Ah, how I miss Joe Arriola. The boisterous ex-city manager was always good for a laugh. So it was nice to see Arriola, who appears to have shed a few pounds, as a guest on WBPT’s community talk show, Issues, this past July 24. During a 15-minute interview with host…

For once, Miami Police Chief John Timoney can brush off his haters. The city’s top law enforcer hosted a press conference today to announce that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has cleared the Miami PD of “cooking the books.”A year and a half ago, Fraternal Order of Police President…

Early on in my ongoing tour of duty for New Times, I had the pleasure of telling the story of Fane Lozman, a Miami native who made a small fortune as a Chicago software engineer before coming home in 2003. That year Lozman settled into a nondescript houseboat off the waters…

In case you missed it, during the early hours of July 1, the Miami-Dade County Commission approved a revision to the financing plan for the Marlins baseball stadium that is going to end up costing us $2.4 billion — a number that somehow eluded the intellectual prowess of financial guru…

He didn’t win the mayor’s seat in 2005, but Spanish-language radio host Enrique Santos is considering a second run at public office.The popular shock jock, who mans the morning show for La Kalle 98.3, is looking to join the already crowded race to take over Miami City Commissioner Joe Sanchez’s…

Because I penned two posts on corrupt businessman Antonio Junior earlier this week, former New Times scribe Kirk Nielsen turned me on to an opinion piece he wrote for Poder magazine last year. My sometime wingman suggested that tainted political campaign contributions be returned to taxpayers. And when I say “tainted,”…

Antonio Junior, a local businessman who last year admitted to accepting and giving bribes, was full of information the day he debriefed anti-public-corruption law enforcers about his involvement in ripping-off Miami-Dade taxpayers. In addition to dropping a dime on his pal and ex-county Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler, Junior revealed his connection to…

Well, at least Antonio Junior can take solace in knowing he made a killing as a minority partner in several deals involving Miami-Dade taxpayer money. And even though he ratted out his political godmother — ex-county Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler — and some of his other politically connected buddies (according to a…

Laz Parking is a local firm that contracts with the City of South Miami to issue parking tickets and operate meters. That means nobody likes ’em. And if you believe a recently canned meter maid (meter butler? meter macho?) named Michael Perdomo, that contempt is deserved. The 27-year-old former Laz…

This past April, I wrote about ethics complaints filed against Myron Rosner, who was recently elected North Miami Beach mayor. Two female NMB residents accused Rosner of abusing his official position to get away with making renovations to his house without obtaining necessary approvals from the city council. They filed complaints…

Cigarette and Black-N-Mild smoke wafted throughout the already stifling hot warehouse at 19100 SW 106 Ave. in unincorporated Miami-Dade. It was shortly after 9 p.m. this past June 20 when more than 100 relatives, friends, and members of the street gang Latin Syndicate filed into Bad Dog Fight Club, aka…

So I just had a Scooby Doo WTF? moment. This past June 10, at its annual Orchids & Onions Awards Presentation, the Urban Environment League recognized Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas for her efforts to make sure foreclosed houses don’t get trashed. Earlier this year, Seijas sponsored legislation that requires…