Over the past 15 days, I have written several blog posts questioning the residency of Hialeah councilwoman Katharine Cue. I reported how her driver’s license and city documents, including forms she filled out with her own handwriting, showed she actually resided at 19195 Mystic Pointe Dr. in Aventura when she…
Ex-Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez and Julio Robaina feud over councilwoman Katharine Cue
Raul Martinez just won’t go away. The onetime Boss Tweed of Hialeah, who beat a federal indictment and lost to Lincoln Diaz-Balart for a seat in the U.S. Congress last year, is taking on the empire of his successor, Mayor Julio Robaina. “[Julio] has put some distance between us,” Martinez told…
Having the surname Cue certainly has its perks in Miami-Dade’s second largest city. Consider how lucky Hialeah Councilwoman Katharine Cue is because of her surname. After spending most of her childhood and teenage years on the talent show circuit, Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina tapped the then-19-year-old young lady as a…
This Friday night, from 8 to 11 p.m., Hard Rock Live in Hollywood will host an 11-bout mixed martial arts tournament where former Latin Syndicate gang leader Rene “Level” Martinez will make his pro debut. The Cuban-American back-yard brawler was recently featured in New Times, documenting his transformation from street…
At one time, 57-year-old civil engineer Richard Mendez was a very powerful man — as Miami-Dade’s assistant aviation director, he oversaw construction projects at one of the nation’s busiest airports. But in 2001, he resigned shortly before being indicted by the feds for steering multimillion-dollar contracts to three county vendors…
Baby Got Fatback!: Miami-Dade budget cuts affect lower-level employees, not well-paid executives
Where in the World Is Katharine Cue?: A Hialeah councilwoman leads a peripatetic life.
Tomorrow evening, Miami-Dade County Commissioners will finally set the budget for the upcoming year. We already know that Mayor Carlos Alvarez is proposing some seriously draconian cuts and will make good on his promise to lay of 1,700 employees, which does not bode well for south Florida, where the unemployment…
Apparently Daniel Bolaños hopes Hialeah voters have a short memory or don’t care about his checkered past. How else can one explain why the disgraced former cop is running for a seat on the city council? He is challenging councilwoman Katharine Cue, who was appointed to the council late last…
First, in 1993, a judge ordered a new election after determining camps for both Mayor Raul Martinez and challenger Nilo Juri had participated in absentee ballot tampering. Twelve years later, federal HUD officials investigated then-Hialeah Housing Authority director Alex Morales for forcing housing employees to campaign during working hours and…
It still amazes me how parents lull themselves into thinking that their children will be okay inside the Miami-Dade public school system, even at supposedly “safe havens” like Coral Gables Senior High, where one student stabbed a classmate to death earlier this morning.We live in a nihilistic age, and Miami-Dade…
The tepid race to replace Miami Mayor Manny Diaz could soon get a shot of Sazon if the chatter emanating from city hall is true. A handful of political consultants said earlier today that former Mayor Joe Carollo is seriously considering jumping into the contest. As of now, it looked like…
A steady downpour did not dampen the mood of the bloodthirsty crowd that came out to Dhafir Harris’s back yard in Perrine this past Saturday. About 100 spectators saw ten bare-knuckles brawlers put on a gruesome show — which even featured a main event cage rematch between Whiteboy — a fair-skinned Hialeah…
On the Level: Can street fighter Rene Martinez reach MMA glory?
More than two decades ago, Rene Martinez satisfied his lust for violence by engaging in some serious gangbanging. Throughout his teenage and young adult years, the former leader of the Latin Syndicate racked up more than 21 arrests for, among other things, rumbling on the streets of Miami Beach, smashing…
Facing a $427 million deficit, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez promised he would thin out the county executive offices by 10 percent in his proposed budget. The Herald has written a fair amount about this lately. So have we. What you might not know is that two of them with monster salaries…
Candidate in Court: Miami Beach City Commission candidate Fredric Karlton gets flak for ex-wife troubles
Fredric Karlton, a first-time candidate for Miami Beach City Commission, is getting a rude introduction to the city’s gutter politics. The 49-year-old real estate investor’s perceived enemies initiated a Miami-Dade ethics commission inquiry into allegedly improper business dealings with his childhood chum, Commissioner Ed Tobin. It went nowhere. And now,…
Kudos to Miami Herald reporters Matt Haggman and Scott Dolan, who today whacked Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez really good. Turns out our dear alcalde fuerte was doling out raises to his favored employees while taking the ax to the rest of the county budget. Of course, don’t forget yours truly…
The Miami Herald’s skullduggery against local blogger and photographer Bill Cooke is getting serious. Miami’s only major daily has sicced Ian Ballon, a big-dog intellectual property lawyer based out of Greenberg Traurig’s Los Angeles office, on the canterkerous shutterbug-agitator. On his bio page, Ballon lists among his accomplishments winning a…
Ridin’ Dirty: Miami-Dade County execs drive expensive cars on the taxpayers’ dime
