Next week, New Times is publishing a guide on eight of the worst public works projects in Miami-Dade, where bureaucrats and elected officials take pride in wasting millions in taxpayer dollars on crap residents have little-to-no use for.As we reveal each one of these boondoggles on Riptide, we’re asking readers…

No election in Hialeah, Miami, and Miami Beach is complete without a little political sofrito to spice things up. Thanks to some innovative instigators, cameras have been chronicling strange encounters involving candidates running for office in those three cities.As voters head to the polls tomorrow, we bring you the four…

​In true South Florida fashion, a pill mill that trafficked thousands of illegal oxycodone tablets was operating right in the heart of Miami-Dade County government, the feds say.Recent charges filed against Robert’s Drug Store and its owner, Aiman Aryan, are a surprising fall from grace for a well-connected pharmacist with…

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez could soon be at odds with two major casino operators supporting his re-election run in 2012. That’s because a pair of state bills that would pave the way for three destination mega-resorts with full-scale casinos benefits one company while freezing out the other firm.Gimenez publicly supports…

It’s the final countdown for North Bay Village Mayor Corina Esquijarosa. The Miami-Dade Elections Office has verified that a political action committee seeking a recall against Esquijarosa has obtained the required number of voter signatures to call an election.Citizens For Full Disclosure needed to get 440 John Hancocks in its…

With a $417,000 campaign war chest, Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff is the top rainmaker of the five candidates running in next week’s November 1 election.The incumbent from Coconut Grove is also the guy who tells the biggest whoppers. To honor his preeminent status, Banana Republican has compiled Sarnoff’s top five…

​Last time Raul Martinez ran for elected office, he got handed his only and worst defeat of his political career. He was part of a Democratic tag team that was supposed to topple the Diaz-Balart oligarchy controlling two of Miami’s Hispanic U.S. Congressional seats. The coup failed miserably and we…

A family of real estate developers who avoided paying more than $100,000 in code violations in Homestead thanks to Mayor Steve Bateman sure knows how to spoil the city’s elected officials. Through various corporations they own, Eduardo, Fred, and Larry Abbo also contributed $5,500 to Vice-Mayor Judy Waldman’s reelection campaign…

Anyone expecting some radical new ideas from Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez can just forget about it. Just like his predecessor, Gimenez is screwing over the county employees who can least afford it, while letting the fat-cat bureaucrats continue collecting their six-figure annual salaries.Earlier today, blogger Bill Cooke posted a list…

​Miami city commissioner Marc Sarnoff has collected nearly half a million dollars in his reelection bid, leading all candidates in the money raising front for the upcoming November election. Of the three incumbents on the ballot, Sarnoff faces the stiffest competition with four opponents who have some name recognition and…

​Seems Lil Wayne laid off the sizzurp for a brief second to respond to Luther Campbell’s ultimatum that President Carter needs to start investing more time helping Miami’s less fortunate souls or else. Last night, Young Weezy, via his handle @LilTunechi, tweeted, “This Nigga Luke trippin!!! I ain’t feelin khaled rite…

The head of Miami-Dade’s semi-public economic development arm is in tune with Miami’s raunchiest columnist. Beacon Council President Frank Nero told the Miami Herald today that he believes plans by companies from Malaysia and Las Vegas to build mega-casino resorts in downtown Miami “would serve as vacuum cleaners that suck…

A disgraced former Miami-Dade County commissioner and a Hialeah businessman once banned from getting county contracts are making big bucks off the red-light camera blitzkrieg in South Florida. Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions (ATS), which has installed red-light cameras in 22 cities in Miami-Dade and nearly 80 cities across the state,…

A watchdog agency is accusing Charles Hankerson, once considered a no-nonsense principal, of instructing a subordinate to illegally forge the signatures of two teachers at Miami Northwestern Senior High. The forgeries were made on documents that changed the grades of a student-athlete. This allowed the teenager to meet academic eligibility requirements…

​It’s great to have Homestead Mayor Steven Bateman as a pal when you don’t want to pay a city bill. Consider the case of Prime Home Builders, a company owned by a family of real estate developers that has donated more than five grand to Bateman’s re-election campaign. On November 16,…