Florida law forbids a candidate’s name from appearing twice on the same ballot. So if Marco Rubio ends up making a serious bid for president, he’d have to give up his seat in Congress. This could set up a very interesting four years in Florida politics, where a very likely…
Kratom, a plant in the coffee family, has been used for medicinal and recreational purposes in Southeast Asia for thousands of years. Chewing on its leaves provides a mild opium-like affect. And, thanks to the internet, its found itself at the center of growing popularity in America. Mostly because its…
Two new polls have landed today concerning Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Each presents two possible paths for his future. While one survey shows that his reelection to Senate is pretty much a given, the other suggests that he might actually have a chance at securing the Republican nomination for president…
After months of speculation and, recently, a spate of pointed criticism directed at incumbent Carlos Gimenez, Raquel Regalado has now confirmed she’s running for mayor of Miami-Dade County. “At some point you just have to decide and say, ‘Look, beyond the criticism, what should we be doing differently?'” Regalado tells…
Gwen Margolis, an 80-year-old Democrat and longtime political veteran, is Miami-Dade’s richest state senator, according to data recently released by FloridaWatchdog.org. For her 2013 filing, Margolis, who represents the state’s 35th district, which encompasses much of the eastern part of the county, including Key Biscayne and Miami Beach, reported a…
A day after being accused of punching a college kid, Miami-area Republican State Rep. Frank Artiles had a controversial victory in the Florida House. His bill that would ban transgender people using their preferred bathrooms without any exceptions in Florida cleared its first committee in the House. See also: Republican…
Sure, it’s still a long shot, but state Sen. Dwight Bullard’s efforts to legalize marijuana for recreational use in Florida got a bit closer to reality today. A companion bill has been filed in the house by Rep. Randolph Bracy, a Democrat from Ocoee. See also: Bill to Legalize Recreational…
The night before the official beginning of the Florida legislative session, Miami-area Rep. Frank Artiles was hanging out at a Tallahassee bar, Clydes & Costello’s, into the early hours of the morning. That’s all anyone seems to know for sure, but Artiles has been publicly accused of punching a college…
Today marks the beginning of Florida’s most turbulent 60 days of the year, a bizarre two-month stretch when 160 oddballs convene in a remote North Florida town and — between bites from gigantic plates of paella — find new ways to make our state even more dysfunctional. Yes, it’s time…
Advocates of bringing resort-style casinos to Miami-Dade and Broward counties are preparing to roll the dice once again this legislative session. Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa, introduced an ambitious package of gaming bills today that would pave the way for two destination casinos in the counties. The bills would also allow…
Jeb Bush may be getting all the major scrutiny right now, but he’s not the only guy from Miami who is running a not-quite presidential campaign. Senator Marco Rubio has been busy the past few months fundraising, touring early primary states on a book tour and considering his future. Sure…
Jeb Bush’s fledgling not-quite-campaign has a lot of problems, not the least of which is that conservative radio talk show hosts don’t particularly like the guy. That includes the king blowhard himself, Rush Limbaugh. The grandaddy of conservative talk took to the airwaves on Wednesday to claim, in great horror,…
In many ways, Jeb Bush is sitting pretty. He’s the only major 2016 candidate who has publicly announced he’s actively exploring a presidential run and is busy hauling in cash for his Right to Rise PAC. He’s sitting atop many national polls of GOP contenders, and the media has anointed…
Apparently we are to assume that all minor instances of basic human interaction between Gov. Rick Scott and President Barack Obama are of the utmost importance. So what to make of the fact that this afternoon Scott was on hand to greet Obama before his appearance at Florida International University…
President Barack Obama will visit the main campus of Florida International University this afternoon to speak at a town hall meeting about immigration. He’ll sit down with TV news anchor Jose Diaz-Balart, and the event will air on Telemundo at 7 p.m. and on MSNBC at 8 p.m. Exciting stuff…
Joe Garcia, the Cuban American former Democratic congressman who lost in November to newcomer Carlos Curbelo, is not running for office again. Instead he’s joining a bank. Today QueensFort Capital, a Miami-based bank that specializes in large capital foreign investment, announced Garcia was coming on board as senior vice president…
Some Republicans in the state legislature may be ready to legalize medical marijuana (though only if it’s the nonsmokable stuff), but at least one Democrat wants all weed legalized. Sen. Dwight Bullard, a Democrat representing Cutler Bay and current chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, introduced SB 1176 yesterday. The…
What else do you expect from a state that isn’t sure if gay sex meets the legal definition of sex and let beastiality remain technically legal until 2011? It’s been technically illegal in Florida since the late 1800s for unrelated and unmarried man and woman to cohabitate. In fact, it’s…
Back in 2013, Jeffrey A. Benjamin came in second place to Tomas Regalado in Miami’s mayoral race with 10 percent of the vote. You may remember that as the year when Regalado’s only real competition, Francis Suarez, abruptly dropped out of the race, leaving Regalado practically unchallenged. Still, Benjamin was…
Want to pick up a bag of baby carrots, a carton of Hefty bags, and a fifth of vodka all in one quick trip? Well, lawmakers are currently debating whether to allow grocery and drug stores to sell hard liquor alongside other wares. See also: Beer Growlers May Finally Be…
Marco Rubio swept into the Senate with more hype than any politician since, well, Barack Obama. The then-Tea Party wunderkind promised he wouldn’t let the hype go to his head and would concentrate on the job he was elected to do. So much for that. Turns out, of every single…
Photo by Omar Vega / Courtesy of Lauren’s Kids As she climbed the hill leading to Florida’s State Capitol last spring, Lauren Book broke from a walk into a run. The 29-year-old blond with a pink ribbon wrapped around her ponytail raised both arms in triumph and flashed a huge…
