The U.S. Army has a recruitment problem. With Norris, Schwarzenegger and Stallone too old to slaughter faceless, incompetent soldiers, the commando’s life has lost some of its luster. The thousands of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t helped, either.So the pressure was on this week at…
Jackie Bueno Sousa is the new lying propagandist — oh shit, I mean “conservative voice” — for the Miami Herald and right off the bat some yahoo is claiming she basically committed plagiarism in herer first column . A little-known blog is calling for Sousa to leave journalism after she stole the following line from the…
The state wants all six Palm Beach County commissioners to testify under oath about corruption in hopes that they might teach authorities how to catch corrupt politicians. The move comes after Mary McCarty resigned under corruption charges and while two former commissioners are sharing a metal toilet with a man…
The Broward Sheriff’s Office steroids case had been sitting in the agency without action for months before a sergeant took it to the State Attorney’s Office, according to a source. The details are sketchy but apparently a sergeant who was about to be transferred took the case to the State Attorney’s…
Office supplies giant Office Depot, based in Boca Raton, is the latest major American corporation to get itself in trouble with federal regulators. The company, which claims $14.8 billion in annual sales, is being investigated for improper contact with business analysts. Specifically, representatives of the company allegedly phoned analysts, seeking…
Amidst news of a steroid scandal at the Broward Sheriff’s Office, JAABlog reports a case of a deputy beatdown on a small (5′-6”, 155 pound) 57-year-old transient named Felipe Alvarez. The deputy found Alvarez sleeping under a tree not far from a Publix shopping cart. Alvarez didn’t want anything to do with the deputy and the…
According to the powerful Fanjul family, the State Department has launched an investigation into Bruno Scaioli, an Italian-Argentinian art dealer who is suspected of trafficking artwork the Fanjuls say is rightfully theirs. Not long after Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959, the wealthy Fanjuls fled to Palm Beach, taking…
When Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter goes out in public, she feels the eyes on her — and they’re telling her she’s on her way to jail. So yesterday afternoon she escaped into the last refuge of any corrupt Broward politician — the retirement condo circuit. There, as the intrepid Thomas…
Embattled Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter staged a not-for-media-consumption town hall-style meeting Wednesday at a Tamarac condo community, seeking to sway constituents toward believing her explanation of the Mutual Benefits scandal. Not the version in newspapers and blogs. And it actually seemed to work.As Bob Norman first reported in January…
It started around Presidents’ Day. ESPN has been picking the “Mt. Rushmore of Sports” in every state, then choosing the top five states. This week, it decided Illinois had the best mountain, with Michael Jordan, Ernie Banks, Walter Payton, and Mike Ditka. Hard to argue those guys aren’t Da Best…
Michael Putney, one of the most veteran political observers working in South Florida, goes off the usual script in his Miami Herald column this week. He drops the professional and oh-so responsible WPLG-Channel 10 commentator mode and writes like a human being about Florida’s odd governor, Charlie Crist. It’s a soul-searching column — and…
Black History Month is “extra special this year,” according to James F. Notter, superintendent of the Broward County public schools. This is true somewhat because of the whole first black president thing but also because it seems all that racism stuff is just about over in Broward County. That’s according…
The Law’s Arm Is Broken I just read Thomas Francis’ article on Cliff Berry, and I thought it was exceptional (“Fool Me Thrice,” February 12). The community needs to know about people like this and the criminal activities they’re getting away with. I think we all know that the legal system…
The soldiers move through the wheat field, scanning the windswept plain for signs of trouble. There are six of them, dressed in fatigues and body armor, wearing the sunglasses and bushy beards popular among the Special Forces. The only thing they can hear is the rustling of wheat stalks. They…
Rapper Rick Ross was not on the set of the Miami music video shoot in May 2008 when Mark McCarthy led his 400-pound white tiger out of her crate. The producers had offered McCarthy $5,000 to use the big cat as a prop at a mansion on Star Island. They’d…
UPDATED WITH VIDEO LINKA mayor hit with felony corruption charges; a commissioner booked for the same; a city manager suspended after ordering deputies to remove a commissioner during a public meeting. When it comes to dirty tricks and political theater, Deerfield Beach residents have seen it all. But even the…
Curmudgeons like Bob Norman may not want to admit it, but the Sun-Sentinel’s association with the Chicago-based Tribune Co. does have its perks. For instance, when some unknown driver kills a couple of British tourists with a tricked-out Porsche owned by a wealthy playboy with a history of driving luxury…
It is officially a fashion trend. Since he took a Juwan Howard elbow to the face earlier this month and needed six stitches, the ever-stylish Dwyane Wade has been brandishing a series of personalized Band-Aid-like adhesive bandages (not to be confused with Band-Aids, pictured here) under his left eye. Soon, the…
Florida Atlantic University has finally settled a long-running dispute with three men who used to work in the Owl Nest. Stanley Dunn, former chair of FAU’s Ocean Engineering department, helped the program evolve from a rinky-dink operation to a considerable force. In 1999, he helped the school land a NATO…
There’s one constant in America when things are looking down: we can always say that at least we’re not in Detroit. But now the city famous for having whole blocks of city streets full of empty buildings has enticed a South Florida developer to go north and escape the Mad…
When people talk about where Ponzi schemer and Mutual Benefits czar Joel Steinger might have stashed some of his millions, many point at his son, West Palm Beach lawyer Michael Steinger. Steinger, a founding partner of personal injury (ambulance-chaser) firm Steinger, Iscoe & Greene, was never close to his wayward father,…
It appears that Capellini’s Cronies are undoing themselves at a remarkable rate. First it was disgraced former Deerfield Beach Mayor Al Capellini’s Republican brethren. At a recent meeting they fawned over Capellini, who was removed from office by Charlie Crist after the State Attorney’s Office charged with a felony corruption…
