The U.S. health-care system has a tradition for cruelty toward the uninsured, and in Broward and Palm Beach counties, public hospital districts were created to deal with them. In exchange for treating the uninsured those districts could pocket hundreds of millions in tax dollars.But after President Barack Obama signs the…
In light of Scott Rothstein’s Mob turn, I started putting together a little history on Mafia action in Broward (and Palm Beach) County yesterday, and it was such a big hit, I’m going to give you some more today and try to highlight a new one each day this week. Boca Raton, where…
Hey, don’t call this a “diary”; it’s a JOURNAL, OK? And Nadia says I’m supposed to write in this thing every day: She wants me to write about my “feelings” and all that stuff. But the real reason I agreed to keep this dia… I mean… JOURNAL is because someday…
Local police just released the names of four young people involved in a shooting between two cars early Sunday morning in Lake Worth. Brooke Harris, a 19-year-old from Boynton Beach, was driving one car. She was shot once in the back. The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office reports that Harris is…
Let’s see what’s happening this week in South Florida:Doctors are sounding an optimistic tone about the condition of Josie Lou Riley, the 15-year-old girl who was beaten nearly to death last week by a classmate at Deerfield Beach Middle School. [Miami Herald]Fitzroy Salesman goes to trial for what everybody hopes…
The fact that the Amazing Randi is gay has long been an open secret. (The topic even comes up briefly in last August’s New Times cover story about him.) But yesterday, on the James Randi Educational Foundation website, Randi told the world.In a brief, thoughtful message, Randi described how much…
On Saturday, animal rights advocates took to Hollywood Boulevard, protesting Puppy Palace, a freestanding building that sells purebred puppies for $300 to $1,500 apiece. The protesters say nobody should be purchasing a commercially bred puppy when there are so many dogs in shelters across the country right now.After the animal…
Just got off the phone with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who stepped off the House floor to describe the scene at the center of the political universe.”If you look at our side of the chamber, there’s a frenzy of activity, members hugging and smiling,” said Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat. “And…
In light of Scott Rothstein’s alleged Mafiosi takedown of alleged Sicilian mobster Roberto Settineri, the Sun-Sentinel this morning attempted to explain the Mafia’s presence in Broward County. It made brief mention of Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, and Nicky Scarfo, but it was a superficial gloss-over with a few quotes from so-called experts. If you really want…
Many people were very confused as they drove down Hollywood Boulevard on Saturday. There was a full-on protest on both sides of the street, replete with colorful signs, matching T-shirts, chanting, music, and adults wearing large, heavy dog costumes. Some drivers thought it was a protest in favor of animal…
During his 2010 congressional campaign, Allen West has talked tough not just about terrorism but about the Muslim world. In a speech that gained national attention last month, he charged that Islam wasn’t a religion so much as an ideology, like Nazism, which needed to be contained at all costs.But…
Deputies with the Broward Sheriff’s Office are looking for a 20-year-old man and alleged gang member named Steven Scott Strauss, who they believe joined Anthony Defalle in robbing the Dania Beach home of Defalle’s neighbor, who had recently died.Defalle, who’s also 20, is a neighbor of Raymond Barkey, a 59-year-old…
Next week begins what will surely be an entertaining show: the trial of the irascible and always controversial former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman on bribery charges. There promises to be excellent sound — in the form of recorded wiretaps — and videotape taken by FBI agents. Throw in possible inclusion…
Here’s Marco Rubio in an appearance on Greta Van Susteren’s Fox News show, the same place where Charlie Crist accused Rubio of using a party charge card to pay for a back wax. Around the one-minute mark, Van Susteren presses the issue, and you can judge for yourself whether Rubio…
Got police abuse? Diop Kamau is your go-to guy. Kamau is CEO of policeabuse.com and former head of the Police Complaint Center in Washington, DC. Kamau, who got his training as a California police detective, now runs an office in Tallahassee devoted to investigating complaints of police misconduct across the…
Among the hundreds of pages of Broward County court documents recently made public regarding the 2008 murder of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler attorney Melissa Lewis, one of the most illuminating is a police interview with Aimee Villegas. Aimee is the daughter of Debra Villegas, Lewis’ best friend and Scott Rothstein’s right-hand woman…
In these times of health-care gouging, we can hardly blame middle-class families for skipping an annual checkup or for hoping that the pain, the nausea, the whooping cough will just go away on its own. Because who can afford to get sick?For Broward Health executives, physicians, and staff, this would…
To be clear: Just because Boca Raton-based Seisma Oil Research and its associated companies were hit with a cease-trade order in Saskatchewan doesn’t mean that it’s a scam. It just means that the company’s executives may not have registered with the Canadian province’s financial commission, which is a prerequisite to…
Your daily spin through the headlines of South Florida:An engineering firm says that the bid process for redesigning the south runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International was mired by politics, with county commissioners treating the contract like an auction, with the winner being the most generous in making campaign contributions. Imagine…
It’s not official yet, but Broward political veteran and erstwhile radio host Beverly Kennedy, the wife of a former Broward County commissioner, tells me she’s going to step into the ring to challenge Broward County Mayor Ken Keechl. “We need a change from the Stacy Ritters, Ken Keechls, and Ilene Liebermans,”…
