Last November, Barbara Carey-Shuler was the reason the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office charged then-Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones with grand theft of $50,000 in county grants that went to a now defunct family business called Karym Ventures Inc. Nine months later, the former county commissioner is the reason Spence-Jones could…
It is not exactly the Romans versus the Visigoths, but an epic battle is taking place at the Gansevoort Beach Club on Sunday afternoon. Men and women whose daily job is to pour drinks or serve food at 40 local establishments will compete in the sixth annual Seven Tiki Beach…
Earlier this month, the Miami-Dade School Board’s watchdog agency and federal immigration agents busted a family of south Miami-Dade builders using 20 undocumented immigrants to build new modular classrooms at Southside Elementary. According to a July 1 federal indictment, Luis Daniel, his son Ariel, and his wife Marta Duque hired…
Former North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns abandoned his campaign for U.S. Senate to run for state Senate, but maybe he should concentrate on getting his financial house in order first. This past June 28, Florida’s division of elections notified Burns via letter that his bank did not honor a $1,781 check…
Last night’s monthly meeting of Miami-Dade Republicans was an entertaining respite from the LeBronomania enveloping the county. As promised, congressional candidate Paul Crespo demanded that David Rivera, the Republican frontrunner in the U.S. congressional race to replace Mario Diaz-Balart, resign as the local GOP’s chairman. Contender Marili Cancio also demanded…
State Rep. David Rivera’s campaign for U.S. Congress has taken quite the ass-kicking since he was caught being less than forthright about his friendship with Ariel Pereda, a Miami businessman who facilitates trade with Cuba. Being a hard-line, pro-Cuban-embargo advocate since he took public office, Rivera didn’t expect to look like…
Riptide goes to police academy at Kaplan College in Pembroke Pines and flunks out
Liberty City’s 15th Avenue: Nine murders, Trina, Trick Daddy, and the Liberty City Seven
Banana Republican is watching a projection screen inside a chilly classroom with no desks.On the screen, a police officer in a tan uniform talks to a middle-aged man in farmer duds on the side of a rural road. It looks like a scene from the TV show Cops, except Banana Republican is…
Ten years ago this past June 28, Elián González was returned to his father in Cuba, and Alex Penelas’s rising political star imploded. Miami-Dade’s then-county mayor dug his own grave in 2000. Sure he won a second term as mayor, but he double-crossed Al Gore during the presidential election and…
The 55-year-old brother of former Miccosukee Indian Chairman Billy Cypress is pleading guilty to two counts of DUI manslaughter. On February 19 of last year, Thomas Cypress was behind the wheel of his truck on Tamiami Trail when he swerved into oncoming traffic and had a head-on collision with a…
It’s been a little more than a year since North Miami Beach residents accused Mayor Myron Rosner of abusing his official position to sidestep the city’s zoning and building regulations when he added a room and a pool to his residence and made other home improvements.It looks like Rosner will…
Banana Republican has a sneaking suspicion that Jenny Nillo is a ringer in an important state Senate race. Nillo is a former legislative aide to state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who can’t run again because of term limits. Since last year, Alex’s brother Miguel has been locked in…
These lucky Chihuahuas made it big
When we saw that the Wall Street Journal whipped up a stipple portrait of Conchita, the Ginger-wig-wearing Chihuahua that belonged to the late Miami socialite Gail Posner, Banana Republican got to thinking what a grand life these little bug-eyed rat-dogs lead. So we compiled a list of the five most…
Dear Anders Gyllenhaal,It is not breaking news when the Wall Street Journal scooped you three days earlier.Cheers,Banana Republican…
The makers of Cocaine Cowboys and The U are teaming up with a leading pro-marijuana activist to get Miami Beach Police to issue tickets to people caught with a small amount of marijuana in lieu of sending them to jail. During an interview at the documentary company’s new HQ off…
With the 2010 World Cup underway, Banana Republican is always scrambling for a bandwagon to jump on. Nicaragua’s pathetic soccer team has never qualified for tournament play. Based on an entirely subjective, purely unscientific method of rooting for the most scandalous, the most immoral, and the most corrupt republics, here are my…
UPDATE:Earlier tonight, we received a text from Dhafir Harris that tomorrow’s backyard brawl is off. Government interference, apparently. Via text, Harris explains: “Do 2 The Rapid Growth of BkYrd Fights DADA ran n 2 legal issues wit the local Authority’s.”Kimbo Slice’s short lived career in the Ultimate Fighting Champhionship notwithstanding,…
Frenchie and Jeff, two renegade sailors, prowl the waters off Pelican Harbor Marina
As waves slap the shoreline, littered with empty beer cans, Fane Lozman points to a pair of derelict sailboats anchored in the water near Pelican Harbor Marina on the 79th Street Causeway. The former Marine turned civic agitator fixes his gaze on a hairy man reading a book on the…
State senate candidate Kevin Burns knows a thing or two about mounting debts. After all the former North Miami mayor played an instrumental role in convincing Miami-Dade County courts to create a mortgage foreclosure diversion program two years ago so folks like him stay in their homes. At the time,…
