I’ve gotten several e-mails, phone calls, and comments on this blog suggesting that radical changes are about to take place at the Palm Beach Post. Still nothing is confirmed, but I want you all to know that I’m trying to keep my ear to tracks on this matter. Just today…
The Miami Herald has a story this morning about a Broward kid who ran into the Secret Service while trying to get to stardom in the art world. Deerfield Beach High graduate Yazmany Arboleda, 27, was picked up by police yesterday after putting the title of his latest exhibit –…
Sonia King says she was appalled when one of her coworkers made the proposition: If she would marry an illegal immigrant, she could make $10,000 in cash. A single mother of three, King was working as a legal secretary in the Broward State Attorney’s Office, the agency that prosecutes crimes,…
Back in the 1960s, America declared a war on poverty. The government funneled millions into “community development” programs, recruited neighborhood enablers, financed jobs programs, and then, by the 1970s, realizing that poverty was the most tenacious of adversaries, pretty much gave up the effort. By the time the Reagan administration…
It’s a blazing late-May afternoon at Nathaniel “Traz” Powell Stadium near Opa-locka. The 29 members of the Miami Fury gather at the 50-yard line, dressed in their shiny aqua uniforms. On the running track that surrounds the field, near the locker rooms, the Pure Funk DJs from 97.7 FM blast…
Driving his Buick Regal around Aventura, Nicholas Spanakos might seem like just another 70-something snowbird. But look closely. The nose gives him away. It bulges to the right — beaten that way by a few dozen jabs or maybe snapped suddenly by a single hook that caught him flush. Spanakos’…
All things considered, Sheriff Al Lamberti doesn’t seem so bad. He’s a career law enforcement guy, pretty understated, and, while he was a faithful underling to disgraced predecessor and reformed farmer Ken Jenne, the rank and file seems to respect him. But all bets are off now that he’s a…
A lot of you have surely read T.M. Shine’s cover story in the Washington Post Magazine about his firing from City Link. I’ve been meaning to post it for a while. It’s funny, poignant and well-done, if a scad too long (yes, a New Times writer complaining about length –…
— Former L.A. Times newsman Joel Sappell gives Sam Zell, head at Sun-Sentinel parent Tribune Co., a parting shot on the way out the door. Here’s the crux of it: Our optimism grew when Zell, soon after his highly leveraged takeover of Tribune, promised investment, not retrenchment. But that didn’t…
Think you can beat her? Tonight at 8 p.m. we get to see Palm Beach Post crime reporter Rochelle Gilken take on American Gladiator (UPDATE: Just learned the show has been postponed to next Monday, June 9, due to hocky playoffs). She spent five weeks in LA doing the show,…
… but we’re not buying this one either. It never fails: When Charlie Crist is going for a higher political office, he gets a girl first. And now that he’s vying for vice president of the United States, he’s got a doozy: a divorced, cosmetically enhanced socialite from the Hamptons…
I pose a question: In its story on what seems to be petty allegations against Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein by rival Alex Areazza, why did the Sun-Sentinel choose not to publish JAABlog’s name? Here’s the line from Jon Burstein’s story: “In his letter to State Attorney Michael Satz, Arreaza…
Occasionally I point out errors in the local newspapers, but today it’s time to hoist myself on that petard. In my column this week, I write about Deerfield Beach Mayor Al Capellini hiring a private investigator to tail his chief political rival, Commissioner Steve Gonot. Based on video the detectives…
It’s May 21, and residents of Sunrise Lakes condos are getting a fresh lesson in the virtues of punctuality. Stragglers who arrive at the Hillary Clinton campaign stop three hours early sit in an overflow room. Others turn back toward home. They are late for the candidate but early for…
If they gave an Oscar for the muckraking documentary that most riles the world’s fat cats, turning them into red-faced, sputtering stuffed shirts, Amy Serrano’s film on Big Sugar would surely win hands down. The exposé film Sugar Babies, which has been making the festival circuit for about a year…
Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s political acumen has never been in doubt. Nor has her ambition. At 26, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the Florida Legislature. A decade later, she decided to run for U.S. Congress representing the district around her Weston home — despite having just given birth…
Deerfield Beach Commissioner Steve Gonot didn’t know he was being watched. When Gonot attended a League of Cities convention in Orlando last August, he had no idea a private investigator was shadowing him and capturing him on videotape. The politician didn’t sense the prying eyes at another convention a couple…
Nitpick Me Not I read the article “Sobriety in a Bottle” with great avidity. I have a younger brother with a serious drug problem, and I have seen that counseling, behavioral modification, Narcotics Anonymous, and jail are not always enough to break an addiction, no matter how bad the addict…
And a fine bit of Ray Charles while we’re at it…
I don’t feel the need to comment on this screed that came across the transom today regarding Sun-Sentinel Executive Editor Earl Maucker and his upcoming appearance at the IRE conference in Miami. Other than to say it’s damn interesting. It’s comes from one “Titus Groan” (make sure to go to…
Ron Gunzburger at Politics1 offers this little piece of governor gossip: McCAIN VEEPSTAKES. Politics1 Exclusive. How interested is Florida Governor Charlie Crist in being John McCain’s VP runningmate? So much so that veteran GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone — who coordinated a few dirty stunts in support of Crist during…
From JAABlog: If you happen to be in the Broward County Public Law Library (basement of the downtown Courthouse) and want to access JAABLOG from one of the free computers, forget about it. JAABLOG has been restricted. Seems the powers that be have had it with the blog and have…
