The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent affordable housing developers in Miami-Dade County an early Christmas present. This past October 16, HUD secretary Shaun Donovan announced 18 south Florida cities will receive $69 million for community development grants, homeowner assistance programs, emergency shelter grants, and housing for people…
Julio Ponce and Hialeah Housing Authority high jinks
Daniel Bolaños, an ex-Hialeah cop who resigned amid allegations he abused his badge, is suing the city, clerk Ralph Granado and Councilwoman Katharine Cue to get her name off the ballot. The son of former longtime Hialeah Police chief Rolando Bolaños Sr. is running against Cue in the November 3…
Yesterday the Orlando Sentinel published a report that Cuban immigrants who have recently arrived in the United States represent a vast majority of people getting busted for operating marijuana grow houses across the state.The article comes two years after my story on the same subject, proving that law enforcement is…
There’s just something odd about Oduardo “Oddy” Segui, a 40-year-old Cuban-American running against Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin.Not much has been written about the political newcomer. In an October 4 Miami Herald article, Segui informs reporter David Smiley that he owned a hotel in the Bahamas and a transportation company…
Jerry Powers, the man behind Ocean Drive, refuses to surrender
Just when I think all is lost in this chaotic, transient subtropical paradise I call home, some of my homies give me hope. They’ve demonstrated that Miami-Dade does have people who care about the world around them and are willing to raise awareness about making the world a better, safer…
Did Hialeah budget director Alex Vega and senior internal auditor Ana Maria Gomez mix business with pleasure?
Did something improper go on in Hialeah’s budget office? Did budget director Alex Vega and senior internal auditor Ana Maria Gomez do more than just crunch numbers on city time? Well, whatever they were up to, it didn’t sit well with Vega’s wife Tania. This past April 6 around 12:30…
Over the past 15 days, I have written several blog posts questioning the residency of Hialeah councilwoman Katharine Cue. I reported how her driver’s license and city documents, including forms she filled out with her own handwriting, showed she actually resided at 19195 Mystic Pointe Dr. in Aventura when she…
Ex-Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez and Julio Robaina feud over councilwoman Katharine Cue
Raul Martinez just won’t go away. The onetime Boss Tweed of Hialeah, who beat a federal indictment and lost to Lincoln Diaz-Balart for a seat in the U.S. Congress last year, is taking on the empire of his successor, Mayor Julio Robaina. “[Julio] has put some distance between us,” Martinez told…
Having the surname Cue certainly has its perks in Miami-Dade’s second largest city. Consider how lucky Hialeah Councilwoman Katharine Cue is because of her surname. After spending most of her childhood and teenage years on the talent show circuit, Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina tapped the then-19-year-old young lady as a…
This Friday night, from 8 to 11 p.m., Hard Rock Live in Hollywood will host an 11-bout mixed martial arts tournament where former Latin Syndicate gang leader Rene “Level” Martinez will make his pro debut. The Cuban-American back-yard brawler was recently featured in New Times, documenting his transformation from street…
At one time, 57-year-old civil engineer Richard Mendez was a very powerful man — as Miami-Dade’s assistant aviation director, he oversaw construction projects at one of the nation’s busiest airports. But in 2001, he resigned shortly before being indicted by the feds for steering multimillion-dollar contracts to three county vendors…
Baby Got Fatback!: Miami-Dade budget cuts affect lower-level employees, not well-paid executives
Where in the World Is Katharine Cue?: A Hialeah councilwoman leads a peripatetic life.
Tomorrow evening, Miami-Dade County Commissioners will finally set the budget for the upcoming year. We already know that Mayor Carlos Alvarez is proposing some seriously draconian cuts and will make good on his promise to lay of 1,700 employees, which does not bode well for south Florida, where the unemployment…
Apparently Daniel Bolaños hopes Hialeah voters have a short memory or don’t care about his checkered past. How else can one explain why the disgraced former cop is running for a seat on the city council? He is challenging councilwoman Katharine Cue, who was appointed to the council late last…
First, in 1993, a judge ordered a new election after determining camps for both Mayor Raul Martinez and challenger Nilo Juri had participated in absentee ballot tampering. Twelve years later, federal HUD officials investigated then-Hialeah Housing Authority director Alex Morales for forcing housing employees to campaign during working hours and…
It still amazes me how parents lull themselves into thinking that their children will be okay inside the Miami-Dade public school system, even at supposedly “safe havens” like Coral Gables Senior High, where one student stabbed a classmate to death earlier this morning.We live in a nihilistic age, and Miami-Dade…
The tepid race to replace Miami Mayor Manny Diaz could soon get a shot of Sazon if the chatter emanating from city hall is true. A handful of political consultants said earlier today that former Mayor Joe Carollo is seriously considering jumping into the contest. As of now, it looked like…
