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NUMBER 116 - NOVEMBER 11 , 2018

TODAY MARKS THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FTAA SUMMIT HELD IN MIAMI, AND IT SHOULD SERVE AS A REMINDER FOR FUTURE DREAMERS WHO KEEP COMING UP WITH VARIOUS SCHEMES  TO MAKE MIAMI THE CENTER OF LATIN AMERICA, THAT SOMETIMES, THE BEST LAID PLANS OF POLITICIANS HAVE WASHED OVER THIS CITY AND LEFT LITTLE BUT HEARTBURN AND BROKEN PROMISES FOR THEIR SUPPORTERS

The FTAA was going to be the cornerstone of Manny Diaz's legacy as mayor.

A shiny headquarters building in Miami that would cement Miami's position as a major international city, and the home to the 34 nations of North, Central and South America, along with the Caribbean - excluding Cuba - that would become known as the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Instead, the summit became known as the place where "The Miami Model," of handling protesters was implemented, and the vision of a unified, hemispheric collection of countries engaged in free trade soon fell victim to internecine warfare and political squabbling.

Now 15 years later, we have President Donal Trump, trade tariffs, and his racist efforts to keep the poor "brown" people from some of these same countries from crossing our southern border because they are  "bad people," and "terrorists."

I was on the streets during those days, shooting for a photo agency, and at night going home and writing a journal, which became the narrative for the photo ebook that I created after the event.

Because my coffee table photo book on protest had come out earlier that year, WPBT thought that assigning a video team to follow me around might be interesting. They did, and ended up producing this Emmy winning piece.

PHOTO OF THE DAY - THIS IS HUCK, A RESCUE DOG FROM MISSISSIPPI, WHO NOW HAS A HOME IN MIAMI WITH MATTHEW AND MARY STREET. HUCK WAS CHILLING IN DOGGIE JAIL FOR BEING A WILD CHILD. I THINK HE MIGHT BE MY BROTHER FROM ANOTHER SPECIES

P CARD EXPENSES FOR MAYOR, THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY COMMISSIONERS

On October 6th, I wrote about Colonel Klink and his Challenge Coin, and how I had discovered his purchase of hundreds of these coins after I got a copy of the P-Card expenses reports. P-Cards are the city issued credit cards that the mayor, city manager, city commisison and some department directors are provided for purchases that don't require having to go through the city's Purchasing Department.

I got distracted by all of the stuff having to do with the recent elections, and so it's only now that I'm getting back to posting this report so that you can see where your money goes.

I had to edit the Excel formatted document in order to be able to post it here, but I think that you will see that there appear to be gaps in the reports, and how some individuals seem to think that being a public official entitles them to treat the taxpayers money like the winnings from a slot machine.