When Tony Crapp Jr. walked away from the Miami city manager job on Monday — leaving unsolved a gaping $40 million budget gap and a troubled police force — he got a nice parting gift from Magic City taxpayers.Crapp left City Hall with a handsome $155,000 severance package, Riptide has…
Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado tried to sound a reassuring note this morning while introducing Miami’s third city manager in six months. The hiring of Johnny Martinez, previously assistant city manager, should reassure investors that Miami is on sound footing, Regalado said. “We have a functional government,” he said. “We have…
Gov. Rick Scott’s first months running Florida have yielded plenty of gems that would be comedy gold if we didn’t actually have to live with them in real life. Drug testing every state employee? To benefit a medical company he co-founded? Didn’t we see that one in Naked Gun 4?A…
After six months of doing exactly nothing about a police department in disarray and a looming $40 million budget gap, Miami City Manager Tony Crapp Jr. is packing up his office this afternoon and bailing for a cushy private-sector job in Broward County.Gee, thanks for all the hard work, Tony…
In the early ’80s, two militant young friends from Carol City decided to join a black-power sect in Liberty City led by a preacher later called Yahweh ben Yahweh. Thirty-odd years later, the sect is scattered, Yahweh is dead — after serving time for orchestrating 14 gruesome murders — and…
DMV blunt smoking part-ay! Gov. Rick Scott today put a temporary hold on his harsh-mellowing plan to randomly drug test all state employees — an absurd idea in the first place that would have cost millions just to root out the odd pothead or two at the parks service. (All…
Health care fraud is the hot ticket among Miami’s white collar criminals these days, and prosecutors today say they’ve busted a ring that was recruiting school bus drivers to bilk the Miami-Dade Public School’s insurance fund to the tune of at least $1 million. The owner of a fake clinic…
A sizable crowd was hanging outside a grocery market in the heart of Liberty City a little before 1:30 this morning when police say a white Nissan Maxima rolled up and someone in the car started blasting indiscriminately.When the smoke cleared, four bystanders had been hit with bullets and two…
Professor Charles Barkley, a noted sociologist and all around portly fellow, recently proposed a hypothesis that the Miami Heat “have the worst fans.”Chuck, you might want to watch some video of what went down in Vancouver last night. Because we’re pretty sure that burning your city’s downtown to a crisp…
One of the strangest chapters from Miami’s pot-smuggling glory days came to an end in federal court today, when a judge sentenced Mark Steven Phillips — a long-lost associate of the Black Tuna ring — to five years in prison. Phillips fled during the gang’s infamous 1979 trial and hid…
We’ll give Mark Cuban this: After he ripped out Miami’s heart, he at least put a little juice back into the Miami Beach economy Sunday night at LIV’s back-stabbing Lil Wayne postgame bacchanalia. Fox Sports reports this morning he made at least $110,000 rain at the club — including a $20,000 tip…
As if reading the sports section didn’t suck enough for Heat fans this morning, Miami Herald readers opened the paper to find a nearly full-page ad reading, “Congratulations Miami!” next to photos of Heat championship T-shirts and hats sold at Macy’s. (“Raise Another Banner” — ughhhhh.)Maybe Mark Cuban took out this ad…
Kids these days! You’d think what with their Tweetering and Facespaces and such they could knock their heads together to come up with an original way to prank the Man. Or at least a fun way that doesn’t involve costing their school thousands of dollars to clean up — who…
Flo Rida, the Sunshine State’s favorite boots-wit-da-fur spokesman, is headed to Dade County lockup after an early morning DUI bust on South Beach a few hours ago, Miami Beach police officials tell Riptide.We’re guessing this might put a crimp in Flo’s plans to host a celebrity golf tournament with DJ…
Coconut Grove charter school owner Manuel Alonso-Poch accused of bilking taxpayers
Yahweh ben Yahweh is back
Manuel Alonso-Poch isn’t just one of Miami’s best-connected lawyers and a major donor to bigwigs such as Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado and his daughter, school board member Raquel Regalado — he’s also been trumpeted lately as the business-savvy savior of the long-threatened Miami Marine Stadium.So what the heck is going…
You’ve got to give Allen Stanford credit for thinking big — instead of sinking his $8 billion Ponzi scheme profits into the usual uber-rich guy stuff, he bought himself the entire Caribbean nation of Antigua, sponsored giant cricket tourneys (despite being from Texas) and gave his mistress a moat-surrounded Coral…
All Dream Vacations and VGC Corp sued for fraud
Life in La Habana has been inching toward change lately. These days, it’s perfectly legal to serve up to 50 people in your restaurant, to own your own barber shop and to spend all afternoon loading clunky dial-up porn on your home computer.Still most definitely illegal, though: Tossing fliers reading…
South Beach’s annual Urban Beach Weekend ended on a bloody note early this morning when two different police-involved shootings broke out near Collins and Washington Avenues, shattering the night with multiple rounds and leaving one dead and at least six — including three police officers — in the hospital.Click through…
A couple of weeks ago, 21-year-old Juan Rivera was listening to his favorite station, New York’s 97.9 La Mega, when an excited voice announced a contest: “Answer this trivia question first, and you’ll win a four-day trip to Orlando!”Rivera was engaged to marry in July and on the hunt for…
