He’s a heckuva nice and responsible guy: This letter is in reply to Bob Norman’s September 5 article on former state Sen. John Grant, “Lapsed Ethics.” First, I am a liberal Democrat in Broward County. Second, I have never met or spoken with Sen. Grant, or any of his staff…
The cop in the white polo shirt and black dress pants halted suddenly and took a step back, apparently shocked to see a white guy in the crowd. The officer leaned awkwardly on a banister just out of earshot. “You see that? The only reason he didn’t come over and…
I shouldn’t be talking to you,” came a voice from the shadows. “Anybody figures out who I am and I’ll be in a world of shit. But frankly, I’m pissed off. I put in a ton of work on this stuff, and I’ve got nothing to show for it.” We…
When Gov. Jeb Bush took office in 1999, he promised to clean up our singularly seedy state with tougher anticorruption laws. The new administration created a special task force that made recommendations in early 2000 to free up the Florida Commission on Ethics to investigate politicians of its own volition…
Call your governor, then, Steve-o: Thank you for Bob Norman’s August 29 article, “De Regier.” Now more than ever, every voice needs to speak out against this kind of lunacy before it is too late. Steve Gonzales Fort Lauderdale Suuuuppperrr Bob! Just wanted to say that I love to read…
Religious fanatics are threatening to take away our peace and our freedom. They hate our open society and want to send us back to the Stone Age, where we’d be forced to live strictly by the rules of an outdated religious text. Even as I write this, they are planning…
They meet at a modest Unitarian church tucked away on a Fort Lauderdale side street. Their conversation sounds like that of any PTA committee or female support group. Ladies’ laughter and gossip flood the tiny lobby, and the aromas of a potluck supper beckon in an adjacent meeting room. You…
Shine on: I love reading features in New Times and other alternative newspapers, and I found Eric Alan Barton’s August 15 story, “So Long, Skid Row,” particularly interesting. I would like to know if y’all think that shining a light on social issues has helped alleviate the problems that you…
On a steamy Manhattan day in August 1977, a 36-year-old business wunderkind arrived at the liquidation auction of Robert Hall clothing stores defiantly mod in his lemon-yellow suit and open-necked, black shirt. At his side was a bodyguard whose wrist was chained to a briefcase. As onlookers gawked, Steven West…
This is a story about people who drive hundreds of miles in blazing heat to walk along dirt roads ragged with wildflowers and weeds, who swat helplessly at the hordes of bloodthirsty mosquitoes, who completely upturn their lives, their lawns, the interiors of their homes, who even change their paths…
One year ago this month, Florida House of Representatives minority leader Lois Frankel, a Democrat from West Palm Beach, announced her bid for governor. An outspoken and respected seven-term liberal lawmaker who gained fame for blasting the Bushes during the 2000 election, she told New Times last year (see “Long…
Frank Lee Smith died in prison two and a half years ago, wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl. He never found justice in courtrooms. But now, in the name of justice, Smith lives on in them. During just the past two weeks, Smith’s name has been invoked…
Let’s get together and feel all right: I found Bob Norman’s August 1 article, “The War Within,” very interesting. The Muslim fundamentalists are in the majority in backward Arabic countries. I spent two years listening to the ranting in mosques in Cairo, and before then in Qatar. You didn’t need…
The dozen shoes that protrude from beneath Clarence Kelley’s bed are neatly lined up, like cars at a dealership. First there are the patent-leather ones that cover his ankles, then the gray, plastic loafers with chrome buckles, then the aging blue sneakers with yellow stripes, and so on. Across the…
Kristi Posvar swings her hips through a tight space in an overstuffed warehouse before spotting a planter the color of overcooked peas. “Oh my God, there it is. I was afraid they sold it,” she says, sliding her fingertips along the crackled paint finish. “This is one of the last…
Never mind that Frank Lee Smith had done the time for his past crimes. Forget that he had lived three quiet, arrest-free years outside of prison before Broward County sheriff’s Det. Richard Scheff swept him up in a faulty investigative dragnet and charged him with the rape and murder of…
Bob tars Mahdi with the “F-word”: Labels are easily tossed off but often hard to substantiate. They depend far more on assumed shared emotional perceptions than on facts and reasoning. What makes one a “fundamentalist?” In the August 1 article, “The War Within,” Bob Norman adduces, as evidence of Rafiq…
A handful of cars dots the fast-food joints along University Drive in northern Davie — so few it’s almost not worth the eateries’ while staying open late this oppressively muggy Saturday night in July. Miami Subs, on the other hand, is bustling. Just a quarter-mile from the I-595 ramps, it…
Seated in a stuffed leather chair in her posh Tallahassee office, Dr. Flo Ridda flips open her notebook. She’s filled with a mix of nervousness and excitement. Kathleen Kearney, the patient reclined beside her, presents a once-in-a-career challenge. Rarely does a psychiatrist have the chance to treat multiple personality disorder…
When Pompano Beach Mayor Bill Griffin decided last November that he wanted a bigger job, he went to Bill Keith. The mayor couldn’t have picked a better-connected fellow for employment assistance, especially in Griffin’s field of construction. Keith’s engineering firm, after all, is aligned with numerous major developers and builders…
Please don’t shake the booty: Is Ashley Fantz kidding us? I believe the quote from her July 25 story,”Caged Swelter,” was: “We are real dancers. We put on a real show. Anyone who sees us knows that.” I’ve seen these girls perform. I may be an out-of-towner, but I didn’t…
Shafayat Mohamed has a dream. He dreams that one day, little Muslim boys and girls will join hands with Christian and Jewish boys and girls around the world and walk together as sisters and brothers. He really does. The mosque leader dreams that Palestinians and other predominantly poor and uneducated…
