Miami is a fast paced community with a rapid fire news cycle. Our blog keeps you current on the most important issues affecting the tax payers of Miami-Dade county. Read, share, comment, and as always let us know what topics you want us to tackle.
María Elvira Salazar strikes again, takes credit for money she voted against
Bad habits die hard. Or not at all.
Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar must really think we’re all a bunch of bobos.
A few days ago, the rarely-seen congresswoman made one of her once-in-a-blue-moon visitas públicas to the district — this time to Cutler Bay — to smile wide and brag about delivering a $4.4 million check for local road projects, public safety improvements, and coastal resilience work. Signed by herself. From her office.
Except for one little problem: Salazar voted against the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act that included that little allocation. .
¿Cómo se llama eso? Hypocrisy? No, this is worse. It’s straight-up gaslighting her own constituents. Pretending to deliver what she worked to deny.
Because if María Elvira had her way, Cutler Bay would be getting nada — no check, no infrastructure improvements, no money to protect against climate threats.
But that didn’t stop her from showing up with her press team to claim credit for it like she was Santa Claus.
“Infrastructure is about protecting families and improving quality of life,” Salazar said in a statement. “The Marlin Road project will make this corridor safer for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists, while also reducing congestion and making daily commutes easier for everyone in Cutler Bay.”
“This is what we’re here for, to bring money, to bring money to District 27,” she said in a video posted on YouTube. “They came to Washington. They presented the project in a very accurate way and I said, ‘Sure, I think that the Cutler Bay residents deserve to have a better life.”
This isn’t the first time she’s done this. She is sorta famous for taking credit when it’s not due.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar takes credit for judge extending TPS for Venezuelans
Only a few months ago, she took credit for getting the temporary protective status extended for 18 months for 350,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. whose TPS had been rescinded by President Trump. It was a California judge who did that.
Remember when María Elvira posed last year with a giant $650,000 check for Florida International University’s Small Business Development Center, also from legislation she voted against? And remember when she was caught flat-out lying about taking credit for her no votes by CBS Miami’s Jim DeFede in what is now a viral clip. She actually said she couldn’t remember voting against key legislation that brought jobs and federal dollars to the district.
Maybe she’s not fit for office if she can’t remember how she votes. Or, worse, if she’s practicing some political sleight of hand.
On Nov. 5, 2021, she voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act, the bill that was supposed to finally fix our crumbling roads, bridges, public transit and even boost broadband.
On July 28, 2022, she voted against the CHIPS and Science Act, meant to make America competitive with China by funding tech hubs focused on energy and environmental issues.
And on Dec. 23, 2022, she voted against the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, the massive spending package that funded everything from disaster relief to aid for Ukraine — the very Ukraine Salazar claims to support against Putin.
But those party-line “no” votes didn’t stop the congresswoman from taking full credit when the money started flowing into her district anyway. Like magic, she suddenly became the madrina of millions she had literally tried to block. Most notoriously, she staged a little ceremony at Florida International University, where she was photographed grinning and holding a giant fake $650,000 check — signed by herself — for FIU’s Small Business Development Center.
A photo-op as shameless as it gets.
Let’s call it the Salazar shuffle: Vote against it in D.C., pose with it in Miami.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar’s ‘Dignity Act’ is about zero dignity and all a big act
What has she done? Not much. Right now, she’s pushing the Dignity Act, which gives only some immigrants a sorta undignified path to stay in the country as long as they work some menial jobs and keep paying for special licenses to do so.
But hey, maybe she’s just hoping that some giant checks and a few photo ops will distract voters from the fact that she’s one of the most inútiles politicians to ever represent District 27.
Cutler Bay deserves better. Miami deserves better.
Y Ladra’s going to keep calling it out. Because around here, we do pay attention.
The post María Elvira Salazar strikes again, takes credit for money she voted against appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Miami Dade College gifts Donald Trump land for his library — and a hotel
Former MDC Prez Eduardo Padron: ‘Unimaginable’
So, the state is about to gift Donald Trump a $67 million piece of prime downtown real estate for his future presidential library — and, maybe, a hotel to boot.
This is the parking lot next to the Freedom Tower, across from the Kaseya Center, smack in the middle of downtown’s cultural hub. The very same piece of land Miami Dade College bought in 2004, after a lot of sacrifice, to expand its Wolfson Campus for a growing student population. The same property former MDC president Eduardo Padrón said was “critical” for the school’s future.
Gone. Just like that.
The MDC Board of Trustees voted in a blink-and-you-missed-it meeting last month to transfer the lot to the state, with an agenda that vaguely said they’d be discussing “potential real estate transactions.” No mention of the $67 million parcel. No mention of Trump. No mention that Gov. Ron DeSantis had already decided where it was going.
And the very same day, voilà, DeSantis announced that his hand-picked Cabinet would vote Tuesday to gift the property to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation. Attorney General James Uthmeier and freshly minted CFO Blaise Ingoglia could hardly contain themselves on X, gushing about how excited they were to hand Trump the land. Ingoglia even bragged this would be one of his “first votes.” Que cute.
Uthmeier even dropped a hype video about how “no better location” could tell Trump’s story than a spot right next to the Freedom Tower — Miami’s own Ellis Island of the South.
Read related: Donald Trump’s Gold Visa puts the American Dream up for sale for $5M
Never mind that Trump’s immigration crackdown has put scores of Cubans in deportation proceedings and that one of his first acts in office was suspending asylum at the border. Never mind that Freedom Tower was the beacon for Cuban refugees fleeing Castro’s Cuba — while Trump is promising the “largest deportation operation in U.S. history.” The irony practically writes itself.
The location is a dream spot: 2.6 acres across from Bayside and PortMiami, at the entrance to MDC’s Wolfson Campus, and just steps from the newly-renovated Freedom Tower that the college poured $25 million into restoring. That same tower where Miami-Dade School Board Member Roberto Alonso, MDC’s board vice chair (also appointed by DeSantis) said his parents were welcomed decades ago. Alonso said Trump’s library would “really take Miami to the next level.”
Next level of what? Insanity? Double-standard? Hypocrisy?
What the college didn’t say in the vague agenda or the lightning-round vote is that the land has been pitched to developers before and could have netted MDC a pretty penny. A decade ago, they tried to monetize that same parking lot, across from the $6 billion Miami Worldcenter project. This week, they just gave it away. For free.
Padrón, who led MDC for nearly 25 years, was blindsided. “It’s frankly unimaginable that this decision was made without any real discussion of the consequences of what that will do to the college,” he said in an interview with WLRN. “There was a lot of sacrifice in order to gain that piece of land for the expansion of the college.”
Translation: The land was meant for students, not for Trump’s hotel-library ego project.
Trump has been shopping Florida schools for his library — FAU, FIU, and MDC were all on the list. Now it looks like the Magic City won. Maybe. Because remember, Trump likes options, and insiders say MDC could still be just a “satellite” location.
Alonso, who was appointed to the school board by DeSantis, said the MDC board got the “request” from the governor’s office on Sept. 16 and insists the college doesn’t need the lot anyway. “The college and our community have so much to gain from a presidential library,” Alonso said, calling it an “economic engine.” Ladra wonders: economic engine for who, exactly? Students paying tuition? Or Trump Inc. selling hotel rooms and MAGA merch?
Read related: Miami-Dade School Board gets extreme makeover with two hard right newbies
Let’s not forget that this could be the first presidential library with an attached hotel. Imagine that — a two-for-one shrine to Trump where you can book a suite after your tour of “alternative facts.”
Meanwhile, MDC students are literally spilling out of the Wolfson campus. Enrollment there has grown from 19,500 in 2003 to more than 27,000 today. Across the county, nearly 59,000 people are enrolled at MDC, making it one of the largest community colleges in the nation. Padrón said the college once considered using the lot for a conference center or a new building for the New World School of the Arts. Instead, it’s going to Trump’s library-hotel vanity project.
The property, bought by MDC for $24.8 million in 2004, is now valued by the county appraiser at more than $67 million. And with Miami’s real estate boom, it would almost certainly fetch even more if it were put up for bids.
But no. No bids. No discussion. No transparency. Just a fast-track giveaway.
Because this isn’t about students. This is about DeSantis and his Cabinet paying tribute to the Orange Idol while shortchanging Miami Dade College — and the people it’s supposed to serve.
There will be a protest Monday afternoon, before Tuesday’s cabinet vote, led by historian and Florida International University Professor Marvin Dunn, who called the location “an insult” to the hundreds of thousands of Cuban, Venezuelans, Haitians and other “freedom seekers” who live here.
But Alonso told CBS News Miami that it was “not about political values or ideologies. It’s about the office, the office of the president, and something that will be here in Miami for our students, our community to go visit and to learn more about the office of the presidency.”
Also, Trump’s foundation — which reportedly has $53 million in commitments so far, thanks in part to settlements from Trump’s defamation suits against ABC, Meta and Paramount — has to break ground within five years.
MDC’s current president, Madeline Pumariega, called the move “historic.” She’s not wrong. It’s a historic giveaway of tens of millions in public land so that Donald Trump can build a monument to himself.
The Freedom Tower will still be a symbol of freedom. But it could stand next to a symbol of Florida power brokers bending over backwards for the Donald and robbing MDC students of resources and opportunity.
The post Miami Dade College gifts Donald Trump land for his library — and a hotel appeared first on Political Cortadito.
City raising an Israeli flag causes fuss and fury at Coral Gables City Hall
October 7 commemoration is too political, some say
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago thought he’d raise a flag. Instead, he raised eyebrows. And tempers.
At next week’s city commission meeting, expect a little political kabuki over an idea that already sparked plenty of drama: raising the Israeli flag at City Hall to mark the anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack, where more than 1,200 people were killed and 200 were taken hostage.
Lago already proposed the gesture at the first meeting in September, but he had to defer the plan after he got some unexpected resistance from the newest commissioner, Richard Lara, who dared to go against the mayor’s wishes. Lara wasn’t buying the symbolism and there was plenty of blowback from residents, as well.
Read related: Kendall group wants to bring together diverse political views, without a fight
Coral Gables has shown support for Israel before. After the 2023 attacks, the city lit up the building in blue and white and hosted a demonstration of solidarity with the local Jewish community. Resolutions were passed. Hands were held. No drama.
But raising a flag at City Hall? That’s different. It’s a more public, visible — political. And people noticed.
The city should not recognize the Israeli victims without also recognizing the Palestinian victims, said Jay Shahadeh, who lives on North Greenway Drive. He said the message was: “If the victims look like me or if they look like my children, it doesn’t matter.”
Some residents questioned whether City Hall is the place for these kinds of international gestures. Others warned about opening the door to every other foreign conflict and flag — Palestinian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Cuban, you name it. If we fly one, are we ready to fly them all?
“City Hall is supposed to be welcoming to all,” said Sadia Raja, a pharmacist who spoke at the Sept. 10 meeting. “It sends a message that the city is taking sides in a foreign dispute. All suffering and death should be acknowledged, not just one side.”
Read related: Palmetto Bay residents cry for Steve Cody’s resignation, removal or recall
The only person who spoke in favor of the flag raising was South Miami Mayor Javier Fernández, who was there as a lobbyist on a land use issue, but just decided to chime in because he felt the need to support Lago on this. Fernandez was also in Israel for a week in July with a delegation of other electeds from across Florida, including Sen. Alexis Calatayud and State Rep. Vicky Lopez. They met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who might be taking a break from peddling his sleep aid, and the families of some of the hostages and former hostages, Fernandez said. The value will be on his next disclosure form.
“We met with Israelis, Christians, Jews, Palestinians, Islamists and Muslims,” Fernandez told Political Cortadito this week.
And, in fact, he liked Lago’s idea about raising the Israeli flag so much, he brought it to his own South Miami commission, which passed a similar item on Sept. 16 unanimously, to commemorate the Oct. 7 mass killing.
Fernandez told Ladra that the action is just to pay homage to the hostages and their families, to commemorate the events of Oct. 7. “I certainly have a lot of reservations about how the current Israeli government is conducting its military campaign and operations in Gaza,” he said. “But the resolution is to express solidarity with the hostages and the victims of Oct. 7, which is in line with our 9/11.”
He did, however, parrot a lot of the Israeli arguments about civilian deaths being the fault of Hamas and how all the Palestinians have to do is leave and there is no genocide. But forcing hundreds of thousands of people into refugee camps with no food, no running water, no safety net, no educational opportunities, no future is practically genocide by neglect.
And nobody who is driving by City Hall on Oct. 7 is going to know the nuanced differenced. Most people haven’t read the wording of the resolution. Maybe 10 people saw the Sept. 16 meeting, where nobody opposed the raising of the flag. But when they drive by City Hall with the Israeli flag raised, they will just think that the city has taken a side in the conflict. Period.
And the timing is insane. Every week, it seems, another country or international body is calling out Israel for what it’s doing in Gaza and the West Bank. From the streets of London and Paris to the chambers of the U.N. and the Hague, the tide of global opinion is turning — and fast. What used to be whispered is now being shouted: that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is not just “self-defense” — it’s oppression, occupation, and has even been called genocide. Governments in the Global South, European parliaments, human rights groups, even some Jewish organizations — they’re lining up to condemn what’s happening.
Read related: Miami-Dade still deep in Israel bonds despite budget woes — and genocide
And Lago is doubling down? What’s in it for him? Is he seeking some group’s backing in his ambitions for higher office? Everybody knows that he wants to run for Miami-Dade mayor. Is he making a move for the Jewish vote?
Commissioner Lara said the quiet part out loud: The city shouldn’t be in the business of picking sides in global conflicts, especially when those sides divide the people who live here.
Wow. That came out of his mouth?
So L’Ego deferred, promising “more community input,” which is code for “more time to get people to convince Lara.”
Source told Ladra that people tried to convince Lago to drop this flag thing. They appealed to him on several levels.
This is a city that celebrates its international ties with the “Flags on Ponce” program, where national flags flutter along Miracle Mile. But that’s about cultural heritage and global presence — not geopolitics.
There’s a big difference between flying the flag of your parents’ homeland during carnival and raising the Israeli flag to commemorate a war that’s still going on. This isn’t about being pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. It’s about what City Hall should represent. And whether the dais is the right place to wage symbolic battles with real-world consequences.
Flying a foreign flag, especially one tied to an ongoing and deeply divisive international conflict, might not be the unifying move Lago says he wants. In fact, it might do the opposite.
The post City raising an Israeli flag causes fuss and fury at Coral Gables City Hall appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Kendall group wants to bring together diverse political views, without a fight
Michael Rosenberg is about to try something almost revolutionary in today’s political climate: a public meeting where people with opposing views actually talk to each other like human beings.
Can it even be done?
Rosenberg, a longtime animal rights activist and president of the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations, is launching what he hopes will be a community conversation that doesn’t immediately devolve into shouting matches or Facebook flame wars. He’s inviting people of all stripes to sit down and discuss the issues that usually blow up Thanksgiving dinners: immigration, abortion, healthcare, vaccines, gun rights, even the meaning of “socialism.”
Read related: Miami-Dade still deep in Israel bonds despite budget woes — and genocide
The goal? Civil engagement. “I want to see if we can encourage people to share their opinions without fear of repercussions or a fear of having an opposing viewpoint,” Rosenberg told Political Cortadito.
It’s an ambitious experiment. After all, this is Miami-Dade — where just about everyone has a strong opinion on politics, and most aren’t shy about telling you. But Rosenberg says the point isn’t to agree. It’s to listen.
The KFHA has hosted political forums for decades. But these have been with candidates. They have provided the questions. This forum is different because the invitees are the residents. Candidates and electeds are welcome to join, however.
“We’ve all read the news, heard the news, watched the news — and the conclusion is that it is impossible to have a civil, polite, courteous, well-mannered meeting with groups of people that have opposing political ideas,” Rosenberg said. “The ‘rumor’ is that Democrats, Independents, Libertarians and Republicans simply cannot be in the same room together without some sort of histrionics, hysteria, screaming, arguments and a meeting that would end with total chaos.
“Let’s prove them wrong.”
The leaders of various political parties have been invited. The FIU College Democrats’ President Alexandria Gopee, the FIU College Republicans’ President Daniella Dieppa, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair Laura Kelley and the Libertarian Party Chair Hector Roos have confirmed attendance. Also going: the chairperson of the FIU Libertarian Party, Joshua Espinoza, and former State Rep. JC Planas, who has lots of experience with constitutional issues.
The KFHA was trying to get someone from the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County to attend — but nobody had confirmed early this week. They might feel it’s not echo chamber enough.
If there was ever a perfect time to try this kind of community conversation, it’s right now.
Read related: Palmetto Bay councilman is asked to resign after ‘vile’ Charlie Kirk post
We’ve got a perfect storm brewing with the assassination of Charlie Kirk — causing people on both sides of the aisle to question what “free speech” is — a crackdown on dissent on college campuses, media networks and city halls, where people are being shouted down, canceled, or arrested for daring to speak up. And hovering over all of it is the raw, emotional debate over Gaza, where even neighbors and families are splitting apart over what’s happening half a world away.
Everywhere you look, the national discourse is toxic. People aren’t just disagreeing — they’re dehumanizing each other.
That’s why Rosenberg’s little experiment feels so timely. It’s not about solving immigration or abortion in one night. It’s about proving that, at least at the community level, people can sit in a room together, talk about the toughest issues, and walk out without hating each other.
In an America where speech feels more weaponized than free, and where every issue becomes a purity test, carving out space for civil disagreement might be the most radical thing you can do.
To set the tone, Rosenberg will start the meeting by reading a letter from his “wonderful, amazing MAGA friend” in Northeast Georgia. The two don’t see eye-to-eye on pretty much anything — he’s a Trump Republican, Rosenberg’s a liberal Democrat — but they have genuine love and respect for each other.
Read related: Op Ed by KFHA’s Michael Rosenberg: ‘Kendall Talk!’ makes Kendall strong
“Mike and I can discuss controversial issues and to people listening to our conversation, it can sound sometimes very heated,” wrote James Calhoun, descendant of John Caldwell Calhoun, a senator from South Carolina and seventh vice president of the United States. “But at the end of the day we can go have dinner or ice cream together. We both know we intensely love our country. There’s no doubt about that.”
And if they can manage that partisan divide, Rosenberg believes, maybe neighbors here can, too.
The big question: can it really happen without a fight? How heated is too heated? Can a room full of Miamians, armed with opinions on the Second Amendment, Social Security, and birthright citizenship, actually prove that we’re capable of civil discourse?
Rosenberg is betting yes. It’s a risky bet. Around here, it doesn’t take much for “civil discourse” to turn into a cage match with cafecito flying across the room. But hey, if Rosenberg can pull this off, it’ll be a bigger miracle than bipartisan immigration reform.
The “In One Room Together” town hall sponsored by the KFHA begins at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Kendall Village Center Civic Pavilion, 8625 SW 124 Ave. Come for the discourse and the free pizza because Mike’s Italian Restaurant is providing food.
The post Kendall group wants to bring together diverse political views, without a fight appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Partisan divide is strong in Miami mayoral race, Gonzalez vs Higgins
Everybody knew that the Miami mayoral election wasn’t going to be nonpartisan. Not really. Not with these people. Not in these times.
We’ve already seen the attacks. The Republican Party of Florida compared Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, a Democrat, to New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, because that’s a bad thing in Miami. And the Florida Democratic Party call former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez the MAGA mayor, using the tired and emotional phrase coined by President Donald Trump.
But things are now turning positive now.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
On Tuesday, Gonzalez rolled out an endorsement from Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose own relative is one of the 13 candidates. That includes Kenneth James Desantis, who might have been snubbed by “Uncle Ron” because he’s an independent and not a GOP voter. Or maybe he doesn’t even know a member of the fam is running. “I have not spoken to him,” Kenneth DeSantis told Ladra.
The guv cited the former manager’s proven record of service, integrity, and leadership in defending Miami voters’ right to cast ballots this November. Gonzalez sued after the Miami city commission voted to move election years from odd- to even-numbered, in order to coincide with state and national elections, which effectively cancelled this year’s election and extended everybody”s term, by a year. The courts agreed with Gonzalez’s attorneys, that the move violated the city and the county’s charter because they did not go out to a public vote.
“I’m pleased to endorse Colonel Emilio González for Mayor of Miami,” DeSantis said in a statement from the campaign. “With 26 years of military service and experience at both federal and local levels, Emilio has shown his commitment to our nation and Miami. When local officials tried to cancel the election and extend their own terms, a clear violation of term limits, Emilio stepped up and stopped them in court five times. Emilio is committed to providing property tax relief, strengthening public safety, and reducing government. red tape,” said Governor DeSantis.
Read related: Partisan politics seize hold of Miami mayoral election already with attacks
He bypassed five other Republicans running include Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, former Miami Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, Christian Cevallos, Alyssa Crocker and June Savage.
Gonzalez called the governor’s nod both an “honor and a responsibility” that he would take seriously.
“When the political class tried to cancel this year’s election, we went to court and won so Miami residents could vote,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “As mayor, I will bring that same resolve to end corruption at City Hall, restore accountability, and put Miami’s residents—not insiders—first.
“Miami needs a mayor who will stand up to entrenched interests, protect taxpayers, and deliver results,” González added. “That has been the hallmark of my career — from 26 years in the U.S. Army to serving our community here at home. I’m grateful for Governor DeSantis’s confidence, and I’m ready to get to work for the people of Miami.”
On her part, the Higgins campaign delivered a mailer Tuesday that touts her as “The Trusted Democrat.”
Read related: Eileen Higgins qualifies for Miami mayoral race, launches new video ad
On one side, it says “November can e the month we put a stop to the extremist MAGA agenda,” and “Commissioner Eileen Higgins is the ONLY candidate Democrats trust to protect our rights, our democracy and our values.” It also says she will end the “chaos, corruption and MAGA extremism.”
The post Partisan divide is strong in Miami mayoral race, Gonzalez vs Higgins appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Joe Carollo, ADLP are in, make Miami mayoral ballot a lucky 13 dog pile
It’s officially a circus — with 13 clowns crowded under the tent.
Both Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, once allies but now estranged, finally entered the Miami mayoral election Saturday, making good on their threats. They will definitely stand out among the 11 other egos vying for that one chair.
That’s not a ballot. That’s a basketball team.
Read related: Commisioner Joe Carollo files initial paperwork to run for Miami mayor
The candidates officially are:
Joe “Crazy Joe” Carollo – The comeback king who just won’t quit, despite juries, judges, and almost fistfights telling him otherwise.
Alex Díaz de la Portilla – Suspended, scandal-plagued, and still shameless enough to want to come back. Or maybe he’s just creating a situation so contributors can pay for his cell phone and other goodies? Again. Everyone knows that Diaz de la Portilla lives off his political action committee.
Xavier Suarez – The “once and maybe future” mayor, forever chasing the glory days of the ’90s.
Eileen Higgins – The county commissioner who is abandoning her office mid term to scale up.
Ken Russell – The paddleboarding ex-commissioner who left the dais to run for Congress and probably regrets it.
Emilio González – The former city manager who sued the city to get this November election restored after commissioners voted to change election years from odd to even — and effectively cancelled this year’s races for mayor and commission. They’re back on tanks tooth’s guy. .
There are seven more: Laura Anderson, Elijah John Bowdre, Christian E. Cevallos, Alyssa Crocker, Kenneth James Desantis, Michael A. Hepburn and June Savage. But the aforementioned six are going suck all the oxygen out of the room.
Carollo, of course, waited until the 11th hour like the drama king he is. With the clock ticking toward Saturday’s 6 p.m. deadline, the 70-year-old commissioner shuffled into City Hall with wife Marjorie on his arm and an entourage of loyalists in tow. He agonized, he said. He wasn’t sure, he said. It wasn’t an easy decision, he said.
Yeah, sure. Like anybody is really surprised. And anybody who heard his morning radio show on Friday — when he told listeners he had a big announcement on Monday — knew he had made up his mind.
Carollo is termed out and has no place to go. And he needs to be elected so the city can keep paying his legal bills. Ooooh, I bet there’s a mailer in the works with that message. So, by 2:30 p.m., after a staged hour of suspense as the commission chambers filled up with his supporters, Carollo strutted up to the clerk’s window, handed in his paperwork, and declared this was “the last time” he would run for office. (Stop laughing, Ladra hears you in the back.)
Read related: Eileen Higgins qualifies for Miami mayoral race, launches new video ad
Supporters — including his attorney and longtime enabler, former City Commissioner turned lobbyist Marc Sarnoff, who suddenly became just a “friend” — broke into applause as if they had witnessed a coronation instead of a filing. Sarnoff even predicted Joe would make the runoff, pointing to the turnout in the room as proof he will get votes.
We know he’ll get at least 50 votes, Marc.
And if Carollo was still thinking about it until the last minute, how did his supporters know to show up at the time they did? When did they synchronize their watches? Nobody else came with such a big entourage.
ADLP is likely jealous. He is back, too, qualifying Saturday only a few days after filing his initial paperwork. Diaz de la Portilla is looking for redemption after his arrest in 2023 on public corruption charges, including bribery and money laundering.
If there’s anyone who can turn Miami’s mayor’s race into a rerun of Caso Cerrado, it’s these two.
Carollo’s entry also sets up a juicy ‘90s flashback — a rematch with Xavier Suarez, the same guy who beat him in 1997 before the election was thrown out for fraud and Joe was installed as mayor anyway. Carollo reigned until 2001, when voters finally sent him packing, only for him to resurface in 2017 and make City Hall toxic again.
Read related: How much longer will Miami taxpayers pay for Crazy Joe Carollo’s lawyers?
Since then, the man’s been busy: getting slapped with multimillion-dollar judgments for political retaliation against Little Havana businessmen, stripped of his Bayfront Park fiefdom after accusations of self-dealing, and almost coming to blows with Commissioner Miguel Gabela on the dais. And now he wants to be mayor again — for the city, not for him, he says.
Riiiiiight.
This mayor’s race was already a clusterbunch. Now it’s officially a circus.
Or maybe more like a demolition derby, with 13 cars on the track and a few drivers who probably shouldn’t even have a license.
The post Joe Carollo, ADLP are in, make Miami mayoral ballot a lucky 13 dog pile appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Miami-Dade still deep in Israel bonds despite budget woes — and genocide
Residents at budget hearings urge county to defund
As it scrambled to cover a $402 million budget gap, raised fees and cut corners on some services, the county still found ways to shovel millions into Israel bonds at a time when most of the world is condemning what can only be described as genocide in Gaza.
Many activists and residents want the county to stop funding that conflict. It’s not just activists from Jewish Voice for Peace and other progressive groups putting Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in the hot seat over Israeli bonds. It’s her own son.
Ted Cava showed up to the second budget hearing last week. He didn’t speak at the podium. But he had a black t-shirt that said “Jews say Divest from Genocide” in bright yellow letters and he told The Miami Herald that it has caused a riff in the family. Levine Cava is the first Jewish mayor in the county. “But she’s wrong on this,” Ted Cava told The Herald.
Read related: Miami-Dade passes final $12.9 million budget — sans transit fare increases
While most of the speakers during a combined 10 hours of public comment at two Miami-Dade County budget hearings this month were there to urge for 100% restoration of county funding to community based organization and the arts or beg for no increases in transit fares, quite a few called on the county to divest from the $151 million stash of Israeli government bonds that Levine Cava and commissioners have treated like a patriotic piggy bank.
Just this summer, the county quietly renewed another $20 million in bonds, while telling taxpayers to brace for belt-tightening.
“Unrestricted and unaccountable financial support,” is what activists call it. They argue that every dollar locked up in Israeli bonds could be used here — on transit, housing, infrastructure — instead of underwriting a foreign government’s war machine.
And they’ve got the receipts. Jared Simon of the South Florida Break the Bonds campaign said it’s not just a moral issue, it’s fiscal mismanagement: “That the county decided to further commit tens of millions of taxpayer funds to Israel — at a time when it is unable to fully fund its own budget and Israel, according to the UN, is killing or injuring 100 children a day in Gaza — should strike every resident of Miami-Dade as fiscally irresponsible and morally disgraceful.”
But county hall isn’t budging. A spokesperson defended the bonds as a “worthy investment” that still carry an A rating, even if Moody’s downgraded Israel last year. And Levine Cava has already framed the money as more than just an investment. Remember after the October 7 Hamas attacks? She announced an extra $25 million purchase specifically to “send a clear message that Miami-Dade stands together with Israel.”
The commission backed her up, passing a resolution co-sponsored by Micky Steinberg, Rene Garcia, Anthony Rodriguez, Kevin Cabrera, Danielle Cohen Higgins and Eileen Higgins, praising Israel and condemning Hamas.
At the first budget hearing, Steinberg, Garcia and Rodriguez doubled down on the policy.
Steinberg said the investment is purely a financial decision.
“These bonds have an average yield of 5.01%,” she said at the first budget hearing, adding that they are “investment grade,” and that it has “no budgetary impact” to the 2025-26 budget.
“I do reject the inaccurate and offensive narrative,” Steinberg said, but then admitted that the financial return was not the only factor. “My support is based on the investment quality and support for our ally, the only Democracy in the Middle East.”
She’s not entirely wrong. While there have been some signs of burgeoning democratic political process in places like Tunisia — where it has backslid significantly since the 2011 revolution — and Kuwait, which has an elected parliament but also a freaking king. The region is mostly comprised of authoritarian regimes. But some might include Israel in that, when it comes to Palestine. The government has been criticized by international human rights observers for years about the apartheid and occupation of Gaza.
Now, it’s escalated to genocide. It’ official.
Read related: Madness marathon: Observations from the first Miami-Dade budget hearing
A United Nations commission of inquiry report released last week says there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out against Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the war with Hamas in 2023: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births. It cites statements by Israeli leaders, and the pattern of conduct by Israeli forces, as evidence of genocidal intent.
But that’s not the only good reason to pull the money out. While Israel bonds historically have been higher risk so higher yield, many credit rating agencies have recently downgraded Israel’s sovereign credit rating. Moody’s cut it to Baa1, with a negative outlook, reflecting heightened geopolitical risk. S&P Global also downgraded Israel from “AA-” to “A+”, citing ongoing conflict and risk of escalation. Fitch likewise lowered its rating. The likelihood is it will slide lower. The outlook is negative.
Israel bonds may also be less liquid than, say, U.S. Treasuries. If you need to sell before maturity, it might be harder to find a buyer or you could have to accept a discount. So there are pros, sure. But there are plenty of cons.
And, of course, the moral issue. It may have been okay before. Tolerable. Maybe. But it’s not okay now.
The mayor insists the decision is out of her hands now that the clerk controls the county’s investments, and she’s stuck to carefully worded statements like, “No child, no human, should ever spend days without access to food.” But those posts haven’t quieted protests that keep dogging her town halls — or her own son’s decision to “take our family disagreement public.”
Read related: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava defends new budget, service cuts
Levine Cava was diplomatic when The Herald asked about the unusual family feud: “I know many, many people — including in my own family — who are extremely concerned about the situation, as am I, and exactly how we deal with it. Yes. There are differences, of course.”
Her son told the Herald that it’s a generational split with most Jewish families he knows. That reminds Ladra of most Cuban families she knows — but with the Trump thing.
Miami-Dade is not the only municipality in Florida whose investment policy specifically funnels money to Israel. Since 2016, every time one of these bonds matures, the county just rolls it over. The biggest single check was $60 million in 2020. Now the total sits at $151 million, spread across five active purchases. Of that, $25 million mature in November. Three more next year. And activists say it’s time to break the cycle. They don’t want the county to reinvest that money.
Meanwhile, Palm Beach County holds $700 million in Israel bonds — the single largest investor in the world — and Miami Beach doubled its stake to $20 million last year.
But here in Miami-Dade, the question is sharper: If we don’t have enough to cover the county’s own budget — when we are cutting abuelito‘s meals and closing a senior center and slashing programs and firing people — why are we lending money to another country?
Because let’s be real — that’s the people’s money. All the people. And they want the county to stop spending their money on war.
To learn more about the history, culture and pain of the Palestinian people, follow and subscribe to Pulso Oriente on YouTube.
The post Miami-Dade still deep in Israel bonds despite budget woes — and genocide appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Repeal of open carry ban makes Florida unsafe — a Wild West cosplay zone
Ladra hopes you weren’t planning a peaceful stroll through downtown Miami without a sidearm. Because Florida’s top cop — handpicked by Gov. Ron DeSantis himself — just told everyone to holster up and show it off.
Because that’s what we need in the Sunshine State: more guns.
Attorney General James Uthmeier, a DeSantis loyalist appointed earlier this year who is already eyeing a 2026 run, sent out a memo early last week that reads more like a campaign flyer than legal guidance. In it, he declared that open carry is now the law of the land in Florida — despite confusion, disagreement, and a whole lot of “wait, what?”
He didn’t just whisper it, either. He blasted it out on X with the memo attached, like some kind of campaign launch ad.
“Meaning that, as of last week, open carry is the law of the state,” Uthmeier posted on X, formerly Twitter, with all the confidence of a man who’s never had to walk through Miami Gardens with hardware on his hip.
Florida now becomes the 47th state to allow open carry, which means you can visibly carry a legally owned firearm in plain sight. Only California, Illinois, New York and Washington, D.C., still ban the open display of firearms.
Read related: Mass shooting at FSU elicits ‘thoughts and prayers’ but no real gun solution
This sudden shift comes after a Tallahassee appeals court struck down Florida’s 40-year-old ban on openly carrying firearms. The case dates back to 2002, when an Escambia County commission candidate was arrested for standing on a street corner on the Fourth of July with the constitution in one hand and a visible handgun tucked in his waistband. Two words: Florida man.
He was convicted, but he fought it for two decades until the political winds shifted in his favor.
The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled on Sept. 10 that Florida’s ban didn’t hold up under recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. It doesn’t line up with “historic firearm regulation.” Never mind that Florida’s own Supreme Court upheld the ban in 2017. Never mind that Ashley Moody, now a senator, defended it when she was AG.
Uthmeier says he won’t appeal because he agrees with the ruling. Is anyone surprised?
And while not everyone agrees that this ruling applies statewide — some legal experts say the ruling could apply only to the 32 counties in the 1st District Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction — top cops everywhere are telling their officers to stop arresting people who openly display firearms. That might be because the Florida Sheriffs Association has advised all 67 sheriffs in the county — which would include Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz — to stop arresting “law-abiding citizens” who want to make sure everybody at Publix sees the Glock in their pocket.
Cordero-Stutz did not answer several calls and texts for comment.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried, who has advocated in the past to uphold rights afforded by the Second Amendment, said in a statement last week that the First DCA erred in its opinion.
Read related: Miami-Dade candidates for sheriff talk about guns, gun safety at KFHA forum
“Nationwide, we are seeing harrowing levels of gun violence, marked by assassinations, school shootings, and people being killed in places of worship. This is a moment in history when we need to promote safer environments, not embolden those who could abuse the ruling’s intent to sow seeds of terror,” Fried said.
Florida Gun Law Timeline: From Concealed to Unleashed
1987 – Florida passes its landmark “shall issue” concealed carry law, becoming a model for other states. No discretion: if you qualify, you get the permit.
2002 – Local county commission candidate Stan McDaniels is arrested in Pensacola for open carry while campaigning with a visible handgun and a copy of the Constitution. His case becomes the long fuse that blows up the ban.
2005 – Florida enacts the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law, removing the duty to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense.
2008 – “Take Your Gun to Work” law goes into effect. Employers can’t prohibit employees from keeping legal firearms locked in their cars on company property.
2014 – Florida passes the “Warning Shot” law, granting immunity to those who fire warning shots in self-defense.
2018 – After the Parkland school shooting, Florida raises the minimum age to buy rifles and shotguns to 21 and enacts a “Red Flag” law allowing temporary firearm removal from individuals deemed dangerous.
2023 – Permitless concealed carry becomes legal. No training or background check required to carry a hidden firearm.
September 2025 – The 1st District Court of Appeal strikes down Florida’s open carry ban, citing inconsistency with recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings. AG James Uthmeier declares open carry legal statewide, despite conflicting interpretations from local law enforcement.
“Historically, the Florida Sheriffs Association, many departments across the state, and leaders on both sides of the aisle have agreed: open carry will make Floridians less safe. The impact of this decision will have negative long-term effects on our communities and further erode Floridians’ trust in one another.”
Uthmeier’s direction of “prudence” — which apparently means letting people walk around with visible weapons — doesn’t apply in a courthouse, school, bar, college campus, or Disney World. Yes, Disney still bans guns. Mickey Mouse may be armed with magic, but he’s not packing a MAC-10.
Private property owners can still ask gun-toting guests to leave, and if they don’t, they can be charged.
In Miami Beach, Commissioner Alex Fernandez presented a resolution last week that would inform private businesses of their right to prohibit customers, employees and guests from bringing firearms onto their premises. They could even posts signs saying as much. The item was not heard because the meeting ran long, but Fernandez could bring it back at another meeting.
Meanwhile, Ladra wonders how many bar fights, parking lot standoffs, or meltdowns at Sedanos will it take before this “guidance” becomes a full-blown crisis?
This isn’t lawmaking. It’s law-by-memo. And it’s happening while DeSantis is busy auditioning for his next role — kingmaker, senator-maker, or maybe just the guy who made Florida the most armed state in the union. This is red meat for his base of gun-toting culture warriors.
So, don’t be surprised if you see one of these “law-abiding citizens” strolling into Starbucks with an AR-15 slung across their chest just because they can.
If you’d like to see more biting commentary on the boneheaded decisions being made in Tallahassee, please consider making a donation today to Political Cortadito. Thank you for contributing to indepnedent watchdog journalism.
The post Repeal of open carry ban makes Florida unsafe — a Wild West cosplay zone appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Miami Downtowners seek state DOGE assistance on tax relief from DDA
Residents want out of agency’s ‘hostage tax’
The Downtown Neighbors Alliance — which represents about 40,000 people living in Downtown and Brickell — is done playing nice with the Miami Downtown Development Authority and city officials that have mostly ignored them.
Earlier this month, DNA fired off a formal request to Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia to investigate the DDA for waste, bloat and the misuse of tens of millions of tax dollars skimmed from residents under what they’re calling a “hostage tax.”
Read related: Miami, two more Miami-Dade cities may have state DOGE look into books
“For 58 years, Downtowners have been forced to pay this additional tax without ever being given the opportunity to vote on its existence. No other Miamians live under such a system,” said DNA president James Torres, who lost a bid for city commission in 2023 and is gearing up to run again. He has been fighting the DDA tax since earlier this year, appearing before the city commission at almost every meeting begging for relief.
And he’s not wrong. Nobody else in the city has to cough up this special surtax.
The DDA’s extra levy has been hanging around since the late 1960s, when Downtown was emptying out and the city was desperate to “revitalize” it. But now that the area has exploded with towers and taxable property — $32.5 billion worth, DNA points out — the tax just looks like a cash cow for well-connected insiders. People like land use attorney (read: lobbyist) Melissa Tapanes Llahues, who was the interim chair of the DDA after Commissioner Manolo Reyes died and sits on the board. She is also hosted a fundraiser for newly elected Commissioner Ralph Rosado, who is the new chair of the DDA, this past Thursday.
“The racket stays tight while Downtowners remain hostage to double-taxation,” Torres said.
DNA laid it out in a blistering letter that paints the DDA as a bloated bureaucracy where six-figure salaries and PR fluff come before the people who are forced to foot the bill.
Excessive payroll: $3.5 million in salaries, with 14 staffers making more than $100K a year. The top three execs rake in $200K+ each. The median salary in Miami is about $60,000.
Marketing madness: Five in-house marketing gigs worth over half a million dollars combined, including a “Brand Integrity Expert” (¿qué cosa es eso?) pulling down $134,662. Add another $185K for outside spinmeisters at RBB Communications, and suddenly we’re at $736,000 a year just to tell the story.
Eight candidates, maybe 9, will attend progressive Miami mayoral forum
At least eight of the 13 people who want to be the next Miami mayor candidates will be on stage Saturday at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex on Saturday to talk about “the issues that matter most” to voters.
Or at least that’s the promise from the long list of progressive groups hosting it: Florida Student Power, Florida Rising, Engage Miami, Catalyst Miami, SAVE, Equality Florida, the Miami Workers Center, the CLEO Institute, and more.
That’s a lot of logos.
The event begins at 6 p.m., which is also the deadline for any lingering candidates to qualify. Confirmed are:
Laura Anderson – The Socialist Workers Party candidate who doesn’t have a single union endorsement.
Christian Cevallos – The former local zoning czar trying to break into the big leagues — think training wheels, but with campaign signs.
Alyssa Crocker – A GOP newcomer who’s still mostly an unknown outside her own circle, but hey, everybody has to start somewhere.
Ijamyn Gray – A young Democrat trying to tap into the “new generation” lane, but still has to prove he can hang with Miami’s political sharks.
Michael Hepburn – Perennial candidate with progressive cred who never seems to give up on running, no matter how many times the voters tell him “not yet.”
Eileen Higgins – The “petition queen,” who comes from County Hall and loves to remind everyone she qualified the old-fashioned way, clipboard and all.
Ken Russell – The paddleboard-and-yoga-mat commissioner trying to make another comeback after failing to surf his way to Congress.
Xavier Suárez – The comeback king, Miami’s first Cuban-born mayor, and dad of Francis — which is either a blessing or a curse, depending on who you ask.
Noticeably missing? Former City Manager Emilio González, the retired colonel who sued the city to get the election back on and has been polling in the top tier ever since. He told Ladra he got the invitation three days before the forum and had already committed to two other events. But, really, this is not his ambiente, anyway.
Read related: Miami election surprise: A Ron DeSantis relative files to run for mayor
At least he got an invite. June Savage, a real estate agent, says she’s going to crash the party. Ladra hopes they let her in — this isn’t middle school, and the more voices, the better.
“I didn’t get an email, but I plan on attending,” Savage told Political Cortadito. “Leaving me out is not letting people know what their options are.”
Savage has run for office twice before — once for the special election in Miami’s District 2 and once for Miami Beach Mayor against Dan Gelber, and was also left out of a lot of events, she said. “So this political game is nothing new for me.”
And it is a shame that former Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla — suspended from office in 2023 after an arrest on public corruption charges that were dismissed a year later — isn’t going, because that would have made it súper entertaining.
The forum will be moderated by former Democrat State Sen. Dwight Bullard, a progressive veteran with Florida Rising, and Michi Ceard of Florida Student Power. While it’s a non-partisan race, Republicans on that stage might feel as comfortable as vegans at a churrasqueria.
Organizers say the goal is to “center the voices of residents from all generations and backgrounds.” Translation: the candidates are going to get questions that don’t usually make it into City Hall’s echo chamber.
The Downtown Neighbors Association has scheduled a forum or debate for Sept. 30 (more on that later), but there are not going to be a lot more of these opportunities for voters to size these wannabes up side by side.
Expect some olive branches, some awkward dodges, and maybe even a jab or two — because, come on, it’s Miami.
This mayoral candidate forum begins at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, 212 NE 59th Terrace.
