At this Thursday’s Miami city commission meeting, Mayor Tomás Regalado and Commission Chairman Marc Sarnoff will sponsor city legislation that would require elected officials and lobbyists to complete an ethics training course. No one is going to argue that ethics reform is long overdue at 3500 Pan American Dr.In fact,…

Late Friday, at 9:05 p.m., Miami-Dade Judge Beatrice Butchko dealt a serious blow to state prosecutors’ case against a popular pastor in Miami’s black community.Butchko ruled Assistant State Attorney Richard Scruggs cannot use digital recordings of two interviews with Rev. Gaston Smith. They were made months before the clergyman was indicted for…

Richard Scruggs is usually the guy asking people tough questions and getting witnesses to spill the beans. But today Miami-Dade’s veteran public corruption prosecutor was on the receiving end of an intense grilling. And he was not enjoying himself.It went down inside the courtroom of Judge Beatrice Butchko in the…

Already more than $2 billion over budget and more than three years behind schedule, Miami International Airport’s north terminal is about to suck more money from Miami-Dade County.This Friday, aviation department bureaucrats will ask the county commission’s airport and seaport committee to sign off on adding $46 million to a…

Last night, Banana Republican spoke with a political consultant who worked on Francis Suarez’s campaign who insisted the new commissioner did not have private discussions with his new colleagues about who to pick to replace Angel Gonzalez.The city commission — down to three members with the ouster of Gonzalez and…

Newly elected Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez may have unwittingly scuttled plans to appoint a replacement for Angel Gonzalez, who last week resigned from the commission as part of his guilty plea deal with prosecutors.Commission Chairman Marc Sarnoff has called an emergency meeting for tomorrow to address the two commission…

Miami-Dade County commissioners are gearing up to revamp the Miami Metro Action Plan Trust, the social and economic redevelopment agency created in the wake of the racial riots that rocked the county during the ’80s.On December 1, the commission will vote to reconstitute the trust into the Miami-Dade Housing Civil…

UPDATE: Ceresta Smith has gotten a temporary reprieve. Miami-Dade Public Schools administrators will not be asking the school board to suspend her today. Spokesman John Schuster says the school district is reviewing the matter.Miami-Dade County Public Schools is railroading another good, outspoken teacher. Today the school board will consider suspending…

Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado’s insistence that Gov. Charlie Crist appoint a replacement for suspended Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones is getting ugly.Over the weekend, Regalado and commission chairman Marc Sarnof pressured Angel Gonzalez — who resigned yesterday as part of his guilty plea deal with prosecutors — to come to city hall for…

Michelle Spence-Jones, wearing a red-and-black dress, black stockings and no shoes, stood in the middle of her Liberty City home’s wood-floored living room.It was close to 1 p.m. this past Friday the 13th. Fourteen friends and family members gathered around her and listened raptly. She spoke authoritatively, gesticulating with both…

Early this morning, in front of the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building at 1351 NW 12th Street, after reading from a prepared statement asserting her innocence, Michelle Spence-Jones grew testy with some of the Miami media horde chronicling her surrender to law enforcement officials.When WPLG’s political reporter Michael Putney asked…

A Miami Police Internet message board is throwing out names on who will be the man to replace John Timoney. One thing is certain: it doesn’t appear that his loyal deputy chief Frank Fernandez (pictured here to the right of Manny Diaz and Timoney) will get the top post.Fernandez, along…