Tempora Mutantur Et Nos Mutamur In Illis VOLUME 95 NUMBER 16 MIAMI, FLORIDA, DECEMBER 6-12, 2017 50 CENTS Mortgage LIBERTY CITY aid winds down BIG Funds that helped DREAMS thousands save their homes will run out City native vying By Nyamekye Daniel for federal bench
[email protected] By Andrea Robinson When Margaret Ellis was laid
[email protected] off from her job as a compliance Circuit Court Judge Rodney analyst at a pharmaceutical com- Smith referred to himself as “the pany in 2015, she feared that she skinny kid from Liberty City with would lose something she worked big dreams.” After serving on the so hard to accomplish — owning local bench for nearly 10 years, a home. he may be on the verge of reap- Ellis, who is the sole caregiver ing an even bigger dream. for her 91-year-old mother, found Smith is one of 10 fi nalists for herself struggling to live day to federal judgeships in South Flor- day off of the $15,000 in her sav- ida. The state Federal Judicial ings account. For four months Nominating Commission recently she squeezed out her monthly —Photos courtesy of Miami-Dade County Public Schools submitted mortgage payments of $1,300 Families from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and other islands visited with administrators and the names of while she searched for another instructors from Miami-Dade County Public Schools to help them enroll in the district. Smith and job. But as time went by, she was nine other unable to get re-employed.