Florida Office of the Attorney General

Nevin Shapiro Hired by the NCAA? One NCAA Investigator Thought It Was A Good Idea

Ameen Najjar, the guy whom the NCAA hired as their director of enforcement, wrote a letter on behalf of convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro days before he was sentenced in 2011, suggesting that having Shapiro on the payroll would be swell. Whoops. See also: -Sen. Joe Abruzzo Asks Florida Attor ... More >>

University of Miami Scandal: Conference Memo Asks For NCAA to Replace Mark Emmert

NCAA President Mark Emmert is not having such a hot week. See also: -University of Miami Scandal: Sen. Joe Abruzzo Asks Florida Attorney General to Investigate the NCAA First, there was state senator Joe Abruzzo sending the attorney general a letter to investigate the NCAA's shenanigans in their U ... More >>

For-Profit Colleges Cheat Students and Get Away With It

For-Profit College Swindle: Sen. Tom Harkin Revisits Long-Standing Complaints

We weren't the only ones to post criticism of for-profit colleges this week (see the news item: "For-Profit Colleges Cheat Students and Get Away With It").U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin has released a scathing report that criticizes the for-profit education industry, echoing many complaints that surfaced in a ... More >>

Here's the PowerPoint That Made June Clarkson, Theresa Edwards, and "Robo-Signing" Infamous

This week's feature is on two investigators who were kicked out of the Attorney General's Office a year ago but keep trying to uncover foreclosure fraud however they can.In late 2010, robo-signing was just making it to the public consciousness, a sign of our economic downfall in which overworked emp ... More >>

June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards Were Fired After Revealing Widespread Foreclosure Fraud

June Clarkson Was Just Another Pissed-Off Neighbor After Being Sacked From AG's Office

One day in November, June Clarkson stepped out her front door in Hollywood to see a Local 10 news van parked outside. They were filming a public-nuisance story on the property next door to hers, which had been in foreclosure for around two years and was now covered with unsightly, invasive air-p ... More >>

Arizona's Immigration Enforcement Law: Florida's Stances on Both Sides of SB 1070

This week's issue includes a four-story special report from Village Voice Media about SB 1070, the Arizona immigration law that both casts criminal suspicion on anyone who looks Latino and transforms local law enforcement officers into immigration investigators. It's featured nationally because it i ... More >>

How the PIP Reform Bill Will Impact 411-PAIN

​The Broward-based 1-800-411-PAIN Referral Service and other companies that solicit clients who have been in car accidents got a legislative kick in the knees Friday, but they are still standing.A bill designed to cut down on personal injury protection (PIP) insurance fraud passed the state Senate ... More >>

The Judge And The Wiseguys

Broward Circuit Judge Cynthia Imperato made her name as a Mafia fighter. As a former prosecutor and cop, she has both presided over, tried, and investigated high-profile mob cases.  John "Johnny Meatballs" Piteo is oft-convicted bookmaker with suspected organized crime ties who has done two str ... More >>

Felon Voting Laws, Racism, Rick Scott, and Pam Bondi, Part II

Florida Attorney GeneralYou really think justice is colorblind, Ms. Bondi?​The Florida Clemency Board's decision last week to reinstate an archaic felon voting ban has set off a storm of protest. The new rule, which requires nonviolent felons to wait five years after completing their sentences to ... More >>

DJSP, Processing Company for Foreclosure Attorney David J. Stern, Lays Off 96 Employees

David J. Stern, whose law firm is under investigation for foreclosure fraud.​The latest round of layoffs at DJSP Enterprises, the foreclosure processing company for the law offices of David J. Stern, could add fuel to a class action case against DJSP and Stern, according to a lawyer for the compan ... More >>

Election Day Notes

Let's start this thing off with a couple of blog votes. On Amendments 5 and 6, it's pretty easy: If you like gerrymandering, vote against them. As for me, it's a yes vote on these two. On the judicial race between John Fry and John Howes for County Court Judge in District 1, I've made a decision. T ... More >>

Friday Morning Hits

-- Remember those shady attack ads aimed at Florida Attorney General candidate Dan Gelber accusing him of being "toxic to Jewish education"? Pam Bondi Campaign Gelber and Bondi at last night's Univision debate.​Initially, it didn't appear that Gelber's opponent, Pam Bondi, ... More >>

Anatomy of the Gelber Attack: From Amway To Huizenga

Sometimes  negative campaigning lives up to its bad name. The weekend attack on Florida Attorney General candidate Dan Gelber is a perfect example of the kind of sleazy negative campaigning that should make your skin crawl. In the ads sent out this week ... More >>

Photo Fun

This photo of Gov. Charlie Crist and Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter could be a classic someday​. They look so darned happy. Inside see more. 

Yes On Amendment 8; More On School Board Leak Scandal

Time to talk about Amendment 8 real quick. Vote for it. ​Amendment 8 is the one that is going to give Florida school boards a little more flexibility on class sizes that were mandated by the 2002 class-size amendment. Since then the legislature has appropriated about $18 billion to fund tha ... More >>

Former Executive Blew Whistle on E-Cigarette Maker From Weston Now Being Investigated by AG

FlickrE-cigarettes are in the strange position of suing to prove they're a tobacco product.​A Weston-based company called Smoking Everywhere wanted an executive who could go to battle against the FDA and U.S. Customs, which had teamed up to ban the import of e-cigarettes. But by hiring Ray Story i ... More >>

Rubbing Egg Over Body Does Not Cure Ovarian Cancer (and Other Lessons From Arrest of Hollywood Scam Artist)

Photo: Broward Sheriff's OfficeMarks​As scam artists go, Gina Marks is maddeningly persistent. The 37-year-old from Hollywood has been busted before for what Broward Sheriff's Office calls "gypsy" crimes. Last May she was convicted of felony fraud, but she received only probation, which paved the ... More >>

[UPDATED] "Toothless" Commission on Ethics Gives Legislators Something to Chew On

Flickr: simplelogikThat's the kind of arsenal you need to get a jaw-full of Florida corruption​The political scandals in Broward County have roused the Florida Commission on Ethics from its comatose state. An outfit derided as "toothless" is asking the Florida Legislature to give it a new set of c ... More >>

Flak for State Utility Regulator Gets Grabby With Reporter

OK, so it's not nearly as goofy as the WPLG video I mentioned in the Morning Juice, but this one has a better backstory. Cynthia Muir, a spokeswoman for the Public Services Commission, is already in hot water over sharing BlackBerry PINs with an FPL lobbyist -- one of the reports being looked at in ... More >>

Gelber Unloads on Bushies Who Politicized Federal Proscutors' Offices

The Democrats' side of the Florida Attorney General race, between Sens. Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber can feel like a meeting of the Mutual Admiration Society. But it's just not healthy to be always so measured and tactful, which is why it must have felt good for Gelber to wind up and then tee off on ... More >>

With Regret, Hollywood Drug Retailer Making Bucks Off Dishonest Advertisement

​The researcher who discovered the possible life-extending powers of resveratrol sold his company for $780 million, which probably means he doesn't need to sell his endorsement to a company called FWM Laboratories that operates out of a shabby industrial neighborhood near I-95 between Stirling and ... More >>

Aronberg Derails Gravy Train for State Contractors

Flickr user: UN1SONAronberg (pictured) may have found a pinata for his AG's campaign​Sen. Dave Aronberg from Greenacres has convinced the Florida Department of Transportation to abandon its practice of awarding automatic annual raises to private contractors, and now the Florida Attorney General ca ... More >>

Sunday Reading: The Wayne Huizenga Story

I just happened on this classic written by Steve Almond in 1994 about South Florida's hard-driven, complicated, and sometimes brutal mogul.  Uh, it jumps.   Citizen Wayne - The Unauthorized Biography A college dropout and the product of a broken home, H. Wayne Huizenga rose ... More >>

South Florida's underground vampires lust for more than your heart

Bitter Pill

Families say Hollywood doc is out of control

DeGroot On His Old Friend, Ken Jenne

Crist Dancing Around Scandal

A Bousquet Case

Crist Denies Trysts II

Sworn testimony backs up claims that Bruce Jordan boasted of his affair with Charlie Crist.

Crist Denies Trysts II

Sworn testimony backs up claims that Bruce Jordan boasted of his affair with Charlie Crist.

Once A Propagandist ...

Letters for July 6-12, 2006

Oh, Canada

We objected to John Canada's abuse of power. But the state didn't.

Letters for , 2001

Pain in the Bike Lane

A compromise to widen A1A could kill

The Big Lie

Is the North Broward Hospital District playing a shell game with tax dollars?

MOB Rules

A fishy hired gun of an economist endorses the hospital district's $100 million taxpayer rip-off

Felon Follies

A problem that marred the 2000 ballot is back

Wild, Wild West

Once convicted of fraud and in debt to the IRS for a cool million, Steven West is some kind of businessman

Cleanup Patter

Getting down and dirty with Broward's school janitors

A Sorry Excuse

Ken Jenne's department helped convict the wrong man. Why won't he and Jeb Bush admit it?

Undercurrents

Slammin' Sammy keeps hitting, but his Broward County foundation whiffs

Undercurrents

Nova's medicine man and Hollywood's deserted eateries

The Doctor Will Sell You Now

Supplied by Rexall Showcase of Boca Raton, doctors and other distributors are pitching alternative forms of medicine that may not work in ways that may not be legal

Undercurrents

The Sheriff's Criminal Association

If Ken Jenne were like most cops, he'd be investigated for being friends with felons who give him money

Where There's a Wheelchair, There's a Way

Former love doctor Fred Shotz is determined to make every sports venue in South Florida handicapped-accessible

Cyber Stakes

South Florida is at the heart of the internet gambling boom -- and of the war to stop it