Dozell Varner Jr. hadn’t seen the op-ed piece he penned for the Sun-Sentinel this past January 24 until New Times gave him a copy. That’s because the assistant pastor at Mount Bethel Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale refused to spend 35 cents on the newspaper. And though he accepted the…
Smack in the middle of Broward County’s construction megaboom, a red Porsche convertible pulls up to a ramshackle drive-in on a dazzlingly bright early morning. Blond, attractive, and obviously wealthy attorney Jill Friedman requests four pounds of freshly roasted coffee — crème brûlée, maple pecan, brownie crunch, and vanilla nut…
Schooling New Times: Upon sharing Eric Alan Barton’s article “Farewell to the Fighting Pianists” (January 16) with Heather, the girl you pictured in the lower left corner, her surprise nearly surpassed mine. Why, you ask? Well, maybe someone’s expert on journalistic integrity forgot to remind Mr. Barton that in order…
Wearing dark sunglasses that masked his eyes, Seminole Tribal Councilman David Cypress strolled to the witness stand in federal court in Fort Lauderdale on December 13 and for the next five hours astonished observers. On trial were three former Seminole employees charged with embezzling millions of dollars. The trio’s defense…
Nestled among the boutiques and restaurants of the prefab wonderland of Weston City Center, on this beautiful sunny Wednesday, trendy Gen Xers are sucking frothy frappuccinos through straws while chatting with friends at the dozens of café tables outside Starbucks. In the midst of it all, Danny Dickey sits coolly…
John Edwards has all the gravitas of John Boy and is almost as proven as a national leader. John Kerry has no presidential legs, but he’s got effete. Joe Lieberman combines chronic charisma deficiency with a serious identity problem — is he Democrat, Republican, or Likudnik? And Dick Gephardt… well,…
Bob can’t see the forest for the sleaze: Reading Bob Norman’s pop psychology about the Broward State Attorney’s Office (“Corruption and Nothingness,” January 27) was both amusing and frustrating. Somehow he chose to leave out the following facts that didn’t support his hypothesis: From 1977 through 2001, this office presented…
William Boatwright argued with his wife, Wendy, late into the night on November 13, 1988. Around 4 a.m., William put a gun to Wendy’s head and pulled the trigger. Half an hour later, he called for help. Police found the 28-year-old woman lying in a blood-soaked bed, dead from a…
Kingsley Barham seems an unlikely candidate for king of crass. The once-handsome, now-haggard 56-year-old sleeps on a sofa bed in a ramshackle Delray Beach home from which he barely escaped eviction in 2001. The State of California is after him for more than $75,000 in back taxes. And creditors have…
Broward State Attorney Michael Satz, whose bald head and square jaw could have been chiseled from stone, refuses to admit defeat. Sitting in a conference room near his office on the sixth floor of the Broward County Courthouse, wearing a crisp blue dress shirt and a tightly knotted yellowish tie,…
He’s awful: “Wake Up and Smile” by Bob Norman (January 9) was a great story. Rick Sanchez is probably the worst TV newsman I have ever seen. I unfortunately had the opportunity to watch WSVN-TV (Channel 7) while growing up in South Florida. I only saw it briefly because of…
Dear Augusta National Golf Club Members: We know you’re nervous. We know you’re sweating. We know the hair in your ears positively curls with thoughts of what might happen to Augusta. Let’s face it, it’s a bad year to be perceived as any sort of elitist, especially after that whole…
Soccer Coach Tom Ruth’s cleats make a rhythmic clicking in the hallways of the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School of the Arts. The sound is foreign to this West Palm Beach public school for aspiring performers. The quiet patter of ballerina slippers, now that’s familiar. But cleats in the hallways…
Every weekday morning for two years, Becky Wyatt’s monotone radiated from thousands of South Florida clock radios tuned to WLRN-FM (91.3), repeating a condensed version of the local news. Twice an hour between 6 and 10 a.m. (during Morning Edition), she would read to public-radio fans stuck in rush-hour traffic…
Newspapers around the country played the New Year’s Eve suicides of Morris and Estelle Spivack as a dramatic spectacle. Almost every headline about the Hollywood couple, for example, contained the word “leap.” The Chicago Tribune printed this atop its brief January 3 story: “Ailing couple leaps 17 floors to death.”…
Why didn’t they whack ‘im? Thank you for Bob Norman’s on-target and hilarious January 9 column about Rick Sanchez (“Wake Up and Smile”). The few times I’ve seen Sanchez, I couldn’t believe that MSNBC picked this guy as a morning anchor and then didn’t fire him. He is so obnoxious…
At the head of a 20-foot table, the squat silver urn looks as if it should be under glass. It has been so meticulously polished that not a spot of tarnish can be found among the ornate ribbons and miniature flowers decorating its edges. A water spout emerging from its…
For more than a year, residents of NE 26th Place in Coral Ridge, a pricey street on the Intracoastal Waterway south of Oakland Park Boulevard, enjoyed an unobstructed view of the water. Then on a clear day in October, they looked out their windows, past their BMW convertibles, Cadillac Escalades,…
This guy did it… so let him vote! I want to thank Wyatt Olson for the informative article that appeared in the December 26 New Times (“Barred for Life”). I am one of those people who was under the impression that once I served my time for my crimes, I…
Wake Up and Smile! That’s the name of the imaginary early-morning news show in one of the funniest Saturday Night Live skits ever. Former cast members Will Ferrell and Nancy Walls play anchors who are full of cheer until, “Good God no!” their teleprompter breaks. After Ferrell repeats the last…
Heatseekers drummer Chuck Loose pounds away at Churchill’s Hideaway in Miami on this Saturday night. Lurching into the beat, he threatens to bounce over his kit every time he hits the crash cymbal. Loose’s crazed energy washes over his bandmates and into the mishmash of punk kids and jaded scenesters…
A year ago, shortly after Thanksgiving, readers of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel were treated to a photograph of the merry and hopeful faces of Anthony and Charmaine Nelson and their four children. Anthony, in a bright white T-shirt, smiled broadly and revealed his missing eye tooth. Two-year-old Immanuel squirmed in…
