Economic Issues

Marco Rubio Voted No on Fiscal Cliff Bill

On the first ay of the brand new year, the House voted 257-167 to approve the Senate bill that would avoid major tax hikes and spending cuts and keep us all from falling over the so-called "fiscal cliff," which would've been a terrible way to start 2013. The GOPers wanted to amend the Senate's bill ... More >>

Broward Women Make 78 Cents to Every Dollar A Man Makes. Utah Is Worst in Nation.

When the subject of equal pay for women was broached during the second presidential debate, President Obama touted his support for the Lilly Ledbetter bill while Mitt Romney bragged about binders full of women and stressed how important it is for working moms to be home in time to cook dinner.  ... More >>

Florida's Anti-Cuban Trade Law Is an Insult to Capitalism

Odebrecht, the giant Brazilian company that has a $225 million contract to help build the new runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, is suing the state over a histrionic law that Rick Scott signed last month in Miami, banning state and local governments from doing major business ... More >>

West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale Make Cut of Most Overpriced City

​If you need affirmation that West Palm Beach is too rich rich for your blood, Forbes has you covered. Using a semiscientific method that accounted for things like housing affordability, the cost-of-living index, and median salaries for college grads, the magazine produced a list of ... More >>

In Defense of Bankers: Why Occupy Protesters Shouldn't Target Those Who Cash Our Checks

​One banker, we'll call him Steve, was walking out of the corporate office in Orlando recently when a protester got in his face. There were three or four Occupy protesters who spotted Steve with a couple other people wearing suits. The protesters figured they had found one percenters. "You're resp ... More >>

GOP Intentionally Sabotaging Economy to Boot Obama? Only 39 Percent of Floridians Say No

wildmanhangout.com​Old news: Floridians think Gov. Rick Scott sucks. New news: Nearly half of Florida thinks Republicans are intentionally sabotaging the economy to prevent the reelection of President Obama.It's not just those damned liberals either -- 24 percent of Republicans agree, according to ... More >>

With Prison Privatization Plan on Hold, GEO Group Website Still Vying for Contract

​Poor GEO Group. The Boca Raton-based private prison operator, former known as Wackenhut Corrections, had planned to invest $3 million in its quest to win a contract to run most of the prisons in the southern part of Florida. But two weeks ago, a circuit court judge struck down the state Legi ... More >>

A Tour of Gov. Rick Scott's Dirtiest Deeds

Deerfield Beach Commission Candidate Accused of Having Shady Past Using Public Funds

churchofbrotherlylove.orgAnthony Davis (left) and his wife Margaret Davis​The city of Deerfield Beach is holding a special election on July 19 to replace former District 2 Commissioner Sylvia Poitier -- who's facing five misdemeanor counts of falsifying public documents -- and out of the four qual ... More >>

Broward County Passes Model Ordinance to Regulate "Pill Mills" That Don't Actually Exist

neglectedwar.comA pain management clinic, which doesn't exist in unincorporated Broward County​The Broward County Commission unanimously passed a new zoning and regulatory ordinance yesterday for pain management clinics in unincorporated areas of the county.This new ordinance requires all of the s ... More >>

Florida Public School Teachers' Salaries Among Lowest In The Nation

​Yesterday the Sun-Sentinel ran a story about how some painters and grass cutters who work for the Broward County School District make more money than highly educated teachers with decades of experience. Well, it may get worse. The Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy released its State o ... More >>

Mexican Macro-Economics

Do undocumented migrants steal jobs from American workers?

Amendment 4? What's That? Citizen Campaign Struggles to Get the Facts Out

Can they flip the debate?​Amendment 4 to the Florida Comprehensive Land Use Plans (Still reading? Congratulations!) is fairly simple: It would require that any changes to local land-use plans, such as those requested by developers, be put before voters before approval. Unfortunately, that informat ... More >>

"That's Commissioner Chaz"

God help us, Chaz Stevens has been appointed to the board of the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority. Not even a very loud "No!" from Commissioner Marty Popelsky (at 1:20 in the video above) could stop Stevens' rise to power.Of course, the activist blogger (he prefers "genius") played a crucial role i ... More >>

Report: Deerfield Beach Moves to Secure Computers Used by Officials Named in Investigation

A day after a forensic auditor told the Deerfield Beach Commission he'd found evidence of favoritism and fraud by officials in the city's Community Development Division, the city has asked the Broward Sheriff's Office to take custody of computers that belonged to two officials named in the audit rep ... More >>

Boca Blogger Rips Into Palm Beach Trousers

​We've been getting weekly updates from Boca Raton blogger Robert Feeley for some time now: Feeley's news parody, SPN (for StuPidassNews), is at least as ripe as The Onion, only it's completely homegrown. In SPN-land, Boca is "Beaver Falls," and Feeley's august news outlet is "The Only News Sourc ... More >>

Hollywood's New CRA Director a Political Outsider

The city of Hollywood has named a former Orlando official to lead its Community Redevelopment Agency. Tanja Gerhartz previously worked as the economic development director in Orlando. More recently, she had her own private consulting firm. If that means she's new to the South Florida political scene ... More >>

President Obama Fails to Go After Those Responsible for Financial Meltdown

With Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore Sells the Same Old Shtick

No Recession on Clematis: Downtown WPB Gets Areperia, Pizza Joint

Photo by Flickr user ulterior epicureArepas, hopefully as pretty as these, will headline a new joint on Clematis.​Recession, you say? Apparently not on Clematis Street, where despite a dining economy that has many restaurateurs contemplating an easier line of work, like shipping out on a tramp ste ... More >>

Broward May Throw Bone to Private Sector

broward.org/animalRomeo: An orphaned mutt leery of the private sectorOne year ago, a study by a national consulting firm found that Broward County's Animal Care and Regulation Department was woefully short-staffed, making it impossible to guarantee service required by law for control of the local pe ... More >>

Ease Recession Depression With the Jove

Letters From the Issue of April 23, 2009

Abrams: Time To Give Readers "Recession 101"

On the day the company declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Tribune's Chief Innovation Officer, Lee Abrams, issues a "think piece" to staff in which he says Tribune newspapers must "own" the recession: THE RECESSION: Discussion on we should position our papers and TV as the vehicles that helps peo ... More >>

Bust Your Gut

And the recession will follow.

Bailout Is Vile But Necessary

Last Man Standing?

For restaurants in a recession, it's survival of the fittest

Lappé says, "No Food Shortage"

Naked Negotiation in Riviera Beach

How a Riviera Beach official allegedly does business in a very warm climate

Confirmed: Worst President Ever

America's Economy Is A Sinking Cesspool

They'll Take Your Houses

South Florida's real estate forecast calls for pain

Hillary Clinton: Retro-Candidate

River of Greed

The plan includes playing footsie with a controversial land baron and paving over a piece of the Everglades

Letters for August 17-23, 2006

Frame It!

The Continental

Europimp Tonino Carotone believes Another World Is Possible.

Urban Removal

It's the same old story, critics say: displacing blacks to make way for whites

Letters for March 3-9, 2005

A Run on the Bank

Attack of the Activists

Best Sign that Good Help Is Hard to Find

Guardian Pools

The Last Governor

A House Surrounded

As the city spars with deep-pocketed developers, will a vertical horizon obscure the historic Stranahan House?

Almost Perfect

The rise and fall of Perfection, South Florida's biggest and boldest New Urbanist community

Annexation Vexation

The plan to bring Broward County's poor areas into the fold is full of holes

Undercurrents

To Hyde Park Market They Merrily Go

If the Suit Fits, File It

A federal case in which Alan Adaschik, mild-mannered bureaucrat, sues the entire U.S. government over the WTO

Burning Down the House

After the closing of an apartment building for AIDS victims in Fort Lauderdale, the city's ability to oversee a multimillion-dollar, federally funded program is called into question

The People's Republic of Area A

A group of neighborhood leaders prepares to declare independence and start Broward's first black-majority city

Going Postal

The county's decision to spend big bucks on a shiny new federal post office has advocates of the poor hopping mad