Florida lawmakers generous to a fault

Millions in state tax dollars given away, spent unchecked

Agency executives wrote checks to themselves

At a time when Miami's oldest inner-city social service agency could not make its payroll, two top executives cashed more than $100,000 in agency checks they wrote to themselves.

Lawyers tap into public piggy bank

A group of private lawyers has run up six-figure incomes by repeatedly billing Dade County taxpayers for hours they did not work. Many times, the attorneys billed for more than 24 hours of legal work in a single day.

BSO sting put public in danger

The robberies were part of a terrifying crime wave in Broward County two years ago -- and most of it was monitored and financed by a squad of sheriff's deputies secretly operating outside the department's theft and robbery units.

Abused adults: Silent casualties

Essie Weaver, dead from bedsores and infection, lived the last of her 83 years mostly in a wheelchair in a vermin-infested crack den where authorities believed she was raped.

How a politically connected farmer overcharged Dade government for thousands of oversized palms

A prominent South Dade farmer, paid millions by Metro to landscape county roadways, charged taxpayers for towering royal palms while planting shorter, cheaper trees, a survey by The Herald shows.

Police cheating on overtime costs us millions

Cops call it "Collars for Dollars." It's how they turn arrests on the streets into money in their pockets. Until now, it has been a courthouse secret.

Insiders profit, travelers suffer

Miami's tourism industry is threatened by politicians who run the airport for the benefit of cronies - not millions of passengers

1990

Murder in the temple of love?

Yahweh's conviction affirmed

1998

$10 buys one vote

Herald probe reveals inner-city deals in Miami's mayoral race