Miami CFO Larry Spring’s House Of Disorder

No wonder the City of Miami’s finances are in the crapper. The man in charge of its purse strings, Chief Financial Officer Larry Spring, lost his mother’s house in a foreclosure sale last year. If he couldn’t keep up with his mortgage payments, how can anyone expect Spring, who receives…

Luther Campbell Makes His Case on Spanish-Language Radio

Yesterday, Luther Campbell went on Spanish-language radio to talk about his campaign for Miami-Dade County mayor. The Miami New Times columnist was a guest of Ricardo Brown and Lourdes Ubieta, who host the 12 to 3 p.m. slot on Actualidad 1020 AM.Campbell discussed his First Amendment tussle with former Broward…

What Will We Do Without Natacha Seijas?

Knowing that tomorrow will be Natacha Seijas’s last day as a county commissioner has us all queasy like a twelfth grader on the last day of school. It’s like Banana Republican is entering the unknown unknown, a surreal world without the poster lady for bad local government. Her departure had…

Michelle Spence-Jones Acquitted of Bribery Charge

UPDATE: Miami-Dade State Attorney Kath​erine Fernandez Rundle stands by her decision to prosecute Michelle Spence-Jones for bribery, claiming the judge presiding over the suspended Miami city commissioner’s trial screwed up the verdict’s outcome.”We disagree with the judge’s interpretation of bribery law,” Rundle said in a statement released shortly after a…

Miami Dade College’s Police Academy Chief Has a Troubled History

In this week’s New Times, we profile Richard Moss, basic training director of Miami Dade College’s School of Justice, who has a troubled past. We investigate Moss, who was demoted from chief to commander when he was with the Broward Sherriff’s Office because of insubordination.The report also documents complaints filed against…

Miami Voice Celebrates the End of Natacha

Natacha Seijas was right to worry about her name appearing on the same recall ballot as Carlos Alvarez. She was swept up in the voter tsunami that also took out the now former county mayor. Many local political pundits didn’t give Miami Voice, the political action committee that sought Seijas’s…

Luther Campbell Calls for Special Election

Mayoral candidate and Miami New Times columnist Luther Campbell wants to get it on. At the ballot box. Not the champagne room. Now that voters have shown Carlos Alvarez the exit door, the onetime raunchiest man in hip-hop is calling on the county commission to set a date for another…

Michael Pizzi Gloats at Natacha Seijas’ Pending Demise

The Miami-Dade Elections Department is reporting that initial absentee ballots show an overwhelming majority of those voters want Carlos Alvarez and Natacha Seijas out of here. ​Early voting numbers and today’s election day results are still pending. Earlier this afternoon, like the rest of the precincts in Miami-Dade County, voting…

New Career Options For Carlos Alvarez and Natacha Seijas

Today is it for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and County Commissioner Natacha Seijas, who are on the verge of becoming the first county elected officials to get recalled since the ’70s. An official poll and our informal poll show the two politicians are going down for the count, victims of…

A Natacha Seijas Supporter Snatches Name of Recall Committee

A Miami Lakes resident who supports Natacha Seijas has hijacked Miami Voice’s identity. On February 18, Dr. David Bennett, along with another Miami Lakes resident, incorporated a nonprofit organization bearing the same name as the committee seeking Natacha Seijas’s recall. Vanessa Brito, chairwoman of Miami Voice the PAC, is crying…

Setting The County Record Straight

With the news that Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess is using county resources to help “set the record straight” about all the great and wonderful things he and his clan of bureaucrats do for us ungrateful residents, Banana Republican thought we’d go ahead and remind everyone about the disgustingly rich…

Things Natacha Seijas Said on the Recall Trail

Natacha Seijas is one week closer to her political reckoning, which means she will get only more viciously cantankerous than ever. Since the second attempt to recall her in four years kicked off, the county commissioner representing Hialeah and Miami Lakes has been on a rampage, threatening colleagues, snarling at…

Luther Campbell Files Paperwork for County Mayor

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 Julio Robaina, County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez, Doral Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez, and former state Rep. Marcelo LLorente…

Norman Braman Makes It Rain in Effort to Oust Carlos Alvarez

As the first week of early voting in the recall election of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas winds down, we decided to take a peek at the latest campaign finance reports filed with the elections department. As expected, billionaire auto magnate Norman Braman dropped some serious coin,…