Miami Lakes: Michael Pizzi thisclose to being mayor again

Miami Lakes: Michael Pizzi thisclose to being mayor again

Former, arrested, suspended and acquitted Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi is one step closer to sitting back in his office at Town Hall after a judge ruled Tuesday that his acquittal on bribery charges — and the subsequent, if forced, revocation of the governor’s suspension — means that he should get his old elected […]

Questions linger a year after FBI arrests two mayors

Questions linger a year after FBI arrests two mayors

It came and went without much fanfare — the first anniversary of the arrests of both Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi and Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño in separate snags on the same August day last year and in the same FBI sting — bogus economic development grant approvals for kickbacks. Maroño is serving […]

Sweetwater Mayor Jose Diaz: ‘Show me the money!’

Sweetwater Mayor Jose Diaz: ‘Show me the money!’

In what has been characterized as a political ploy a full year before what is shaping up to be a heated local election, Sweetwater Mayor Jose M. Diaz — a 12-year commissioner who took over last fall after the previous mayor was arrested on federal public corruption charges — said he has absolutely no idea […]

Sweetwater mayor fires almost everyone for ‘clean house’

Sweetwater mayor fires almost everyone for ‘clean house’

Sweetwater Mayor Jose Diaz has fired pretty much everyone except the Police Chief. Or everyone that is left, anyway. Diaz will have a press conference Tuesday to announce the dismissal of several department directors and employees as part of the “cleaning house” he has tried to initiate since he took over for the suspended former Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño, who […]

Manny Maroño’ mama: latest 305 elected to harass the press

Manny Maroño’ mama: latest 305 elected to harass the press

Elected officials in Miami-Dade seem to habitually harass journalists on a regular basis. It’s like a virus or something. And it’s spreading. From Hialeah’s Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez having me followed by police and throwing me out of public meetings to newly elected Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine deciding who is a journalist and who […]

A New Year’s toast to Top 10 political characters of 2013

A New Year’s toast to Top 10 political characters of 2013

The Miami Herald appropriate calls it the year of the bust. That’s because 2013 was particularly packed with political corruption — or at least the kind we found out about, anyway. But it was also the year of disgust as electeds promoted corporate welfare for the millionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins, another millionaire bought […]

Public corruption in Miami-Dade: Is something in the water?

Public corruption in Miami-Dade: Is something in the water?

The political bomb that exploded in Doral last week has had its aftershocks. Already, there is an investigation into the campaign office rental of Mayor Luigi Boria and another inquiry on his links with a friend and property owner who bought the property from Boria’s children with money the mayor may have lent him and […]

New claims about Michael Pizzi is tip of federal iceberg

New claims about Michael Pizzi is tip of federal iceberg

Thank God for the feds coming to the rescue. I’ll call them the cavalry. The scandalous claims that came out Sunday about former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi wanting three years ago to plant cocaine on former Councilman Richard Pulido or take him out more permanently — as in hire someone to whack him […]

Manny Maroño plea deal may mean handing over bigger fish

Manny Maroño plea deal may mean handing over bigger fish

Former Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño was facing federal extortion conspiracy charges for his role in a bogus grant application scheme in which authorities say he intended to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. government in exchange for thousands of dollars in kickbacks. But Friday, Maroño — once on a rumored shortlist […]

Joe Carollo goes off the reservation, naming names in Doral

Joe Carollo goes off the reservation, naming names in Doral

Doral City Manager Joe Carollo might want to get a bodyguard or some protective custody from the FBI, maybe. That’s because he went on a verbal rampage Tuesday night and threw everybody under the bus in an effort to defend himself against allegations of acting unprofessionally with a business associate and friend of Mayor Luigi […]