Even though Ralph Arza recently popped up at one of her fundraisers and at her campaign headquarters in Hialeah, Perla Tabares Hantman insists the disgraced former state representative is not working on her re-election campaign for Miami-Dade School Board. “He has no involvement as far as I know,” Tabares Hantman tells Banana Republican…

With the primary election less than a month away, Riptide is doing its civic duty by letting readers know about the five worst candidates running in local, state, and federal races. A vote for these jokers is just another leap toward Idiocracy, the made-up future world conjured by Beavis &…

When he was a county commissioner, Miguel Diaz de la Portilla would pass the time spewing hate at Alex Penelas, who was elected Miami-Dade’s first executive mayor in 1996. Four years later, when he announced on March 29, 2000, his run for mayor against Penelas, Diaz de la Portilla got…

Today, the Miami Herald splashed one of those Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce promotional brochures on the newspaper’s homepage and called it journalism. Citing a report by Miami’s Downtown Development Authority claiming condo sales increased 110 percent over the first six months of 2009, chamber spokeswoman reporter Toluse Olorunnipa proclaims,…

What do you do if you have $59.2 million in unspent funds from last year’s budget earmarked for long-stalled projects at the Overtown and Omni community redevelopment agencies? If you’re Miami city commissioners Marc Sarnoff and Richard Dunn II, you use some of the money to pay your staff and…

José Luis de Jésus Miranda, leader of Miami-Dade-based congregation Creciendo en Gracia and the self-proclaimed “Man Christ,” has announced the world will go all apocalyptic July 1, 2012. That’s when Miranda claims his physical body will be “transformed, dressed in immortality and incorruptibility.” It also happens to be Miranda’s 66th birthday. New Times profiled…

Cesar Carasa’s smooth tongue didn’t do him any good in court. Late yesterday, a Miami-Dade jury found the former West Miami mayor guilty of exploiting his official position. The loquacious Cuban American politician ran up more than $70,000 in calls to women in the Dominican Republic on his city-issued cell-phone. Prosecutors…

Donald Richard sure had some nice tools in the garage of his house at 13241 SW 52nd Ter. The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department electrical shop supervisor stored a $70, ten-piece Irwin vise set and a $1,000, 432-piece Craftsman professional mechanics tool set inside two Craftsman chests valued at $725. Richard…

Miami-Dade’s top cop is great at putting on a show for the local media. Flanked by her public corruption lieutenants and other law enforcers last November 13, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle stood before a roomful of reporters to announce the arrest of then-Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, as well…

This past June 16, during a workshop where he pitched the Biscayne Landings site, lawyer Marc Douthit showed North Miami city council members and residents a 14-minute Discovery Channel film about Ski Dubai, an indoor snow resort in the United Arab Emirates. When a resident asked Douthit if he had…

Last November, Barbara Carey-Shuler was the reason the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office charged then-Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones with grand theft of $50,000 in county grants that went to a now defunct family business called Karym Ventures Inc. Nine months later, the former county commissioner is the reason Spence-Jones could…

Earlier this month, the Miami-Dade School Board’s watchdog agency and federal immigration agents busted a family of south Miami-Dade builders using 20 undocumented immigrants to build new modular classrooms at Southside Elementary. According to a July 1 federal indictment, Luis Daniel, his son Ariel, and his wife Marta Duque hired…

Former North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns abandoned his campaign for U.S. Senate to run for state Senate, but maybe he should concentrate on getting his financial house in order first. This past June 28, Florida’s division of elections notified Burns via letter that his bank did not honor a $1,781 check…

Last night’s monthly meeting of Miami-Dade Republicans was an entertaining respite from the LeBronomania enveloping the county. As promised, congressional candidate Paul Crespo demanded that David Rivera, the Republican frontrunner in the U.S. congressional race to replace Mario Diaz-Balart, resign as the local GOP’s chairman. Contender Marili Cancio also demanded…

State Rep. David Rivera’s campaign for U.S. Congress has taken quite the ass-kicking since he was caught being less than forthright about his friendship with Ariel Pereda, a Miami businessman who facilitates trade with Cuba. Being a hard-line, pro-Cuban-embargo advocate since he took public office, Rivera didn’t expect to look like…

Banana Republican is watching a projection screen inside a chilly classroom with no desks.On the screen, a police officer in a tan uniform talks to a middle-aged man in farmer duds on the side of a rural road. It looks like a scene from the TV show Cops, except Banana Republican is…