The new ESPN documentary about Ricky Williams is an incredible, intimate look at the most interesting athlete in modern sports. The story behind story is almost as interesting.It was 2 a.m. when Sean Pamphilon’s phone rang in New York. The Fox Sports television producer picked up and heard a soft,…
In honor of 4/20, now “universally known as the annual date of celebration for those with pot smoking countercultural pride,” the Daily Beast has ranked the top 40 most toked-up cities across America. And it comes as only a mild surprise that our state capital, Tallahassee, scored second, bested only…
Video: Alu decides to go on the record in the Gardiner ex parte communication case. If the past is any indicator, Judge Ana Gardiner will likely get nasty in her defense of Judicial Qualification Commission charges that she was untruthful about her ex parte communication with a prosecutor during a murder trial. The question: Just how low…
We’re hearing reports now that the controversy involving West Palm Beach police officers and SunFest has been resolved… kind of.The Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association claims the city treats it unfairly and divulged plans last week that involved West Palm Beach police officers’ boycotting SunFest and other upcoming events. The…
As pundits go, Chuck Todd usually has two feet squarely on the ground; his analysis was on the mark throughout the 2008 presidential campaign. But I think he’s missing the boat with his take on Florida’s Senate race. His theory sounds persuasive. Republican nominee Marco Rubio and independent candidate Charlie…
In March, a political action committee for Sarah Palin twice [SEE NOTE BELOW] spent $7,321 to deice her private jet after it had landed at a Fort Lauderdale aiport, according to Federal Elections Commission reports cited in this Huffington Post article.Problem: There is no need to deice a plane in…
Well, it’s come full circle. After Scott Rothstein used his connections at various local charities to meet other high rollers who sometimes invested in his Ponzi scheme, he will be the subject of a talk at one of those charities, the Boys & Girls Club, tomorrow. Rothstein gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the club. The…
If you ever find yourself being interviewed for a job with Charlie Crist, don’t worry about such things as a crummy résumé or a pending criminal investigation. Just give an answer of “Hell, yes!” to the question of whether you’ll be loyal to the Crist political franchise.Judging by this fascinating…
It’s almost impossible to describe the sights and sounds of last Thursday’s Tax Day Tea Party without making it seem like it was a crowd of angry, government-hating, probably-racist religious nuts willing to exploit their children to convince people the federal government should stop spending any money at all (except…
Here’s what’s happening in South Florida this Monday morning:Make room for another lucrative South Florida industry overrun with fraudsters: the time-share telemarketing business. For all their character flaws, these guys are creative about giving gifts to their girlfriends, like the dude who tried to torch the beauty salon because his…
Robert Dow is doing “pretty darned good” today, and it’s not hard to see why: Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the unpopular teacher’s merit pay bill on Thursday, ending the threat of no-tenure-hires and pay scales based on students’ standardized test performances. So if Dow, president of the Palm Beach County…
Let’s go to the mailbag. First we’ll look at my exchange with Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler. Last week, I wrote that Seiler was aligned with campaign consultant and lobbyist Judy Stern. Then I wrote about Stern’s support for the police union in contract negotiations with Seiler’s city. Seiler should have known about…
Here’s a radical idea: Maybe it’s not so wise to build another condo high-rise in downtown Hollywood. We told you this morning about the uncertain future of the site where the HART structure was to rise, and then the ArtsPark Village, which was foreclosed last month.These were rotten deals that…
National media pundits try so hard to understand South Florida. Bless their hearts; they find the weird mix of hanging chads, Ponzi schemers, gator wrestlers, and condo flippers to be terribly confusing. And once in a while, they just flub completely.This morning on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show, the subject…
Hallandale Beach City Manager Mike Good gave a consultant agreement to a local real estate agent, Joe Kessel, worth up to $36,000. But a city ordinance indicates Good was forbidden to do so without first getting commission approval.A 2006 ordinance describes exactly what contracts and purchases the city manager can…
Three years after entrusting $30,000 to a nonprofit organization called Arlington Park Family, the City of Deerfield Beach has filed suit against that charity on grounds that it’s withholding financial records that would show how the charity spent the money.City Attorney Andy Maurodis, who has been threatening to sue for…
Despite the rain, the threat of intentionally misspelling infiltrators, other silly-but-hot conservative options within driving distance, and some intense taxpayer-funded security (what we like to call irony), hundreds of people showed up at yesterday’s Tea Party at the federal courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale. They brought signs and shared their…
The race between incumbent Congressman Ron Klein and challenger Allen West keeps narrowing, with the West campaign claiming to have raised nearly twice the amount of campaign money as Klein during the first quarter of 2010.West reports $838,449 in fundraising totals between January and the end of March, while Klein…
Joining a list of decidedly eccentric squawk radio hosts in South Florida — from both the right and left — including Joyce Kaufman, Dick Farrel, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Foley, and Randi Rhodes, Stormfront’s poster boy, Derek Black, is now hosting his own radio show on Lake Worth’s WPBR-AM (1340). Black’s…
It appears that nobody in Hollywood government has a clear idea of where the city stands in its efforts to improve a big piece of property at the heart of downtown.At the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Young Circle, two huge, bold condo projects have self-destructed. First was the…
