The breakfasts in South Miami have become a political staple. Gov. Ron DeSantis has been to the CasaCuba events hosted by Community News twice. Former Congressman Charlie Crist swung by last year. Miami-Dade Commission Vice Chairman Anthony Rodriguez was the last speaker.

They’ve had former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, former Miami Herald Publisher David Lawrence, who now leads The Children’s Trust, and new Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega.

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The rate at which pets are being abandoned has grown and Miami-Dade Animal Services ran out of space at their spanking new, $15-million adoption center shelter in Doral. So, they are keeping some dogs and cats at the old shelter in Medley and animal advocates worry about horrible conditions.

After all, this is the worn out, grossly “sick” building, the “house of horrors” for both the animals and staff, that had to be replaced pronto.

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Elected officials, you are now free to lobby again.

A U.S. district judge issued an order Wednesday that strikes down the state’s lobbying amendment, passed by voters in 2018, which bans any elected official from any kind of lobbying during their term of office and for six years after because, she said, it was an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.

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Miami Beach resident Lynette Long, a former university professor who has authored more than 30 books, recently took a drive through the city and noted all the ceremonially co-designated streets, which are named to honor someone for something. What she found was an astonishing gap.

There are at least 18 streets that are co-designated for men and only one street that is co-designated for a woman, Barbara Capitman. While Capitman deserves it for her work creating the Miami Design Preservation League and her efforts to preserve the Art Deco district, she is not alone.

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Former Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Góngora has waited. And waited. And waited.

Góngora has skipped several elections, waiting to run for mayor when he felt he had a better chance. Not against Philip Levine. Not against Dan Gelber, who is finally termed-out. But certainly now in the open seat.

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Former Coral Gables Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick, a class act who was involved in many civic organizations and served as First Lady of the City Beautiful for 10 years, died Thursday evening after a long battle with cancer. She was 75.

Slesnick, wife of former Mayor Don Slesnick (2001-2010), was first diagnosed with lymphoma in 2014 and also fought back breast cancer in 2016, one year after she won election as a commissioner. She did six weeks of radiation and went into remission. Then the lymphoma returned in 2020 and there was more chemo to beat it back. Until it returned again earlier this year, Jeannett said in an email sent to friends in June, warning them that she had little time left.

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