Hey there Florida gun owners. Feeling a little more paranoid than usual these days? Don’t trust the government can protect you from potential menaces when you’re catching a flight out of Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, or Miami? The Transportation Security Administration certainly seems to think you’re all freaking out. The airport…
Yesterday, we noted El Nuevo Herald’s scoop about Miami-Dade Police public corruption detectives going HAM on their overtime hours while investigating a quartet of park employees who pocketed a few thousand bucks. According to El Nuevo Herald, the investigators clocked 934 hours of overtime, collecting $58,288 to nab four men…
Two years ago, he serenaded his entrenched opponent, Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower, by having Sexy Sax Man play “Careless Whisper” for her during a city commission meeting. He cut a campaign video enumerating his pledges while slamming shots of booze and declared himself de facto leader of an…
Get this: The national engineering firm in the driver’s seat to oversee Miami-Dade’s $1.6 billion overhaul of the county’s monumentally dilapidated sewer system has a history of violating the Clean Water Act, mishandling radioactive waste, billing for phantom work, and paying kickbacks. In most places, that track record would get…
In early August, Miami-Dade Police made a big hullabaloo about busting four county employees who allegedly pocketed about $3,100 in entrance fees to Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah. Well, now it turns out the bigger thieves were actually the detectives investigating Jamal Sheffield, Charles Simons, Camilo Felipe and Manuel Valdes…
Get this: The national engineering firm in the driver’s seat to oversee Miami-Dade’s $1.6 billion overhaul of the county’s monumentally dilapidated sewer system has a history of violating the Clean Water Act, mishandling radioactive waste, billing for phantom work, and paying kickbacks. In most places, that track record would get…
A man who cashed checks for three women involved in a pair of real estate scams that ripped off 15 victims recently pleaded guilty to 13 felony counts of racketeering, grand theft, and uttering a forged instrument. For his crimes, Johnny Bou Nassar will get two years of house arrest…
When Sweetwater Mayor Manuel Maroño and his alleged bagman, lobbyist Jorge Forte, were arrested in early August on federal bribery charges, the FBI alleged the duo also collected referral fees for attempting to recruit other South Florida mayors into their scheme. Those elected officials, whom the FBI has not identified,…
Call it Farenheit 305. Ever since he released a proposed budget plan that would have shuttered 22 libraries across Miami-Dade earlier this summer, County Mayor Carlos Gimenez has been trying to put out a fire of his own making. The backlash prompted him to find a way to keep those…
In the days after his August 6 arrest on federal bribery charges, Michael Pizzi walked around shellshocked and despondent. In a blockbuster moment for public corruption fighters, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had nabbed the Miami Lakes mayor; his counterpart in Sweetwater, Manuel Maroño; and two lobbyists allegedly accepting payoffs…
Ominous, bass-heavy beats rumble the wall speakers inside a two-story house that’s been converted into a music recording studio. SpaceGhostPurrp slowly nods along, pausing to sip from a cup of Gatorade mixed with prescription cough syrup and to puff on a blunt stuffed with California dank. Dressed in a red…
Days following his August 6 arrest on federal bribery charges, Michael Pizzi was walking around shell-shocked and despondent. In a blockbuster moment for public corruption fighters, the Federal Bureau of Investigations had nabbed the Miami Lakes mayor, his counterpart in Sweetwater Manuel Maroño, and two lobbyists allegedly accepting payoffs in…
For at least three months, John Renfrow, director of the Miami-Dade Water & Sewer Department, knew about the $18.5 million fine CH2M Hill had to pay the federal government to avoid being prosecuted for time card fraud. Yet Renfrow didn’t stop the Colorado-based firm from bidding on a lucrative contract…
A pungent odor permeates an empty mosaic-tiled room inside a shuttered motel at 304 N. Krome Ave. in downtown Homestead. Mildew seeps through the walls. “Before I owned this place, it was a haven for crack addicts and prostitutes,” says the 43-year-old owner, Ernesto Perez, who bought the place for…
Andrew Mossberg made a painful mistake last month. He thought Miami Beach Police Det. Philippe Archer was a purse snatcher and tried to help the woman he believed was the victim. His thanks? Getting his face obliterated by the cop. In the early evening of June 26, the 50-year-old audio…
A pungent odor permeates an empty mosaic-tiled room inside a shuttered motel at 304 N. Krome Ave. in downtown Homestead. Mildew seeps through the walls. “Before I owned this place, it was a haven for crack addicts and prostitutes,” says the 43-year-old owner, Ernesto Perez, who bought the place for…
A Colorado-based company vying for a lucrative contract to oversee Miami-Dade County’s multi-billion dollar sewer system renovation projects admitted it defrauded the federal government earlier this year. Back in March CH2M Hill and one its subsidiaries agreed to pay $18.5 million in civil fines and restitution because the firms had…
Another city mayor in Miami-Dade has been busted this morning. Less than a month after the arrests of Sweetwater Mayor Manuel Maroño and Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi on federal bribery charges, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is accusing Homestead Mayor Steven Bateman of unlawful compensation. At his home earlier…
Brazilian twin artists Octavio and Gustavo Pandalfo, internationally known as Os Gêmeos, came through Miami on Friday to promote booze and drop beats. The Magic City was the third stop on a six-city tour for the quirky duo, who are hawking a new limited edition bottle of Hennessy VS featuring…
Andrew Mossberg made a painful mistake two months ago. He thought Miami Beach Police Det. Philippe Archer was a purse snatcher and tried to help the woman he believed was the victim. His thanks? Getting his face obliterated by the cop. In the early evening of June 26, the 50-year-old…
Reefer common sense might finally be on its way to the Sunshine State. Last week, both a statewide push for a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana and a local move in Miami Beach blazed a little closer to reality. In Miami Beach, voters going to the polls in November to…
A City of Hialeah employee claims she was forced to retire because of her supervisor’s abusive behavior. In a June 26 resignation email to Mayor Carlos Hernandez, Edith Galloza alleges her boss Carlos Lopez intimidated her and created a hostile work environment. The day she sent the email, Galloza claims…
