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Salvation comes with an awakening. And usually when you least expect it. This was certainly true for Neil, the All-American boy from Jacksonville who found himself at Gumwrappers on a Tuesday night. A lonely out-of-towner in South Florida on a condo remodeling job, he’d come to the Fort Lauderdale joint…

Long Walk on a Short Pier Can you just, uh, goose him a little? Great investigative reporting. I would imagine Mayor Quack feels you have given him an industrial-strength enema (“Mayor Al Quacks Up,” Bob Norman, July 20). Now give him some high-colonic therapy and maybe he will resign. David…

Hazelton, Pennsylvania, made news this month for being one of the country’s toughest little towns on illegal immigration. The city of 23,000 passed an ordinance July 13 that denies licenses to companies that employ illegal immigrants and fines landlords who rent apartments to them. That should make a woman named…

The Miami Herald’s Gary Fineout reports that Sergio Pino, a fundraiser for Charlie Crist’s gubernatorial campaign, has stepped down from his post. It’s another example of a strong, expansive press in South Florida getting rid of a bad clam in public life. The trophy belongs on the wall of the…

Rep. Robert Wexler’s fake admission on the Colbert Report that he loves cocaine and hookers has apparently gotten a lot of attention on both Good Morning America and Today. On those shows, former journalist Jake Tapper and other light and chirpy TV personalities basically warned politicians not to appear on…

Don’t have much time this morning, but thought I’d toss a few good ones at you: — We must start with the Florida Atlanta University newspaper. It may have a ridiculously bland name (the University Press), but today’s on-line version is anything but that. Reporter Jason Parsley tells us that…

Miami Herald Investigations Editor Michael Sallah gives an interview to PRWeek (thanks Romenesko). It’s not exactly a stellar Q & A; in fact, it’s short and pretty lame, especially when Sallah — who is undoubtedly a great journalistic talent — gives a nod to “savvy PR pros” (which I suppose…

— I know this story from the Palm Beach Post’s Brian E. Crowley is old, but Robert Wexler is such a boob. Stephen Colbert’s interviews with congressional members are consistently the best part of the show and the Boca Democrat didn’t disappoint him. Hey, he’s a veteran politician. He knows…

So I got an e-mail from a friend a few days ago. The friend links the Pulp on his site and seems one of his visitors had a big problem with a recent post about the situation in Lebanon. The friend, who is Jewish, sent along the e-mail he received,…

Bad customer reviews are disappearing from the Amazon page for the book Miami Psychic like cursed benjamins at a fortune-teller’s shop. Several that revealed author Regina Milbourne’s true identity, Gina Marie Marks, have been axed (if you haven’t followed the Miami Psychic thing, click here to catch up). But a…

Got back from Boulder CO yesterday. Slept something like 20 hours (actually it was 16 over a 24-hour period), yet it had nothing to do with a hangover. A first for me. No, good clean family fun was had, including a ridiculously beautiful mountain hike at 13,000 feet and some…

Sensing that his message had been lost in the din of modernity, God decided it was time for a little self-promotion. Churches weren’t full, the flock was straying, people were slacking, sin was spreading like Miracle Whip, and he needed something to stem the tide. Something to get folks back…

Pompano Beach Commissioner Susan Foster didn’t know she was meeting with a former cocaine kingpin. She thought Sam Frontera, who was creating a nightclub near Foster’s Cresthaven neighborhood, was just another businessman. She had no idea he’d once flooded several North American cities with illicit drugs. But the commissioner did…

Last month, the Los Angeles Times had to write a big, fat correction because it screwed up a story about Florida law. La-La Land’s paper of record had printed an op-ed by a New York history professor, Jonathan Zimmerman, who squealed like a stuck pig over the language in a…

A Human Reaction Grief veered way past the extreme for Carlos: Thank you for your excellent article on Carlos Arredondo (“Matchhead,” Sam Eifling, July 13). He is a man in extreme grief trying to cope with the loss of his precious son in this illegal war. I thought your article…

The Girls Gone Wild tour bus had pulled up to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, and inside Legends Theater, the video outfit had installed a small battalion of cameramen, a bald-headed host, and an old-school ploy to get women to expose themselves. “Who was the genius who first…

Looks like some reporters and photographers will soon be hit up with an unexpected phone bill from the Tribune Company — and then fired if they don’t get in line. Below is a memo sent out by the newspaper’s controller, Darren Beevor, to all staffers with company-issued cell phones and/or…

Okay, so I told you I was going to be on Steve Kane Show this morning and you still managed to miss it. I forgive you. Instead of giving a play-by-play, the transcript is as follows. Do with it what you will. I have nothing to hide. On the show,…

Just when I get through, they drag me back in. It looks like I’m going to be on the Steve Kane Show tomorrow morning. It should be interesting. Big Steve has taken umbrage with this post of mine. And apparently there’s going to be some corporo-politico teacher of “people skills”…

— The Sun-Sentinel’s Gregory Lewis had some strong stories over the weekend, starting with a look at some of the real issues involved in the fight over the mosque in Pompano Beach. It’s not all religious bigotry, ala O’Neal Dozier, it also involves economic issues, namely Arabic ownership of convenience…

The most thankless tasks for any reporter, next to covering weekend festivals featuring various vegetables, is localizing. You take a national or international story and go out to find a local angle or, worse, just run to the mall and get people to talk about it. The worth of those…