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…

UPDATE: Ceresta Smith has gotten a temporary reprieve. Miami-Dade Public Schools administrators will not be asking the school board to suspend her today. Spokesman John Schuster says the school district is reviewing the matter.Miami-Dade County Public Schools is railroading another good, outspoken teacher. Today the school board will consider suspending…

Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado’s insistence that Gov. Charlie Crist appoint a replacement for suspended Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones is getting ugly.Over the weekend, Regalado and commission chairman Marc Sarnof pressured Angel Gonzalez — who resigned yesterday as part of his guilty plea deal with prosecutors — to come to city hall for…

Michelle Spence-Jones, wearing a red-and-black dress, black stockings and no shoes, stood in the middle of her Liberty City home’s wood-floored living room.It was close to 1 p.m. this past Friday the 13th. Fourteen friends and family members gathered around her and listened raptly. She spoke authoritatively, gesticulating with both…

Early this morning, in front of the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building at 1351 NW 12th Street, after reading from a prepared statement asserting her innocence, Michelle Spence-Jones grew testy with some of the Miami media horde chronicling her surrender to law enforcement officials.When WPLG’s political reporter Michael Putney asked…

A Miami Police Internet message board is throwing out names on who will be the man to replace John Timoney. One thing is certain: it doesn’t appear that his loyal deputy chief Frank Fernandez (pictured here to the right of Manny Diaz and Timoney) will get the top post.Fernandez, along…

Well, that didn’t take long. WSVN and the Miami Herald report John Timoney is hanging up his Miami Police uniform. He’ll be gone by the beginning of the new year. Esquire once dubbed him “America’s Best Cop.” Miami New Times crowned him the nation’s worst cop. But rest assured, Timoney will…

The morning breeze whips John Timoney’s rosy cheeks as he settles into his rowboat moored at the Miami Beach Rowing Club. He pushes off the dock and begins paddling up Indian Creek, soaking in the dry, mild November weather, pondering where his next gig will be.Maybe he’ll roll through Tomas…

When John Timoney swooped into the Magic City six years ago, watching him play up to the local media was like seeing Robert Duvall play Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. The sight of Timoney on his police bike taking out demonstrators during the 2003 Free Trade Area of…

Every so often, Banana Republican daydreams of traveling the world with Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas, serenading her with the sweet sounds of the toot flute in Peru. I also fantasize about not spending a dime to visit Macchu Pichu and the like. I mean, while services are being whacked,…

An anonymous Miami blogger dubbed the Strawbuyer has made an enemy out of a veteran state prosecutor.Since debuting on the web this past July, the author — who writes with the acidic juvenile prose of a celebrity blogger — has attacked the work of Bill Kostrzewski, a Miami-Dade assistant state attorney…

This past Friday, Miami-Dade inspector general Christopher Mazzella announced his office had busted ex-schools police Sgt. Patricia Hobby stealing $2,841 in overtime she didn’t work.To avoid jail time, Hobby agreed to resign from the schools police force, complete 150 hours of community service, and repay the money she didn’t earn.But…

Congressman Kendrick Meek better keep a close eye on what happens to Dennis Stackhouse, the Boston developer who’s been criminally charged on multiple counts of grand theft and organized scheme to defraud. Local law enforcement officials accuse Stackhouse of stealing $942,000 set aside to build a biopharmacutical park and create…

Could there have been a more ruthless, diabolical, state utility monopolizer to receive $200 million in federal stimulus money than Florida Power & Light? I’m not the only one questioning the federal government’s decision either.President Barack Obama announced FPL’s stimulus bounty this week during a tour of the company’s new…

Two days ago, Los Angeles Police homicide detectives arrested Joshua Woodward, who teamed up with celebrity chef Govind Armstrong to bring their West Coast food offerings to South Beach via Table 8. The cops charged Woodward with the murder of his unborn child.According to an LAPD press release, investigators on October…