The rumors about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the Green Iguana just wouldn’t go away. The story goes that the Florida governor frequented the Green Iguana, a bar in Tampa, back in the early 1990s when he was just starting his political career. He was less careful back then, people…
So it goes like this. The NY Times does a story about a drug called paco. In it is this passage: Paco is highly addictive because its high lasts just a few minutes—and is so intense that many users smoke 20 to 50 paco cigarettes a day to try to…
This bit on the Sun-Sentinel’s new owner comes courtesy of Seattle Post-Intelligencer cartoonist David Horsey(via Romenesko):…
Sam Zell bolstered the real estate market this morning when he went on CNBC and basically said we were at or near a bottom in prices and that the market will get moving next month. I’m really starting to wonder about this guy. Anyway, speaking of sharks, we all know…
— Two questions: Is this really a newspaper story? And how could it possibly have taken two bylines? — The opening installment of the Sun-Sentinel’s series on foreclosures contains a startling fact: In 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 42 percent of mortgages originated in Broward…
From Greg Cote’s column in the Miami Herald on Wayne Huizenga’s selling of half the Dolphins: Bottom line, though, nobody mattered more in making South Florida major-league in sports. Say what you will about Wayne Huizenga, but you might consider starting with, “Thank you.” Yes, thank you Wayne. Thanks for…
Well, that didn’t take long. Former Palm Beach Post political scribe S.V. Date, who resigned from the newspaper last month over a perceived conflict of interest, has made his return to journalism as a contributor to The New Republic. And he’s writing rather glowingly about the man who caused all…
The Sun-Sentinel is trying to make idiots of us all. As I write this, the lead story on the newspaper’s website is about American Idol. But let’s give the newspaper a break. Presidential election, recession, war, Simon Cowell … the Sentinel had a tough choice for its top story of…
Lighten Up, Guitar Man Guitar Hero isn’t a menace to society — it’s a game! I just had to comment on this article (“Guitar Zero,” Ashley Harrell, February 14). I’m the father of the 8-year-old, Ben, who is referenced in the article. My biggest issue is the fact that some…
On his last day as a free man, in the spring of 2006, Pablo Rayo Montaño probably didn’t venture far from his home in São Paulo, Brazil. It was too dangerous, even for a man like Rayo. São Paulo was virtually under siege: Inmates had rioted at 70 prisons across…
The Countyline Dragway sits on the western edge of civilization, on US 27, just south of the Broward/Miami-Dade line. The sky looks like it came from a Tim Burton movie: all black, no streetlights, an orange moon illuminating a sheet of fog. It’s midnight — drag racing time. This night…
The Phantoms of Oakland Park Somebody was worrying recently about the sanctity of the vote in Broward County elections. Who was that? Oh, yeah, that would have been Tailpipe. The emissions-spouting cylinder was saying he was particularly stressed out by non-functioning, error-prone voting machines. Well, nobody was passing around chill-out…
The gypsy elder says there’s only one reason he’s out to rid South Florida of John Uwanawich and his family of fortune tellers. “He’s giving all gypsies a bad name,” said the elder, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity in a Burger King on Griffin Road in south…
The latest Tribune Co. cut at the Sun-Sentinel may be the most depressing of all: The company has killed the newspaper’s softball league. The news came out yesterday about the cost-saving move and this one hurts me personally since I’ve been playing in the league for several years (thanks to…
If you didn’t think Miami Herald crime reporter Wanda Demarzo’s week could get any worse, think again. She and her husband, Richard, were robbed at gunpoint and carjacked outside a convenience store early this morning, according a report in her newspaper. Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies are investigating the carjacking and…
Timing is everything in journalism. I come out with a story about new Tribune Co. Sam Zell’s newsroom tour, part of which was wondering, “When will the ax fall.” Well it fell yesterday. At least part of it. Zell announced he was cutting up to 500 people nationwide. In more…
Junk the Machine People can count better: Great article (“Tally Against the Machine,” Tailpipe, February 7)! We used the sort-and-stack method for counting our paper affidavits in Project Vote Count’s citizen-run exit poll. We averaged two to three hours counting the ballots for each precinct. The counting process became more…
Linda McCalister is a nurse at an elementary school in Coconut Creek. Most mornings, the 57-year-old throws on a school-issued navy polo shirt before leaving home to care for other people’s children. She paints black lines around her big blue eyes, combs her blond bob into place, and tries to…
If you’re watching a football game and start complaining about one of the referee’s calls and the petite woman sitting at the bar next to you says you’re wrong, simmer down. If she’s Erin Meehan, you probably are wrong. When it comes to the finer details of football — say,…
When newly minted media baron Sam Zell met with his Sun-Sentinel staff for the first time, there wasn’t a word about it in the newspaper the next day. Turns out, they missed a hell of a story. At the January 31 powwow, the billionaire owner of Tribune Co. decried the…
It was around 9 p.m. on a recent Tuesday when the kid strolled into Java D’Lites, a Coral Springs Coffee Shop. With the shop buzzing over the night’s event — South Florida’s first legit Guitar Hero competition — the kid’s entrance didn’t get much attention. Matt Lozano was just one…
It was just before halftime on Super Bowl Sunday when a passing car apparently decided to try to climb up the back of My Warhaftig’s new Mercedes E350. Warhaftig and her husband were at a football party in Fort Lauderdale’s upscale Sunrise Intracoastal community, where neighbors had set up a…
