In the Sun-Sentinel story this morning about School Board lobbyist Neil Sterling, there are a couple of pieces of interesting information. One is that Stephanie Kraft — whose husband, Mitch, was secretly on the payroll of one of Sterling’s companies — has apparently managed to find one vote where she went against…
It’s official: The Krafts — Broward School Board member Stephanie and her lawyer husband, Mitch — have been cashing in big-time on her elected office. And they picked a terrible time to do it — right when federal investigators are zeroing in on the School Board. I will be surprised if they don’t…
The Broward Teachers Union has sent a cease and desist letter to Superintendent James Notter and School Board Chairwoman Maureen Dinnen demanding that they stop intercepting emails from teachers and other school employees to School Board members. From a news release: ——————————————– BTU President Pat Santeramo said union leaders discovered by…
This county is too much. Now a reliable political insider is telling me that Broward County School Board Member Stephanie Kraft’s husband, Mitch Kraft, took money from developer Prestige Homes. I want to hasten to say there is no proof of any payment, however, and I’m hoping to get a response from…
I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore. A reliable source told me last night that it was a done deal that Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter — who is embroiled in a major political scandal with her lobbyist husband, Russell Klenet, and last week was menaced with a gun…
Well, I finally rousted out Stephanie Kraft. Over the weekend, I wrote that if her husband, Mitch Kraft, received a dime from Neil Sterling, it was illegal. Today I sent her a pointed email demanding answers. She wrote me back saying she would answer the questions after a board workshop…
Lobbyist Neil Sterling was more than just the guy whom construction companies went to when they wanted a multimillion-dollar contract with the Broward County School Board. He was also behind an incredibly lucrative contract last year to make another of his clients, Vista Healthplan Inc., the sole provider of health insurance to School Board employees…
— Whoever doused the 15-year-old kid with gasoline and lit him on fire should be charged as an adult. I don’t care how old he is; the person who did this shouldn’t get out of prison until he’s 40. This just in: The three kids charged are Denver Colorado Jarvis, 15, Michael Bent, 15,…
I’m not going to wax poetic about the best game of the football season so far, but here’s a few thoughts. — This may be the rare team with a harder-hitting offense than defense. It had Jon Gruden all giddy. I do love, and always have loved, Ricky Williams. With his…
You hear a lot about the Broward School Board “machine” on the Pulp, but you probably wonder what it really is. Well, below I’ve compiled an incomplete list of the parts of the machine. It is all the contributors who gave to Stephanie Kraft’s campaign on May 18, 2006, during her last election…
Edward Portner says he won’t be campaigning for the Tamarac mayor’s seat after being released from jail, but he won’t withdraw from the race either. The 84-year-old Portner was released from jail on Friday after he menaced his daughter, Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter, with a gun at her Parkland home. Portner, a former…
Broward School Board Member Stephanie Kraft refuses to answer questions about whether her husband, Mitch, received money from a company owned by School Board lobbyist Neil Sterling. It has been alleged, without evidence, that there was a work arrangement between SRG Technology, a company owned by Sterling, and Mr. Kraft. That…
BEFORE AFTER…
Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter was literally being backed into a corner in her Parkland home, afraid for her life. Her 84-year-old father, Ed Portner, angry and distraught because she supported his opponent in the Tamarac mayoral race, was threatening her with a gun. “He kept saying, ‘We need to sit down and talk,…
The City of Riviera Beach sued to evict him from the municipal marina and lost so then it had the U.S. Marshals literally take his home away and tow it to Miami. Now the city council has tossed Fane Lozman out of city hall. Again. At Wednesday night’s commission meeting, the houseboat-dwelling Lozman was…
Amid a federal corruption investigation that has already taken down one of her colleagues, Broward County School Board Member Ann Murray has hired a man with a federal fraud conviction as her campaign manager. Murray has already paid $1,000 to manager George Bograkos, who was was initially charged with bribery and…
When I think of the terrifying crisis that Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter experienced Tuesday night, I think of that run. After her father, 84-year-old Ed Portner, came to her home and menaced her with a gun at her head, she escaped through the garage door. She was afraid for her life, but she didn’t stop at…
A little while back, I wrote about a $7 million project to renovate the football stadium and other athletic areas at Blanche Ely High School. The incredible thing about the award of the project to Balfour Beatty Construction was that the selection committee chose the firm despite the fact that it came…
Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter fled from her home last night after her father, Ed Portner, apparently threatened her with a gun at her Parkland home. Portner Mugshot Portner showed up at Ritter’s front door last night, and when she answered it, he pulled up his shirt to reveal a pistol in…
The ex-public official mentioned in the Alan Mendelsohn federal indictment as having received $87,000 in secret payments from the lobbyist has been identified as former Democratic state Sen. Muriel “Mandy” Dawson, according to sources extremely close to the federal case. Mendelsohn was also one of three lobbyists who improperly helped fund a trip by Dawson…
There are still so many mysteries surrounding the Alan Mendelsohn case and, with the Broward corruption probe ongoing, I haven’t had time to really delve into them. But here’s one answer: What happened to the $150,000? Just to get it straight, Mutual Benefits’ Joel Steinger paid Mendelsohn hundreds of thousands…
The latest saga revolving around Jason Wetherington has come to an end. Wetherington, a former GOP staffer who boasted of having a sexual relationship with Charlie Crist in 2006, made headlines again in August when he was charged with stealing a wedding ring and other jewelry worth an estimated $19,000 from the…
