Congratulations to René Aldonza, new president of the Red Sunset M e r c h a n t s Association, who will lead the efforts to market, improve and strengthen the community throughout the year. The Red Sunset Merchants Association (RSMA) will be hosting a business luncheon at 12th line starting with luncheon at Khoury’s Restaurant in South Miami on July 24th from noon to 2:00 p.m. The event,which will be called “Meet the South Miami Merchants” is lots of fun and helps local businesses get familiar with what the South Miami business community has to offer. RSVP René Aldonza via email (RAldonza@fnbsm.com) by July 18th in order to save your seat. The cover charge is $15. Please bring your business card to enter a raffle. What is the City of South Miami going to do when and if the voters of the great state of Florida approve Amendment #2, which would legalize marijuana for medical reasons? Should be interesting to see how the city addressees the issue, as to whether the pot shops, reefer madness stores, the gateway to hell dope outlet, weed store, the Grass is Greener shops, will be allowed on Sunset Drive, or 73 St or 57th Ave or even on SW 62nd Ave. So, go on over to the wild side elected officials and grow some guts and start the conversation. Couldn’t help but run into Armando Oliveros over at Casa Larios the other day. Also, seen at breakfast was Dale Mobley, Tom Byrne, Horace C. Feliu, Angelo Bosques, Chip Black, Dr. Jorge Blanco and THE real estate guy, Levi Meyer.And just to be very clear, they were not sitting together. Donna & Robert Shelley were also there as were a bunch of South Miami’s finest enjoying some expresso and pastelitos. What about Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen? Congresswomen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the long serving Republican has won another two year term in the House after she failed to get a opponent for her House District 27 seat, before the qualifying deadline and she is a major proponent of constituent services and was first elected to the House back in 1987. After serving in the Florida House and Senate and being the first Cuban American woman to be elected, she has never looked back politically. Further, a few years ago she was Chair of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and continues to be an outspoken critic of President Barack Obama’s administration and is strongly against lifting the Cuban Embargo. However, she also shy’s away from the trappings of power and drives herself to events and she has always been very accessible to voters and while she frequently over the years has run unopposed, she always has taken every election and campaign seriously and is frequently seen at major polling sites talking to voters in line, many times in the rain and hot sun for hours. Ros-Lehtinen, an educator also received her Ph.D. a few years ago from the University of Miami. Further her fellow peer local U.S. Rep Mario Diaz-Balart, RFl also won his District 25 office again when he was unopposed by the qualifying date a couple of weeks ago, states the Florida elections web page. Florida Senator Margolis after decades will serve another term through 2016 State Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Coconut Grove will continue in the body and this will be her 21st year in the senate that included one break in the upper body when she was the Miami-Dade County Commission Chair. She is now the Dean in the Senate and was first elected to the Florida House back in 1974. She won the District 35 Senate seat back in 2012 when she got 61.7 percent of the vote when she beat GOP challenger John Daniel Couriel who got 38.3 percent of the vote. She was also the first woman Florida Senate President back in 2000 and 2003 and she has chaired a host of Senate committees over the years. She is a major Democratic Party leader on a statewide basis given her many years in the political trenches with her only political setback losing when she ran to be the first Miami-Dade Property Appraiser around 2007 and voters later elected Pedro Garcia Jr., when she failed to get a 50 percent majority of the vote in the election. She also is a strong advocate of the Women’s Movement and the Watchdog Report gives her a Tip of the Hat for all her years in public service. What about the Miami Science Museum? When it comes to the new Miami Science Museum being constructed in Museum Park and its management contractor being dismissed recently. No one was talking at Miami-Dade County about the new wrinkle in the project that got a $275 million slug of public GOP money from the county and the Watchdog Report asked County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Cultural Affairs Director Michael Spring and both said they were aware of some issues, but “no more money” was coming from the county. They both suggested, since the County has a $200 million budget hole to plug and when it comes to finding spare money as in many past years, “there is no more magic,” in the county’s budget since some $4 billion has been cut out of the county budget since around 2008, said one long time experienced budget expert at the county. And the reason the Watchdog Report is so interested in what is going on over at the Frost Museum and if there will be a need for money to finish the impressive, but complex facility, it is because there is now no more money. While the Museum has raised some $80 million on its own, it is unknown if the organization can fill in any fiscal gap. And here is the museum’s website that talks about a new management company being selected and Spring told the Watchdog Report that the “project will not become a PACT II,” he assured me. He said last week the “Miami Science Museum is just getting re-organized and they have not asked for any money,” said Spring, the County’s Cultural Affairs Director. (The last three items were provided by Watchdogreport.net) Got any tips? Contact me at 305-669- 7355, ext. 249, or send emails to <Michael@communitynewspapers.com>.
