Social Policy

Seven in Ten Floridians Back Rubio-Led Immigration Reform, Poll Finds

As the Senate wrangles over a compromise immigration reform bill -- pushed in large part by our own Marco Rubio -- a new poll suggests a huge majority of Floridians are eager to see any path to citizenship opened for immigrants. The poll finds 71 percent of Floridians back the reform, including a ... More >>

Coca-Cola to Face Criticism for Food Stamp Lobbying

Ready for a shocker? American taxpayers subsidize the purchase of approximately $4 billion worth of soda products annually through SNAP, the supplemental nutritional aid program also known as food stamps. Federal, state, and local governments have all tried to prohibit the purchase of sodas and ... More >>

Food Stamp Debacle: Meet the One Governor Who Botched Public Aid Worse Than Rick Scott

Ah, government. It protects and serves. Floridians spent last year lamenting Gov. Rick Scott's bright idea for welfare recipients: a ludicrous plan to drug-test every single person on state aid. (The courts later threw that idea out the window.)Believe it or not, there's now a governor whose food st ... More >>

Republican Congressman Wants to Take Rick Scott's Welfare Drug Testing Law National

Despite Florida Governor Rick Scott's idea to drug test people receiving state assistance turning out to be an embarrassing failure on multiple levels, a Republican congressman from Tennessee has decided to take the idea national.Rep. Stephen Fincher of Frog Jump, Tennessee has introduced a bill tha ... More >>

Uncle Luke: Election's on "Women's Rights, Vote or Get Guy Who'll Overturn Roe v. Wade"

In 1990, a concerned citizen by the name of Terence D. Edwards wrote a letter to the New York Times encouraging the public to reject 2 Live Crew. "The imagery of 2 Live Crew's lyrics and stage performance is of sexual degradation and sneering self-satisfaction," he wrote, "repeatedly and venomous ... More >>

Poll: Obama Leads Among Florida Hispanics 61-31

Obama may not have done his reelection campaign any favors by pulling a Dan Carpenter-vs-the-Jets level chokejob in Wednesday's debate. But it's increasingly clear that, at least in Florida, the president has gotten a huge boost from his executive order in July halting deportations for some children ... More >>

Mitt Romney Wins First Debate By Being a Ballsy, Big Bird-Killing Bullsh*t Artist

As Walter Cronkite once said: "Well, that debate was one flaming pile of rancid cat shit."*For those of you who didn't suffer through last night's 90-minute cojone-eating contest between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, here's your 10-second summary:Romney wonObama lostRomney snorted Ronald R ... More >>

Video of Rick Scott and Pam Bondi Learning Obamacare Was Struck Down, and Then Realizing It Wasn't

See also "Obamacare Is American As Apple Pie and Free Speech" and "Obamacare Ruled Constitutional by Supreme Court; Sorry, Pam Bondi."This is nothing even close to Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) erupting into shrieks of joy upon learning of false reports that the individual mandate of the Affordable Car ... More >>

Obamacare Is American As Apple Pie and Free Speech

Luther Campbell, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. Today, Luke weighs in on Obamacare. As someone who's knows what it's like to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, I'm very happy for ... More >>

Sports Illustrated Tackles Luther Campbell's Fight To Coach at Miami Northwestern High

You'd think the Florida Department of Education has more important things to worry about like the FCAT debacle. Instead, state education officials are working hard, wasting taxpayer money, to make sure Luther Campbell -- former 2 Live Crew front man and current New Times columnist -- doesn't get to ... More >>

Protest Stupid, Racist Laws

The U.S. Supreme Court and President Obama leave the undocumented and their allies no choice but to escalate civil disobedience.

Aiman Aryan, Government Center Pill Mill Pharmacist, Pleads Guilty

​A pharmacist who ran a pill mill from the lobby of the Miami-Dade County Government Center is pleading guilty for his role in a $55 million medicare scam involving prescription pain killers. Aiman Aryan will give up his pharmacist license and will be sentenced to at least 10 years in prison. ... More >>

Tea Party Disappointed Rick Scott Hasn't Been a Bigger Tea Party Wingnut

Reality, or something sort of like it, has finally caught up to Gov. Rick Scott. The Tea Party activists that help elect him? They're apparently not so enamored of Scott any longer. The leaders of what remains of the movement are not too pleased with Scott's performance as governor thus far, even th ... More >>

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho Turned Down a Job in the Obama Administration

Most local officials would jump at the chance to take their talents to Washington. Who wouldn't want national influence? Apparently not Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. He claims he turned down a job offer from Obama's secretary of education Arne Duncan.

Daily Show Reporter Asks Rick Scott to Pee in a Cup

​You can bet that whoever let The Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi into increasingly unpopular Gov. Rick Scott's press conference today is going to get a dressing down tonight. The comedian, who we're assuming is preparing an upcoming piece on Scott for the show, asked the governor to pee in ... More >>

12 South Florida Seniors Go Blind After Tainted Injections

​Twelve senior citizens in South Florida have lost their vision after being injected with tainted medication. The Department of Health claims a contaminated batch of medication and syringes was distributed to various medical clinics in the area.

Mana at American Airlines Arena July 7

Maná Drummer Alex González Talks Drama y Luz, Politics, and Latino Pride

Photo by Omar CruzManá drummer Alex González.​No Latin band has tugged as many heartstrings, quite as hard as the Mexican rock band Maná. In a 20-year reign, the Grammy Award-winning group has traveled all over the world, flooding arenas and selling out shows from Guadalajara to Berlin. ... More >>

Achievement Gap Between White and Hispanic Students Still as Wide as it Was in the 1990s

Some children are apparently still left behind. ​Nearly 10 years ago President George W. Bush signed into law the "No Child Left Behind" act. Among other goals, Bush believed his education reforms would help close the achievement gap between white and minority students. Well, the Department of Edu ... More >>

Conservatives Outraged as Hispanic Republicans Water Down Florida's Arizona-style Immigration Bill

​Florida's so-called Arizona-style immigration bill, which Governor Rick Scott campaigned on, is looking less and less Arizona-style as it makes it way through the state legislature. Republican state Senator Anitere Flores, who had authored the original Senate version of the bill, helped approve a ... More >>

President Obama and Jeb Bush to Make Joint Appearance at Miami High School

​Politics and publicity opportunities make strange bedfellows. President Barack Obama and former Gov. Jeb Bush will appear together this Friday at Miami Central High School. Obama will be in town for a Democratic fundraiser but will swing by the school with Bush to address ways to turn around low- ... More >>

Haitian deportation process is unfair

Bill Filed to Drug Test Certain Welfare Recipients, But Does it Go Far Enough For Rick Scott?

​Among Governor Rick Scott's cavalcade of controversial ideas is a plan to drug test all recipients of welfare in the state. Now Republican legislators have filed a bill to carry out a version of the plan, but it would only require welfare recipients with a felony drug conviction in the past three ... More >>

Cuban Officials to Testify in Posada Carriles Trial

​In a highly unusual move, three officials from Cuba could take the stand as early as today in the trial of Luis Posada Carrilles, the Miami freedom fighter or terrorist, depending on which side of the Florida straits you live. The officials are expected to testify in federal court in West Te ... More >>

Florida Judge Worried Obama Might Make Us All Buy Broccoli

via​A federal judge today began hearing arguments in outgoing Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's lawsuit against the Federal Government, which alleges that forcing citizens to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. The trial is expected to be an in-depth, mature and scholarly proceeding. ... More >>

First Recent Case of Cholera Suspected in Miami-Dade

​Miami-Dade already has cases of hookworm and dengue fever, and now health officials are investigating the possibility that a man with cholera might have entered the county. According to the Miami Herald, a doctor traveling from Haiti arrived at Miami International Airport around 6 p.m. ... More >>

Forget Bedbugs, Miami Beach Has Hookworms

via WikiCommons​Chicago and New York are currently freaking out about silly little bedbugs. They've even hit the United Nations building. Miami Beach has far scarier infestation problems: hookworms! The parasitic pest borrow through people's skins before eventually finding their way into the small ... More >>

Florida's Arizona-Style Immigration Bill Would Give Canadians, Europeans a Free Pass

Florida's new immigration bill would let guys like this off the hook, papers or not.​Florida state Rep. William Snyder, the slow-drawling ex-Miami-Dade Police officer who has drafted Tallahassee's version of the hotly debated Arizona immigration bill, is adamant that his law would not lead to raci ... More >>

Only a fraction of Mexicans get U.S. asylum

Suspected Case of Dengue Fever in Miami Beach Comes Back Negative

via Kitbag​Looks like we shouldn't be quite so worried about a third world disease roaring back into Miami-Dade yet (take that Tom Tancredo). Health officials reported yesterday that a case of Dengue Fever had popped up in a Miami Beach man, but now they say his test results have come back negativ ... More >>

What's a little marriage fraud between amigos?

It's a felony, sure, but in the absence of real immigration reform, some young, assimilated illegal immigrants see it as their best path to citizenship.

Arizona-Style Immigration Rules Threatening In Miami, Advocates Warn

On Friday, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed an immigration bill into law that would be the laughingstock of the nation if it weren't so damned disturbing. Advocates say cooperation between ICE and local cops scares South Florida immigrants.​Essentially, it legalizes racial profiling by allowi ... More >>

Top Ten Thursdays: Top Ten Songs for Obama Haters

via rpof.orgJim Greer thinks censorship is very American.​All summer long I have gone shit-house-rat-crazy observing the likes of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Karl Rove and the rest of The Right's evil elite dispense fear-mongering falsehoods in a desperate attempt to stop some much nee ... More >>

Architects of Gay Marriage Ban Need Money To Defend Florida from Evils of John & Kate

Once apon a time Jon & Kate Gosselin were folk heros in the pro-life movement for refusing to selectively reduce a few embryos after Kates invitro fertilization resulted in six fertilized eggs. Instead they chose to take their chances with having sextuplets, which t ... More >>

U.S. Won't Grant HIV-Positive Cuban Asylum

viaGive us your poor, your tired, but apparently not your HIV We don't have to familiarize any locals with the wet foot, dry foot policy, aka The Cuban Adjustment Act. Any Cuban who makes it to American soil is allowed to seek residency. Well, not any Cuban migrant. Not if that Cuban is HIV . & ... More >>

Joe Garcia Follows in McCain's Celebrity Attack Ad Footsteps

Schoolhouse Rock!

The School of Rock kids aren’t just another brick in the wall.

Kid Stuff

Politics helped propel college dropout Carlos Manrique to the top of the educational ladder.

Haitians Sent Home

Refugees fled slavery, slaughter, and starvation, and got rejected.

Unintended Consequences

After thirteen years in Miami, Omila Foufoune Cesaire faces deportation to the Haiti she fled in fear

Screwed If By Sea

Cruise lines throw workers overboard when it comes to providing urgent medical care.

BEST POLITICAL MISCALCULATION

Annie Betancourts anti-embargo gambit in the race for U.S. House District 25

Where Did All the People Go?

A once-thriving neighborhood is now a ghost town thanks to Miami's multimillion-dollar housing fiasco

Admitting Terror

The immigration service's own describe how America failed to protect its borders from the September 11 terrorists

Welcome to the Cruel World

Welfare reform has dramatically changed public housing in Miami-Dade County. Personal responsibility is the new refrain, and zero tolerance is the law.

Cleaning Up Krome

Lawyers Tina Fassnacht and Stacy Taeuber are all-purpose advocates at the West Dade immigrant camp

Roe v. Wade v. Suarez

Thanks to Miami's mayor, January 22 is now officially pro-life and in your face

Welcome to America. Now Go Home.

Granted sweeping new powers by Congress, the INS is quickly earning a global reputation for cruel and capricious conduct at Miami International Airport

Whoppers!