It’s 2019 and Florida lawmakers still want to debate the existence of evolution and human-caused climate change. For that, you can thank longtime state senator and proud son of the Confederacy, Ocala’s Dennis Baxley, who recently teamed up with a fringe-right, virulently Islamophobic group to push yet another anti-science bill.
Last year, a group of progressive activists convinced the Florida Democratic Party to stop accepting campaign donations from private, for-profit prison companies. The industry, which makes billions by keeping other human beings behind bars, immorally incentivizes cities to needlessly lock people up, many activists agree. One of America’s two largest…
While Broward Supervisor of Elections employees counted ballots after this past November’s vote, an angry crowd gathered outside the door. The riled Republican protesters carried signs accusing those inside the Lauderhill office of stealing the election. They waved Trump flags and chanted against socialism and for draining the swamp. Most…
On a Saturday morning in November 2003, Dorsey Miller called his old friend Brenda Snipes and asked if he could drop by. Miller, an adviser to then-Gov. Jeb Bush, didn’t explain his motivations over the phone. He knew he’d have a better chance closing the deal in person. Expecting just…
In fall 2018, a 14-year-old girl fled Mexico after a violent group of men killed three of her uncles, broke into her home, and threatened her at gunpoint. She arrived in the United States November 6 and was briefly taken to what she called a “jail-like” holding facility in San Diego. Named “M.C.L.” in court filings…
One of the less reported aspects of the United States deportation system is its profitability. Private, for-profit companies and contractors are paid billions of dollars to carry out the Trump administration’s will. In short: People are getting rich by keeping immigrant kids behind bars.
Today the FBI raided the Fort Lauderdale home of Roger Stone, the openly racist Trump confidante who dresses like a penny-farthing bicycle salesman. Stone is charged with lying repeatedly to the FBI and threatening federal witnesses in the most obvious and stupid ways possible.
The 24-page indictment of South Florida shyster Roger Stone could be the best thing to happen to Florida politics ever. Filed this morning after agents raided Stone’s home in Fort Lauderdale, it not only clearly lays out how the political provocateur whom New Times reporter Jerry Iannelli once wrote has…
The Trump administration’s family-separation and child-immigrant-detention policies have forced innocent children into horrid, inhumane conditions and, in some cases, have violated international law. But housing immigrant children has been extremely lucrative for the private contractors running detention facilities…
The worst tragedy during Donald Trump’s time as president likely already occurred: A spate of recent studies have shown that nearly 3,000 Americans died after the near-category-five Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017. The numbers suggest the Trump administration also likely suppressed or failed to adequately report the…
In May 2018, the state of South Carolina passed a bill lawmakers said was aimed at fighting anti-Semitism in the state’s public school system. But many critics were instead alarmed: Rather than simply cracking down on speech critical of Jewish people, the bill instead banned criticism of the state…
President Trump’s government shutdown has hit South Florida in several visible ways. Bags of trash are piling up at Everglades National Park. Shipments of produce and flowers are being delayed because federal inspectors have been furloughed. An entire terminal at Miami International Airport was closed because there weren’t enough TSA workers to screen travelers.
Earlier this month, Israeli-born Hallandale Beach Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub called Rashida Tlaib, one of America’s first two Muslim congresswomen, a “Hamas-loving anti-Semite” who might someday “become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill.” Lima-Taub was then widely condemned for her big mouth, even by the Anti-Defamation League. But the commissioner won’t back down…
If you want an example of the painfully transactional and conflicted nature of U.S. congressional committee assignments, consider the case of Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The new, Democrat-controlled House of Representatives was sworn in at the beginning of the month and leaders began handing out committee appointments. Wasserman Schultz, who represents…
Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub’s career seems to be dangling on thin ice right now, and for good reason. Earlier this month, she claimed online that Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, one of the first two Muslim women ever elected to U.S. Congress, was a “Hamas-loving anti-Semite” who might one…
This past November, Florida Republicans, conservative TV pundits, and President Donald Trump fabricated claims of “election-rigging” by two Florida elections supervisors in two of the state’s most heavily Democratic counties. Now those same Republicans have attempted to fire both of those elections chiefs. The Florida Democratic Party has already blasted Gov. Rick DeSantis’ latest move as a “politically motivated power grab” and an attempt to “consolidate” control of elections across the state.
Earlier this week, Hallandale Beach Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub decided, for some godforsaken reason, to post on Facebook that she was worried that Rashida Tlaib, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, was a “Hamas-loving anti-Semite” who would “blow up Capitol Hill.” In other words: With zero evidence, she accused a Palestinian-American of being a terrorist. That’s racist, full stop.
New Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony has officially begun the process of turning former Sheriff Scott Israel’s many controversial political hires into political fires. Tony took additional steps to clean house at BSO today, this time taking aim at two of former sheriff Scott Israel’s political cronies who’d been given high-level…
Mary “Mayhem” Mayhew, Florida’s new Medicaid chief, was accused of all kinds of misdeeds while running Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). She was repeatedly sued and fined for failing to follow various rules while working under then-Gov. Paul LePage. Yesterday, New Times recounted how the federal government in…
When Donald Trump chose Mary Mayhew to run the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid programs in 2018, Maine residents were alarmed: From 2011 to 2017, Mayhew had run that state’s medical programs. She was so psychotically focused on cutting medical programs for the poor that she became known as “Mary Mayhem.” Oddly, she stepped down three months later.
A new ordinance would require background checks.
Donald Trump’s tantrum over his absurd border wall has now made life even more frustrating for Miamians
