In August 2013, longtime Commissioner Jose M. Diaz was appointed interim mayor of Sweetwater. It followed a corruption scandal that led to the expulsion of former Mayor Manuel Maroño. But soon after he took over the city’s top office, Diaz was accused of sexually harassing a mayoral assistant.
Murder is, believe it or not, illegal in the United States. That goes for adults, whom you certainly cannot kill with either your bare hands or some sort of physical weapon, as well as babies, who are morally speaking even less murder-able than grownups.
Stories about the U.S. government’s child migrant camp south of Miami have not been pleasant. Children have reported crying themselves to sleep every night, missing their families, and even cutting themselves at the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, which was, as of earlier this year, the government’s largest detention center for immigrant kids.
Despite the unfortunate distinction of having some of the most devastating mass shootings in the nation, Florida remains a fairly gun-friendly place. A state law passed in 2011 actually prohibits local governments from passing restrictions on firearms that are stricter than what’s allowed at the state level.
As Hurricane Dorian begins to slowly move away from the Caribbean, Bahamians are struggling to piece together their lives from the wreckage of the storm, which leveled entire neighborhoods on the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco. With no home to return to, many evacuees are now looking to reunite with family abroad in the United States.
A few weeks ago, I had an unexpected phone conversation with California’s U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate whom I gave no chance of winning the black vote. Harris reached out because I’ve harshly criticized her in this column space since she began her campaign for the White House.
Miami-Dade County ethics investigators are once again focusing their sights on the perennially scandal-plagued North Miami Beach. In recent years, two of the city’s mayors have pleaded to criminal charges.
A new TV ad campaign is hitting Florida airwaves to ask Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott to take national action against gun violence and pass background-check and red-flag laws.
So you’ve settled in: You have a few new tropical plants you’ve named Harriet and Oswald, you’ve got a basic handle on which highways suck (all of them), and you’re at least tangentially aware that whatever apartment you inhabit now will probably be chronically flooded by 2100. You’re coming to…
Donald Trump, a man who last week referred to himself as “the chosen one,” is somehow still the president despite the fact he never gave up a controlling financial stake in his real-estate companies. You can just pay Trump a bunch of money whenever you want, and it sure seems like the president is willing to pay back favors to people who buy hotel rooms or condos at his properties.
The Florida Retail Federation (FRF) is one of the most powerful political forces in the state of Florida. While the federation itself might not be a household name, its members sure are: The FRF represents huge corporations, including Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Target, and Publix.
After a month marked by two deadly mass shootings merely hours apart in El Paso and Dayton, Florida House Democrats have forced the state Legislature to vote on hosting a special session to address gun violence.
Florida is sometimes described as a so-called “purple state,” but for some reason, the Sunshine State seems to both breed and attract a huge number of folks on the far right end of the political spectrum. Internet kooks like Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens regularly visit to give speeches or produce “content” for social media, and bigoted loons like Mike Hill and Joe Gruters somehow keep getting elected to office.
Venezuela is crumbling. The once-wealthy South American nation’s economy is in free fall, doing more twists and flips on its way to rock bottom than Simone Biles at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships.
To make something of a severe understatement, many questions remain in the wake of accused sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide last weekend. For Miamians, one particular question has gone unanswered: Why did the billionaire’s black book of contacts include 13 phone numbers for former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, a noted friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton?
El Paso. Dayton. Chicago. Gilroy. At a time when America is yet again reeling from the devastation of gun violence, the Parkland student activists are taking their fight to the highest court in the nation.
Florida has always been a stomping ground for whackjobs, but the state’s political climate seems to be attracting a particularly diseased group of people as of late. Roger Stone already lives here. The disgraced alt-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos briefly moved to Miami a few years ago. The InfoWars-appearing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer is apparently now running for Congress in Palm Beach County.
Progressives, critics, and basically all people with moral backbones and souls this week are furious at Stephen Ross — the owner of the Miami Dolphins and the gym chains Equinox and SoulCycle, as well as an investor in many other ventures — for quietly planning to host a fundraiser for Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign.
Wayne Messam is, for reasons that are difficult to explain, still running for president. When he announced his run, the mayor of tiny Miramar, Florida, tried to position himself as a Pete Buttigieg-style outsider, the sort of political newcomer who wouldn’t be indebted to Washington elites and could spout tough truths on the campaign trail.
State Sen. Joe Gruters, the chair of the Florida Republican Party, announced yesterday that he’s planning an immigration tour to ask would-be voters what new policies they want the all-powerful Florida GOP to enact in the coming years.
Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam wanted to be the Democrats’ next Pete Buttigieg — a long-shot, small-town mayor who could quote-unquote “tell it like it is” and talk his way into becoming president. But Messam’s bid is failing horribly.
The State Department’s Summer Work Travel Program exposes foreign college students to serious risks, including human and sex trafficking. Companies in Florida, which is one of the top states receiving program participants, have used the program to pay less in wages and health benefits.
