“Hello, Fort Lauderdale police department, I’d like to report a theft…. Yeah, someone stole some property of ours valued at $175…. ” “It was stolen from 1300 W. Broward, you know, the police department…. ” “No I’m not kidding. It’s a news rack, the kind that holds free newspapers. It…
With blinds drawn because she’s recovering from cataract surgery, Doris Altier sits in her Hallandale condo on the Intracoastal and recalls her career as a jazz singer and bass player. During the ’50s, she worked the East Coast nightclub circuit, dating bandleaders and movie stars along the way. Her walls…
Dora Garcia grimaces when she describes as “como muerte,” like death, the nearly nine months she spent in a jail cell. The Mexican immigrant then says the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) stashed her in a narrow, dingy cell she often shared with the drug abusers, prostitutes, and other street…
Passing the Buck for Preservation I found Margery Gordon’s article, “A Natural Alliance” (March 25), a most heartening report on new directions being taken toward cooperation between conservationists and ranchers. Their work will surely help preserve the habitat for many endangered and threatened species while stemming the tidal wave of…
If This Keeps Up, the Dolphins Will Be Endangered Regarding Paul Demko’s article (“Out of the Closet and Into Battle,” March 25), I have additional information in which your readers may be interested. Mr. Ken Wolf contacted me and requested an endorsement for nomination to the vacant seat on the…
With a mentholated cough drop in his mouth, Frank Veltri sits at his old kitchen table in his old house in old Plantation. Beside him, on a table full of files and city papers, are five or six tightly twisted wrappers, the vestiges of the lozenges he’s already consumed. Veltri’s…
“Yo vle antere nou.” The voice is tired, the face lined, forlorn. The speaker, a rail-thin, middle-aged Haitian man, leans forward in his chair, raises both hands in front of his face, throws them down. His story is over. There is nothing left to say. Except this, again: “Yo vle…
Because the words consumer protection are virtually unknown in South Florida, Undercurrents finds it necessary to call attention to a particularly heinous example of legal usury. In this month of taxing bill problems, it becomes imperative. Because we get turned away from car dealerships that advertise “bad credit OK,” our…
Earlier this year, not long before a Broward County judge paved the way for Jim Stephanis’ enrichment, Linda Kristeff, his sweetheart of 11 years, packed her bags and called it quits on their relationship. “I can’t stand being poor anymore,” Stephanis recalls her saying before she cleared out of their…
A rustle in the brush and the faint flap of wings send Jeff Palmer’s finger to the trigger. As his prey perches on a fallen tree trunk and begins to case the bait, Palmer fires a few shots through a gash in the green netting stretched across his camouflaged shack…
Ken Wolf expected opposition in his run for the Fort Lauderdale City Commission seat recently vacated by John Aurelius. As an openly gay candidate, Wolf eyed warily the candidacy of Barbara Collier, head of the local Christian Coalition chapter. In a nasty 1994 race against Cary Keno for the city…
When the pressure of family life, and by family we mean the Mafia, gets too heavy, where is a harried Mob boss to go? Well if that person is in the Soprano crime family, it would be… Fort Lauderdale. The best program on TV right now is HBO’s The Sopranos,…
When President Clinton’s motorcade glided through the gates of Willie Gary’s 50-room mansion in Stuart for a $2500-a-plate Democratic National Committee fundraiser last week, it was the latest triumph in the rags-to-riches story of Martin County’s black superlawyer. At the dinner Clinton hailed Gary’s success as “an enduring testament to…
Best Unbiased Plug I enjoyed your “Best Of” issue (March 11), despite its blatant (and understandable) Broward County bias. However, there is one category in the readers’ poll where the voters made a serious error, probably due to their ignorance of the proper role of raw eggs and anchovies in…
The two men stand in front of the Broward County Addiction Recovery Center on an unseasonably hot morning in early February, smoking and joking about the dangers of clap. One is tall, skinny, and talkative, dressed in a sweat jacket, a black man with huge eyes set in a gaunt…
Chris Murch has a Bud in his hand and a gleam in his eye. He’s fired up about the thought of killing “Mama Melaleuca,” the enormous tree in Davie thought to be the progenitor of the melaleuca plague. “I could take it out in ten minutes,” says Murch. “By myself…
The defense attorney wants to put the young man in a mental institution. The prosecutor wants to put him in prison for life. The court is trying to determine if he’s mentally competent to stand trial. Psychologists are delving into his mind, trying to figure out what triggered his murderous…
Teens who like punk rock have a power base of about nothing. Therefore, when their interests go up against strip mall landlords and insurance companies, their chances of coming out on top are nil. This could lead to a nihilistic approach to life or a punk philosophy of “Hey, who…
Coming From You, Adam, That Means Something On behalf of Wild Oats Community Market, I would like to thank you for naming us “Best Health Food Store” in your recent “Best of Broward and Palm Beach” issue (March 11). We are humbled by the honor and take it as a…
Attorney Mark Boyd got the call late on a Monday night a little more than a year ago. The pained voice on the other end of the line delivered distressing news. “Mark, I think I’m being blackmailed,” said Michael Creedon. “They’re asking for three hundred grand.” According to court documents,…
“It’s a party,” the invitation from the Broward County Human Services Department read. “Please come to celebrate the closing of Tent City and honor those who made it happen! Two free drinks and buffet!” How charitable! About 25 county employees, including a representative of Broward County Commission chairwoman Ilene Lieberman,…
The founder of the Circle of Sharks spoke of suicide. “I’m not going to prison,” Rusty Feder said to me as he sat in the North Broward Detention Center behind a thick pane of jailhouse glass. “I’ll die before that happens.” His lawyer was working on a plea, but Feder…
