When the new capital budget for the Broward County School Board was released last week, there was something missing: the money. The budget, which stood at $3.5 billion a couple of years ago, was slashed to $1.2 billion. And the bulk of that money — $763 million — is going…

UPDATED: Packed day of Broward School Board stuff. School Board Member Stephanie Kraft wrote in an email today that Miriam Oliphant’s job at the School Board is being investigated by Supt. James Notter. The problem with that is that ol’ Notter already said he didn’t there was “special treatment” in the case…

At today’s Broward County School Board meeting, Board Member Phyllis Hope proposed an odd resolution. Let Hope tell you about it: Really quick, really quick, I am putting a resolution in recognition of Michael Jackson, who we know passed away recently. Hopefully that resolution will reflect Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s [resolution], which recognizes…

With the Broward Sheriff’s Office in the process of being cut, sheriff’s detention deputies are complaining about low staffing levels in the county’s jail facilities.  In a May 20 letter to Sheriff Al Lamberti, deputies representing the Federation of Public Employees (FOPE) wrote that staffing levels are falling in the…

I never thought I would say this, but I actually feel sorry for Wayne Huizenga. Don’t get me wrong: A decent amount of what’s wrong with this county falls at Wayne’s feet. But this latest arrest of his son, Robert Ray, is just sad. It’s become clear that Robert Ray Huizenga has…

The lead story on this morning’s Sun-Sentinel front page, “Crowded Schools and Empty Seats,” was little more than a board response to my Friday post that exposed the bogus and potentially fraudulent building boom at the School Board that has left the district essentially broke and with 35,000 empty seats to boot. You can always tell by the response…

The headline for the most popular story on the Sun-Sentinel site reads “Some sicko actually videotaped a naked Erin Andrews through a peephole.” It’s about a viral (apparently literally in some cases) of the ESPN sideline commentator and world-class hottie naked in her hotel room. Shot through a keyhole. That’s sounds like some…

You don’t have to work at the Palm Beach Post or work at a newspaper to appreciate the following email from management. All you need is some knowledge of corporate America. Or, better, to have seen Office Space. I hate this kind of shit so much that if I were in that newsroom,…

The construction orgy has left the county with more than 25,000 empty classroom seats, a number that is expected to rise to 34,800 by 2013 (according to Superintendent James K. Notter). The cost of building all those empty seats isn’t too difficult to estimate. Conservatively, all those empty seats would fill about 1,400 classrooms. Multiply that by…

The number of Jews in Broward County decreased by about 55,000 people during the past decade. The population seems to be quite literally dying off, according to a University of Miami study that I just ran across. The number of Jews in Broward has fallen from 240,000 in 1997 to about 185,800 today,…

Poor Miriam Oliphant. People always said the former School Board member and elections supervisor wasn’t too bright, and now it looks like she’s going to lose her cushy job at the School Board for failing a math test. Oliphant, after being run out of her elected position as Broward County Supervisor of Elections in…

Spent yesterday afternoon at WXEL doing the Florida Forum radio show with former Sun-Sentinel columnist Ralph de la Cruz. We talked about the downward spiral of the newspaper industry. I think I hit most of my talking points: 1. Compare Tribune Co. to the Titanic — check. 2. Try but fail to…

The following email from Palm Beach Post Publisher Alex Taylor was posted by a kindly commenter below. Taylor sent it to the newsroom Tuesday afternoon, and in it he writes that this year is worse than the last and confirms there will be more layoffs. But he doesn’t specify when they’ll come or how many…

While doing web research, I’ve been running across Examiner.Com more and more. Never heard of it? Well, you should, since it’s the self-proclaimed “Insider Source for Everything Local.” Examiner.com is a “citizen journalism” site wherein self-appointed “examiners” write their own articles. And it’s true that they have discovered the “insider source” for local…

I was talking to a public official the other day about something, and he said, “I don’t blog on the Sun-Sentinel anymore. They want my blood type and my mother’s birth city. It’s too much.” Other than misusing the verb “blog” (people comment, and people blog; it’s not one and the…

When I wrote about Broward Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar’s mob last week, I detailed how his loyalists are peddling their influence with party candidates and making some pretty good money with “volunteering” and “activism.” What I didn’t mention is that the Brooklyn-born Ceasar gets his own paycheck, mostly in the way of lobbying contracts. You…

With talk of 177 layoffs and the closing of the Stockade at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, upset deputies are fixing their eyes on the waste in Sheriff Al Lamberti’s command staff and political coterie. They glare at Lt. Col. Ricky Frey, for instance. He’s making almost $320,000 a year, or nearly twice what the…

If the conflict between the Broward County Commission and BSO were a game of chicken, then Sheriff Al Lamberti just swerved out of the way. After talking tough about shutting down the minimum-security stockade and laying off 177 jail employees, Lamberti today has come up with a new idea that he’s putting…

… and is that why he allegedly went out of his way to get special treatment to get his six-figure deposit back for his unit at the Tao condo and then begged for extra benefits from Sunrise? Feren, the longtime Sunrise mayor turned Broward Circuit judge, has long been rumored to have a…

The battle between School Board auditors and the officials they watchdog hit a new level today. The conflict revolves around an audit report that alleges hurricane cleanup firms AshBritt and C&B ripped off the School Board to the tune of $765,000. School Board construction officials, who are accused of faciliating the rip-off, have…

[Developer Bruce Chait’s response has been added at the end of this post] Former Tamarac Mayor Joe Schreiber told the Pulp today that Prestige Homes — which is embroiled in a scandal involving Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion — offered him $200,000 cash if he would agree to remove his wife, Mae…

Palm Beach Post Publisher Alex Taylor explains what customer care is all about in an email sent out today staffwide. My favorite part is reminiscent of Taylor’s “elevator speech” memo: If someone says to you “I hear things down at the Post are tough. How are you doing?” You could say, “Yeah it…