In 2014, Russian hackers nearly wreaked havoc on Ukraine’s presidential elections. Their plan: Sneak into the country’s election website to make it look like an ultra-right-winger had won with 37 percent of the vote, when in reality he’d received barely 1 percent. That plan was foiled at the last minute, but a similar disinformation campaign might be way too easy to pull off in Florida.
The Dream Defenders, a Florida civil rights group formed near the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement, has helped turn the GEO Group, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s single largest contractor, from a largely unknown private prison firm hated by justice-reform activists into a toxic company from which even some Republican politicians are now refusing donations.
Miami Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart is not exactly known in local political circles for being particularly bright. But, in what might be the single most-boneheaded thing he’s done ever, the congressman on Tuesday tweeted out a photograph of himself at an anti-Nicaraguan-President Ortega rally — posing with a man in a…
In 2016, Miami Beach became one of the hardest places in America to book a short-term vacation rental. Thanks to laws enacted over the past two years, the city now levies fines as high as $100,000 on property owners with illegal rentals and has plans to target platforms such as Airbnb.
Miami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills has been kneeling during the national anthem to protest the racist American justice system for portions of the last three NFL seasons. Stills is extremely serious about his activism — in February, he took a road trip in an RV to meet civil-rights supporters…
Democratic North Miami state Sen. Daphne Campbell is a lawmaker so ethically compromised that her own Miami-Dade County Democratic Party today suggested she might be a Republican in disguise. Her latest reelection campaign seems in shambles — after a string of utterly absurd headlines, including getting caught passing around…
The Miami-Dade Democratic party sent a letter to state Sen. Daphne Campbell on Tuesday questioning her ties to Republicans and her history of less-than-stellar ethics.
At President Trump’s rally in Tampa last week, a familiar face made it back in the national news. Maurice Symonette, also known as Michael the Black Man, was front and center in a crowd hurling invectives at CNN reporter Jim Acosta, waving a “Blacks for Trump” sign. Symonette has…
Boca Raton’s GEO Group — the single largest contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement — absolutely does not want anyone to accuse it of caging people or separating families. GEO is so upset by such allegations that it threatened to sue Dream Defenders, a Florida civil rights group, all…
With just 21 days until the primary, one wall in Wynwood is sporting a new look. Over the weekend, Miami-based artist Disem used spray paint to create a mural of Tallahassee Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum on a wall outside of 004 Connec on NW 24th Street.
On Thursday, Republican voter William Stuttgen found something unusual in his mailbox. It was a mailer from “Republican Neighbor Choice” listing Republican candidates for the Florida primary August 28: Rick Scott, Adam Putnam, Daphne Campbell — wait, what? Democratic state Sen. Daphne Campbell’s name was listed along with Republicans on a…
Unless you spent the weekend off-the-grid vacationing in the Caribbean, you’re probably keenly aware that Donald Trump and LeBron James are in the news. Not separately — that wouldn’t be weird at all. They’re currently in the news together, and for exactly the reason you’d expect: a total shit-show…
Maurice Symonette’s story is baffling, to put it mildly. Symonette, who also goes by the name Michael the Black Man, somehow went from being a part of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult to getting acquitted of murder charges himself to being a staple at Donald Trump’s presidential rallies…
Marco Rubio, a surrealist art project that accidentally became sentient and was elected to the U.S. Senate, spends a lot of time tweeting about how America needs to get “tough” on Vladimir Putin. If you need someone to sponsor an extremely lame amendment “trolling” Putin by renaming the Russian embassy’s street in Washington after a dead Russian dissident, Marco is your guy.
For a second, Donald Trump seemed to be backing off his vitriolic attacks on the free press. After five journalists were massacred at the Annapolis Capital Gazette, Trump briefly toned down his slurs. He even invited New York Times publisher A.J. Salzburger Jr. to the White House to clear the air. But it didn’t last.
The bay off South Beach’s Sunset Harbour glitters with the reflection of city lights. Onshore, Purdy Avenue is empty save for a few glossy cars with quiet, expensive motors and the occasional scurrying cockroach. It’s midnight on a Friday, and the only people around are the three security guards stationed…
Miami is effectively run by an oligopoly of useless, competing, familial political dynasties: There are the Regalados, the Hardemons, the Suarezes, the Carollos, the Diaz de la Portillas, and so on. To make a clichéd reference, Miami politics are like Game of Thrones if every player had shrapnel lodged in their brains.
Even in the “Gunshine State,” the National Rifle Association is rapidly becoming politically toxic. After the Parkland school massacre February 14, every politician closely aligned with the NRA took a rightful beating: Sen. Marco Rubio was ridiculed on live TV during a CNN town hall, and GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam has still not lived down calling himself a “proud NRA sellout.”
When several explosions rattled the quiet neighborhood near Melreese Country Club last night, startled neighbors pulled out cell phones and began filming. They watched in shock as flames leapt dozens of feet above the pro shop at the city-owned golf course.
Branches of CareerSource, Florida’s job-placement service, keep getting caught inflating or inventing their job data. First, it was CareerSource Tampa Bay and CareerSource Pinellas, which were caught in February taking credit for thousands of job hires they had nothing to do with. This week, auditors caught CareerSource…
CareerSource is Florida’s job-placement service for the unemployed. The South Florida branch, as of 2015, was sucking up more than $70 million in state and federal funds every year to allegedly put locals to work. But the service can’t keep itself out of trouble. In 2015, New Times detailed how current CareerSource South Florida boss Rick Beasley was censured…
Accused collegiate rapist and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston was suspended for only three games this year for groping an Arizona Uber driver in March 2016.
