Wesley Hutchings enjoys the kinds of privileges that come with being born to a family made rich by the American automotive industry. His father, James “Jack” Hutchings made hundreds of millions though the manufacture of air-conditioning units for cars. The Hutchings family’s 20,000-square-foot home spreads across two huge lots at…
As the director of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, Nicki Grossman’s primary responsibility is to market Broward County to tourists, but doesn’t she have some obligation not to annoy the hometown crowd? Today’s South Florida Business Journal reports on an appearance she made yesterday: CVB President Nicki…
Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter was literally being backed into a corner in her Parkland home, afraid for her life. Her 84-year-old father, Ed Portner, angry and distraught because she supported his opponent in the Tamarac mayoral race, was threatening her with a gun. “He kept saying, ‘We need to sit down and talk,…
That’s the trailer for the new Chris Rock documentary, about the torment of African-American women endure for their hair. At about the two-minute mark, you’ll see Rock wearing a sweatshirt that says “Palm Beach.” No, he doesn’t live in Palm Beach. Rather, Rock lives in perhaps the only neighborhood in…
The City of Riviera Beach sued to evict him from the municipal marina and lost so then it had the U.S. Marshals literally take his home away and tow it to Miami. Now the city council has tossed Fane Lozman out of city hall. Again. At Wednesday night’s commission meeting, the houseboat-dwelling Lozman was…
With an ethics scandal rocking the Democratic powers of Broward County — and just a few days after a Democratic mayoral candidate for one Broward city was arrested for pulling a gun on his daughter, the Democratic mayor of Broward County — the Republican Party may have been looking pretty…
Ugh. A high of 92 today in Fort Lauderdale. Let’s cool off with some news.Celebrated cluster crusader Erin Brockovich attracted a crowd of 2,000 for a meeting with activists concerned about the cancer cluster in The Acreage. [CBS4]With Broward’s Democratic Party reeling from recent scandals, Broward Republican leaders hit the…
There you have it: a gym strictly for the aspiring mixed martial arts star. The Fighter’s Edge on University Drive in Lauderhill trains its members to kick ass, Kimbo-style. Or at least before Kimbo got his own ass kicked.Seems a rather bold venture, though, in this economy. This month the…
You’d think Bill Koch might be a fan of wind energy. The billionaire Palm Beach energy magnate made some of his fortune off eco-friendly geo-thermal and natural gas power plants. He’s also an avid sailor who won the America’s Cup in 1992.But it appears that when he’s on dry land,…
You thought you were so “aware” with your pink ribbon for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Where’s your purple ribbon for Domestic Violence Awareness Month? Did it fall off while you were beating your spouse, hypocrite? October is Spina Bifida Awareness Month. And since you’re not aware of what spina…
[jump] racing ended completely. “As tracks fold one by one across the United States, it becomes less and less clear why the state of Florida continues to suffer the cruelty of dog racing,” Grey2K’s president, Christine Dorchak, told me. “Of the 24 remaining dog tracks nationwide, 13 are hosted by…
Amid a federal corruption investigation that has already taken down one of her colleagues, Broward County School Board Member Ann Murray has hired a man with a federal fraud conviction as her campaign manager. Murray has already paid $1,000 to manager George Bograkos, who was was initially charged with bribery and…
Programming Note: Beginning today, a new weekly series, Sex on the Beach, chronicling South Florida’s libidinous ways. If you don’t swing, you can probably guess one of the obstacles to the lifestyle: Men who want to have sex with a wife that’s hotter than the wife they’re screwing now. Swinglifestyle.com, a…
Reading this post on Pulp about how Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter sprinted 400 yards to the home of lobbyist Michael Moskowitz, I tried to imagine the scene that must have taken place in Moskowitz’s Parkland home. And it conjured up the above scene from Michael Clayton. Substitute a dented Jaguar…
We were all beaming with pride this past weekend when a Deerfield Beach company, Big Top Cupcake, unveiled a colossal confection: a 1,316-pound cupcake that even had a big heart, raising awareness for Think Pink Rocks, a breast cancer charity.But the reason this is a lame record is that it’s…
When I think of the terrifying crisis that Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter experienced Tuesday night, I think of that run. After her father, 84-year-old Ed Portner, came to her home and menaced her with a gun at her head, she escaped through the garage door. She was afraid for her life, but she didn’t stop at…
Ana Mateo, a 29-year-old woman from Cooper City charged with sex abuse based on a Facebook dialogue she had with a 15-year-old relative in Illinois in 2007, has been convicted by a Will County, Illinois, jury. The Facebook posts were discovered by the boy’s mother in June 2008. The victim…
The dawn brings a fresh batch of crazy to Broward and Palm Beach:At the risk of sounding like a broken record, more political figures have been arrested, including Ed Portner, running for mayor of Coral Springs Tamarac, for pulling a gun on daughter Stacy Ritter, mayor of Broward County. In…
Bush-Cheney and Kerry-Edwards signs littered the lawns as Imam Foad Farahi walked from a mosque to his North Miami Beach apartment a few blocks away. It was November 1, 2004, the day before George W. Bush would win a second term in office. But Farahi, an influential South Florida Muslim…
Bova Prime is one of the busiest restaurants on Las Olas in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Chic, modern, cylindrical chandeliers loom over a two-story dining room that is paneled in long white curtains. The menu lists three items that, to devotees of fine food, might seem inexpensive: a $38 Kobe skirt…
