Industries

Gold Coast Beverage Begins New Belgium Distribution July 29

New Belgium's highly-anticipated craft brews have finally arrived in southeast Florida. New Belgium Brewing Company, known for its flagship beer Fat Tire Amber Ale, signed with Gold Coast Beverage Distributors which will begin distributing their beer beginning July 29, according to Gold Coast's Cra ... More >>

Chick-fil-A Stadium: FAU Considered Homophobic Firm

There's the sublime. There's the ridiculous. And there's the sublimely ridiculous. If former FAU Athletics Director Craig Angelos is to believed, the last of those three is the realm inhabited by the school's leadership, as far as PR savvy. The school's tone-deaf ways have been infamous from coast ... More >>

Four Arrested in Protest at GEO Headquarters: Activists From Transgender and Womyn's Group Block Doors UPDATED

UPDATE 10:44 a.m. Boca Raton police spokesman Mark Economou said four people were arrested at GEO Group corporate headquarters this morning. "They chained themselves to the doors of the building," he said, but "the locking mechanism has been removed." Though activists Tweeted a photo showing at leas ... More >>

FAU Really Does Cancel Sale of Naming Rights to GEO Group

[UPDATE 7:50 p.m. -- They did "levitate the Pentagon"! Though our initial post was about students playing an April Fools' joke, the GEO deal was indeed canceled, it was announced this evening. Details below.]  Students opposed to FAU's decision to sell naming rights to the school's footbal ... More >>

FAU Students Still Fighting GEO Group Naming Rights Deal

It's G-Day at FAU today, probably one of many to come, as the school's sale of its athletics field's naming rights to global private prison operator/serial human rights abuser GEO Group continues to draw fire from students and faculty opposed to the deal. See also:- FAU Students, Faculty and Al ... More >>

Students Claim FAU President Saunders Hit Student Protester With Car

Update, 4:24 p.m.: Lisa Metcalf, Director, Media Relations & University Spokesperson for FAU wrote in an e-mail "Police were on the scene at the time of the alleged incident. We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete."The University Press tweeted an image of Saunders drivi ... More >>

Earth First! Activists With Puppets and Costumes Marching on Kolter Group to Protect Briger Forest

Spring this year begins with a multifront burst of activity by local lefties -- on the environment, on GE foods labeling, and against the moral corruption of academia by the GEO Group private prison corporation.See also: -GE Foods Labeling Faces Political Calculus-Arbor Day Protest in Palm Beac ... More >>

FAU Students, Faculty, and Allies Vow to Keep Fighting GEO Group Stadium Deal

Unappeased by Friday's charade of a "public forum" with FAU President Mary Jane Saunders, students opposed to the school's pimping out naming rights to its athletics stadium to private prison operator GEO Group are using spring break to plan a spring offensive.See also:-FAU Is a $6 Million WhoreIn a ... More >>

FAU President to Critics: GEO Group Stadium Name is a "Done Deal"

Speaking at a public forum today, in a twilight zone of denial, a meek and robotic FAU President Mary Jane Saunders stonewalled all questions of morality from critics of her school's stadium naming rights deal with GEO Group, the global private prison operator. "It's a done deal," she told the crowd ... More >>

FAU's Football Stadium Sponsored by Prison

Florida Atlantic University has finally sold the naming rights to its football stadium. FAU and the GEO Group are set to finalize a deal on Tuesday to let the company have the naming rights. The GEO Group, which was founded by George Zoley, who received his bachelor's and master's at FAU and is a ... More >>

Bahamas Express Ferry: Adding a Miami - Bimini Route

When it launched in 2011, we told you about the Bahamas Express fast ferry service out of Fort Lauderdale, serving Grand Bahama Island. Last year, we gave the company the award for Best Weekend Getaway, since the trip is quick and kids up to age six travel free. Though other fast-ferry services ... More >>

Jupiter Craft Brewers Festival

An Easy Bake Oven for Everyone

Let's get serious. Even in 1950s, when the woman's place was supposedly in the kitchen, men still had a role in home cooking. Take summer barbecues for example. Manning the grill was a matter of pride. Men staked their reputations on everything from the way the charcoals were arranged and lit to the ... More >>

Secrets From the Sysco Guy (Suck It, Food Snobs!)

Sysco. The name is reviled by many in the culinary industry. It conjures images of frozen chicken tenders, packaged salad dressings, and soggy potato skins. Not exactly the finer points of going out to eat. While you may think you know a Sysco product on sight, you might be surprised.Clean Plate Cha ... More >>

As A-Rod Battles His Neighbor, Miami Beach's Film Renaissance Hangs in the Balance

Digital Domain: The Fall of a Movie Empire

Chef Allen Susser: A Q&A on Flavors of Fort Lauderdale, GMOs, and Robot Fish

Chef Allen Susser has made a bit of a name for himself in south Florida. Okay, that might be a bit of an understatement. The New York native and longtime South Florida resident has won numerous awards and accolades: James Beard Foundation's Best Chef 1994, southeast region; one of the top ten in Fo ... More >>

Want to Start a Goat Farm? JoJo Milano of Delilah's Dairy Tells Us How

Amongst foodies, interest in farming seems to have reached epic proportions. Aside from the growing number of farm-to-table restaurants, it seems as though you cannot dine with any well-known chef and not hear about the organic gardener that grew your tomato, the ethical farmer that reared your meat ... More >>

Tequesta Cask Night

Beer and Dinner Pairing

A Plea for More Homegrown Craft Beer in South Florida

South Florida is a boozy, tourist-driven economy. With American Craft Beer Week upon us -- Cheers! And so help you god if you consume a Budweiser product this week -- it's a fitting time to contemplate why the region is moving at a positively glacial pace to tap into the possibilities that exist in ... More >>

Holy Mackerel Head Brewer and Founder Bobby Gordash Talks Craft Beer in South Florida

​In anticipation of the upcoming New Times' Beerfest (Saturday, March 31, in downtown Fort Lauderdale) Clean Plate Charlie has been talking with South Florida beer aficionados and experts about the state of beer in Florida and beyond. Earlier this week, we talked to John Linn of Fresh Beer Inc., w ... More >>

FEC Train Operator Plans New Privatized Rail Service Between South Florida and Orlando

​It is, of course, essential Rick Scott lore that our budget-cutting governor nixed a federally funded high-speed rail project because it used too much taxpayer money. As little sense as that move made, the governor has always been clear that he favors private enterprise over the government provid ... More >>

Fort Lauderdale's Sky-High Runway: Looks Like They're Actually Going to Build This Thing

Welcome back to "Holy Crap, That's Big," our blog series in which we look at humongous things going up in South Florida and the people behind them. Let this blog post serve as official notice that we are going to spend a lot of time puzzling over this huge pile of dirt for planes to drive on that al ... More >>

Bee Killer Snuffs Thousands of Florida Hives

treehugger.com​If it's not colony collapse disorder, it's a crazy bee killer. Hundreds of thousands of bees in Brevard County died this past September, tied to a tainted food supply that contained an insecticide used to kill roaches, ticks, and fleas, county agriculture officials determined yester ... More >>

Express Ferry Offering High-Speed Boat Trips to Bahamas From Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades

Hate flying? Lost your yacht in the recession? But sure as hell would love a decent rum runner and a handmade straw hat?If so, you are so in luck, because a new boat called the Bahamas Express Ferry is about to start high-speed service from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas. A massiv ... 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 >>

Rick Scott and Private Prisons Engaging in "Pay to Play" Politics, Teamsters Complaint Alleges

​Florida politicians received nearly $1 million in campaign contributions from two private prison corporations last election cycle -- GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America -- and an ethics complaint filed by the Teamsters union yesterday claims $30,000 of those contributions that went t ... More >>

Ex-Health Insurance Executive: Rick Scott HMO Debacle Goes Against His "Obamacare" Rhetoric

Illustration by Miche Ratto​Wendell Potter -- a former health care insurance executive who most recently left his post as head of communications for CIGNA -- has been following up on the Pulp's post on Florida's newest HMO policy for state employees and agrees that the decision to allow just one H ... More >>

Huizenga CFO on Water Management Board; Does This Have Anything to Do With Yachts?

Flickr user: totalAldoHuizenga is building a megayacht center in Riviera Beach.​Rick Scott's decision to appoint a pro-business corporate executive to the South Florida Water Management District's governing board is not exactly stunning. This is the governor, after all, who declared Florida "open ... More >>

A Tour of Gov. Rick Scott's Dirtiest Deeds

Rick Scott Finds a Train He Likes: $1.2 Billion SunRail

blogomatic3000.com​He didn't like the idea of an almost-free high-speed train, and he vetoed plans to restore a Holocaust rail car, but Gov. Rick Scott finally found a train he likes -- the SunRail, with a price tag of $1.2 billion, including a cost of more than a half-billion dollars to the state ... More >>

ICE Picks Southwest Ranches For New Immigrant Pen

voxrox.co​Some lucky folks in western Broward County are going to have a couple thousand possible illegal immigrants as new neighbors soon.Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it has "tentatively selected" Southwest Ranches, along with a private prison company, to build one of the largest ... More >>

Will Privatizing Prisons Save Florida Money? Arizona Study Says Maybe Not

The GEO Group was a huge donor to political campaigns.​Last month, the Florida Legislature passed a landmark plan to privatize nearly all of the prisons in the southern part of the state, including those in Broward and Palm Beach counties. The bill was a thinly-veiled stimulus package for the priv ... More >>

Southwest Ranches and Private Prison Company Want Immigration Facility in Broward County

voxrox.co​Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking for somewhere in South Florida to be able to house as many as 2,000 alleged immigration-law offenders, and the town of Southwest Ranches has partnered with the private prison industry and entered a bid.ICE has taken in three proposals for th ... More >>

Florida's Nuclear Worries?

​A two-page report on a proposed Turkey Point nuclear power plant appeared this weekend in the Sun Sentinel, but calling it a "two page" report doesn't really begin to cover it. These are massive pages, 1,600 words in total. Feature-length pages, in Sentinel terms. And why? Is there a radiation le ... More >>

AT&T Tightening Its Grip On South Florida In $39 Billion T-Mobile Deal

​AT&T, a company that was broken up in 1984 because of a federal antitrust suit, is once again sparking fears that consumers and competition will get hurt as a result of its deal to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion. The deal would shrink the market of major wireless carriers from four to three, el ... More >>

Foreclosure Firm Ben-Ezra & Katz Is Latest Addition to Attorney General's Investigation

via floridaforeclosurehelp.netThe state foreclosure fraud investigation expands.​Fort Lauderdale law firm Ben-Ezra & Katz is the most recent subject of the state attorney general's mortgage fraud investigation. The firm "appears to be fabricating and/or presenting false and misleading document ... More >>

Boca Bacchanal 2011 Set for March 18-20

isante magazine​The Boca Bacchanal is coming up March 18th-20th. The events will start with the Vintner dinners, which will be delicious dinners served in private residences all throughout Boca Raton. These intimate evenings are 

Former School Board Construction Chief Talked of "Machine"

When we stop to remember Michael Garretson, we should never forget that the late School Board construction chief led the spending of a billion dollars a year in what was one of the largest and most damaging school building booms in Broward County history. For ... More >>

The Art of Self-Storage

Drug Company Pay-Outs to Physicians: Fact of Life or a Wrench in Patient Care?

via cheezburger.com​​ProPublica, the "independent non-profit newsroom," which won a Pulitzer this year for investigative reporting, recently released an ongoing investigation (Dollars for Docs) into doctors' compensation from pharmaceutical companies and the effect it has on patient care. The in ... More >>

TechSqueeze: Florida Is Capital of Porn and IT; Tech Drives Porn in Sunshine State

Or maybe porn drives the tech industry here. In either case, it's an interesting consideration, since both industries are on the rise and both are huge sectors of employment in the orange juice capital of the world.  http://www.sxc.hu/Florida tech scene is hot.​Most of the actors who come to ... More >>

Gibraltar Bank Releases Statement on Rothstein

A spokesman for Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust, Peter Whalen, just released the following statement about its association with suspected Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein.The law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler maintained traditional banking accounts with Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust for law ... More >>

Episode I: Attack of the Beer Clones

Malts & Crafts

Making Noise on Both Sides of the Board

Kick the Bottle

As the containers and costs mount, in South Florida and beyond, plastic is played out

Disloyalty Is Job One

Bob Horvath was the ultimate company man for GM and sold their cars for 40 years. The thanks he got? The auto giant put him out of business.

Foodstuff