Broward School Board’s Race To Spend Tax Dollars

Let’s go back to late 2004. School populations were declining — but that didn’t keep school board members from jockeying for as many construction projects in their district as possible. It was like a $66 million competition, financed by the clueless taxpayers. That figure doesn’t include new schools, just classroom additions,…

My Brother’s Keeper: Second Suspect Caught in Taco Bell Murder

After 20-year-old Karari Ritchie was arrested Tuesday in the homicide case of a Taco Bell manager, Broward Sheriff’s detectives say he told them about a partner from Miami — but that was a red herring. Detectives believe he was trying to protect his older brother, Tesfaye Ritchie, but they say…

Whitney Residents Still Frustrated Over Chinese Drywall

Residents at the Whitney in downtown West Palm Beach aren’t particularly happy to know that they’re living in one of the only condo buildings in Florida to have a suspected problem with Chinese drywall, at least so far. Especially since that’s about the sum total of what they’ve learned since…

For Cub Reporter, No Love From the Home Crowd

It’s a pity that not all commenters are as classy as those here at Juice. I’m reminded of this disparity after looking hopefully toward the comments field in this NBC6 Miami report about Damon Weaver, the 11-year-old African American boy from poverty-ravaged Pahokee who just might be the youngest person…

A Pawn in a Rich Couple’s Game

Is that your engagement ring? Yeah, whatever, Cinderella. Patricia Dash of Palm Beach Gardens is looking for its actual owner after finding the ring at the Palm Beach Grill a few weeks ago, and she took her search to WPBF instead of pawning it. I suppose that’s the nice thing…

Chase Discovers That South Florida is Sunny

The long-awaited computer conversion that allows South Florida Chase and Washington Mutual customers to become one happy family — and not rely on snail-mail to make deposits — has finally occurred. Former WaMu branches all over Delray Beach and Boca Raton have been hoisting that familiar blue octagon logo over…

Health Care Demonstrators in Boca Eerily Calm

Yesterday in Boca Raton, demonstrating for health care reform. Now there’s a thought! Also, interesting strategy not to mob a town hall meeting and chant about how we should deprive immigrants of health care.  Now compare that political participation with the style that health care opponents practiced this week in…

Internal Memo: Ethics Rule Is a “Joke”

Shortly after health care consultant Joseph Cobo was appointed by the governor to the board of the North Broward Hospital District in September 2007, the new commissioner allegedly approached the district’s general counsel with a bold request. Laura Seidman alleges that Cobo told her “that he and ‘some other commissioners’…

Larry Deetjen Puppet Show a Hit in Oak Lawn

Yes, that Larry Deetjen — the former Deerfield Beach city manager who was practically joined at the hip with mayor-turned-felony-suspect Al Capellini. Despite rumors that Deetjen would be swooping back around to take his old job back from Mike Mahaney — Mayor Peggy Noland doesn’t like the way Mahaney parks…

Alan Levine Speaks About North Broward Hospital District Ethics Probe

My colleague Thomas Francis has a great post on the rather dubious public-private relationship that North Broward Hospital District Commissioner Rebecca Stoll has with the Museum of Science and Discovery in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Levine ​ ​ ​You have to read Francis’ post linked above to get the details. Basically, he writes about…

Another South Florida College Footballer Sidelined by Legal Trouble

Kevin Bryant, a hulking offensive lineman who played for Anderson High School in Hollywood, has been kicked off the University of North Carolina football team following misdemeanor charges of assaulting a woman in Durham County, according to the News-Observer.Standing 6-foot-7 and weighting 350 pounds, Bryant was named by national recruiting…

Les Paul Early Jam

Les Paul knew what he had right when he invented it. Listen to this brief history of the man and then one of the first televised jams on the electric guitar of all time (with Mary Ford). Eddie Van Halen might have copied some of Paul’s moves right off the tape.  …

Ethics Allegations Surface for Two More Broward Hospital Commissioners

Shortly before Laura Seidman was pressured to resign as general counsel of Broward County’s public hospital district last year, she expressed concerns that three of the district’s commissioners were “using their public offices and powers improperly and for their own purposes.” She named Commissioners Rebecca Stoll and Maureen Jaeger, both…

Chiari Files Ethics Complaint Against Evan Jenne

According to state Rep. Evan Jenne’s financial disclosure forms, he made $60,000 in 2008 from a company that didn’t exist. Jenne created the company, Blue Banyan LLC, with the help of Scott Rothstein’s law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt & Adler, the same outfit that hired Jenne’s father, former Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne, when the elder man…

The Post‘s Cute and Slobbery Mascot

He’s got Wilford Brimley’s jowls, a roly-poly stomach, worried eyes, and a slight snarl that could be mistaken for an under-bite. Meet the Palm Beach Post’s latest mascot, a bulldog that appeared in a full-page ad in Tuesday’s paper above the headline: “The Palm Beach Post, Your Community Watchdog.”The pooch’s…

America’s Next Top Model a Plantation Belle

“Cycle 13” of America’s Next Top Model is revving up for a new season, and it looks like we have a hometown kid in the running: “Courtney,” age 22 (or is that her waist size?), hails from Plantation (although she now lives in Fort Lauderdale), looks cute as a button…