I don’t reckon there’s many of you who remember Oliver Sipple. He was the troubled gay man who never wanted to be famous — and wasn’t, really — even though he deserved to be. If for no other reason than for his knack for accidental encounters with major historical figures…
Speaking of Gov. Charlie Crist’s fundraising skills…This weekend for $1,000 a pop, Crist fans in Sag Harbor, New York, can attend a party hosted by his celebrity pals: Jill Zarin, one of The Real Housewives of New York City, and Donald Trump. Zarin is close friends with Crist’s wife, Carole…
We interrupt your daily snarky news intake for a special announcement: New Times Broward-Palm Beach has a Flickr photo pool! What does this mean? Local photographers (amateurs, professionals, and everything in between) are welcome to submit photos of local South Florida events and occurrences. Once the community is active enough,…
In an era of unprecedented financial insecurity for the state that Charlie Crist governs, the aspiring U.S. senator achieved an unprecedented financial windfall. During his campaign’s most recent quarter, he raised $4.3 million.That combination isn’t lost on Adam Smith, political editor of the St. Petersburg Times. He muses:Just think what…
Larry Bird had Magic Johnson. Muhammad Ali had Joe Frazier. Roger Federer has Rafael Nadal. To make Coral Springs’ Alexis Thompson a national sports icon, she’ll need a nemesis, and she may have found one in Alison Lee. They’re both 14-year-old golfers, and this past weekend’s slug-out at the U.S…
Someone please tell Money Magazine that South Florida has not been swallowed by the ocean (yet). How else could the editors not name a single town in this region to its list of the best towns to live in America? In fact, the nation’s fourth-largest state doesn’t get a single…
I was talking to a public official the other day about something, and he said, “I don’t blog on the Sun-Sentinel anymore. They want my blood type and my mother’s birth city. It’s too much.” Other than misusing the verb “blog” (people comment, and people blog; it’s not one and the…
Beginning Sunday, August 30, at 7 a.m., Comcast will air a half-hour TV program devoted to news about the Middle East. The show, run by the so-called Israel News Network (INN), will be unabashedly pro-Israel and makes no secret of its aim: to counter the growing influence of Al Jazeera,…
MCNA Dental Plans, a benefits system based in Fort Lauderdale, wanted a $20 million contract from the managed care group that administers Medicaid spending in Kentucky. State Sen. Julie Denton, a former dental hygienist, wanted a job. They both got what they wanted.Now I’m not saying that there was a…
Meet Travis McGee, the world’s next aspiring action hero. They can’t all leap from the pages of fiction into celluloid as gracefully Ian Fleming’s James Bond, but what the hell? The studios love the prospect of a franchise, and with 21 novels available for adaptation into screenplays, they could churn…
When I wrote about Broward Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar’s mob last week, I detailed how his loyalists are peddling their influence with party candidates and making some pretty good money with “volunteering” and “activism.” What I didn’t mention is that the Brooklyn-born Ceasar gets his own paycheck, mostly in the way of lobbying contracts. You…
There are lots of stories about people living in homes with Chinese drywall and being unsure who to blame. The developers blame the suppliers, who blame the Chinese manufacturers who built the defective wall board. But Christine Miller, she knows exactly who the bad guy is. It’s her landlord: State…
With talk of 177 layoffs and the closing of the Stockade at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, upset deputies are fixing their eyes on the waste in Sheriff Al Lamberti’s command staff and political coterie. They glare at Lt. Col. Ricky Frey, for instance. He’s making almost $320,000 a year, or nearly twice what the…
The internet is abuzz with rumors that Phil Fasciana, guitarist for death metal band Malevolent Creation, shot and killed a man during an attempted robbery in or around Fort Lauderdale. There are also counterrumors that the story is unverifiable and that Fasciana is a lying “douche turd.” The Juice attempts…
If the conflict between the Broward County Commission and BSO were a game of chicken, then Sheriff Al Lamberti just swerved out of the way. After talking tough about shutting down the minimum-security stockade and laying off 177 jail employees, Lamberti today has come up with a new idea that he’s putting…
Few places illustrate South Florida’s housing bust better than Pembroke Pines. A few years ago, it was one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, with a population that more than ballooned from 65,500 in 1990 to 147,000 in 2007. Now, thanks to a multimillion-dollar drop in permit revenue from new construction,…
OK, so a few hours of breathing and stretching won’t get your house out of foreclosure or convince your boss to postpone layoffs. But these days, anything free is appealing, and you’d be amazed how good it feels to pay nothing for exercise classes that usually cost $17 a pop.That’s…
… and is that why he allegedly went out of his way to get special treatment to get his six-figure deposit back for his unit at the Tao condo and then begged for extra benefits from Sunrise? Feren, the longtime Sunrise mayor turned Broward Circuit judge, has long been rumored to have a…
It’s been five months since 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings disappeared from the bedroom of her family’s trailer home in Satsuma, a rural community north of Ocala National Forest. Haleigh, with her blond hair and eager smile, captured the attention of the Nancy Grace media brigades just after the memorial service for…
Now that three former Palm Beach County commissioners have gone to prison on federal corruption charges, it’s tempting believe that local government has been reborn in a cleaner, more-efficient fashion. But of course, the cynics among us are still trying to sort out the damage that ex-commissioners Mary McCarty, Warren…
The battle between School Board auditors and the officials they watchdog hit a new level today. The conflict revolves around an audit report that alleges hurricane cleanup firms AshBritt and C&B ripped off the School Board to the tune of $765,000. School Board construction officials, who are accused of faciliating the rip-off, have…
It’s 5 p.m. on a Tuesday. You’re drunk, and trying mightily to push your car out of a water-filled ditch. Now, you have to explain to some cop that your day job is working at a prison?Alas, this was the sad plight of Lisa Mae Hawkins, arrested this week on…
