During the 2008 presidential election, Annette Taddeo set her sights on a big target: Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen. The Colombian-American businesswoman, who loaned her campaign $350,000, lost but established herself as a viable candidate for public office.Late yesterday, Taddeo announced she is running again. This time, she is positioning herself for a…
Former Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairman Joe Garcia is wasting no time knuckling up for his latest run for U.S. Congress. One week after announcing he will again run for Florida’s 25th district, Garcia is accusing the leading Republican candidate, state Rep. David Rivera, of trampling over a law that prohibits state legislators from…
Phil Spinella, owner of A&B Body Shop in Homestead, insists the damage he repaired on Mayor Steve Bateman’s city-issued SUV was caused by a blown tire.”There is no question about it,” Spinella said via a telephone interview. “The tire’s rubber housing took out the rear bumper. That’s what we billed…
Oscar Alfonso (right) and Joe Geller (center) lost their hand-picked city manager Matthew Schwartz (left).This past Tuesday night, a coup went down in North Bay Village. The city commission voted 3-2 to fire city Manager Matthew Schwartz. Before he left the city commission meeting, Schwartz addressed the audience. “I wish…
The Royal Palm Hotel on 16th Street and Collins Avenue was supposed to be a beacon of atonement for Miami-Dade County’s racist past. In 1989, county officials snubbed South African leader Nelson Mandela when he visited Miami. African Americans across the country boycotted Miami-Dade, costing the area tens of millions…
The Royal Palm Hotel on 16th Street and Collins Avenue was supposed to be a beacon of atonement for Miami-Dade County’s racist past.In 1989, county officials snubbed South African leader Nelson Mandela when he visited Miami. African Americans across the country boycotted Miami-Dade, costing the area tens of millions in…
Power struggle between North Bay Village police and city hall gets ugly
This past September 16, Miami’s planning advisory board recommended the city expand African Square Park on NW 14th Avenue and 61st Street. The board recognized the need for more public green space in one of Miami’s poorest neighborhoods, but the city commission apparently didn’t get the hint.View Larger MapThree months…
If you grew up in Miami Beach prior to 1993, the floor above the neighborhood drug store on Fifth Street at Washington Avenue was a magical place.For more than a quarter-century, aspiring boxers climbed two flights of creaky stairs to a cavernous, broiling-hot room to train, hoping they would emerge…
It’s official. The Associated Press reports the U.S. Department of Justice is opposing Ana Margarita Martinez’s attempt to make charter companies that book flights from here to Cuba pay a $27 million judgment she won against the Cuban government. In submitting its opposition motion in Miami federal court, the DOJ declared…
Commissioner Marc Sarnoff’s ethics questioned over Mercy condo project
Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque’s jilted ex-wife won $27 million for his deception
Back in late January, the City of Homestead contracted A&B Paint & Body Shop at 142 SW Fifth Ave. to repair significant damage to the front and rear of a city-owned Ford Expedition driven by Mayor Steve Bateman. Total cost: $1,303.86, which the city paid for.So this past March 24,…
TMZ reports the little-tyke production of Tony Montana’s spiral descent into Miami’s cocaine-fueled underworld is the brilliant work of director Marc Klasfeld and Rockhard Films, which did the video for Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.” It was produced in Los Angeles using child actors. And here I was hoping Miami-Dade County Public…
This is wrong on so many levels. Anyone who can tell me where this little tyke production was staged gets a limited edition DVD of Scarface, a Tony Montana action figure, and a used coke vial. Scarface School Play – Watch more Funny Videos…
Joe Arriola is an arranger, a fixer of sorts. So when Marc Sarnoff was elected to the Miami City Commission, Arriola thought it was a good idea to arrange a sit-down between his pal of 25 years, prominent developer Jorge Perez, and Coconut Grove’s new political capo di tutti. Arriola knew…
In 1962, Willie James Greene opened up his own shoe repair shop on the corner of NW 62nd Street and 6th Avenue in Liberty City. He maintained it despite the bleak economic conditions surrounding him, and when riots engulfed the neighborhood in the 80s, Greene Dreams Shoe Repair was left…
Today, to avoid being formally charged with violating county ethics rules, the South Dade couple settled a complaint brought by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.An ethics investigation revealed the Forbes did not disclose payments they received from various sources on their 2005, 2006, and 2007 financial disclosure…
Miami Lakes Councilman Richard Pulido can’t stop acting like the town jerk. The part-time college professor continues to pick on town Clerk Marjorie Tejeda.Earlier I reported how Tejeda complained to town Manager Frank Bocanegra that Pulido created a hostile work environment for her.Well at the town council’s last meeting this…
St. Kevin Catholic School students get a deathly lesson
Some students attending St. Kevin Catholic School in Southwest Miami-Dade were given an unexpected introduction to their religion’s death ritual.On the morning of February 10, sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders had to attend the funeral mass for the mother-in-law of school principal Myra Constantino. The “celebration of the life of Josephine…
On July 23, 2004, Steve Shiver plunked down $1.5 million for 4.2 acres in a severely depressed neighborhood of Homestead. The city’s former mayor and ex-county manager had become the proud owner of a laundromat, grocery store, office complex and 44 rundown cinder-block “shotgun” row houses for low-income tenants.It was convenient…
