Ran into Horace Feliu at Casino Miami Jai Ali the other night and golly gee wiz, I thought he was there gambling but he was there, watching the boxing matches. (Yup, sanctioned boxing at Casino Miami) As I secretly spied on him, couldn’t help but see him shadow boxing in the aisle jabbing away and bobbing his big head up and down and to and fro. Finally, I yelled out “Horace, what the heck are you doing?” His calm response… “Training for my campaign to once again, win back the title of Mayor of South Miami…” He then returned delivering a strong right across and a more powerful left uppercut.
And speaking of the February elections: Story around town is that Gabriel Edmund just might be running for the city commission once again come February. Gabriel who ran for the commission last time around, has remained very active in the city and it looks like he really wants to be on the dais.
And then there is Ivan Miavedonic, a South Miami businessman who is active around town and serves as the current president of the Red Sunset Merchant Association. Our ace reporter tells us that Ivan is considering running for the commission, lets see how this sounds… Commissioner Ivan Miavedonic.
Hector Fernandez wants the job and has made it clear that he is running for the commission. Story has it that he is running for the seat occupied by Valerie Newman as she has told him and others that she is not running for her seat again. Hmm. Wonder if that means that she is running against Wally “ The Dude” Harris or Phil Stoddard, the current mayor.
My usually unreliable sources tell me that the paranoid feeling at city hall is unwarranted unless you take into account the investigation as to why at least one private citizen not only had access to the city computers at city hall, but they (no gender on purpose) also gathered financial information on a regular basis.
I just wonder if the state attorney and that other agency needs more inside information to see if there was any problem with the person( s) doing that. I’ve been told it was one thing that the person was looking at the information, but the real question is, what occurred after the information was seen?
Over at Big Cheese, Dexter and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen were seen there not too long ago having a nice quiet lunch and sitting nearby were Michael Raley and Georgia Tait, all of them pretty much regulars over the last decade or two.
Ran into Palmetto Bay Councilman Patrick Fiore, as well as the former mayor Eugene Flinn at Big Cheese and no they weren’t together, but I did happen to spend time with each of them. I can’t help but wonder if Gene is going to run for Palmetto Bay elected office once again come Nov.2014.
Another mainstream paper, The Plain Dealer cuts printed version to three days.
The New York Times www.nytimes.com recently did a story that The Plain Dealer in Cleveland is reducing its printed papers to only three times a week and the move follows in the footsteps of the Times- Picayune in New Orleans and the Huntsville Times. Moreover, Advance Publications own all three papers and a digital format is being emphasized over the printed word. But it continues the trend of the public getting less news from traditional sources that locally has The Miami Herald leaving its fabled building on Biscayne Bay at the end of the month, with a sayonara party recently that brought hundreds of current and past Herald reporters, editors and publishers together for one last hoorah of the building dubbed the “Beast on the Bay.”
The only daily Miami paper is moving to its new headquarters in Doral but the paper is also shedding reporters, many with decades of institutional knowledge necessary to cover complex South Florida in a deep manner and while bloggers in some cases are picking up the slack. However, the role The Herald plays in the community cannot be replaced and a paper is part of the glue that gives context to a community, it is clear the economic demands of a reduced readership has reduced the number of reporters out in the field, and in the long run will have a detrimental affect on such a diverse community as South Florida.
For it is newspaper’s like The Herald that have the time to do extensive investigative reports that can radically change how things in public institutions are being done or brought to light and with 20 Pulitzer Prizes under the paper’s belt. The paper has a rich history of getting that job done, but that mission will be harder in the future and we all will be for the worse for it and why it is important to support the daily newspaper. For a while its critics abound and home delivery subscriptions are down, though on its digital page the hits are in the millions. Other news services like the Watchdog Report, and other bloggers will come and go in the decades to come, but it is important that the big media dog The Miami Herald, over a 100 years old, continues.
Editor’s note: I was a Miami Herald guest editorial and news columnist over a four year stretch and there would not be a WDR without that initial encouragement back in 2000 and later 2003 to 2007.
(This last piece appeared in the watchdogreport. net).
Got any tips? Contact me at 305-669- 7355, ext. 249, or send emails to michael@communitynewspapers.com
