Deetjen Occasionally the Pulp busts some news. This is one of those times. I just received a copy of police reports concerning an argument at the Palm Beach County Airport last month. It involved Deerfield Beach City Manager Larry Deetjen and a black Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office parking cop. It,…
I don’t know what’s in the water (or the estrogen) around here, but in South Florida right now a handful of journalistas are lighting up the newspapers in the crime-writing department. From the Herald you have this generation’s grande dame of the genre, Wanda DeMarzo. She’s relentless, has the best…
In January, one piece of paper changed James McCalla’s life. A muscular, six-foot Haitian-American, the 26-year-old McCalla went out to get the mail at his suburban home in Pembroke Pines. He found an official letter from the federal courthouse in Davenport, Iowa. It was a civil judgment. “$11,200,000,000,” the document…
Ah, a busy gas station. The perfume of high-octane fuel in the air, the steady ding-ding-ding of the pumps, and the profane mutterings of motorists lined up at the curb. This is Tailpipe’s favorite hangout. There’s no spot more auto-addictive than the BP station at Oakland Park Boulevard and NW…
I hit Howl at the Moon on a Saturday night with my buddy Derek, who helped me overcome my customary aversion to dueling piano bars. But there was a good reason my usual resistance was down: We’d spent a couple of hours scouring downtown Hollywood for decent nightlife and had…
Punish Those Pantherites Why would a hockey fan cross the road? Thank you for writing this article (“Pimp My Arena,” Trevor Aaronson, May 4). Sunrise Sports & Entertainment is unreal. I attended about 20 of this season’s 41 home games and parked at Sawgrass for each one. I don’t understand…
And I’m back. That to me was the funniest thing that SNL guy who everyone is slowly forgetting about did on that show. What was his name? Jimmy Fallon. It was the bit where he played the morning DJ. The Osama-Saddam phone bit he did with the fat guy was…
Bob’s busy with an investigation, so I thought I’d fill in with a celebration of the Sun-Sentinel’s stalwart Help Team this morning. We’ve all no doubt noticed the big marketing push for the Sentinel’s new creation, which debuted a few weeks ago. Taking a page from the San Francisco Chronicle,…
Brooke Skye was a little nervous about going on the Bubba the Love Sponge show on Sirius radio. On the cusp of her 20th birthday, Skye has been in porn for a little more than a year; so far, it’s been pretty much soft-core stuff, diddling and groping herself and…
Mayor Mara Giulianti and the City of Hollywood recently went on trial for their attempt to “eminent domain” a Harrison Street beauty shop owned by the Mach family. Their idea is, of course, to clear the way for yet another gleaming, expensive condominium tower near Young Circle. Broward Circuit Judge…
With the potheads celebrating “Four-Twenty,” I used April 20 to hit a joint of a different sort: Absinthe, a new “brasserie and lounge” in Boca Center. The venue’s name, of course, refers to another mind-altering green substance — one that had its heyday in 19th-century France when artsy types addled…
The Waldman Disguise Time for the tell-all, Jim: You have pinpointed things here that should give a lot of people pause (“If Waldman’s a Dem, What’s With the GOP Cash?” Bob Norman, March 30). Lots of explanations are needed from this man before any real Democrat shells out money to…
Note: An earlier version of this story attributed some quotes to Melania Knauss-Trump, Donald Trump’s wife, at an April 14 marketing event for Trump International Hotel & Tower. This woman was actually Senada Adzem, vice president of marketing for Bayrock Group, the developer building the hotel. Melania Knauss-Trump was not…
Sorry for the lack of action yesterday, but the NT corporate attorney pulled a post from the blog after my editor sent it to him. It wasted my time and the lawyer was dead wrong, but hey, that’s the newspaper business for you. It was a reminder to me that…
Slow day at the Pulp, so I thought I’d unleash a dose of Malcolm English on you. I don’t know who Malcolm English is, but I suspect that (s)he is a Sun-Sentinel writer. It’s certain that (s)he has a major grudge against the Palm Beach Post. But that’s what I…
The big investigation among this week’s Big Three newspapers was the Palm Beach Post’s look at abuse of the federal government’s food stamp program after Wilma. Good work by Kathleen Chapman, but I don’t know about the headline “Real need or unchecked greed?” Anybody who would wait in ridiculous lines…
I have to thank the Sun-Sentinel this morning for finally allowing me to achieve my lifelong dream of winning $25 from the Columbia Journalism Review. The money is for that back-page thing, “Lower Case,” where they run headline gaffes. And mine came from the Sentinel. Okay, I haven’t actually received…
Okay, I’ve made the phone calls and done the research. Yes, I’ve reported the Miami Herald’s hiring of public relations guru Bruce Rubin, who helped the newspaper form its “media strategy” after the Jim DeFede firing. So brace yourself; you’re getting 100-proof, straight-to-the-gut, first-rate-newspaper grade information here. First off, it’s…
I never was much afraid of lightning until I moved to Florida and experienced my first couple of afternoon summer thunderstorms (which seem more intense on the Gulf Coast for some reason). Now I really don’t like to be outside when the sky is rumbling. Why? Kevin Deutsch of the…
Buddy Nevins illustrates his aversion to solid reporting today in the Sentinel with this pathetic newslet on North Broward Hospital District heart surgeon Michael Chizner. He calls Chizner a “star heart doctor” and lets Wayne “I Want To Suck Your Blood” Huizenga and other hacks spew forth on the Sentinel…
Sun-Sentinel movie reviewer Phoebe Flowers unleashed some serious pent-up emotions about her former bosses at the Miami Herald in her blog yesterday. It involved the death of Boyd Ogle, a long-time English and journalism teacher at Stranahan High and father of Miami Herald book editor and movie critic Connie Ogle…
Along the edges of the Florida East Coast railroad, which slices through the center of Lake Worth, dwell the poorest of the poor. Spanish-mission bungalows peel and fade in the sun, and motor oil stains the sidewalks of the auto body shops and old warehouses. Gravel streets turn to dirt…
