Subject: Michelle Spence-Jones

• A Reprieve for the Liberty City Shantytown

  January 9, 2007

• Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones Beats Corruption Charges

  June 4, 2009

• The Death of a Shantytown

  April 26, 2007

• Miami 21 Marathon

  June 28, 2007

• What’ll they think of next? Trees with leaves on them?

  July 24, 2007

• Weekly News Wrap

  December 14, 2007

• More Dirt on Commissioner Spence-Jones

  December 20, 2007

• Spence-Jones Looks for Support in Familiar Places

  December 28, 2007

• Weekly News Wrap – 1/25/08

  January 25, 2008

• Support Sarnoff, Get Paid

  February 12, 2008

• Sarnoff's Agenda Hyjacked

  February 14, 2008

• Weekly New Wrap - College Killing, Sarnoff, Santeria and more

  February 15, 2008

• Blight Fight

  September 14, 2006

• 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 Arriola at which time the former city manager informs Sarnoff that another city commissioner, Michelle Spence-Jones, is shaking down developers. After the clandestine encounter, Sarnoff jots down the detai

  December 31, 2008

• Hope for Overtown

  At 11:45 this morning, Jackson Soul Food restaurant at 950 NW Third Ave. was standing-room-only. Overtown and Liberty City residents packed every booth, table, and counter inside the storied and recently  remodeled soul food eatery as they watched President Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony on three brand-new flat-screen TV sets on the walls. It was an appropriate venue for Miami's black community to celebrate America's first black president.Jackson Soul Food started business in 1946 when

  January 20, 2009

• News Round Up

  Bill Clinton dropped by Miami on Friday night and helped Kendrick Meek raise $300,000 for his Senate race. [Naked Politics]That thing we posted about the 2014 Governor's race already having front runners is legit. Boy wonder Republican Congressman Adam Putnam announced he'd give up his legislative seat and run for Agriculture Commissioner in 2010. [Ledger]What? A local former priest caught with dirty picture of little boys on his computers? Next you're going to tell me their are Republican polit

  February 2, 2009

• Marlins Deal Kaput?

  The Florida Marlins are in desperate need of a great closer. Someone who can seal the deal with the Miami City Commission and the Miami-Dade County Commission over the team's sweetheart $630 million stadium deal. Right now the Marlins dreams of a new domed home on the former Orange Bowl site appears to be falling apart. Already facing skepticism from City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff and several county commissioners, the Marlins now have to find a way to make City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jone

  February 27, 2009

• News Roundup

  LocalVice President Biden tried to butter up reps from the biggest union in all the land, AFL-CIO, so they'd support the stimulus bill during a meeting in Miami Beach yesterday. [AP]He also announced $8.4 billion from the stimulus package will benefit transportation, and called the Miami Intermodal Center "the wave of the future." [CBS News]Employees at Stanford Financial Miami branch, the company owned and operated by ponzi-schemer Allen Stanford (who does not deserve to be called sir), came ba

  March 6, 2009

• A disappointed open letter to Michelle Spence-Jones

  Floridians haven't followed the Marlins this closely since the Gary Sheffield Era, and today, another chapter was written in the saga of the proposed Little Havana stadium. Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones pretty much played this perfectly, even using a fetus to her advantage. She was on maternity leave when the remaining four Miami commissioners deadlocked on a vote for the stadium, and when she returned, she extorted the team to swing more cash her district's way. Today, she gave her swing v

  March 19, 2009

• Shear Happiness

  April 9, 2009

• Letters from the Issue of February 28, 2008

  "People need to know the truth about him. He makes me sick!"

  February 28, 2008

• Sarnoff Turns His Back on Blacks

  Coconut Grove's other half feels left out.

  February 21, 2008

• City Hall Stinks

  There's a war on Dinner Key, and Marc Sarnoff is a bomb-thrower.

  February 14, 2008

• Waterfront Access Is for Commies

  September 14, 2006

• The Price of Victory

  September 21, 2006

• On the MMAP

  The key to understanding the new corruption charges? Look at the old ones.

  December 27, 2007

• Spence-Jones Faces Indictment

  December 13, 2007

• Stop the Cat Box

  December 14, 2006

• Arriola Resign? Fuhgeddaboutit!

  March 9, 2006

• Bad vs. Worse

  November 3, 2005

• Black Vs. White - Miami Remains The Same

  Alex Izaguirre Just got back from the Spence-Jones Vindication Show in Overtown. The thunderstorms had just subsided outside the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church at 301 NW 9th Street. But inside Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones' angry voice boomed throughout the cavernous assembly hall. She was flanked by 30 to 40 supporters."It's been almost two years of headaches and heartaches for me and my family," Spence-Jones intoned, "all based on innuendos and false allegations to divert attention fr

  May 27, 2009

• Best of Miami 2009 Preview: Best Politician

  New Times Best of Miami issue hits the streets this week. With this post, Riptide 2.0 provides an appetizer. The main course/entire issue will appear on the website Tuesday afternoon. Best Politician Michelle Spence-Jones She was elected in 2005, and not a moment has passed without controversy for Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. Her former political opponent, Richard Dunn, sued her in Miami-Dade Circuit Court the second she took office, claiming she bought votes, and

  June 8, 2009

• Outrage: Police Review Board Screwed Again By City Politicians

  Back in the bad old days of 2002,  the City of Miami Police Department had some nasty habits: shooting dozens of people, beating suspects, ripping through the city on dangerous chases.City police averaged 80 shootings every year and killed 15 suspects -- most black and poor. Things got so bad that Mayor Manny Diaz asked the Justice Department to come in and tell the cops how to shape up. And voters overwhelmingly approved a new review board called the Civilian Investigative Panel. They crea

  June 26, 2009

• In the Name of the King

  August 13, 2009

• Miami Election Results: Regalado Landslide

  Tomas Regalado will be Miami's next mayor, winning with about 72% of the vote. Joe Sanchez, his competitor and fellow City Commissioner, netted a disappointing 28%. We'll do more thinking about this tomorrow, I'm sure, but for now the results. Miami Mayor: Tomas RegaladoMiami Commissioner - District 3: Frank CarolloMiami Commissioner - District 4: Francis Suarez (44%) heads to a runoff with Manolo Reyes (40%)Miami Commissioner - District 5: Michelle Spence-Jones

  November 3, 2009

• News Roundup: Commissioner Gonzalez Resigning; Blah, Blah, LeBron James

  Miami City Commissioner Angel Gonzalez will resign soon amid an investigation into a job he got his daughter. There's probably a joke in here about his name being Angel while he is clearly not one, but why would we make a joke as horrible as that? That joke would be almost as horrible as the city commission. [Herald]Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones will be sworn in today, despite allegations she, too, is horrible. [Herald]Some Twilight actors were in town? OMG. The brooding chick who bites her

  November 12, 2009

• Michelle Spence-Jones Surrenders to Police a Day After She's Sworn In

  Michelle Spence-Jones​A day after being sworn in for her second term on the Miami city commission, Michelle Spence-Jones has surrendered to police and faces grand theft charges. Prosecutors allege Spence-Jones forged letters, at least one in the name of a former county commissioner, and steered $50,000 in county grants to a family business before she was elected. Some of that money went directly to the pockets of Spence-Jones and her brother, and was used to pay off personal expenses. At the t

  November 13, 2009

• Michelle Bonds Out While Angel Skates

  ​Early this morning, in front of the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building at 1351 NW 12th Street, after reading from a prepared statement asserting her innocence, Michelle Spence-Jones grew testy with some of the Miami media horde chronicling her surrender to law enforcement officials.When WPLG's political reporter Michael Putney asked her if she believed racism played a factor in her being criminally charged with one count of second degree grand theft, Spence-Jones answered tersely: "This is

  November 13, 2009

• Michelle Spence-Jones Knuckles Up

  Michelle Spence-Jones​Michelle Spence-Jones, wearing a red-and-black dress, black stockings and no shoes, stood in the middle of her Liberty City home's wood-floored living room.It was close to 1 p.m. this past Friday the 13th. Fourteen friends and family members gathered around her and listened raptly. She spoke authoritatively, gesticulating with both hands, her long black dreadlocks bouncing to the beat of her high-pitched voice."It is amazing how wicked the timing of this whole thing was,"

  November 16, 2009

• Charlie Don't Appoint

  Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado​Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado's insistence that Gov. Charlie Crist appoint a replacement for suspended commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones is getting ugly.Over the weekend, Regalado and Commission Chairman Marc Sarnoff were pressuring Angel Gonzalez -- who resigned yesterday as part of his guilty plea deal with prosecutors -- to come into City Hall for an emergency city commission meeting to appoint Spence-Jones's replacement. That failed miserably with Gonzalez allegedl

  November 17, 2009

• Michelle Spence-Jones May Run in Special Election

  So, Miami will hold a special election to fill the seat that Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones was booted from after turning herself in for grand theft charges a day after she was sworn in for her second term. And you'll never guess who's considering a run: Michelle Spence-Jones! Spence-Jones is eligible to run since she hasn't been convicted of anything.  "I am considering it, but I have not made a decision yet," she told CBS4. CBS4 reminds us of a similar situation in 1998 when Comm

  November 17, 2009

• Is suspended Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones a victim of racism?

  November 19, 2009

• Charlie Crist won't appoint a replacement for ousted Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones

  November 19, 2009

• News Roundup: Is Michelle Spence-Jones Team Edward or Team Jacob?

  Michelle Spence-Jones will run for the commission seat she just got kicked out of. [Herald]President Obama answered a Cuban dissident blogger's questions. [NBCMiami]The Miami Herald's website has a special section devoted to The Twilight Saga: New Moon: Erotic Literature for Teenage Girls. Hey, maybe teen girls will find that section and then read other sections of the site and love it so much they might get a subscription. No, they totally won't. [Herald]RIP Metrozoo jaguar. [Herald]Sports

  November 20, 2009