When Miami’s Metrorail finally reached the city’s airport last week via a half-billion dollar expansion, our town’s leaders weren’t exactly humble. The 2.4 miles of track now make Miami “one of the great cities,” County Mayor Carlos Gimenez crowed. But the long-overdue expansion can’t cloud a bigger problem: The train…
What’s the most despicable way you can imagine a hospital chain trying to make extra cash? Short of kidnapping people to harvest their organs, it might be performing loads of unnecessary heart surgeries, putting patients at serious risk of death. That’s exactly what HCA, the hospital chain founded by Gov…
Marco Rubio introduced the the Olympic Tax Elimination Act, which aims to end the taxing the winnings and medal value of Olympians, with a bit of old fashioned, conservative anti-tax zeal.”Our tax code is a complicated and burdensome mess that too often punishes success, and the tax imposed on Olympic…
Somehow Republicans were able to keep a straight face today by declaring that bringing up their own candidate’s history of drunken arrests was “disappointing” and then bringing up a Democrat’s son drunken arrests.Connie Mack IV, your Republican nominee for Senate, had a habit of drunken shenanigans, occasionally ending in arrest,…
In a case that’s likely to follow incumbent County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle right up to Election Day, a Hialeah boletera — or absentee ballot broker — has been arrested and charged with illegally collecting ballots. Critics have long charged that boleteras illegally swing elections…
Florida’s most moderate former Republican has endorsed Florida’s most moderate Democrat, Bill Nelson, over his Republican challenger, Connie Mack IV, in a move that should surprise no one but is sure to have people talking. Since leaving the Republican Party during his own bid for Senate, Crist has more and…
Marco Rubio has been studying the American tax code, and at last he’s discovered the scourge that’s been dragging down the U.S. economy. No, it’s not Obama’s higher taxes on the top-one percent, and it’s not Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.It’s Uncle Sam’s tax on Olympic medalists, who, yeah,…
Another day, another poll. The latest Quinnipiac Poll shows Barack Obama with a six-point lead in Florida, much larger than the one-point lead a PPP poll reported yesterday. It’s the largest lead for Obama that any poll has shown in months.Meanwhile, Quinnipiac also has Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson up 47-40…
The Miami Herald editorial board sure knows how to back sketchy candidates. Last week, it recommended that voters go with Mark Weithorn in the race to replace Richard Steinberg, the Miami Beach state house rep who resigned in February after getting busted for sending inappropriate text messages to a married…
The latest poll from Democrat-affiliated polling firm Public Policy Polling [PDF] shows Barack Obama with a teeny, tiny lead in Florida. It’s 48-47 in favor of Obama, but since the race is so close Mitt Romney’s choice of running mate could play a pivotal part of Florida’s choice. Picking either…
June’s Miami Beach commission meeting ended with what seemed like a heartfelt bit of humanity. Commissioners agreed to keep axed City Manager Jorge Gonzalez on the books for another nine months while he burned vacation days so his family could keep its health insurance.But this is Miami Beach, the most…
The latest shot has been fired in what may be Gov. Rick Scott’s dumbest legal battle yet.Earlier this month a federal judge struck down the so-called “Docs vs. Glocks” law that Scott had signed into law last year. Now Scott has ordered the Florida Department of Health to appeal the…
DJs really are taking over. They’ve even entered the political arena, and may play a small but pivotal role in the presidential election.President Obama’s campaign has quietly enlisted the help of a group known as “DJs for Obama.” The group is targeting beat-friendly cities, perhaps none more so than Miami…
When it comes to pushing new laws, Gov. Rick Scott has developed a predictable routine: 1) Propose clearly unconstitutional and possibly insane new law. 2) Get sued. 3) Inspire heavy Daily Show mockery. 4) Lose over and over again in court.While we all love the Daily Show fodder, steps two…
Last week, our columnist Luther Campbell slammed Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. The following is Gimenez’s response: Last year, while campaigning for Mayor of Miami-Dade County, I made certain promises to our residents for a better community. In the fourteen months since then, we have worked day in and day out…
In a recently released deposition from his ongoing criminal trial, Jim Greer, the former chair of the Republican Party of Florida, claims the party actively tried to find ways to get African Americans not to vote. He claims the party also squashed efforts at minority outreach, as they were not…
Also read Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll Accused of Fling With Top Aide and Black Lesbians Are So Pissed At Jennifer Carroll Right Now.In one of the least predictable sagas of this summer of face-eating and Marlins-hating, conservative Gov. Jennifer Carroll was accused of getting caught in a lesbian affair with…
Jeb Bush, whose main job since leaving Florida’s governor’s mansion has been not running for president, will continue the busy duties of not running for president this October by keynoting the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner in Sioux City, Iowa.Of course, if the American media knows one thing, it’s…
“What Do Gus Barreiro and the Aurora Mass Murderer Have in Common?” reads the latest headline on TeaPartyMiami.org. Yes, Tea Party Miami chairman Eric Von Tausch is shamelessly using the murder of 12 people to attack a politician he doesn’t like…
Let’s be honest. The first instinct most people have when a Republican politician’s seminude photos emerge online is that a sex scandal is about to unfold. Probably a gay sex scandal. So when pics of state Rep. Peter Nehr leaked online in, of all places, the political blog of the…
All of Tampa is preparing for the Republican National Convention in late August, but no industry seems as excited for the conservative conference as the Tampa Bay area’s strip clubs. Several titty bars are undergoing renovations and trying to outdo themselves to lure GOP fat cats’ fat wallets, but one…
Patrick Murphy, a well-funded Democrat, will likely face off against everyone’s favorite kooky South Florida congressman Allen West in November, but first he has a few Democratic rivals to face off against in the primary. One of those rivals, Jim Horn, is sending out a flyer that heavily implies Murphy…
