MEMORANDUM March 7, 2002 To: Michael Satz, Kathy Rundle, South Florida prosecutors, police officers From: CES Re: Misplaced priorities It has come to my attention recently that you law-enforcement types have lost respect for a little something called the truth. No, this isn’t 9/11-related. Cops have been hassling reporters and…
…makes Sherri look good: Do Chuck Strouse’s knuckles scrape the ground when he walks? Just wondering. Because the last Undercurrents penned by him (February 14) about the janitor named “Mike” is such a low, juvenile attempt at journalism that I can only imagine Strouse is a slack-jawed, gap-toothed, suspendered hillbilly…
It’s hard to operate a steering wheel when your hands don’t work, but years of practice let John Garon turn his ten-year-old white Ford van by shoving on an attached knob. He presses on an array of levers to work the gas, brakes, and signals as he slowly circles Tri-County…
The brothers Cosinero Cux have to make a tough decision. Deadline: today. The options: Scrape together $1800 to pay off a Miami shipping company. Hope the state steps in. Pray for last-minute divine intervention. Or say good-bye to 90 pairs of cowboy boots, 210 women’s blouses, 102 pairs of men’s…
Tom Johnston is a big man who, but for his prominent, parted mane of white hair, looks like a middle-aged Orson Welles, just pre-Touch of Evil. Under the hair is a large, bald, moon face, often partially obscured by eyeglasses. On his six-foot-plus frame, he carries his round, prominent belly…
She’s not trying to put words in our mouths, but…: In her February 14 article belittling the journalistic ethics of the Broward Times (“Print and Politics”), Ashley Fantz exposed some shortcomings of her own. Interviewing me, she repeatedly had occasion to say, “I’m not trying to put words in your…
Rosa is crying.She is wearing a stretchy, blue-striped T-top, a stretchy skirt with blue stripes colliding in clashing patterns, and a wide, stretchy red headband. The jumble of stripes and the headband looked jaunty on the pretty 19-year-old when she answered the door on a late January afternoon, but now…
A tiny clump of mascara has gathered in the corner of Kara Lucas’s eye. She blinks once, then again, her gaze fixed. The browned skin of her oval face shines with sweat. Her fists are raised, turning the red punching bag into a snare drum. Lips pursed in concentration, she…
History relived, not relieved: I want to thank you for Jeff Stratton’s excellent article, “A House Surrounded” (February 7). The history of Fort Lauderdale has been decimated by the developers who come and leave our county with barrels full of money. Our historical buildings and houses are all but gone…
The second wave of worshipers pushes through the heavy doors of Mount Hermon Church. The echo of an organ’s final note follows them out into the muggy sun and onto NW Seventh Terrace this morning before Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday. Charles Wilkenson, standing next to his green truck across…
David Pecker’s had a rough time of it since last October, when an anthrax-laden envelope arrived in the offices of his Boca Raton tabloid empire, American Media Inc. He’s seen one senior employee die of the disease, several become infected, and many more panic. He’s absorbed an estimated $10 million…
Broward County School Board Chairperson Bob Parks, head man at the nation’s fifth-largest district, last week offered a novel solution to the old problem of classroom slovenliness: hire a private firm to train janitors. It’s not union busting, says Parks. Just a way to make the schools work better. Right…
Ready for reportage: Why is it always a fear of something? Why not title Jeff Stratton’s January 24 Bandwidth column “Disgust of a Black Chili Pepper?” Stratton is the one afraid to tell the truth. I suppose he worries about job security in times like these. Let me enlighten you…
Hidden at the center of downtown Fort Lauderdale at 335 SE Sixth Ave. sits the Stranahan House, a green-and-white, two-story, wooden rectangle on the north shore of the New River with massive wrap-around porches ringing both floors. At 101 years old, the oldest residence in Broward County has survived hurricanes,…
Four self-propelled harvesters clank their way through a sugar-cane field at the south edge of the tiny hamlet of Pahokee. The 20-acre stand abuts a finely coifed yard and tidy ranch-style house to the north. To the east lies State Highway 715; narrow canals and miles of cane border the…
Every time James “J.W.” Long hears his phone ring, he gets a little pang in his gut. He knows it might be a threat from one of his former investors. The calls have gotten so bad that he ends the greeting on his home answering machine with a taunt to…
WorldWide response: Bob Norman’s January 24 column on “Betty” the whistleblower and her accusations against WorldWide Security ignored most of my comments to your reporter and leaves a distorted picture of the situation. Allow me to reiterate the key points that your reporter conveniently omitted. The article omits my statements…
Turkey vultures are big: more than two feet long, with a wingspan of up to six feet. They need a lot of room — especially when they’re learning to fly. But the black-feathered bird with the bare red head that’s been at the Wildlife Care Center in Fort Lauderdale since…
‘Twas the day after Christmas in 1998 when John boarded the Robin’s Song at Fort Lauderdale’s storied Bahia Mar marina. The 51-year-old mate had plenty of experience in bagging big game fish, but he surely never expected what followed. After the boat left port, somebody hooked a wahoo. It was…
Spiritual bankruptcy abounds: I happened to stumble on Chuck Strouse’s column on the art debate in Hollywood (“Ax, Lies, & Audiotape,” January 17). I think it was the word dullards that caught my eye. Once again… a liberal never fails to show his true colors. Granted, the Easter Bunny and…
Bonnie Canino, the Women’s International Boxing Federation (WIBF) featherweight (126-pound) champion out of South Florida, flew to New Orleans in March 1997 to defend her title against a young Irish puncher named Dierdre Gogarty. This was at the beginning of a huge crest of popular interest in women’s pro boxing,…
You likely don’t know about the federal investigation of WorldWide Security Associates, which screens passengers at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport and 11 other airports across the country. The Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald published short, vague stories last month about a December 19 FBI raid of the WorldWide office in…
