Miami Lakes Optimist Club Treasurer Jim Hamilton presents a plaque to Fred Senra in January. Senra is a partner at Miami Lakes AutoMall, and the recognition was for the dealership’s sponsorship in 2024 of the youth sports organization’s baseball program. 

    If the U.S. State Dept. issued passports to dogs, Blanche, the apricot Toy Poodle, would have one.      An energetic 9-year-old girl named for a sassy character on the “Golden Girls” TV show, she was born in northern Japan.      Blanche has lived in three countries and traveled extensively with owner Dr. Patricia Hammer, a physician and retired major in the U.S. Air...

     Ray Palacios is the newly-elected president of the board of the Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce.       Palacios, 48, previously was vice president of the chamber and in 2020, moved to the Young Professionals Committee so he could focus on his business.            A career in banking led to his founding of ASJ Financial Group mortgage brokerage in 2006. In 2013, he...

    Hialeah Gardens High School’s Academy of Law Studies students competed in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ We the People competition in January. The team won the district contest and progressed to the state event and won that, too. The students are preparing to compete in Virginia in April in the national finals round of the We The People test of the U.S. Constitution and government. The team has bragging rights...

     If there was any doubt that Miami Lakes needed a professional group for women who practice law, 17 attorneys showed up to a Galentine’s Day lunch on two days’ notice.      “Things have changed so much with Zoom hearings,” said attorney Gloria M. Garcia. “A lot of our attorneys are lacking mentors. A lot of organizations cater to women in the law, but there’s nothing...