Subject: Politics

• What The Deerfield Observer Is Afraid To Print

  March 22, 2007

• The Foley Report

  December 8, 2006

• Herald Publishes Anonymous Hollywood Letter

  April 11, 2007

• Ellen Dalton Keeps On Ticking

  August 17, 2007

• Lappé says, "No Food Shortage"

  July 22, 2008

• Early Voting = Early Attacks

  August 27, 2008

• Election Office Denying New Voters

  October 29, 2008

• Say Hello To Mayor Wishner

  Call off the election, because we already have a winner. The new mayor of Sunrise is (or will be) Roger Wishner. We were all expecting a political war for the most powerful post in Sunrise between Wishner, who is now deputy mayor, and Commissioner Joey Scuotto. Both had created campaign accounts to run in March 2009 for the seat vacated by Steve Feren, who has resigned his mayoral post to become a judge. But a rather obscure rule in the city's charter has made that race moot. The charter dic

  November 21, 2008

• Delray's State Senator Will Bring Iran to Its Knees

  Mahmad Ahmadinejad had a plan for world domination -- and he woulda got away with it, too, if it weren't that meddling state senator from Delray Beach, Ted Deutch.You see, while reading the Wall Street Journal, Deutch learned of efforts by a Swiss oil company, Vitol, to build a $125 million fuel depot in Port Canaveral, as a means of expanding its sales in the U.S. Well, it just so happens that Vitol sells Iran one quarter of that nation's fuel. It seems Deutch is angling for the state to insist

  December 8, 2008

• Florida Home to Fresh-Squeezed... Handguns?

  A study published last month by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group lead by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, says that not only do lax gun laws lead to more murders, higher crime rates, and more law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, guns from those states are used more often in out-of-state murders. And as you may have guessed (assuming you were not shot while reading the first paragraph), Florida is at the top of the list of states where the most "crime guns" originat

  January 6, 2009

• Mayor? May Not? An Interview With Dean Trantalis

  It's high time we size up Fort Lauderdale's mayoral field. With so much ground to cover, we'll have to go one by one. Batting leadoff...Dean Trantalis is a real estate attorney who became Fort Lauderdale's first openly gay commissioner in 2003, defeating Jon Albee, a insurance and real estate agent, by just 50 votes. He's been a leader of Broward United Against Discrimination and played a role in crafting the county's domestic partnership legislation. As a commissioner, Trantalis was an advocate

  January 15, 2009

• Letters for February 14-20, 2008

  February 14, 2008

• Mi Casa Is Not Tu Casa

  Protesters say illegals take our jobs, bring in leprosy, and, grrr, sell ice cream from bicycles

  May 8, 2008

• Show Us Some Green

  America's most colorful third party could use some attention — and some cash.

  May 15, 2008

• Vote for Voting

  The Long March

  June 19, 2008

• Barack Obama wins -- and So Does South Florida

  November 6, 2008

• Best Of Readers' Poll 2009: Best Politician in Broward

  No, no, it's not an oxymoron. Considering how much we all love to skewer and complain about  politicians (oftentimes deservedly so), it takes guts to set foot in the public arena, launch an election campaign, and actually win the darn thing. Any politicians out there who deserve a pat on the back -- and one of our nifty Best Of winner certificates? Tell us who.

  February 8, 2009

• Mysterious Candidates to Be Questioned in Suit, Rare Benevolent Lawyer Steps Up

  A judge has cleared the way for the Green Party to figure out who's behind the Florida Five, a group of mysterious Green Party candidates who ran in contested races across the state last November. Most of the Florida Five were broke young people who couldn't have afforded the couple thousand dollars needed to register, meaning they were probably put up to run by the Republican Party. It's either that or they all won the Florida Lottery's new scratch-off game in which the winner gets to be a cand

  March 11, 2009

• Legislators Pay Lip Service to Dreaded Compromise

  FLHouse.govHasnerCompromise is what distinguishes the effective, conscientious governments from the dysfunctional ones, and the lack of it has been a drag on the Florida Legislature for some time. One would think that this year's gaping, $6 billion budget hole would make compromisers out of the stubbornest souls. Instead, legislators are playing politics. Republicans, chiefly. The slightly more pragmatic of the bunch, who sit in the Florida Senate, have grudgingly agreed to the Democrats' propos

  March 26, 2009

• Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho

  Guantánamo Bay has gotta go!

  January 1, 2009

• Banana Republic

  America downscales

  November 27, 2008

• Punky Reggae

  H.R. of the Bad Brains is finally merging his two inner voices properly

  November 27, 2008

• Privacy Schmivacy

  Tell the world how you vote!

  October 23, 2008

• Broward County Absentee Ballots Carry Party Affiliation

  Critics fear labeling on return envelopes could lead to ballots getting intentionally lost

  October 16, 2008

• Incredible Turnout

  February 21, 2008

• C'mon, Get Happy

  Does Mayor Jim Naugle still know Fort Lauderdale?

  August 23, 2007

• Family Ties

  Broward Commission, lobbyists ooze coziness

  August 9, 2007

• Mayor Al Quacks Up

  Capellini's a lame duck after New Times investigation, says a commissioner.

  July 20, 2006

• Camilo's Retreat

  He left the war behind to enter a whole new controversy

  May 3, 2007

• Frankelstein

  How did the West Palm Beach mayor's reelection attempt turn into such a fright?

  March 8, 2007

• Baring False Witness

  In a dramatic scene, a city official accuses another of falsifying a document

  January 18, 2007

• The New Pistolero in Town

  On the dusty, Old West streets of Davie, a political hotshot takes aim

  January 11, 2007

• We Don't Need No Stinking Votes!

  Mexicans in America love the free market, apparently.

  July 27, 2006

• Mayor Al Has to Go, Bad

  More bathroom breaks are featured in yet another questionable Capellini deal.

  June 15, 2006

• Mayor Al Engineers Another Deal

  Turns out Deerfield Beach's honcho is into more shenanigans than we detailed last week.

  June 8, 2006

• From Gitmo With Love

  The elephant in Guantanamo's living room gets 4,200 calories a day and a Koran.

  June 8, 2006

• For Sale: Keys to the City

  In Deerfield, when you're in, you're really in. And the mayor is really in.

  June 1, 2006

• For Congress, Mum's the Word on Netanyahu Visit; But Jewish Scholar Has Opinion

  Flickr User: talkradionewsBroward and Palm Beach's Jewish congressional members were all eagerly anticipating this week's visit to Washington D.C. of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and yet none appear eager to speak about it. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's office made no statement following a morning meeting with Netanyahu she attended with other congressional members. Ron Klein attended the same meeting but offered a bland commentary that belies his mastery of the subject. So, too, has

  May 19, 2009

• Bros and Cons

  A too-hip tree trimmer is the major contributor in a bizarre mayor's race

  February 9, 2006

• The Next Ex-Mayor

  After two years in office, West Palm Beach Mayor Frankel has little to show except blocked streets

  June 9, 2005

• Cash Cow

  A group of political opportunists is cashing in on the rural town of Southwest Ranches

  March 24, 2005

• The Lobbyist

  Broward Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion quietly pulls political strings in Lauderdale Lakes -- and personally profits in the process

  December 16, 2004

• Third Man

  Fort Lauderdale's John B. Anderson ran for president in 1980 and paved the way for spoiler candidates

  October 28, 2004

• Our Mayor, the Lobbyist, Part 3

  Ilene Lieberman's misadventures in Pembroke Park... conflict after conflict

  October 21, 2004

• Last Candidate Standing

  Davie's Richard Grayson has built a political career of joke campaigns

  September 2, 2004

• President Kohn

  A time line chronicling the rise of the first Jewish president

  May 27, 2004

• Rainbow Colors

  When you want to be mayor of Gayville, being straight is a political liability. But so is a crack habit.

  February 19, 2004

• Iran Releases Journalist; New Hope for Coral Springs Family

  Robert LevinsonFor the Levinson family of Coral Springs, it's an auspicious sign: Today's release by the Iranian government of Roxana Saberi, the journalist  imprisoned there on charges of spying, suggests that the Iranian regime can be reasoned with.We wrote last month about how the June presidential election in Iran might have implications for the three Westerners who were imprisoned or -- in the case of Robert Levinson -- simply disappeared during visits to that country. A former FBI age

  May 11, 2009

• President Obama Fails to Go After Those Responsible for Financial Meltdown

  October 29, 2009

• Crist Walks Into Democrat-Laid Health-Care Trap

  ​Everybody's still talking about Crist gaffe-ing (lying?) over the Obama appearance, but this quotable moment is, I think, much more precious. Let's pull out a portion of that Sarasota Herald-Tribune article, which asked for Crist's opinion of a Senate Democrat health care reform package that would allow states to opt out of government-run health care -- the so-called public option."My view of it is that the public option I think may be sort of a Trojan horse to a government takeover of health

  October 29, 2009