Carlos Alvarez

Jimmy Morales, Former County Commissioner, Considering Run For Governor Against Rick Scott

With Rick Scott's dismal approval ratings, Democrats from all corners of the state are salivating over the chance to take him on in 2014. Jimmy Morales, the former chairmen of the Miami-Dade County Commission and the man who lost the mayoral race to Carlos Alvarez in 2004, has announced he's mulling ... More >>

Turns Out Voters Don't Think County Commissioners Deserve an $86,000 Raise

​After a fantastic performance over the past few years -- from backing a grotesquely bad Marlins stadium deal to voting for a billion-dollar tunnel to nowhere to faithfully rewarding their corporate backers -- Miami-Dade County commissioners sure seemed due for a hefty pay raise. Right?Nah, Dade v ... More >>

Miami's top news stories of 2011

Dude, where's my city? Miami wakes up with a pounding headache.

Norman Braman Threatens More Miami-Dade Commissioners with Recalls

​The paint has long dried on the victory signs declaring billionaire Norman Braman's success in his drive to recall Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, and yet it's hard to discern any meaningful policy change that has occurred in Miami-Dade since then. So, it's not surprising that Braman is now thre ... More >>

Miami-Dade Commissioners Pass Budget, Help Selves, Screw Cops

​Miami-Dade commissioners, in one of those crazy late night donnybrooks, passed a $6 billion budget Friday morning, but kept their cozy office deals and proposed to cut back on cops and other public employee salaries.That is what I call hypocrisy.According to this morning's Herald story, the commi ... More >>

Mayor Gimenez Wants to Close 13 Libraries, Fire 884 People To Cut Taxes

​Newly elected Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Wednesday proposed cutting last year's budget by 19 percent and reversing the tax hike ushered in by recalled mayor Carlos Alvarez, The Miami Herald reports.He wants to do it, and close the projected $400-million budget shortfall, by cutting 1,286 ... More >>

Carlos Gimenez Claims Victory in Miami-Dade Mayoral Election

By a surprisingly slim margin, Miami-Dade voters have picked Carlos Gimenez to serve as the county's next mayor. Gimenez received just 51 percent of the vote in the special runoff election triggered by the recall of former mayor Carlos Alvarez. Opponent Julio Robaina has offered his concession.Thoug ... More >>

Coke-smuggling legend Mickey Munday does spoken word

Cocaine Smuggler Mickey Munday Does Spoken Word

C. Stiles​If you're a fan of firsthand accounts, Michael O. Munday is something of a local treasure. Almost every one of his colleagues is dead, in prison, or underground. But 65-year-old Mickey Munday -- as the served-his-time cocaine megasmuggler is known -- just won't shut up. Now the gre ... More >>

Andre Pierre Wins Reelection In North Miami, Proving That Accountability Is Already Passé

Andre Pierre: unbelievably, still North Miami mayor​What a difference two months makes. In March, members of the Miami Heat were crying in their locker room; now they're poised to kick the Celtics out of the post-season. Back then, Donald Trump was flying high. Now everyone knows his presidential ... More >>

Jeffrey Lampert, Mayoral Candidate, Threatened with Arrest for Attending Debate

Local 10Jeffrey Lampert says debate organizers threatened to have him arrested if he showed up for a debate.​When Carlos Alvarez was booted from office on March 15, the largest local recall election in U.S. history sent a clear message to the Miami establishment: no more inside-the-beltway politic ... More >>

Norman Braman Gets Mayoral Candidates To Promise Charter Reform

photo by Tim ElfrinkBraman issues his marching orders.​When Norman Braman launched his campaign to oust Mayor Carlos Alvarez, he made it clear that charter reform -- including term limits -- was his real goal. Braman inched a step closer to making that happen today as three of the front-runners to ... More >>

Supermoon Rising: This Week's Five Signs of the Apocalypse

​In ancient Greek, apocalypse translates as "a revelation." So what could possibly be more apocalyptic than the giant freaking orange moon due to pop up tomorrow night? After all, it's the biggest and closest it's been in nearly two decades. FYI: the "extreme supermoon" is also predicted to (1) ma ... More >>

Miami Voice Celebrates the End of Natacha

​Natacha Seijas was right to worry about her name appearing on the same recall ballot as Carlos Alvarez. She was swept up in the voter tsunami that also took out the now former county mayor. Many local political pundits didn't give Miami Voice, the political action committee that sought Seijas's r ... More >>

Ten Other Things We Wish We Could Recall

​Even if you didn't think yesterday's recall of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas was a good idea, you must admit it was immensely satisfying to watch those lopsided results come in. We posit that it was better than sex. Fornication is wonderful and all, but how oft ... More >>

County Manager George Burgess Is Resigning

​Hours after voters tossed out the bums (ahem, Carlos Alvarez and the vile Natacha Seijas), County Manager George Burgess got the hint as well. Burgess is set to resign his post today at a 2 p.m. news conference.In memorium, we'll just toss out two things about Burgess: $422,118 (yu ... More >>

Recall Results: Alvarez and Seijas are Gone

​The people of Miami-Dade have spoken and they were not ambiguous about it: county mayor Carlos Alvarez and county commissioner Natacha Seijas are out of a job. The total vote count isn't in just yet, but as of right now both were ousted with about 88 percent of voters checking "yes."

Natacha Seijas goes on a recall rampage

Luke for mayor

Doral Mayor J.C. Bermudez Announces He Exists, Will Run For County Mayor

​Doral, that place out there to the west with the fancy golf resort, some strip malls, and some other stuff, probably, has a mayor. His name is J.C. Bermudez and he wants to be your next county mayor. Bermudez announced his entrance into the crowded field of contestants jockeying to repl ... More >>

How Does Mayor Luther Campbell Sound To You?

​Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. In this special edition, Luke contemplates being county mayor now that the recall election against Carlos Alvarez is set.If Carlos Al ... More >>

A look ahead: predicting 2011 headlines

Year in review: LeBron rescues Miami

Carlos Alvarez Recall Certified By Harvey Ruvin, Likely Headed To Voters Next Year

​Miami voters are one big step closer to a vote on whether to strip County Mayor Carlos Alvarez of his office, as Clerk Harvin Ruvin officially certified billionaire car dealer Norman Braman's recall effort this afternoon.Braman managed to collect more than 95,000 valid signatures in favor of the ... More >>

Five SoFla projects that have snorted our taxes

News Roundup: City Commission Gets It Dunn

After an epically long city commission meeting, commissioners chose the Rev. Richard Dunn to replace Michelle Spence-Jones after he pledged not to run for the seat in November. [Herald]Crime rates in unincorporated Dade County are down. [Herald]Sad Ponzi clown Scott Rothstein is going to p ... More >>

The Week That Was: Don't Park at White Room After Labor Day

Trying to find parking in this town can be hell, but be thankful you've never been shot in the pursuit of a space, like a teenage girl outside White Room. Police are looking for leads.Our heart is still beating from that Miami-FSU game. Jim Greer decided to let his children be indoctr ... More >>

$200K Publicly Funded Bureaucrat to Make the County Green

​Facing a $427 million deficit, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez promised he would thin out the county executive offices by 10 percent in his proposed budget. The Herald has written a fair amount about this lately. So have we. What you might not know is that two of them with monster salari ... More >>

Peel the Vote '09: Not That Carollo, But Still a Carollo

Alex Izaguirre In the crowded race to for the city commission seat being vacated by Joe Sanchez, perennial candidate Frank Carollo has amassed $95,275 in campaign . The guy's run before.Vitals: A 39-year-old certified public accountant with a perfectly symmetrical pompadour. Qualifications: Ra ... More >>

News Roundup

LocalMiami-Dade now has 10 confirmed cases of swine flu. Yeah, Swine Flu updates have gone from their own posts to the 'News Roundup.' [Herald]There was a hijacking at MIA! Actually, it was just a false alarm. [Herald]Mayor Carlos Alvarez has still not filled the top job at the County department tha ... More >>

Say No to the Stadium

Today the Miami-Dade County Commission will vote to build the Florida Marlins a new stadium. Or not. I hope they don't. This deal is such a stinker I don't know how Mayor Carlos Alvarez, the stadium's chief cheerleader, doesn't walk around wearing a gas mask every time he is out promoting it. So he ... More >>

Inspect no commissioners or the mayor

This past March 4, the Miami-Dade County Inspector General's Office announced it had nailed a county vendor falsifying his insurance paperwork in order to get a county contract. Thanks to the inspector general's investigation, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office was able to charge Eddy Joe Allen ... More >>

Esto solo pasa en Meeyami

Today, the last day of 2008, Banana Republican highlights his ten favorite news stories of the year, the tales that truly capture life in a sun-drenched, third-world dimension. 10. Marc Sarnoff's Memo to Himself. The Coconut Grove loving city commissioner has a super secret meeting with Joe Arrio ... More >>

Bloggers Pick Up on Carlos Alvarez Jr. Story Where Media Leaves Off

If the release of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlo Alvarez's son from prison was a big deal, you wouldn't know it from any of the local media outlets (us included). The news broke nearly three months after the fact in, of all places, Joan Fleischman's Herald gossip column. We relegated it to a link ... More >>

Selling Out at the Miami Herald

The newspaper's county hall reporter takes a six-figure job with the very people he was supposed to cover.

Alvarez a No-Show at the NAACP

Behind the Boot

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez is on a rampage. Here's the skinny.

Lincoln-Douglas It Wasn’t

"As the chair, you had the power to say something, and you didn’t"

Ding-Dong the Witch is Still Alive

Letters from the Issue of September 29, 2005

Savage words, Haitian rights, suicide notes, and DeFede friends and foes

The Toxic Pharmacy

A prominent couple's life unravels amid fraud charges and an arson investigation

Letters from the Issue of August 4, 2005

Response to "Tales of Teele," published July 28, 2005

Miami Gun Rhapsody

Who's packing heat in the Magic City? You don't have to conceal your curiosity a second longer

A Wash on the Wild Side

A Shock to the System

Letters from the Issue of January 6-12, 2005

Mortal Kombat, Miami-Style

It's another Rundle vs. Milian showdown for the State Attorney job, getting messier as the finish nears

High & Mighty

What do you do when some morons criticize you in a news report? If you're the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, the top federal cop, the answer is easy: You blackball the news reporter

Letters from the Issue of March 18, 2004

Civic demons, bad dentistry, and hip-hop culture crash

Thirteen Years at Center Stage