Miami District 2 Commissioner Sabina Covo may have bit off more than she can chew. Many voters have expressed disappointment. It’s one reason why she faces no fewer than seven challengers in the Nov. 7 election, which feels more like a race for an open seat.

Covo has been in office since February, when she won a special election — with only 29% of the vote — among 12 candidates to fill the term left by Ken Russell when he resigned to run for Congress (and lost in the primary). During this time she shines more for what she hasn’t done than for what she has done.

Read Full Story

With a unanimous vote, the Miami City Commission last Saturday decided not to appoint anyone to the District 1 seat vacated by the arrest and suspension earlier this month of Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla. Instead, the District 1 seat will remain empty — like it was a lot when ADLP was still in office — until the Nov. 7 election.

Five people, including the suspended commissioner, qualified for the race by the deadline last weekend. Diaz de la Portilla has no shame. He’s going to play this arrest ala Donald Trump, the victim of a Democrat-fueled plot to undermine him. But even he knows that in the unlikely event he should be elected, Gov. Ron DeSantis will only suspend him again.

Read Full Story

Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago is pushing annexation like never before.

The city sent petition ballot cards to property owners in the Little Gables and High Pines/Ponce Davis area. Two town hall meetings were scheduled to talk to residents and hear their questions. And Lago has declared himself the lead negotiator with the county on the annexations.

Read Full Story

The Miami City Commission will have a special meeting Saturday to decide how to fill the vacancy caused last week by the arrest of Alex Diaz de la Portilla on public corruption charges that include money laundering, bribery and criminal conspiracy.

His colleagues see on the dais could do a number of things:

Read Full Story

It didn’t take long for Bill Riley Jr.‘s name to disappear from the list of licensed real estate salespeople at Rosa Commercial Real Estate, the brokerage firm owned by former Hialeah Councilman Oscar de la Rosa, stepson of Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Stevie” Bovo. The brokerage firm that got $640,000 fee for the sale of the 1505 Ponce de Leon building to Location Ventures and developer Rishi Kapoor, who we have learned was paying Miami Mayor Francis Suarez to speed the process along.

Riley was arrested afternoon with Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla on charges of public corruption that include money laundering and bribery. Authorities say he funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into the commissioner’s political action committee in exchange for a vote to give away a public park to his clients, the anti-vax Centner family that owns The Centner Academy.

Read Full Story