Politics & Government

At President Trump’s rally in Tampa last week, a familiar face made it back in the national news. Maurice Symonette, also known as Michael the Black Man, was front and center in a crowd hurling invectives at CNN reporter Jim Acosta, waving a “Blacks for Trump” sign. Symonette has…

Boca Raton’s GEO Group — the single largest contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement — absolutely does not want anyone to accuse it of caging people or separating families. GEO is so upset by such allegations that it threatened to sue Dream Defenders, a Florida civil rights group, all…

With just 21 days until the primary, one wall in Wynwood is sporting a new look. Over the weekend, Miami-based artist Disem used spray paint to create a mural of Tallahassee Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum on a wall outside of 004 Connec on NW 24th Street.

On Thursday, Republican voter William Stuttgen found something unusual in his mailbox. It was a mailer from “Republican Neighbor Choice” listing Republican candidates for the Florida primary August 28: Rick Scott,  Adam Putnam, Daphne Campbell — wait, what? Democratic state Sen. Daphne Campbell’s name was listed along with Republicans on a…

Maurice Symonette’s story is baffling, to put it mildly. Symonette, who also goes by the name Michael the Black Man, somehow went from being a part of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult to getting acquitted of murder charges himself to being a staple at Donald Trump’s presidential rallies…

Marco Rubio, a surrealist art project that accidentally became sentient and was elected to the U.S. Senate, spends a lot of time tweeting about how America needs to get “tough” on Vladimir Putin. If you need someone to sponsor an extremely lame amendment “trolling” Putin by renaming the Russian embassy’s street in Washington after a dead Russian dissident, Marco is your guy.

For a second, Donald Trump seemed to be backing off his vitriolic attacks on the free press. After five journalists were massacred at the Annapolis Capital Gazette, Trump briefly toned down his slurs. He even invited New York Times publisher A.J. Salzburger Jr. to the White House to clear the air. But it didn’t last.

The bay off South Beach’s Sunset Harbour glitters with the reflection of city lights. Onshore, Purdy Avenue is empty save for a few glossy cars with quiet, expensive motors and the occasional scurrying cockroach. It’s midnight on a Friday, and the only people around are the three security guards stationed…

Miami is effectively run by an oligopoly of useless, competing, familial political dynasties: There are the Regalados, the Hardemons, the Suarezes, the Carollos, the Diaz de la Portillas, and so on. To make a clichéd reference, Miami politics are like Game of Thrones if every player had shrapnel lodged in their brains.

Even in the “Gunshine State,” the National Rifle Association is rapidly becoming politically toxic. After the Parkland school massacre February 14, every politician closely aligned with the NRA took a rightful beating: Sen. Marco Rubio was ridiculed on live TV during a CNN town hall, and GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam has still not lived down calling himself a “proud NRA sellout.”

When several explosions rattled the quiet neighborhood near Melreese Country Club last night, startled neighbors pulled out cell phones and began filming. They watched in shock as flames leapt dozens of feet above the pro shop at the city-owned golf course.

Accused collegiate rapist and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston was suspended for only three games this year for groping an Arizona Uber driver in March 2016.

After a barista in Philadelphia called police on two black men waiting for a friend, Starbucks temporarily closed 8,000 stores to train its U.S. employees about how not to be horribly biased toward customers. The Seattle-based company said it would continue to introduce anti-bias initiatives and publicly released its May 29 training materials online for others to use.

A referendum on David Beckham’s proposed Major League Soccer stadium was approved today in the most Miami of ways: Three commissioners voted to move the plan forward after multiple weeks of abrupt public proposals, last-minute plan changes, accusations of lawbreaking and corruption, and a whole lot of general bloviating and confusion.

Marion Hammer, the National Rifle Association’s longtime lobbyist in Florida, basically runs a portion of the state Legislature. She quite literally writes huge portions of state gun laws and commands a cadre of followers whom she orders to vote against those who cross her. She is notorious in Florida political circles for calling lawmakers traitors to the Constitution.

Before David Beckham’s group abruptly ditched plans for a stadium in Overtown, one of the biggest roadblocks to that proposal was an ongoing lawsuit by a local activist who claimed the city broke the rules by agreeing to sell the group public land without bidding for other offers.

In December 2016, Janice Antoine was working as an aide to North Miami Councilman Philippe Bien-Aime when she was asked to take a ride with him to Doral, she says. Bien-Aime told her he needed to drop off a campaign check at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department.

Sonny and Rico. Gloria and Emilio. LeBron and Dwyane. South Florida has had some iconic pairs over the years, but none tops our OG local couple: Dade County and corruption. Everyone knows our swampy metropolis is the kind of place where business is done via cash-stuffed envelopes swapped in bathroom…