UPDATE: Miami-Dade State Attorney Kath​erine Fernandez Rundle stands by her decision to prosecute Michelle Spence-Jones for bribery, claiming the judge presiding over the suspended Miami city commissioner’s trial screwed up the verdict’s outcome.”We disagree with the judge’s interpretation of bribery law,” Rundle said in a statement released shortly after a…

In this week’s New Times, we profile Richard Moss, basic training director of Miami Dade College’s School of Justice, who has a troubled past. We investigate Moss, who was demoted from chief to commander when he was with the Broward Sherriff’s Office because of insubordination.The report also documents complaints filed against…

Natacha Seijas was right to worry about her name appearing on the same recall ballot as Carlos Alvarez. She was swept up in the voter tsunami that also took out the now former county mayor. Many local political pundits didn’t give Miami Voice, the political action committee that sought Seijas’s…

Mayoral candidate and Miami New Times columnist Luther Campbell wants to get it on. At the ballot box. Not the champagne room. Now that voters have shown Carlos Alvarez the exit door, the onetime raunchiest man in hip-hop is calling on the county commission to set a date for another…

The Miami-Dade Elections Department is reporting that initial absentee ballots show an overwhelming majority of those voters want Carlos Alvarez and Natacha Seijas out of here. ​Early voting numbers and today’s election day results are still pending. Earlier this afternoon, like the rest of the precincts in Miami-Dade County, voting…

Today is it for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and County Commissioner Natacha Seijas, who are on the verge of becoming the first county elected officials to get recalled since the ’70s. An official poll and our informal poll show the two politicians are going down for the count, victims of…

​Natacha Seijas can feel good about one thing as she fights her recall. The campaign is creating work for one of her pals in a rough economy. The county commissioner’s anti-recall political action committee has spent $100,411 — nearly half of Seijas’ war chest — through Creative Ideas Advertising Inc.,…

A Miami Lakes resident who supports Natacha Seijas has hijacked Miami Voice’s identity. On February 18, Dr. David Bennett, along with another Miami Lakes resident, incorporated a nonprofit organization bearing the same name as the committee seeking Natacha Seijas’s recall. Vanessa Brito, chairwoman of Miami Voice the PAC, is crying…

With the news that Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess is using county resources to help “set the record straight” about all the great and wonderful things he and his clan of bureaucrats do for us ungrateful residents, Banana Republican thought we’d go ahead and remind everyone about the disgustingly rich…

North Africa and the Middle East are not the only places feeling the intoxication of mass rebellion. Why here in good ole Miami-Dade County, voters have been turning out in droves for early voting in the recall elections of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and County Commissioner Natacha Seijas. And according…

Natacha Seijas is one week closer to her political reckoning, which means she will get only more viciously cantankerous than ever. Since the second attempt to recall her in four years kicked off, the county commissioner representing Hialeah and Miami Lakes has been on a rampage, threatening colleagues, snarling at…

It’s official. Uncle Luke is running. He is a bona fide candidate for the 2012 Miami-Dade County mayor’s race. Yesterday, he quietly filed his candidate paperwork at the Miami-Dade Elections Office. Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez, Doral Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez, and former state Rep. Marcelo LLorente…

A steady roar of boos greeted Natacha Seijas Wednesday morning when she swooped into the John F. Kennedy Library in Hialeah, one of the early voting sites where citizens in her district are casting their ballots. The entrenched county commissioner, along with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, is trying to fend…

For the second time since announcing his run for Miami-Dade mayor, Luther Campbell appeared on a Spanish-language television program to appeal to Hispanic voters. “Tio” Luke was the special guest on last night’s Ke Fuerte show on América TeVé, where he informed hosts Ivan and Carlucho that he has Cuban…

As the first week of early voting in the recall election of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas winds down, we decided to take a peek at the latest campaign finance reports filed with the elections department. As expected, billionaire auto magnate Norman Braman dropped some serious coin,…

Good thing voters choosing a successor to Frederica Wilson’s old state Senate seat don’t put much stock in the Miami Herald’s editorial board.Yesterday, former state Rep. Oscar Braynon II easily defeated ex-North Miami Mayor Joe Celestin, who for the second time in less than a year was endorsed by the…

Over the next two weeks, we’ll see if Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez can muster the support that propelled him to office in 2004 and 2008, and also gave him more power. Earlier today, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Barbara Areces dismissed Alvarez’s last-minute lawsuit seeking to block the recall vote set for…

Alex Diaz de la Portilla, a former state senator known for engaging in dirty political campaigns, is rounding up votes to stop Mayor Carlos Alvarez and County Commissioner Natacha Seijas from getting recalled, according to two sources close to both politicians. In the midterm elections, Diaz de la Portilla helped…

The Wicked Witch of the Northwest is ready to go to the ballot box to keep her elected position. Natacha Seijas has dropped her lawsuit to block the recall election against her set for March 15.Her decision comes two days after Judge Amy Steele Donner signaled she would likely rule…