Stadium News - Sort of

Well, this isn't good.

Shouting ``Liars, Liars, Liars!'' and honking horns, and stopping traffic, hundreds of laborers and construction workers picketed the new Florida Marlins stadium in Little Havana Tuesday morning, claiming that they have been denied promised jobs.

The workers -- from unions, local construction companies and independent contractors -- said they were protesting because of the baseball team's failure to use local workers to help build the new stadium.

The Marlins actually had a response.

The leaflets said that the Florida Marlins have exceeded local participation goals in the project. As of Oct 31, 59 percent of the workers and companies are from Miami-Dade, the Marlins said.

This represents a significant increase above the 35 percent aspirational goals approved by the county and city commissioners, they said. And 94 percent of workers live in Florida, of which 61 percent are from Miami-Dade County and 22 percent of those live in the city of Miami.

Not taking sides here since I really don't know what is going on in Little Havana, but thought I would pass it along.