Back in 2008, Galata Inc., a social service agency that assists minorities and low income residents in Homestead, was one of 37 local non-profit organizations that received a no-questions-asked Miami-Dade County grant. Galata got $500,000 from a $30 million pot that was part of the county’s Building Better Communities general…

Jeb Bush Jr. is one of the future faces of the Republican Party. He is the 29-year-old president of Bush Realty and sits on the boards of several local corporations. The youngest son of Florida’s former governor is even considered a possible contender against Democratic Congressman Joe Garcia in 2014…

While conducting research for an upcoming article, Banana Republican came across this nifty tool on the Miami-Dade County Police Department’s website called “Crime Mapping.” Basically you can track criminal activity in any neighborhood in the city of Miami and unincorporated Miami-Dade.Imagine Google maps allowing you to pinpoint where the highest…

A nonprofit organization that fights housing discrimination recently scored a partial court victory against SPV Realty, the New York-based company that owns Little Haiti apartment complex Design Place. HOPE Fair Housing Center is suing SPV in Miami federal court, alleging the rental real estate firm discriminates against African-American renters.On January…

For Nadia Wright, a veteran suffering from anxiety, depression, and a debilitating organ condition, the cozy north Miami Beach duplex seemed like the perfect place to try to get back on her feet. So in September, the ex-Merchant Marine and her two teenage kids moved into the three-bedroom abode off…

Judi Kolson used to love paddling the waters of Biscayne Bay until a recent outing allegedly gave her a leg infection after her skin came into contact with contaminated water. Now, the breast cancer survivor from Key Biscayne is careful not come into contact with sea water when she hits…

Give Stephen Ross props. He stepped up to Norman Braman one billionaire to another and slapped him across the face with a clean white glove. With a full page ad undermining Braman’s credibility in Tuesday’s edition of the Miami Herald, Ross let Braman know he’s got the cash to parry…

What happens when your political career is blown to smithereens by an angry electorate and a billionaire car dealership mogul? If you’re Carlos Alvarez, the former Miami-Dade mayor who was booted from office in the largest recall of a local politician on March 15, 2011, you become a Bizarro version…

On Sunday, Banana Republican stopped by the Victor Bean’s Southern Classic Gun & Knife Show at the Miami-Dade County youth fairgrounds to gauge the mood of Second Amendment acolytes in the wake of Barack Obama’s announcement last week that he wants to clamp down on guns.For all his blustering about…

For this week’s cover story, I wrote about the journey of a group of 11-and-12-year-old boys playing for the 125 pound Miami Gardens Bulldogs. In 2012, the team bounced back from a season marred by a star player getting shot during practice while the league they played for was engulfed…

It appears Miami civic leader Joe Arriola wasn’t too keen on how he’s portrayed in my recent story about his former boss Manny Diaz’s book, Miami Transformed: Rebuilding America One Neighborhood, One City At A Time.”Your article is also full of lies,” he wrote me in an recent email. Miami’s…

On Monday, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross shucked his $400 million plan to renovate Sun Life Stadium, the venue the city’s NFL franchise has called home for the past 26 years. During a press conference showing off a bunch of nice rendering of how the stadium will look with 3,600…