So you think that Thanksgiving is a November holiday started in Plymouth Rock and celebrated with turkey and mash potatoes? Well, according to Adam Putnam, Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner, you’re wrong. Putnam claims that Thanksgiving really originated right here in Florida more than 50 years before the Plymouth Rock affair. Apparently…
A group of animal rights activists want to send a big message to the Miami-Dade County Commission for not passing an animal welfare plan. They plan on recalling one of the commissioners who voted against the plan. They’re just not sure which one, so they are literally going to put…
Last year, two Miami reps pushed a bill banning red light cameras through a committee with some loud public support (thanks in part to a Tampa TV station’s investigation showing Florida had helped shorten yellow light times to collect more ticket revenue). But that bill eventually flopped in the full…
So Francis Suarez called off his run for City of Miami mayor after a few minor (well, by Miami-Dade standards at least) “scandals,” but most politicians in Miami aren’t as easily shook. Blind ambition rarely finds its bounds down here. So it’s not really all that surprising that just two…
While news that Miami-Dade County decided to keep all existing libraries open may have seemed like a win, now Mayor Gimenez has released a new plan that could see some of those spared branches open for only 16 hours a week. That’s three to five hours a day for four…
Governor Rick Scott will be in Miami tonight to grab dinner with former Gov. Jeb Bush, Board of Education chairman Gary Chartrand and State Senator John Thrasher. Of course, John Thrasher has been touted lately as a possible replacement for ex-Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll. Though, Scott’s staff says tonight’s dinner…
Have you ever shared your name with a Hurricane? It makes for a rather odd week when Hurricane [Your Name] is churning toward Florida and threatening to destroy it. Well, environmental advocacy group 350.org has come up with a new way to name Hurricanes that would spare people who happened…
Well, Tomas Regalado is now all but certain to be Miami’s mayor again for the next four years. According to reports from both The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, his main competitor, commissioner Francis Suarez, is expected to drop out of the race after a turbulent period in his…
Six weeks ago, Miami-Dade County commissioners refused to touch the property tax rate, knowing that without an increase they’d have to drastically chop services. County Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s solution — shuttering 22 libraries — was met with a rowdy public protest. This weekend, Gimenez told commissioners he’d found a way…
Carletha Cole will not face any charges as long as she stays out of trouble for the next 12 months. If you don’t remember, Cole is the former aide to disgraced ex-Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll who, among other things, accused Carroll of enjoying a lesbian office fling and had allegedly…
The same week President Obama added a new dog to his family, he’s also come out against breed-specific legislation that forbids ownership of certain types of dogs. The White House responded to a “We the People” petition calling for the ban of all breed-specific legislation and claimed laws like Miami-Dade…
After a monthlong sit-in, threats of a national musician boycott, and impassioned pleas from the family of slain Miami teen Trayvon Martin, a legislator has taken the first step toward repealing Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. Rep. Alan Williams, a Tallahassee Democrat, has filed HB 4003, which would overturn the…
South Florida had to know that booting Allen West out of Congress wouldn’t mean an end to reading about Allen West’s antics. The guy almost immediately landed a gig on Fox News after leaving Washington, after all. Still, dealing with West’s rants about Muslims and Obamacare on Murdoch’s network is…
Florida is one step closer to getting a statewide public vote on legalizing medical marijuana. With powerful backers like Orlando super-lawyer John Morgan and funding from big Democrats around the state, the push by People United for Medical Marijuana is blazing ahead. The group announced yesterday that it’s already gathered…
North Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho, a Tea Party favorite, was caught on tape last week at a town-hall meeting in Gainesville claiming the tanning tax created by the Affordable Care Act is “racist.” He then claimed that because he went to a tanning salon twice, he has now been…
Come next November, Michelle Spence-Jones will no longer be part of the Miami City Commission. Despite the fact that she spent 21 months out of office while on suspension as she fought two felony charges, an appeals court ruled today that since Spence-Jones was successfully elected to two consecutive terms…
Thanks to Anthony Weiner’s inhuman drive to keep sexy talking ladies online, Carlos Danger has ruled Twitter this afternoon. Based on screen caps posted to the Dirty — and partially confirmed in a statement from the ex-congressman — “Carlos Danger” was the hilariously dashing pseudonym he used in his latest…
The U.S. Department of Justice officially filed a lawsuit today against the State of Florida for its “deliberate indifference to the suffering” of disabled children and violating the Americans with Disabilities act. The DOJ first warned Florida about the matter two years ago, but has decided Rick Scott’s government, including…
On the one hand, we did kick out former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez in a historic recall election, so at the very least maybe we should let him live his post-public life in peace however he sees fit. On the other hand, the former mayor of the seventh biggest county…
When the most important verdict in his state’s recent history came down, Gov. Rick Scott was a thousand miles away in New York. He didn’t exactly rush back to Tallahassee to face protestors upset at George Zimmerman’s acquittal, finally returning to the capital on Tuesday, but quickly decamping for the…
Apparently there’s a small but growing effort among Florida Tea Party members to recall their former hero Marco Rubio. There’s just one problem: You can’t actually recall senators in Florida. So first they will try to get a law passed that would allow a recall election in the first place…
Right or wrong, the rest of the nation has been side-eyeing Florida ever since the George Zimmerman verdict came down. Even though the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law was not ultimately used as part of Zimmerman’s defense, a new petition is circulating online in which signees claim they’ll boycott Florida…
