Politics & Government

When Stephen Bittel, a wealthy Democratic megadonor from Miami Beach, announced plans to run for the top job at the Florida Democratic Party, pushback was inevitable. Bittel, who made the majority of his fortune selling properties on Lincoln Road, is the public face of Florida Strong, an organization that donates Koch brothers-style “dark money” to Democratic candidates. Many progressive Florida Democrats disliked Bittel’s modus operandi.

South Florida is full of drivers who treat stop lights like vague suggestions. So the area is also full of red-light cameras, which ticket motorists who plow through intersections with reckless abandon. Those cameras can be annoying — who wants to dish out $150 every time they run a yellow? — but there’s some evidence to suggest they can cut down on deadly crashes.

Florida state Sen. Travis Hutson, a Republican representing St. Johns, Flagler, and parts of Volusia Counties, wants to set up two entirely different punishments for people accused of identical crimes. The difference? Whether you’re a U.S. citizen or not when you are arrested. Under Huston’s proposal, anyone committing simple battery or assault in Florida as a U.S. citizen would be charged with a misdemeanor. Commit that identical crime as an undocumented immigrant, and Hutson’s bill would make that crime a felony.

Donald Trump owes so much of his ascendency — and his continued commitment to sowing world chaos — to Twitter that it’s appropriate the first big black eye of his White House came via some tweets. And Miami’s own A.J. Delgado, an attorney and Trump campaign advisor, appears to have…

Some Miami politicians sucked this year because they were incompetent. A whole lot of people thought longtime Miami businessman Jeb Bush, history’s least exciting royal prince, would be in line to lead the free world by this time in 2016. Instead, he blew his shot big-time, squandered hundreds of millions of dollars, and cemented his place in history books as one of the clearest cases of white-bread upper-crust mediocrity in American history. Let’s hope some rich jokester capitalist gifted Bush a coal mine this Christmas.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law has led to a massive, demonstrable increase in statewide homicides since 2005. JAMA’s November study framed the law as a clear threat to public health: Homicides were actually decreasing, on average, until the law — which lets Floridians kill in self-defense even if they themselves started the fight — took effect.

Throughout his rise to fame, sold-out arenas, and cheesy Bud Light ads, Pitbull has refused to throw his “dales” behind either political party. Even as many Latin celebs backed Hillary because of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant xenophobia, Pitbull refused to wade in, suggesting instead that both parties are equally mierda. (And…

Did a prominent Democratic donor cut a backroom deal in order to gain control of the Florida Democratic Party? An email New Times obtained raises new questions about the ongoing battle over who gets to lead Florida’s Democratic Party during the Donald Trump years. The email’s author, lobbyist Stephanie Grutman, denies…

Last week, Stephen Bittel, a Miami real-estate magnate and major political donor, made the first play in a House of Cards-esque political drama he hopes ends with his running Florida’s Democratic Party. First, though, he needed to secure a humbler role as a Miami-Dade County state committeeman, which he did in a quiet midnight vote.

Natasha Joseph’s almond-shaped eyes brim with tears as she cradles her pregnant belly and recounts the horror of her journey to the United States. There were the dust-choked buses, the corrupt cops, and the thieving coyotes. Some stretches of Central America were so perilous that walking in the dead of night was the only option.

Former South Florida Congressman Allen West is meeting with Donald Trump today, for the second time in seven days. To put things mildly, this is less than ideal. West has a demonstrable hatred of Muslims: He was kicked out of the military a decade ago for psychologically torturing an innocent Iraqi cop, spent his two-year congressional career calling Islam a threat to the West, and Saturday retweeted a meme calling for the “extermination” of Muslims.

The rumors spiked across Twitter on Friday: David Beckham was finally ready to pull the plug on his tortured attempts to bring Major League Soccer back to Miami. Instead, one soccer writer suggested, he was turning his sights to the more pliable city of Las Vegas.

Florida International University is one of the most diverse schools in the nation. Some 81 percent of students are racial or ethnic minorities, and FIU advertises itself as the country’s largest “Hispanic-serving institution.” Some of those students are undocumented “dreamers” who have benefited from President Barack Obama’s DACA plan, which allows them to attend college legally.

Protect Our Elections, a liberal-leaning group based in Washington, D.C., says that more than 160,000 votes in Florida weren’t counted during last month’s presidential election. The group claims each of those votes matters a great deal, since Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 112,911 votes in the Sunshine State. Trump…

There are a lot of ways to get back at a horrible ex. The desire for revenge is so primal and prevalent that the internet is practically littered with lists about how to exact vengeance. Most of the suggestions are benign, from donating their stuff to Goodwill to sending over…

A few friends, some oysters, and a lot of Ketel One were Rand Hoch’s day-after-election hangover remedy. But the president and founder of Palm Beach County Human Rights Council was back at work the next day. Aiming to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender, he quickly planned a meeting…

Donald Trump has been the president-elect for exactly three weeks. As he has endlessly Twitter-beefed and mulled over cabinet picks, though, it seems as if he’s been president-elect since Tsar Nicholas II was assassinated. But there’s already been a darker side to Trump’s ascendency than watching the future leader of the free world go on unhinged social-media rants.

Two of Donald Trump’s potential Supreme Court nominees hail from the Sunshine State.

Just after 9 a.m. today, Flavia Marlene Almonte, a Latina Muslim woman who lives in Miami, pulled her car over near a police officer in Fort Lauderdale and broke down in tears. “I just need a place to vent,” she said, speaking into a Facebook Live feed…

Around 4:30 p.m. yesterday, Miami real-estate developer David Sanguesa claims, a Miami Starbucks employee said she would not serve him coffee. The reason: He voted for Donald Trump.

Around 4:30 p.m. today, Jorge de Cárdenas was getting some work done in a Starbucks on South Dixie Highway near the University of Miami. A group of people stood waiting in line at the counter for their coffee and snacks. But one disgruntled white customer got so upset at how long his order was taking that he began screaming “Trump!” at a black employee.