Subject: Public Finance

• Are Newspapers Pocketing Illegal Taxes?

  April 4, 2007

• Tax Troubles

  June 25, 2007

• Christmas in Key West

  November 7, 2007

• Weekly News Wrap - Super Tuesday, Money Laundering, Cuba Criticism and more

  February 8, 2008

• Pretty in the City – Blow Your Tax Rebate Out With a Bang

  April 18, 2008

• Does Bill Nelson Want to Raise Taxes on Your Alcohol?

  I was reading I Can Has Cheezburger in my RSS Reader when I saw this ad below all the LOLcats. Apparently, Sen. Bill Nelson wants to raise the taxes on my wine by 233 percent! The ad leads to the Freedom Work's website, where it explains "a massive new tax hike" to pay for health care, which also includes a 145 percent tax increase on a six-pack of beer and 19 percent on liquor. Those damn D.C. bastards, trying to price me out of getting ass-drunk every night! The plan comes out of the Senate F

  June 2, 2009

• Banana Republican - Transit Follies

  June 4, 2008

• Why Americans Get Their News From Jon Stewart

  July 9, 2007

• Florida Supreme Court Takes Three Amendments Off the Ballot

  September 3, 2008

• Miami-Dade Food Stamps - How To Apply For and Receive Benefits

  http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/ess/foodstamps.shtmlRecent, informal, New Times web research showed a poor return of official government websites providing information on how to apply for and receive food stamp benefits in Miami-Dade county.A google search for Miami-Dade food stamps returned mostly pages about a hurricane relief program from 2005. As it turns out, food stamps are a state program and a google search for Florida Food Stamps returned a number #1 result for the Florida Department of Chil

  June 1, 2009

• Killing Yourself Slowly with Cigarettes Will Remain Relatively Cheap

  Late last year, there was a bit of buzz that the long-proposed cigarette tax hike might come to fruition. Florida has some of the lowest cigarette taxes in the nation, but the idea of raising the tax a dollar per pack was struck down today in the state's special legislative session. Rep. Jim Waldman, a Democrat, proposed the taxes, but Republicans who apparently respect people's rights to fill their lungs with sweet, sweet nicotine more than, say, a woman's right to choose, balked at the idea.

  January 5, 2009

• Floridians Favor Some Sort of Legal Recognition for Gay Couples, Despite Banning Marriage in the Constitution

  It was pretty evident to anyone with basic reading comprehension skills that the part of Amendment 2 that read, "no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized," would ban civil unions in the Florida Constitution. Florida voters passed that Amendment at a rate of 62 percent. Ironically, according to a new Quinnipiac poll, Floridians favor some sort of substantial legal recognition of gay relationships by 62 percent; 27 per

  January 22, 2009

• The Owe Zone

  May 4, 1994

• That's the Way the Check Bounces

  August 3, 1994

• Money for Something

  February 23, 1995

• Loudmouths

  April 6, 1995

• It's Only Money

  September 21, 1995

• Land of Opportunity

  December 28, 1995

• Tea Party Protests Make Less Sense than Pro Wrestling

  You know what never made sense to me? Back in the '90s, the WWF (now WWE) teamed up "The Million-Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, a character who was a millionaire, with Irwin R. Schyster, AKA I.R.S., a tax man. Together they won three tag-team titles, but, dude, millionaires friggin' hate the IRS more than anything. Right? Why would a millionaire fight alongside some guy who taxes his income at 35 percent? You know what other tax-related subject makes even less sense to me? This tea bag bullshit. Conse

  April 15, 2009

• Beenie Man

  December 20, 2007

• Miami: Screwed Again

  July 26, 2007

• Axing the Property Tax

  March 15, 2007

• To IRS With Love

  May 27, 2004

• Cows to Cuba

  April 8, 2004

• Prosperity One Step at a Time

  October 16, 2003

• The Will Adams Embargo

  January 9, 2003

• Busted!

  September 19, 2002

• BEST RESOURCE FOR RECENT ARRIVALS

  May 16, 2002

• Less for Moore, Part 2

  September 21, 2000

• If El Exilio Doesn't Get You, Uncle Sam Will

  June 18, 1998

• Whichever Way the Wind Blows

  April 9, 1998

• All Herald BrandsMart

  December 19, 1996

• Clinical Depression

  November 14, 1996

• The Stierheim Report

  October 31, 1996

• As Nasty as They Can Possibly Be

  July 4, 1996

• Sweet Redemption

  June 26, 1996

• Letters

  March 28, 1996

• Letters

  January 18, 1996

• In the Dead of the Night

  August 17, 1995

• Castroneves Acquitted

  Two days after everyone paid taxes, and thousands protested this basic fact, one guy got off free on charges of evading his taxes. Indianapolis 500 and Dancing With The Stars champion Helio Castroneves was acquitted on tax evasion charges. Castroneves was charged last October with failing to report $5.5 million. The AP just reported that Castroneves, as well as his sister Kati and lawyer Alan Miller, were also acquitted.[AP: Indy driver Castroneves acquitted in tax case][Miami Herald: Castroneve

  April 17, 2009

• State Stem Cell Funding Ban Upheld

  Last month President Obama repealed the ban on federal funding on stem cell research, but that doesn't necessarily open the door to state funding. Yesterday, the state house voted to keep language in a bill that would bar universities from using state money for embryonic stem cell research 68-46. The vote mainly broke along party lines, but five Republicans voted for the removal of the ban, while two democrats voted against. Amongst the Republican was J.C. Planas whose father has Parkinson's dis

  April 17, 2009

• Charlie Crist's Lame Attempt To Distance Himself From Obama

  When Charlie Crist stood on stage with President Obama in February I wonder if Crist had any idea that he'd actually be running for Senate. As a popular incumbent running for re-election the political risk would be lessened. Well, the risk of standing with a popular, newly elected president who won your state while supporting an economic program your state desperately needs is only a risk when you have to come face to face with the hard-liners in your own party. Now

  May 21, 2009

• Helio Castroneves Strikes Back

  May 28, 2009

• Feds Indict Miami Man Who Tried To Steal $14 Trillion from the IRS

  They don't call Marlon T. Moore "X-Large" for nothing. Back in December 2007, Moore, a 38-year-old Miami resident, walked out of the federal pen in Coleman, Florida after serving a six year sentence on felony money laundering charges as part of a cocaine smuggling ring. Soon after his release, Moore embarked upon a truly brilliant criminal enterprise: He did his taxes. It may not sound like much of a crime. But "X-Large" Moore -- one of several aliases he used, including Dammon Green and Tyrone

  June 15, 2009

• Kendrick Meek Opposes Using Federal Funds to Pay for Abortions

  Rep. Kendrick Meek has joined a small group of house Democrats asking that any health-care reforms not lead to federal funding of abortion, according to the Washington Post. The possibility of taxpayer money being used to pay for abortions is becoming a hot-button issue in the health-care reform debate -- one that Republicans might use to completely derail the purpose. Meek joined four other centrist Democrats who sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying they are "increasingly conc

  July 22, 2009

• News Roundup

  Today is sentencing for five members of the Liberty City Six. Each could face up to 70 years in prison. [CBS4]Miami 21 got its first stamp of approval from the city commission Friday night. But there's still plenty of hoops the plan has to jump through before becoming official. [SFBJ]Say hello to Tropical Storm Fred. [NBCMiami]Cigarette sales in Florida are down 28 percent from last year, possibly as a result of the dollar-per-pack tax hike. That's good news for anti-smoking advocates,

  September 8, 2009

• Two-Thirds of Voters Have Negative Opinion of Mayor Alvarez, 46 Percent Support Recall

  Jonathan Postal Miami-Dade Mayor Alvarez and the County Commission have thrown sizable pay raises to staffers like they were life-vests on a sinking ship. They've simultaneously tossed funding to cultural efforts and other social programs overboard. That hasn't proven popular with voters. According to a new poll commissioned by Local 10 and conducted by Bendixen and Associates, key county leaders are facing high levels of negative opinion, with 46 percent of voters even going as far

  September 10, 2009

• Hialeah Hanky-Panky

  Alex Izaguirre​Did something improper go on in Hialeah's budget office? Did budget director Alex Vega and senior internal auditor Ana Maria Gomez do more than just crunch numbers on city time? Well, whatever they were up to, it didn't sit well with Vega's wife Tania. This past April 6 around 12:30 p.m., Vega and Gomez were leaving the office to have lunch together. They walked out to the city hall parking lot and got in his car. But before Vega could back out, Tania pulled up. According to a

  October 6, 2009

• Hanky-panky in Hialeah's budget office?

  October 8, 2009

• Kendrick Meek Should Be Worried About Dennis Stackhouse

  Alex Izaguirre​ Congressman Kendrick Meek better keep a close eye on what happens to Dennis Stackhouse, the Boston developer who's been criminally charged on multiple counts of grand theft and organized scheme to defraud. Local law enforcement officials accuse Stackhouse of stealing $942,000 set aside to build a biopharmacutical park and create jobs in Liberty City that never happened. Stackhouse was already facing criminal charges in a seperate investigation that found he illegally reimbursed

  October 29, 2009