Miami-Dade mayor recruits new transportation director from DeSantis administration
The head of state transportation projects in the Miami area will take over Miami-Dade's transit system under an appointment announced Friday by the county's mayor, Daniella Levine Cava.
Stacy Miller, who holds the title of district secretary in the Florida Department of Transportation, will take over as transportation and public works director in Miami-Dade.
She replaces Eulois Cleckley, the former Denver public works chief Levine Cava hired shortly after winning office in 2020. Cleckley left his $298,000-a-year county post last year to lead the fundraising operation of the Underline, a privately run bike and pedestrian trail under the county's Metrorail system.
Miller, an engineer, took over the Miami-Dade and Monroe County operations at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) in 2021 under Gov. Ron DeSantis. The job gave her the title of District Six secretary and made her the point person for state funding for road, bridge and transit projects across the region.
With Miami-Dade projecting a budget crunch next year, those dollars are even more important as Miller comes in to oversee the county's roads, bridges, traffic lights and transit system in a job that will pay $302,000 a year, according to an offer letter released Friday by the mayor's office.
Miller takes over as Levine Cava's administration is predicting a revenue shortfall in next year's county budget even as the county prepares to open a rapid-transit bus line in South Miami-Dade and pursues federal funds to open a commuter rail between Miami and Aventura. Both projects — the South Dade rapid-transit bus line and the Coastal Link rail line — are part of the county's SMART Plan blueprint, an initiative that counts on state funding to become reality.
Javier Betancourt, director of the office overseeing the county's half-percent sales tax for transportation, praised Miller for her extensive state contacts and strong local relationships.
'I was delighted to hear about the appointment,' said Betancourt, director of the Citizens Independent Transportation Trust. 'She's familiar with our community, and she's committed to the SMART Plan.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
ABC journalist Terry Moran out at network after social media post about Stephen Miller
Journalist Terry Moran is out at ABC News after he called top White House official Stephen Miller a 'world-class hater' whose 'hatreds are his spiritual nourishment' on social media. ABC News said Tuesday that it was not renewing Moran's contract because of the post. 'We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision to not renew,' a spokesperson for the network said in a statement. 'At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism,' the spokesperson said. Moran's post, which was time-stamped early Sunday, appears to have been deleted. The post said Miller is 'one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy. But that's not what's interesting about Miller." 'It's not brains. It's bile,' the post read. 'Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He's a world-class hater,' it read. 'You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate. 'Trump is a world-class hater,' the post read. 'But his hatred only a means to an end, and that end his his own glorification. That's his spiritual nourishment.' Vice President JD Vance and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt were among the White House figures who objected to the post. Miller, the deputy chief of staff for policy, is an immigration hard-liner who also had a significant role in President Donald Trump's first term. A former Trump adviser who knows Miller well has described him as 'the president's id.' ABC suspended Moran on Sunday, the day of the social media post. Moran was an anchor for ABC News Live and a senior national correspondent who led coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court, ABC News said on its website. Before that, he was the network's chief foreign correspondent. He joined ABC News in 1997. This article was originally published on
New York Post
8 hours ago
- New York Post
Lefty nonprofits are openly fueling LA riots by handing out ‘F–k ICE' protective gear
LOS ANGELES — Leftwing non-profit groups are openly helping to fuel anti-ICE riots here by handing out 'F–k ICE' packs with protective equipment — as protesters continue to take over downtown every night and engage in rolling battles with cops, federal agents and National Guard troops. Chilling footage revealed one unidentified group handing out a truckload of face shields and other riot gear to protesters in downtown Los Angeles. The 'F–k ICE' packages — which include goggles, facemasks, gloves and a phone number for 'jail support' — are being assembled and distributed by a non-profit called Operation Healthy Hearts. Advertisement 7 Grassroots organizations are making and distributing 'F–k ICE' PPE kits operationhealthyhearts/Instagram It's just one of several organizations that started as grassroots community aid agencies, but have been waded into politics and thrown their weight behind left wing street protests. At least one group received federal funding before the Trump administration turned off the spigot. Advertisement '[The federal government] cut off our funding for other reasons, so we really have nothing left to lose,' LA Poverty Department COO Pamela Miller told The Post. That group, an arts nonprofit that operates the Skid Row History Museum & Archive, allowed another organization to use their building to distribute PPE packages for protesters on Monday. Among the items available at the museum were anarchist pamphlets that advocate for setting cops cars on fire, burning down police precincts and targeting banks and ATMs as part of 'direct action' against police. 7 Groups are also handing out pamphlets explaining how to evade police. Jared Downing/ NY Post Advertisement 7 Groups were seen handing out truckloads of riot gear to protesters in Los Angeles Monday afternoon FOX11 The pamphlets also include instructions on how to thwart police anti-riot tactics. Miller, however, dismissed the violence that has overtaken LA every night as 'a few knuckleheads doing stupid s–t.' 'The immigrant community is important. And they are vulnerable. [ICE] say we want to get rid of the criminals. Then where are they going? To churches, to schools,' Miller said. 'They're targeting people who can't protect themselves.' Advertisement She added: 'We want to support people's rights to stand up to authoritarian takeover, and however many knuckleheads are doing stupid s–t, that doesn't make us want to back away from standing up for our neighbors' rights.' 7 Operation Healthy Hearts is one of the groups making the 'F–k ICE' kits. operationhealthyhearts/Instagram 7 The LA Poverty Department also handed out PPE kits in the wake of the protests that have impacted the Los Angeles community. operationhealthyheartshomegurlswap/Instagram Los Angeles has been a bed of chaos since protests against ICE descended into scenes of chaos by day and looting by night, with tensions intensifying as President Trump ordered thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines into the city to restore order. LA Poverty Department was handing out PPE in the midst of that with the help of another community group, the Mutual Aid /Social Therapy (MAST), which describes itself as 'a decentralized project that uses the principles of mutual aid to put the tools of the psychological disciplines in the hands of the people.' But rather than focusing on spreading therapy practices, the group has been passing out goggles and gear to help protesters evade teargas and rubber bullets, while stoking anti-law enforcement sentiment on social media. Like the other groups, Operation Healthy Hearts generally organizes community service like food drives for the homeless on LA's Skid Row, but in addition to creating the 'F–k ICE PPE' packs has a long history of pumping out leftwing rhetoric on its social media — and has been denouncing law enforcement since protests started Friday. 7 A volunteer who handed out PPE kits, Alexandra Pierce, said, 'Police are attacking journalists and protesters. We need people to look out for each other.' AP Advertisement 7 Protests broke out in LA Friday after ICE raided numerous workplaces across the city, hauling off those who are suspected illegal immigrants. AP 'Police are attacking journalists and protesters. We need people to look out for each other,' said Alexandra Pierce, a volunteer for the group who was handing out PPE kits in the middle of protests on Tuesday. 'I want to help people in need, and I just feel very passionate about the politics of this and want to help protect people any way I can,' she added. Another group that has been advertising the 'F–k ICE' kits, Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network (MALAN), says it's a central information network for aid groups and non-profits — including MAST and Operation Healthy Hearts. Advertisement Operation Healthy Hearts only just received its tax-exempt nonprofit status last month, and bills itself as a homeless outreach group that runs food banks and helps provide public health resources to the homeless population. MALAN was founded in March 2020 in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also has a history of throwing its weight behind partisan leftwing causes on social media, including anti-Israel protests. Protests broke out in LA Friday after ICE raided numerous workplaces across the city and hauled off suspected illegal immigrants. Advertisement Demonstrators then tried to pre-empt ICE arrivals at other locations and block their efforts, and picketed a downtown detention center where detainees were being held. But ICE says many of the people they arrested in their raids are known criminals with alarming rap sheets — including some with convictions for violent attempted rapes, and even murder. Some of the protests quickly turned violent, with city streets being left littered with burning cars by days and looters ransacking storefronts by night.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
"We remain committed to trusted journalism": ABC axes Terry Moran following Trump, Miller criticism
ABC News senior coorespondent Terry Moran has officially been given his walking papers, several days after the network suspended him for a social media post that was critical of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. "We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post – which was a clear violation of ABC News policies – we have made the decision to not renew," the network shared in a statement. "At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism." In a since-deleted post to X, Moran called Trump and Miller "world-class" haters and suggested that Miller is sustained by "hatred." 'The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism,' Moran wrote over the weekend. "That's not what's interesting about Miller. It's not brains. It's bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He's a world-class hater." Moran said that Trump has a greater goal in mind when he vents his spleen, but Miller is simply driven by hate. "His hatreds are his spiritual nourishment," Moran wrote. "He eats his hate." Moran has remained mum about both his suspension and firing, which are of a piece with the ABC's recent capitulations to Trump. The Disney-owned broadcast network settled a defamation case with the president late last year after host George Stephanopoulos said Trump had been found "liable for rape." Moran's axing comes as several other networks are grappling with how to handle the president's litigiousness.
