Opinion & Commentary

Letters from the issue of April 21, 2011

An assistant Miami fire chief who is on paid administrative leave while she awaits trial on federal mortgage fraud charges wants to get away for a while. The Straw Buyer reports the lawyer representing Veldora Arthur, who is paid $184,336 annually to oversee the fire department’s payroll, wants to travel…

Yesterday, we brought you a trailblazing (and clearly drunken) Cuban riff on a video by those alternative rock retreads Live. But the real gem is this dude’s take on a Rick Ross song. And it’s not for the faint of heart. In the video, el Cubanito rips the glorified ghetto-ness…

Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke — who is a candidate to replace more-boring-than-bread-pudding ex-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez — makes a campaign promise…

Last week’s local YouTube sensation was a marimbero who took it upon himself to reinterpret a couple of choice musical numbers, including a video by ’90s alt-rock retreads Live. The lively running commentary features gags on arrebatos, primos who don’t shut up, and the headache after a good party –…

North Bay Village’s mayor has a homestead problem. While claiming to reside in the small three-island city, Corina Esquijarosa has been receiving a $25,000 homestead exemption on an apartment she rents out to a man named Osmary Ramos. In order to get the tax break, Esquijarosa is required to live…

About two dozen Haitian Americans protested new deportations of alleged criminals outside the immigration building on Northwest Seventh Avenue this morning. Authorities had suspended the flights for more than a month after a 34-year-old Haitian American man with only minor crimes on his record had died days after arriving on…

Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina’s political campaign contributed $350 to the Luis Posada Carilles defense fund. Last Friday, the 83-year-old Cuban American and ex-CIA operative was acquitted by an El Paso jury of 11 federal charges. He was accused of lying to federal agents about his alleged involvement in a string…

The Antiques Simply Antique (Funny Records) The Antiques’ website I am not going to sit here and claim to know every goddamned thing about Florida’s proud musical tradition. A good case in point was one of the earliest Blast From the Past columns that I performed for these digital pages…

We’ve been seeing a lot of former North Miami mayor Kevin Burns in the news lately. Last week, he appeared on a WPLG news segment complaining about parking meters in downtown Miami. Burns told the reporter that he had been gypped out of $7 because he didn’t realize he had…

Letters from the issue of April 14, 2011

Alex Penelas: Mayoral loser

We’re gonna go ahead and take credit for James Cason’s victory in Coral Gables yesterday. Voters in the City Beautiful made the former state department official their mayor. He beat incumbent Don Slesnick and local attorney Thomas Korge. Despite a last-minute flyer declaring him a carpetbagger with a felon for…

Luther Campbell is in the mayor’s race. Now he just needs to settle on a campaign slogan. The high school football assistant coach and Miami New Times columnist was officially accepted by the Miami-Dade Elections Department as a candidate for county mayor. Campbell joins a field that includes former county…

Today, voters in Coral Gables will either give Don Slesnick a third term or elect a new mayor. Two city commission seats are also up for grabs in a city election that has seen all the candidates raise close to one million dollars combined.And unlike previous election seasons, this cycle…

Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke — who is a candidate to replace more-boring-than-bread-pudding ex-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez — explains why a rerun…