Carlos Gimenez

Judge Allows Environmental Group To Join Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Lawsuit

As Miami-Dade County moves forward with its $12.6 billion plan to fix the aging water and sewer collection system, Federal Chief Judge Frederico Moreno yesterday awarded a significant victory to the Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper, an environmental group that claims the county proposal does not address sea ... More >>

Miami-Dade Inspector General: County Built Two Projects With No Permits

Building permit? Miami-Dade County doesn't need any stinkin' building permit!In fact, officials for the county's internal services department got away with completing two construction projects in downtown Miami without obtaining permits for either one, according to Miami-Dade Inspector General Chris ... More >>

Reader Mail: Long Voting Lines Were a GOP Plot

Rock The Vote Teams Up With Miami Tech Start-Up To Create Mobile Registration Campaign

With voter registration for the November presidential election closing on October 9, if you haven't done so already, you may not make the deadline -- unless you have a smart phone and happen to be standing next to one of ten Rock the Vote bus bench posters scattered between Morningside and downtown ... More >>

Smarte Carte Likely to Get New County Contract Despite Finger-Severing Accidents at MIA

Read our original story about another finger-severing Smarte Carte accident at MIA.Marina Sammartino is a sweet 77-year-old Argentine abuelita. But ask her about Miami International Airport and she lifts her left hand to show a stump where her pinky should be. "What's going on there is a scandal," s ... More >>

Tropical Storm Isaac: Hurricane Warning, Schools Closed Monday UPDATED

It's happening, people! Southern Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys are under a hurricane watch as Tropical Storm Isaac keeps moving northwest at 17 mph. The northern part of the county remains under a hurricane warning.The latest NOAA update has the storm making landfall in Cuba with max sustained win ... More >>

Candidates Endorsed by Miami's Leading Anti-Gay Group Mostly Tanked Big Time in Tuesday's Elections

Several local candidates competing in Tuesday's elections sought the endorsement of the controversial anti-gay group the Christian Family Coalition, but it turns out that the group's endorsement isn't worth much. Out of the dozens of candidates the group endorsed this cycle, only three of the non-in ... More >>

Ex-Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina's Uncle Arrested for Ballot Fraud

A second arrest has been made in a now expanding case of absentee ballot voter fraud, and the latest suspect has some interesting family connections.Sergio Robaina, the 76-year-old uncle of former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, has been charged with two felony counts of voter fraud and two misdemeanor ... More >>

Metrorail Finally Connects to MIA, But Good Luck Getting From the Airport to South Beach

When Miami's Metrorail finally reached the city's airport last week via a half-billion dollar expansion, our town's leader's weren't exactly humble. The 2.4 miles of track now make Miami "one of the great cities," County Mayor Carlos Gimenez crowed. But the long-overdue expansion can't cloud a bigge ... More >>

Genting Executives Contribute To Incumbent County Commissioners

Read our previous coverage of Genting's political contributions.The Malaysian gambling conglomerate that wants to build a casino resort on the site of the Miami Herald headquarters believes in county commissioners Audrey Edmonson, Bruno Barreiro, Barbara Jordan and Dennis Moss, the quartet of incumb ... More >>

Donald Trump Wants to Build a Mini-Hollywood Film Studio City in Homestead

It's going to be the classiest, finest film studio in all of the world. Or at least that's what Donald Trump's company seems to think.The Trump Organization has unveiled plans to incorporate an 800-acre studio city down near Homestead in the southern reaches of Miami-Dade County dubbed, what else, T ... More >>

Trayvon Martin's Legacy: Maybe Blacks Will Start Voting

Trayvon Martin Tragedy Should Inspire Black Voters to Go to the Polls

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. This week, Luke says African-Americans need to march to the polls on Election Day.For more than two weeks, tens of thousands of African-Americans have been ... More >>

Project Hope employees say tutoring program won't pay up

Bill Cooke: Media magnet

Xavier Suarez and Joe Carollo Endorse Newt Gingrich

​Turns out Xavier Suarez and Joe Carollo can actually agree on something: they like Newt Gingrich. They've both been announced as members of Gingrich's Florida Steering Committee. Then again, it only makes sense that two guys who saw their political careers take embarrassing stumbles in the '90s w ... More >>

Miami's top news stories of 2011

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

Miami Art Museum name game

Miami-Dade's red-light-camera bad boys Larry Hawkins and Hector Ortiz

Red-Light Cameras Line the Pockets of Very Bad Boys

A disgraced former Miami-Dade County commissioner and a Hialeah businessman once banned from getting county contracts are making big bucks off the red-light camera blitzkrieg in South Florida. Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions (ATS), which has installed red-light cameras in 22 cities in Miami ... More >>

Recall Tomas Regalado

Five Times Julio Robaina Screwed The Taxpayers

Julio Robaina, sucky mayoral candidate number 1.​You know Miami-Dade politics is a joke when the county mayor's race comes down to which guy sucks less. If you're into a Cuban version of Arthur Fonzerelli with his own private shadow bank, you'll vote for Julio Robaina. If you're interested in the ... More >>

Julio Robaina Picks Up Endorsement for Anti-Gay Marriage, Anti-Choice, and Anti-Art Views

​Social issues have not been a driving force in local Miami-Dade politics for some time, with most voters more concerned with pressing issues like property taxes and budget problems. Today, however, the Christian Family Coalition of South Florida injected a big dose of social conservatism into the ... More >>

Voters love Luther Campbell

Luther Campbell Would Like To Thank His Voters

Alex Izaguirre​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. This week, Luke, who lost in Tuesday's mayoral election, lets voters explain why they chose him.I raised only $12,000 ... More >>

Julio Robaina Has Raised $1.2 Million, More than Ten Other Candidates Combined

The man with the cash.​If Julio Robaina walks away with the County Mayor election today -- despite scandals over Ponzi schemes, shady real estate deals and his support for the Marlins Stadium -- there shouldn't be all that much mystery about how he pulled it off. The latest campaign finance report ... More >>

How Luther Campbell will win

Will the real Julio Robaina please stand up?

Vote Luther Campbell for mayor

Norman Braman Endorses Mayor Loco Xavier Suarez?

Norman Braman confuses us sometimes.​So multi-billionaire car dealer Norman Braman is all about reforming county government and curtailing the influence of lobbyists. Then why the heck is Braman's mug on a flyer endorsing Xavier Suarez for county commissioner? Voters in district 7 received the cam ... More >>

Univision Mayoral Forum At FIU Snubs Non-Cuban American Candidates UPDATED

Does the Golden Panther Speake Spanish Only?​UPDATE: Univision says candidates invited to its forum were invited based on the amount of money they've raised for their campaigns and not because of their Cubaness. You'd expect a state-run university in Cuba to exclude candidates from participating i ... More >>

Xavier Suarez Raises $100,000 In 15 Days For County Commission Seat

Xavier Suarez​The man once dubbed "Mayor Loco" and who showed up to a constituent's house in his bathrobe when he was Miami Mayor is still a formidable rainmaker. Xavier Suarez has picked up $109,950 in campaign contributions in his second bid to become a county commissioner.Suarez is running agai ... More >>

Special Election, Not Appointment, Likely for Next Mayor

​After Tuesday's unambiguous recall of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas, could you even imagine what would happen if county commissioners decided to exercise the option to appoint a new mayor themselves? If not a full-out voter revolt and more recalls, at least cert ... More >>

Luther Campbell Files Paperwork For County Mayor

Luther Campbell fills out his candidate forms at the Miami-Dade Elections Office.​It's official. Uncle Luke is running. He is a bona-fide candidate for the 2012 Miami-Dade County mayor's race. Yesterday, he quietly filed his candidate paperwork at the Miami-Dade Elections Office. Hialeah Mayor Jul ... More >>

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 >>

When It Comes to Feeding the Elderly, Political Connections Help

Miami-Dade Commissioner Natacha Siejas​​Today, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas will wave her nefarious wand to help a longtime county vendor hold on to a multimillion dollar contract to feed the handicapped and the elderly for at least another month. The county commission is set to ... More >>

Miami Art Museum in Bicentennial Park: "It'll never happen"

Commisioner Gimenez's Son Arrested for Bar Brawl

Miami-Dade Commissioner Carlos Gimenez's troubled kid, Julio Francisco Gimenez, was arrested after a bar brawl this past Saturday. Actually, he's not even a kid -- he's a 31-year-old man. Gimenez was at the Sports Exchange, a bar in Coral Gables, watching college football when he got into a hea ... More >>

County Manager George Burgess Vacations Despite Fragile Deal

Odebrecht Is Portuguese for "Big Money Donor"

For the past two days, I've noted all the work Miami-Dade County awards Brazilian engineering and construction firm Odebrecht. Despite a history of completing jobs behind schedule and over budget, the company continues to get the nod to build county-funded projects worth hundreds of millions of dol ... More >>

Bike the Rickenbacker, Get Ready to Two-Wheel in downtown and on the Beach

Let's face it. Miami is one of America's worst places to ride a bicycle.Guys on two wheels get whacked on Brickell, nailed in the Redland, and steamrollered on US 1. Bicycling magazine placed us at the bottom along with Dallas and Memphis not long ago. And Florida is clearly the worst in the nation ... 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.

Give Money, Get Contracts

You Go, Will Johnson

Who is: Stanley Price?

BEST LOCAL POLITICIAN

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz

BEST LOCAL PHANTASMAGORIA

Looks Good on Paper

Miami's planners already have a blueprint for eliminating poverty -- now all they need is a little divine intervention

Mission Man

Miami's Downtown commissioner is still fighting, and still hopeful of big change

You Are Cordially Invited

So you weren't among those lucky few who dined with the king and queen? Consider it a compliment.