In early May, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the County Commission delayed the certification of 11 affordable-housing developers because one of the firms, Carlisle Development Group, is under investigation by a federal grand jury. Citing a Miami Herald report, Gimenez’s administration put on the brakes because the feds suspect…
Embattled South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez De Castro is facing new accusations that he abused his power to conduct illegal criminal background checks on his perceived enemies. Last week, De Castro pleaded no contest to Miami-Dade ethics charges that he steered police department business to his wife’s auto tag…
John DuBois is one freaked-out Palmetto Bay Village vice-mayor. In an odd twist to the millionaire security systems entrepreneur’s ongoing legal war with the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources & Management, Dubois thought he was being spied on by unknown individuals in a helicopter and a boat on the…
Raonel Valdez strolls through the quiet parking lot behind a salmon-colored Coral Gables apartment building. As dawn pales a warm autumn morning, the small-framed 33-year-old Cuban refugee with short, gelled black hair patiently scans a third-floor window, waiting for signs of life. Known to his cohorts as “Matojo” for his…
Juan Kuryla must be the happiest man working for Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who recently announced he wants property owners to swallow a 5 percent tax rate hike to balance his proposed budget. On April 29, Mayor Carlos Gimenez promoted Kuryla from deputy seaport director to the head honcho…
Word to the wise aspiring politicians: If you omit financial information when disclosing your personal net worth to voters, you will get caught. Just ask Mark Weithorn, who ran a failed campaign for state legislative seat representing Miami Beach last year. At its regular meeting in June, the Florida Commission…
While Miami-Dade residents are gearing up to celebrate American Independence, the Christian Family Coalition is making sure one group of people don’t get to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In response to a proposed amendment to the county’s human rights ordinance that would protect transgender folks from…
Boy, Steven Bateman doesn’t know when to quit. Today, the Miami Herald published an article about another suspicious deal involving the Homestead mayor that appears riddled with conflicts-of-interest. It’s becoming a pattern that has spawned separate investigations by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission into Bateman’s…
Ernesto Perez, founder and president of Dade Medical College, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this month. As the Miami Herald reported June 8, the Miami-Dade State Attorney and the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission are conducting separate probes into why Homestead Mayor Steven Bateman pushed officials to…
Did you hear, bro? Gov. Rick Scott is such a buzzkill. He just signed a law that makes it illegal for smoke shops to sell just about every pipe, bro! Glass, wooden, acrylic, stone, metal, with or without screens, with carburetors too! We’re gonna have to stock up on apples…
Terri Wright will forever regret granting an exclusive interview to Chris Sweeney, a former New Times staff writer who wrote about her questionable conduct as a jury forewoman during the 2011 drug trafficking and gun trial of reggae megastar Buju Banton. Earlier today, Tampa federal judge James S. Moody Jr…
Ah, there is nothing quite like a scam perpetrated in Miami. Just about any racket can thrive in this sunny place for shady people. All it takes is a little moxie and a whole lot of deviousness. The latest example involves four locals who suckered 11 banks and two credit…
Ernesto Perez, founder and president of Dade Medical College, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this month. As the Miami Herald reported June 8, the Miami-Dade State Attorney and the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission are conducting separate probes into why Homestead Mayor Steven Bateman pushed officials to…
George Brown believed he had established a full-proof racket to cash in on his $79,375-a-year gig as roadway lighting coordinator for the Miami-Dade Public Works Department. Instead, he got caught in an undercover sting that featured wiretapped phone calls, G-men, and a stool pigeon. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors charged the…
An old-fashioned case of gatecrashing left Homestead’s mayor facing a vandalism investigation last month, and even though charges were never filed, the incident has blossomed into a blistering dispute between a local businessman and the city’s top politico. The trouble began March 7 with an argument over a locked gate…
Miami, are you ready to get your Tony Montana game face on? Or perhaps you’re feeling like James Cagney in The Public Enemy. Whichever fictional gangster you prefer, Lock & Load: Machine Gun Experience has the arsenal to satisfy your firearm fetish. Amid the art galleries of Wynwood, a 14,000-square-foot…
Bro!!!!!! Did you hear bro?!?!? Gov. Rick Scott is such a buzz kill bro!!! He just signed a law that makes it illegal for smoke shops to sell just about every pipe bro!!! Glass, wooden, acrylic, stone, metal, with or without screens, with carubretion!!! We’re gonna have to stock up…
Since winning a seat on the Miami City Commission in 2009, Francis Suarez worked hard to forge his own political identity and avoid the type of absentee ballot voter fraud scandal that derailed his father’s mayoral run in 1997. But now the young Cuban American Republican is in full damage…
A dispute over a locked gate prompted Miami attorney John Ruiz, operator of La Ley Sports Complex in Homestead, to call the police on Mayor Steven Bateman this past March 7. According to a recently released investigative report, Ruiz accused Bateman of cutting the lock to the northwest gate of…
The Miami Mayor’s race is still five months away, but a majority of the city’s politically influential power brokers are lining up behind Commissioner Francis Suarez, who is looking to take out popular incumbent Tomas Regalado with more than one million bucks in his campaign war chest. Regalado has his…
Did Jeffrey Bartel’s vicious public beef with his former employer, Florida Power & Light, cost him a seat on the host committee for the 14th Annual Mayor’s Ball this Saturday? Sources tell Banana Republican Bartel was thrown off the illustrious gala’s board about a week ago when FPL representatives voiced…
Earlier this week, the Miami-Dade County Commission approved an 8 percent rate increase to water and sewer bills, which means homeowners will begin paying about $4 more a month on their average water bill. The funds are meant to cover the cost of issuing $4.2 billion — yes that’s with…
