With less than a month to go in Miami’s upcoming special election for the two city commission seats left open by the removal Michelle Spence-Jones and Angel Gonzalez, some of the candidates are relying on their own cash rather than hitting up people for campaign contributions.Miguel Gabela and Waldo Faura…
Milton Hirsch removes backers in search of judge’s seat
Recently dismissed ethics complaints against three lobbyists provide a glimpse into how developers will pay off so-called community activists to win support for their projects.In finding that zoning lawyers Juan Mayol, Joseph Goldstein, and Richard Perez did in fact register to lobby on behalf of their client Q2 — a group…
Milton Hirsch will take Barbara Carey-Shuler’s money, but he’ll hold off on her endorsement. And the 2010 Miami-Dade judicial candidate doesn’t want Angel Gonzalez giving him the thumbs-up either.Hirsch removed their names from the official endorsement list on his campaign website, electmiltonhirsch.com, on November 27, days after two Miami city commissioners…
A Miami-Dade jury has convicted Liberty City pastor Gaston Smith on one count of grand theft for looting more than $10,000 in grant money intended to help the poor.Yesterday, Banana Republican caught the tail end of closing arguments by Smith’s defense lawyer Larry Handfield and prosecutor Richard Scruggs. Both lawyers…
Click here to view photos from this event.Last night, Rakontur debuted an extended version of its upcoming ESPN documentary The U inside Overtown’s historic Lyric Theater. Among the local celebrities in attendance were former University of Miami football players Melvin Bratton, brothers Brian and Bennie Blades, Kelvin Harris, and Randall Hill,…
Assistant State Attorney Richard Scruggs squirms on the stand
At this Thursday’s Miami city commission meeting, Mayor Tomás Regalado and Commission Chairman Marc Sarnoff will sponsor city legislation that would require elected officials and lobbyists to complete an ethics training course. No one is going to argue that ethics reform is long overdue at 3500 Pan American Dr.In fact,…
Late Friday, at 9:05 p.m., Miami-Dade Judge Beatrice Butchko dealt a serious blow to state prosecutors’ case against a popular pastor in Miami’s black community.Butchko ruled Assistant State Attorney Richard Scruggs cannot use digital recordings of two interviews with Rev. Gaston Smith. They were made months before the clergyman was indicted for…
Richard Scruggs is usually the guy asking people tough questions and getting witnesses to spill the beans. But today Miami-Dade’s veteran public corruption prosecutor was on the receiving end of an intense grilling. And he was not enjoying himself.It went down inside the courtroom of Judge Beatrice Butchko in the…
Banana Republican kicked off his Art Basel festivities at the opening of Primary Flight’s Blue Print For Space inside Art Center South Florida on Lincoln Road. Mighty impressive display of street inspired art I must say, especially photographer Alex Hera’s exhibition of bedazzled Jesus Christ statues strategically placed around a throne-like…
Miami Hurricanes football told by Rakontur filmmakers
Fontainebleu Miami Beach loses a guest’s Infiniti SUV
Already more than $2 billion over budget and more than three years behind schedule, Miami International Airport’s north terminal is about to suck more money from Miami-Dade County.This Friday, aviation department bureaucrats will ask the county commission’s airport and seaport committee to sign off on adding $46 million to a…
Elizabeth Maneiro and two friends stepped out of her white 2008 Infiniti EX35 at the front entrance to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. A valet handed her a ticket stamped 11:52 p.m. November 28. That was the last time the 38-year-old sales marketing associate saw her luxury SUV.Two hours after Maneiro…
Doral-based U.S. Century Bank has more outstanding insider loans than any other banking institution in Florida
It’s just before the start of the Cotton Bowl Classic at the Fair Park Stadium in Dallas on the morning of January 1, 1991. There is not an empty seat in the place. And just about everybody is there to root against the University of Miami Hurricanes, who are taking…
Last night, Banana Republican spoke with a political consultant who worked on Francis Suarez’s campaign who insisted the new commissioner did not have private discussions with his new colleagues about who to pick to replace Angel Gonzalez.The city commission — down to three members with the ouster of Gonzalez and…
Newly elected Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez may have unwittingly scuttled plans to appoint a replacement for Angel Gonzalez, who last week resigned from the commission as part of his guilty plea deal with prosecutors.Commission Chairman Marc Sarnoff has called an emergency meeting for tomorrow to address the two commission…
Miami-Dade County commissioners are gearing up to revamp the Miami Metro Action Plan Trust, the social and economic redevelopment agency created in the wake of the racial riots that rocked the county during the ’80s.On December 1, the commission will vote to reconstitute the trust into the Miami-Dade Housing Civil…
Inside a mixed martial arts training studio just a block east of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Charles Champion takes a seat on the blue mat where for the past month he has been training for his cage match versus Rene “Level” Martinez tonight. Like Martinez,…
Is former Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones a victim of racism?
