— Florida Rep. Steve Geller has announced that he is running against Sue Gunzburger for county commission. This isn’t surprising, as rumors have been swirling about Geller’s plans for weeks, but it should rival the Rodstrom race for drama. It’s got a compelling subtext: The ethics activist versus the lobbyist…
I’ve been hearing grumbling, on this blog and off, about the Miami Herald’s outsourcing to India. The story, broken by the Associated Press, came out during the holidays, an off-time this year at the Pulp. Hence the silence. No more. My take on this isn’t suprising, and it’s not positive,…
The Sun-Sentinel’s Josh Hafenbrack quotes Rudy Giuliani: “In baseball, they have this idea of the cleanup hitter, the clutch hitter, the one who always has to come through at the right time. I think in modern American politics, Florida is the state we have to count on.” That’s a sad…
Just received outgoing North Broward Hospital District CEO Alan Levine’s farewell email and though I’d share it with you. Following the email are snippets of some responses from staffers and other recipients: From: Levine, Alan Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 3:26 PM Subject: Good afternoon. Please take a moment to…
The Sun-Sentinel’s Linda Trischitta — a former People mag reporter who recently joined the newspaper — begins her Metro section-leading story about the investigation into Deerfield Beach Mayor Al Capellini this way: Deerfield Beach Mayor Albert R. Capellini has said that he is being investigated by State Attorney Michael J…
Depends on Your Definition of Rescue There’s something about an organization that uses the word rescue in its name. You gotta figure it’s going to take measures — maybe even extreme measures — to save lives. Well, live and learn, Tailpipe says. Thereby hangs a distressing South Florida tale. Sharon…
In the 1959 movie Alligator People, set in an unnamed Southern wetland that will look familiar to South Floridians, Mrs. Webster, a newlywed, loses her husband. But he’s not gone. Mad scientists have turned handsome Paul Webster into a mutant alligator that slithers through swamps, wreaking B-movie havoc. It’s the…
Respectable Street Café opened in West Palm Beach in 1987 as the city was falling apart. Corporate giants like Walgreens and Burdines were fleeing, leaving room for the suburban kids who flocked to Rodney Mayo’s first nightclub. Respectable Street — “Respecs,” regulars called it — played new wave and goth…
Bryan Abboud was dining among the stars that weekend in July 2006. There were last-minute reservations at celeb-heavy Spago Beverly Hills. Chef Wolfgang Puck even passed by their table. Names like Anna Nicole Smith, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and French bombshell Lydie Denier swirled around his dinner companion, movie producer David…
Some interesting news and developments local-wise: — The Miami Herald’s Todd Wright produced a quality piece of daily journalism for us this morning. In a story about Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti’s campaign mailings that target challenger Peter Bober, Wright lays out Giulianti’s false claims and then soberly tells us why…
Here’s what Miami Herald sports columnist Dan Le Batard wrote in his column Friday: “And you’ll have a hard time finding a leader anywhere in sports who was as unlucky this year as Cameron. Six three-point losses. Zach Thomas and Trent Green and Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams all injured…
The Sun-Sentinel’s home page leads with a question: “Tough choice: Should boy, 12, face prison in murder?” Tough, you say? Let’s see, the kid beat a 17-month-old girl to death with a baseball bat because she was crying when he was watching TV. Then he lied about what happened to…
Caught up in the presidential primary races? Well, you don’t have to go to New Hampshire this week for political entertainment anymore. The local election season just got a whole lot more interesting. Davie Commissioner Bryan Caletka has confirmed to the Pulp that he is going to resign his seat…
Don’t Yoko Me, Bro C’mon, it was Justin and the pop rappers: Fergie didn’t “ruin” the Black Eyed Peas (“The Ten Most Hated Figures in Hip-hop,” Jonathan Cunningham, December 20). That’s a historical revision. BEP ruined BEP. They had a really good debut, but they wanted to be rich and…
Spacey Choices A strange device recently appeared on the beach near Sebastian Street in Fort Lauderdale, like a visitation from space. It sported a long ramp, with steering wheels and ratchets and an open cockpit with a wide-screen view of the Atlantic, and hardly anybody noticed. This was a children’s…
Blanche Duncan sits in her dark-red pickup truck in a deserted Budget Rental Car lot at the Industrial Park of Coral Springs. It’s a rainy, dismal Sunday morning, but Duncan, in tight pink blouse and sparkling gold necklace (and one gold-capped tooth with a star-shaped cutout), is dressed for business…
I’m a word junkie and a chronic verbalizer. I get my fixes by writing, but some of my best highs come out loud. At open mics, I can read poetry or sing lyrics; I can perform my words and get instant gratification from a live audience. For folks who share…
A few times a year, for eight consecutive weeks, Sean Cononie teaches a first-responder and emergency medical treatment class. The students learn CPR and what to do if someone has a seizure or goes into cardiac arrest. They learn basic ambulance training, like how to operate an automated external defibrillator…
The following is a true story written by John DeGroot: At 41 years and crippled, Jason Roy Thomas says he will not take his life before 2008 – something he tried and failed to do this Thanksgiving past. In a proud act of faith, Jason has decorated a small tree…
It’s that time of year again. Our six critics* don’t always (or often) agree, but we’ve combined their top-ten lists (allowing for ties, including a four-way dead heat for tenth) to pretend that they do. So without further ado, the ten (or 15) best movies of the year, kind of…
You might lose a bet if you claimed there were more liars, cheats, hypocrites, and mackerel-reekin’ wrongdoers in Broward and Palm Beach counties than in any other metropolitan area in the country — but not by much. We’ve got ’em big-time, and New Times lives to expose ’em. Part of…
“Does the thought of seeing a dead duck make you queasy?” Lindsay Bruening asks. It’s not an academic question. Bruening, a 25-year-old law enforcement officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, encounters plenty of defunct waterfowl. It’s fair to assume she doesn’t get queasy: Ducks are beautiful when…
