Rick Scott failed this year on his campaign promise to bring Arizona-style immigration laws to Florida, but if he tries to push the controversial reforms next year, he could make himself a very powerful enemy: Lady Gaga. Never one to shy away from GLBT issues, the Fame Monster has now…
Like someone in mourning, we’ve tried to forget. We’d just rather not think about how Gov. Rick Scott passed on the high-speed rail package that would have brought billions of dollars, thousands of jobs and a once-in-a-generation transportation upgrade to Florida all on the federal government’s dime. Yet, occasionally the…
Basic values like “academic integrity” and “common decency” usually lead universities to accept big donations only under strict guidelines: namely, that the benefactors trust the school to use the money without meddling.So it’s really awful what’s going on up at Florida State University, where the Economics Department took $1.5 million…
For one brief but glorious term Orlando-area Congressman Alan Grayson was Florida’s most entertainingly loudmouthed congressman. Now he’s out of office and replaced in that role by ideological opposite Allen West (who never even bothers to be intentionality funny), but Politco discovers that even when no one is listening to…
Here’s a fun game to watch play out as several announced and potential candidates for the Republican’s 2012 presidential primary start visiting Florida: will any of them meet with Governor Rick Scott, let alone seek his endorsement? Former Utah Governor and ambassador to China John Huntsman is making a stop…
Despite the fact the Republican-controlled Florida legislature has had to deal with a myriad of issues, including the economy, immigration, education and a crackdown on Florida’s deadly prescription pain pill problem, the legislators still found time to carve out a new round of anti-abortion measures. The legislature has sent a…
Throughout its shining history, the great state of Florida has never bothered to put a law on the books explicitly banning humans from having sex with animals. In recent years, Broward Democratic state Sen. Nan Rich has led a charge to finally outlaw bestiality, but Republican leaders in the House…
Wow. We knew you guys detested the Marlins Stadium deal, but now we’re afraid Miami needs some serious, professional therapy (or at least a big morning hit of Valium) to cope with the Little Havana boondoggle.We got nearly one hundred suggestions after we asked for a snarky nickname for the…
Some governors go on to higher offices after their terms end. Others continue championing key issues from outside the capitol or get into punditry. Very rarely do they go back to something resembling a normal 9-to-5. Well, Charlie Crist is now back at work as a lawyer at super-firm Morgan…
The Pakistani government and military is facing tough criticism after Osama bin Laden was found living rather comfortably in a large city in their country just minutes from Pakistan’s top military training academy. Rep. Allen West of Broward and Palm Beach, ever the reactionary Republican, is leading calls to potentially…
It generated one of the most controversial and heated debates of the legislative session and is a key agenda item for Governor Rick Scott, but it seems likely that conservatives’ efforts to pass an Arizona-style immigration bill in Florida is dead, despite the fact both houses are controlled by Republicans…
When Carlos Alvarez was booted from office on March 15, the largest local recall election in U.S. history sent a clear message to the Miami establishment: no more inside-the-beltway politics. Six weeks later, however, that lesson seems already forgotten.Yesterday, the Miami Foundation held a debate at UM between those vying…
The right to blast your crappy music through your car stereo at top volume while driving down the road with minimal repercussions is a right that many Miamians hold dear and regularly exercise. But recently some politicians in Tallahassee wanted to strip us of this basic freedom. Thankfully, the Florida…
Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, the two most high-profile Republicans in the state, both got elected on the backs of campaigns that never skimped on criticizing Barack Obama, but the two have nothing but praise for the president after he announced the death of Osama bin Laden…
We’re a year from the new Marlins Stadium opening, but it’s already one of the most hated edifices ever built in Miami. (Just ask Carlos Alvarez). So while we spend the next 40 years paying down the $2.4 billion in interest on this elephant we never wanted and didn’t get…
Red light cameras are the absolute worst. Defenders says they make intersections safer, though study after study shows that lengthening yellow lights is actually much more effective. Though, yellow lights don’t bring in money. (And lets be honest, for many local governments the red light cameras are all about the…
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has said time and time again he won’t run for president in 2012, and while he hadn’t exactly been stoking the flames, he had left the door just a crack open that he’d perhaps consider running for vice president. Well, yesterday he shut that door, announcing…
There have been several endorsements thrown around in the race for Miami-Dade’s next mayor, but few national figures have weighted in. Today former Gov. Jeb Bush, a Miami-Dade resident, put his support behind former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina. Though county politics is nonpartisan, it comes as little surprise that Robaina…
Just hours before arriving in Miami to deliver a commencement address at Miami Dade College, President Barack Obama gave what will likely be one of the most important directives of his presidency. After months of planning and gathering intelligence, the president gave direct orders for American operatives to carry out…
Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Carlos Gimenez’s campaign has released a pretty flawed poll, and even that show’s he’s trailing former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina. Though, the poll does show that Gimenez is losing ground. The major problem here is that this is an eight-person race, and the survey only asked about…
President Barack Obama will be in town today to deliver the commencement address to Miami Dade College’s North Campus graduates at the James L. Knight Center. Which is great, but unless you’re graduating from Miami Dade, there’s nothing really in it for you except maybe some bad traffic…
“Are there things we don’t want you to know? Yes,” Brian Burgess, Rick Scott’s communication director (or misdirector in many cases) tells the Times/Herald’s Tallahassee Bureau. “There are things we don’t want to broadcast to our opponents.”Florida’s Sunshine Laws are supposed to foster an open and transparent government, but time and…
