With Bob Marley wailing from her speakers, Sue Gibbons cruised north on Pine Island Road in Sunrise, keeping in mind her New Year’s resolution to drive the speed limit. It was Saturday evening, January 1, 2005, so the pledge the 32-year-old Trinidadian immigrant had made was fresh in her mind…
September 19, 2004, didn’t seem to be Marcie Lynn Musgrave’s lucky day. The petite blond, two months shy of her 21st birthday, had just spent the night partying on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach. As she headed home in her car, an off-duty cop followed. He had noted that,…
Expressing their distaste for adult entertainment, Boca Raton’s City Council members last month took a bold stand against strip joints in their town. By banning food. Sure, the council also outlawed lap dances and restricted skin shops to the crappiest part of town — a warehouse district. But those sorts…
Dredge Up a New One Strolling the beach in south Broward used to be a really short walk. Hurricanes, high winds, and old-fashioned erosion had turned much of Dania, Hollywood, and Hallandale beaches into little more than narrow ribbons of seaweed-strewn sand. There was hardly enough room to stretch out…
The massive room, filled to the brim with gay men, exploded in cheers when W walked on stage. And surprising as it may seem, the love only increased when W strapped on an acoustic guitar. It was a curious response for the notoriously AWOL, crisis-averse, photo-op-seeking… oh, hold up, girl;…
Friendly Skies From the Golden Triangle to folks at home: Bob Norman mentions the company Air America Transport, in his September 1 story, “Finding Jairo.” That’s very interesting. Air America was the name of an airline secretly controlled by the CIA for covert operations in Southeast Asia during the Indochina…
To hear the locals tell it, 10 p.m. on Fridays at Georgie’s Alibi is between shifts. The early birds — the after-work crowd — are in bed, either alone or not. The night owls are arriving in dribs and drabs and Hondas. The transition period sees a little of everything…
The Story That Won’t Die Some day, presidential historians will study George Bush’s 2004 election victory the way they now delve into other secrets and scandals, like Jefferson’s slave children, FDR’s mistress, and that suspicious last-minute flood of Democratic votes from Chicago that gave Kennedy the presidency in 1960. But…
In the dream, a young and strong Jairo Sanchez stands on a beach before a vast ocean. His long-mourning sister Beatriz asks him where he’s been. But he doesn’t answer. Instead, Jairo only stands there, as if he is lost with amnesia. He stares out into the distance. “Jairo, what…
The dark club was thumping to “Don’t Cha,” the annoying yet irresistible new song by the Pussycat Dolls. The periphery of the dance floor was packed with groups of women swaying and nursing drinks, leaving the center to a young girl-girl couple that was dancing nasty, all into each other…
Sexy Politics Spare us the sexual pontificating: Regarding your “Tailpipe” on August 18: Tom Gallagher’s return of campaign funds to Marc Bell presents a comical irony. When Bell took over Penthouse magazine, his first and primary editorial change was to tone down the explicit sexual content. This took effect starting…
Fort Lauderdale’s affluent Coral Highlands neighborhood, on the northern edge of the city limits, was filled with nice people, manicured lawns, sky-blue pools, and polished SUVs. It was a place where some came to raise children and others to spend their final years. It was a neighborhood where not much…
A certain degree of light-hearted good cheer is required among employees and visitors of Lice Source Services, Inc., a medical clinic in Plantation devoted to ridding its customers of pesky scalp-dwelling vermin. But in the reception room this morning, a young dad with his 7-year-old daughter in tow won’t get…
A Hollywood Horror Story Le Tub used to be a delicious little hideaway on the Intracoastal across from Hollywood Beach, veiled from the street by a stand of leafy palms and used bathtubs. It’s still with us, of course, but it hasn’t been much of a hideaway since June, when…
(This is the last of a series. See the first three installments at newtimesbpb.com.) The small airport at San Andros was exactly what Donna Weaver hoped it wouldn’t be: a desolate place. There was a hangar, a gasoline pump, trash-strewn concrete stalls with a handwritten sign that read “gabbage,” and…
Finding Bob Norman A credit to news: I would like to publicly commend Bob Norman on his excellent, in-depth investigative series “Finding Gary.” This truly is a masterpiece in all of its facets: tenacious interviews, research into official records, and understanding of the subject matter. His analytical style of reporting…
The crime had none of the resonance of the big media stories that mesmerize the television- and tabloid-obsessed public nowadays. A handyman with a violent past allegedly taking a metal pipe to his girlfriend in front of numerous witnesses on a grimy Fort Lauderdale street? Nancy Grace, Larry King, the…
This is the third in a four-part series. To read the first two parts, visit newtimesbpb.com. As she sat at the end of the long, polished, cherry-wood conference table, Donna Weaver told the story of her husband’s murder. The calm pulling of the pistol on an Andros Island airstrip. The…
Show Me the $271.98! Tailpipe loves football more than anything except maybe motor oil. He’s Ameeerican, ya know. So you can imagine how much smoke the ‘Pipe spewed last week when, less than 24 hours after being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Dan Marino appeared on the…
You could live your whole life in Broward County and, if you never made a wrong turn or let yourself get lost, overlook the most aged, authentic bars around. You could complain about crowds, parking, and unvarying personalities until your tongue dried out. Then again, if you indulged your adventurous…
The Greeks had nothing on this disturbing tale: I am intrigued by Bob Norman’s articles on Gary Weaver (“Finding Gary, Part 1,” August 4, and “Finding Gary, Part 2,” August 11) and can’t wait for the next part. I can’t believe I have lived in South Florida for 25 years,…
Editor’s note: This is the second in a four-part series. See the first installment at newtimesbpb.com. After reading the article, Donna Weaver only thought, maybe. Maybe her missing husband had been caught up in Operation Airlift, an FBI drug-smuggling investigation gone haywire. Maybe Airlift would supply clues about Gary, who…
