Becky Blackwood won. And it’s the public who will pay for the Broward County School Board’s stupid and vindictive decision to fire her. It’s been a long road back for Blackwood, a former supervisory building inspector who has contended she was removed from her job in retaliation for her blowing…
You will get caught. From the “Really Coulda Seen This Coming” South Florida crime files, we have 32-year-old Fort Lauderdale detective Jorge Reyes, who was assigned to a special task force aimed at breaking up money-laundering rings. Such a job is vital to bringing down all sorts of criminal enterprises,…
Boca Raton painter/performer/karate black belt Micheal Israel — he of the ripped abs, the flowing mullet, and the paint-splattered jeans — has landed two slots performing at Obama’s inauguration: on the 19th at Virginia’s Inaugural Black Tie & Blue Dominion Ball ($1,000 per ticket) at the Smithsonian Air & Space…
He loves only one man.Jeb Rebukes Our Advances Again, Makes Us Want Him MoreJeb Bush says he won’t run for the Senate, once again reinforcing the state’s one-way love affair with W.’s little brother. And doesn’t it just make you want him more?Yes, Jeb has always played hard to get…
Images courtesy of www.4yacht.comGiga-what? Giga-yacht! It’s for sporting men who feel crowded on their 180-foot “super-yacht” and whose claustrophobia still flares up on a 220-foot-plus “mega-yacht.” That’s a gigayacht pictured above. I had to shrink the graphic, but if you look closely on the left side you’ll see a helicopter,…
Well, former Judge Larry Seidlin solicited gifts from an attorney in his courtroom and chiseled an elderly widow living in his condo building out of nearly half a million dollars — and it looks like he’s going to get away with it. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, while not exactly exonerating the…
No detail is too small to escape the unblinking eye of Broward County Commissioner Diana — Amy Guthrie…
For me and for a great many other reporters, the most loathsome chore in journalism is the dreaded “man on the street” interview, which is why I both admire and pity the Palm Beach Post’s Frank Cerabino, who every week ventures out of the cool fluorescent confines of his newsroom…
Today we learned that Florida is exporting guns for crimes in other states, and it appears Fort Lauderdale is also exporting armed robbers for crimes in other Florida cities.Three Fort Lauderdale men are among a foursome arrested in connection with the distinctly Grinch-ian crime of knocking over a credit union…
Okay, first watch the video from a pro-Palestinian rally (and pro-Israeli counter-rally) at the federal courthouse on Broward Boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale on December 30. It’s going viral as I type this: Now let’s break this down. First, that rather strange guy introducing the tape, Tom Trento, is…
A study published last month by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group lead by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, says that not only do lax gun laws lead to more murders, higher crime rates, and more law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, guns from those states…
It’s another year — and another rambling think piece from Tribune Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams. And he seems to have reached a turning point. Abrams says truth, integrity, and intelligence … might actually be profitable. “Junk Culture or Junk Food media does sell, but I’m sensing a trend where intellect is commercially viable,” Abrams writes. …
GOP Cuts Everything, Saves Sweet, Sweet TobaccoAs I sit here puffing on my Camel Wide with the filter broken off, my lungs blackening like beach tar, I’m thanking the state’s Republicans. Because it is the GOP lawmakers who fought off attempts in Tallahassee to increase cigarette taxes in order to…
You don’t have to be J-Lo to kick it in Fort Liquordale. Hell, ladies don’t even need to put on make-up, heels, or a mini-dress to rub shoulders with our boozy set…and fellas can get away with flip-flops, jeans, and a ratty T-Shirt. Bookings through one of the nation’s largest…
The hardcore environmentalists at Everglades Earth First sure know how to push FPL’s buttons. All year, they’ve been waging a court battle against construction of a new power plant in Palm Beach County (right across the street from a wildlife refuge!). Today, they picked another fight with the energy giant,…
I attended public schools in Coral Springs, and as long as I can remember, public schools in Broward County have been bursting at the seams. Portable classrooms have dotted fields meant for recess. Student over-enrollment was an epidemic that the county just couldn’t cure. I remember then-mayor of Coral Springs, Jeanne Mills,…
In Deerfield Beach, they don’t do Democrats and Republicans. Rather, you’ve got the Indicted Party, which nominated Al Capellini, who resigned as mayor last month after corruption charges were filed against him. And you’ve got the Nearly Indicted Party, which recently chose Jean Robb as its nominee.Robb was mayor from…
When I first saw Avenue Q, on Broadway in the summer of 2005, I thought it was a perfect show. I also thought it was too of its moment to last. Avenue is a topical piece, and I assumed that it, like most things topical, had a sell-by date. But…
A Baltimore Raven defense led by two former University of Miami stars, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, thrashed our spunky Dolphins yesterday, 27-9. I could’ve sworn the Ravens were playing with 14 men on defense, but I’ll have to go back to the tape to make sure. At any rate,…
How do you keep fans — and sportswriters — happy in the NFL? Make sure you toss in a few ridiculously bad seasons in the mix of a bunch of mediocre ones. It’s all about expectations, folks. Remember that. Don’t believe it? Let’s look at the Dolphins, a team that during…
South Florida Protest of Mideast Violence Punctuated by ‘Lame’ InsultsSupporters of Palestine and Israel spent the day yesterday hurling “half-assed” insults at each other at Bayfront Park during a really “lame-o” protest of the recent Mideast violence. These poorly prepared cracks included “Go back to Israel so we can shoot…
I’ve been documenting the downsizing of newspapers here for the past couple of years, so I guess it was bound to happen. My newspaper, which has largely avoided the carnage, has been cutting not just empty positions, but people. And the bloodletting has happened at several other newspapers owned by our parent, Village Voice Media…
