State Senate President Mike Haridopolos has given up on his run for U.S. Senate.The ethically challenged 41-year-old sent an email to supporters early today saying that his run for Senate is conflicting with his duties in the Florida State Senate, according to Roll Call…
Though 15 percent of businesses in Miami-Dade County are owned by African Americans, only $260 million — 2 percent — of the county’s $13 billion contracts were awarded to black-owned businesses between 2006 and 2010, according to a press release from County Commissioner Barbara Jordan.”There is no commitment to black…
Miamians were pissed off yesterday about Carlos Gimenez’s plan to shutter 13 libraries around town. So when we saw him at a groundbreaking ceremony today, we thought we’d ask Gimenez a simple question: what’s his favorite book? His answer: Fahrenheit 451.Yes, that’s right. Our library-closing county mayor’s favorite book is…
Shrewd move, Michael Etienne.The North Miami city clerk revealed at a council meeting Tuesday that, while he was rooting around in the ordinance codes, he found a little section that says the city clerk is supposed to earn as much as the council members, the Miami Herald reports.Which is great…
The Riptide national politics desk has been working around the clock to bring you this shocking revelation: Some Democrats suspect the Republican Party is crazy.”I think Mitch McConnell, frankly, has lost his mind,” said Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, talking about the ongoing debate surrounding raising the national debt…
Clearly, Rick Scott is America’s least popular governor. His numbers are so low that if he were a baseball player, his manager would have long ago slapped his ass and demoted him to AA. He’s more politically radioactive than Anthony Weiner’s twitter account. The man is loathed. But is he…
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: a millionaire business mogul with little name recognition is using his vast fortune to jumpstart a surprising campaign for a statewide office in Florida. Yep, after the mixed results of Rick Scott and Jeff Greene is 2010, Craig Miller, the former CEO…
The Democratically aligned Public Policy Polling and the nonpartisan Quinnipiac University polling service have both shown that Rick Scott’s approval ratings are about the worst of any governor in the nation. But some of Rick Scott’s fervent supporters might be the type to doubt the accuracy of “the lamestream media.”…
We’re actually kind of surprised it took this long for someone to appoint Kendrick Meek to something. The White House has announced that it will nominate the former South Florida congressman to a representative position at the United Nations…
Who knew the Casey Anthony verdict would have implications on the United States’ interpretation of the Geneva Conventions? According to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the failure of a Florida jury to convict Anthony proves the need to try terrorist suspects at military tribunals outside of the American legal system…
Where do you take your pregnant wife for your first wedding anniversary after the very public exposure of your extramarital online dalliances forced you to resign your congressional seat? Miami Beach, apparently. And where do you dine so news of your apparently loving dinner gets leaked to the gossip press?…
Republican leaders are still eager to host Florida’s presidential primary election earlier than most states, but they’re hoping to avoid a repeat of 2008’s fiasco. Leaders plan to set the primary in early March, just days before the traditional Super Tuesday — even if that means holding the election on a…
In its seemingly random sports poll released today, Public Policy Polling did sneak in a few poll questions about actual public policy. Though a majority of Americans now support gay marriage, Floridians aren’t quite ready for it. Though, they do, by a large majority, support civil unions for same-sex couple. It…
Not very many people in Florida like Governor Rick Scott, so we really didn’t expect former democratic President Bill Clinton to like the guy much either. While speaking at a conference for young progressive activists in D.C. today, Clinton called out Scott’s effort to strip voting rights from convicted felons…
Over in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry supported a law that would have made TSA agents subject to arrest for pat downs of passengers. That bill ultimately died, but the Libertarian Party of Florida hopes to bring that idea to Florida. Members of the fringe party sent letters to Sheriffs in…
Adam Hasner, the Tea Party favorite in the fledgling fight for the GOP’s 2012 nomination to take on Senator Bill Nelson, sent out a not-so-cherry Fourth of July message to his supporters in which he compared the national debt to Hitler. Apparently a man bent on world domination, widespread warfare and the…
Democrats in Florida have a huge registered voter advantage over Republicans, but you couldn’t tell that by looking at the leadership in Tallahassee and the Republican super majorities in both house of the state legislature. There’s a few reasons for that situation (including the Republican-controlled 2000 redistricting process), but the…
Gov. Rick Scott has seemed to overcome his hesitations about funding Central Florida’s SunRail commuter train program and announced his approval of state funding for the program today. Scott’s first big decision in office was surprisingly killing a federally funded high-speed train project, a move that proved highly unpopular and…
There’s a cancerous strain of political outlook on both sides that views politics as nothing more than a game played by two sides. Somehow the conservative Sunshine State News Service managed to inject that outlook into the results of the Miami-Dade mayoral election, a non-partisan race that pitted two candidates…
Hours after the Hoedown in Hadley Park, Riptide caught up with Mayor Tomas Regalado in Little Haiti to press him on the $400,000 “bribe” Chief Miguel Exposito says he was offered to resign. This time Regalado argued the deal was a perfectly legal severance package — negotiated solely by ex-CFO…
A story that started yesterday with blogger Al Crespo posting a mysterious, voided city check for $200,000 ended with more ammo fed into the raging firefight between the Miami Police Department and City Hall when Chief Miguel Exposito admitted the check was part of a huge payout he was offered…
Bill Nelson is now Florida’s longest serving state-wide elected politician, and yet a surprising amount of Floridians don’t think much of him one way or another. The guy has sat in the Senate for 11 years, and mastered a brand of bland Democratic moderation that doesn’t piss off Republicans too…
