Today, Miami-Dade Commissioners will again consider giving money away to the Miami Dolphins’ billionaire owner Stephen Ross for events that he would already have because they already make him tons of money. I swear I am not making this up. Instead of paying him to bring a Super Bowl, our esteemed electeds should be talking […]
Every year, lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez and his wife Marile take photos with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his wife, Lourdes, at the mayor’s ball. But Ladra hasn’t seen a photo of them taken together from Saturday’s black tie event benefiting United Way. Maybe he knows Ladra would use it. The photo we did see […]
Lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez, who is a close friend of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and spends a lot of time at County Hall, has been on the defensive in the past week or so for one of his clients, Lyft, which provides a ride sharing program that is operating in the county illegally. And he […]
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez may still enjoy a majority approval rating — with 53% of respondents saying they thought he was doing an excellent (11%) or good (42%) job at the county, according to a recent pool. That’s not bad. But it’s not really good either, considering that there is a 4% margin of error, […]
Miami Beach activist Mike Burke is the only one who answered Ladra’s call almost a year ago for political cartoons. This watchdog cannot draw to save her life. Once in a while, he sends something that is not too much of an inside joke and can be published. This week was one of those times. […]
This is beginning to feel like a recurring nightmare. In his desperate attempt to find a taxpayer bailout for the team he apparently overpaid for, Stephen Ross — one of the richest men in the U.S, according to Forbes — is going on his third try for subsidies from Miami-Dade County. Mayor Carlos Gimenez — […]
One after the other, Miami-Dade Commissioners who voted in favor of a new agreement with the Miami Heat owners for the operation and maintenance of the AmericanAirlines Arena downtown said it was better than the last deal they heard about. It’s become like that other mantra: “It’s better than the Marlins deal.” Nevermind that the […]
Some call it payback for the 5% loss and the veto override that arguably strained some of his already-limited ability to negotiate with the county employee unions, but Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is proposing new contracts that ask for a 10% cut in base pay and hints at a new battle with our county labor […]
Let the political Hunger Games begin. When the prize is a $1.6 billion sewer contract at Miami-Dade, the lobbyists and representatives of the companies vying for that chunk of ka-ching are like “tributes” fighting to the death. They are not just going to lay down and die if they don’t get it on the first […]
Some 305 political observers may have expected Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to recommend CH2M Hill for the fat, juicy $1.6 billion water and sewer contract, because their lobbyists include his buddies — former State Rep. turned lobbyist Marcelo Llorente and Vicky Garcia-Toledo, wife of chaffeur turned big wig pretender Ralph Garcia Toledo. But what people […]