Politics & Government

Importantly, local cops have warned the measure will likely make Floridians less safe.

Tomas Kennedy, one of the more active civil rights organizers in Florida, helped put together a large-scale protest at the Florida capitol. In response, he’s been banned from the public building for a year and can’t come back for next year’s session.

The Florida Legislature today passed a bill legalizing the use of self-driving cars statewide. Naturally, Uber — which could save gobs of money by replacing human drivers with robots — is quite pleased.

In a statement sure to remind critics of the runup to the Iraq War in 2003, longtime Miami Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart suggested on Fox News last night that Russian agents in Venezuela currently have the capability to strike the United States with nuclear bombs. Diaz-Balart, part of the coalition of Florida lawmakers advising Donald Trump on Latin American issues, provided no evidence to back up his claims.

Early this morning, Juan Guaidó announced he and a seemingly small band of low-ranking Venezuelan military guards were mounting a revolt against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro’s government. Sen. Marco Rubio has spent the morning loudly cheerleading Guaidó’s efforts while lobbing melodramatic threats at the Maduro regime.

Since his son’s death at MSD, Manuel Oliver has been traveling the country painting murals. On Saturday he featured Matt Gaetz gripping an assault rifle.

Florida politicians are giving a lot of cover to extremists and racists as of late. Here’s a handy list of officials who have yet to suffer major consequences for propping up white supremacists, Islamophobes, conspiracy theorists, and the like.

Ralph Andrade, a registered lobbyist for Beach Towing who has also worked for Tremont, is fighting to stop a City of Miami Beach audit allegedly showing rampant violations by the two companies. The latest audit is expected to be released next week, and, apparently, the findings are not favorable to the tow-truck industry.

On April 17, Gruters held a news conference to support SB 168, the anti-“sanctuary city” bill he’s pushing that would force towns to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigrant-rights groups say the bill, if it became law, would rip apart families just to appease some racist Republican voters.

State Sen. Joe Gruters has a hideously racist sign outside his office that purports to show the “Faces of Criminal Illegals Deported from Sarasota County.” According to a video posted online yesterday by activist Thomas Kennedy, Gruters apparently saw no issue with keeping this abominable sign up while a child begged him not to pass a bill that would hurt his family.

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber was so irked by a Memorial Day weekend event flyer with a bikini-clad woman and the tag line “No rules!! Anything goes!”, he included it in an email blast to residents explaining why the city needs, well, more rules. Attaching a screenshot censoring the woman’s body, he declared, “Ocean Drive should be the postcard image for our city — not a stretch where residents are sometimes afraid to go and visitors think anything goes.”

Miami officials have long been supportive of the First Tee, a nonprofit that teaches golf and life lessons to thousands of kids at the city-owned Melreese Country Club. City leaders lined up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony when the charity opened a new learning center in 2013 and praised it for helping local youngsters. More recently, Mayor Francis Suarez became an honorary chairman of the nonprofit’s Young Ambassadors Board.

According to a recently departed staffer, Wayne Messam’s campaign team didn’t receive their paychecks Monday as expected. As a result, multiple staffers have resigned this week, the source says.

Bruce Ryan, president of the Florida Custom Car Association, is working with Florida lawmakers to legalize so-called “underbody” lights. Ryan is better known online as OG Magnum, the white-haired, tattooed, dancing “hip-hop grandpa” who’s amassed 238,000 Instagram followers and hung out with numerous rap icons.

Democratic presidential candidate Wayne Messam has condemned Joe Biden, who has been accused of inappropriately touching women. But during his tenure as mayor of Miramar, Messam supported two top city administrators who have also been accused of harassing women.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott today posted a tweet calling for the U.S. military to invade Venezuela, a move that foreign policy experts have warned would be a massive bloodbath and spark a prolonged humanitarian crisis or civil war.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union cautioned immigrants and people of color about traveling to Florida. The travel advisory comes in response to two “anti-sanctuary” bills currently moving through the state Legislature.

Last month, GOP legislators introduced bills that would require offenders to pay back court fees before they become eligible to vote. The Florida ACLU will hold sit-ins to urge lawmakers to oppose any further restrictions on felon voting rights.

A Florida bill that would force minors to get parental consent for abortions passed the House Judiciary Committee yesterday. The ACLU warns the bill will hurt underage girls if enacted.

On Wednesday morning, Parkland dad Fred Guttenberg posted a photo of the letter his family received from the NRA condemning gun-control “extremists” who “threaten your individual liberties.” Guttenberg responded, “My daughter was the only one to lose freedom.”

Arguably the most important rule for visiting South Beach is this: Watch out for overzealous towing companies. Tow companies for years have preyed on unsuspecting tourists and residents alike — in 2013, New Times wrote in a longform feature that Miami Beach’s towing companies were orchestrating a “decades-long, politically sanctioned operation to hold people’s cars for ransom for hundreds of dollars” and were raking in millions each year by outright tricking drivers into parking illegally using all sorts of schemes.