla won another court ruling Thursday when a judge dismissed a civil lawsuit from a lobbyist who says he was shaken down for a vote on a […]
Hialeah’s Angelica Pacheco gets a spot, too Miami has always been the city of second chances. And third and fourth chances when those don’t stick. Last week, the Miami-Dade’s Republican voters gave three politicians facing criminal trials a new opportunity to serve on the local GOP committee, which aims to promote the party — its […]
As he defends himself on 14 public corruption charges in criminal court, former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla is going on the offensive in divorce court, filing a counter motion for dissolution of marriage and demanding that his wife not only split the marital assets — like jewelry and designer clothing — but […]
Ruling says it was part of his job Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz on Thursday dismissed the civil lawsuit against former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who faces 14 political corruption charges on an unrelated case — in the alleged shakedown of the Rickenbacker Marina owner in 2020. She said in her […]
Did the money go to help the needy in District 1? About six months before Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was arrested in September on public corruption charges — for giving away a public park in exchange for more than $245,000 in campaign contributions and thousands more in gifts, meals, drinks and accommodations […]
Miami City Commissioner Miguel Gabela wanted the city to stop payments to attorney Ben Kuehne in cases where he was representing former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla in civil court. Kuehne is also Diaz de la Portilla’s attorney in his felony criminal case on money laundering, bribery and other public corruption charges. But before […]
A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge last week denied a motion from former Miami Commissioner Humberto Hernandez to dismiss him from the civil case brought against former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who is already facing bribery and money laundering charges in a separate case — for shaking down the operator of the […]
Could be up to the new sheriff to fight corruption The Florida Legislature last month passed a bill that will severely hamper ethics investigations. Just what Miami-Dade needs! This self-serving bill will not only prohibit local ethics agencies, like the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics, to initiate investigations on their own, but will also require complaints […]