In Democratic Party circles in Broward County, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Ask Norma Goldstein, a local Democratic Party official who works as a county-paid aide for scandal-ridden Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter. “I’m not involved with them, and I don’t want to be involved in them,” Goldstein…
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,…
With news that a consulting firm has found that the City of Pompano Beach can save millions of dollars by dropping the Broward Sheriff’s Office and reinstituting its own police force, a Broward sheriff’s spokesman says city officials should think twice before dropping BSO. “We don’t think anybody can do it better,” BSO…
This is a sentence I hope never to have to write again: I owe Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter an apology. This week, I wrote about the “Mitch Ceasar Mob,” the unofficial name for the cabal of Democratic Party officials who peddle their influence with candidates to make pretty good money…
The following was posted on the Miami Herald internal messageboard, Readme, by columnist and critic Glenn Garvin. It’s about the newspaper’s lack of coverage on the passing of Herald veteran Margaret Carroll. Garvin’s words speak for themselves (powerfully). But the issue does have some personal relevance for me. Put it this way: I’m glad the Courier-Journal gave my…
Once again, there’s a major reorganization happening at the Palm Beach Post. This time, all the editors and managers are being forced to reapply for their positions, and job titles are changing. Among the new titles: “Watchdog Editor,” “Money Editor,” and “Multimedia Editor,” according to a source at the newspaper. A…
The Miami Herald discovered Alan Mendelsohn, finally. The Sun-Sentinel still hasn’t caught on. Mendelsohn is the Hollywood ophthalmologist who worked as legislative director and chief fundraiser for the Florida Medical Association. He was also very close to Gov. Charlie Crist, serving as Crist’s health adviser on his transition team. They were…
The Broward Sheriff’s Office empire may be about to lose control of one of its key turf areas: Pompano Beach. A consulting firm hired by the city met with Pompano commissioners last week and told them that its $80,000 study found that the city could save $3 million a year if it broke away from…
This morning another inmate died at his own hand at the Broward County Jail. The inmate, 39-year-old Dervis Lawrence (left), hanged himself with a sheet, confirmed Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright. Lawrence was incarcerated on a murder charge, accused of shooting his wife. This is at least the fourth suicide at…
The Sun-Sentinel has laid off about half its staff during the past couple of years, leaving a skeleton crew to cover South Florida. But it’s still doing the really important work, like redesigning its website on a semi-annual basis. Punching onto the thing today, I immediately noticed the change. It’s fairly similar, only everything is…
Well, the Pulp has helped bring another public official to justice. Or maybe I should say “justice.” Remember Ron Morgan, the now-former chief building official at the Broward County School Board? I reported back in January that he was unlicensed to do his job. After that, I found that Morgan not only…
Remember this past February when the Miami Herald did a front-page story claiming that Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter voted on a measure in 2008 that benefited her lobbyist husband’s client, the Florida Panthers? First it looked bad for Ritter, since her husband, Russ Klenet, had been paid tens of thousands…
Well, the businesses that haven’t paid their 2007 taxes (yeah, there’s a bit of backlog at county revenue collection) on their furniture and equipment have been served with their notices, and it’s a pretty interesting list. One well-known fellow who had to deal with a notice was Scott Rothstein, the big shot Fort…
In what amounts to a gross violation of the public trust, the Broward School Board’s auditor has determined that the giant environmental services firm AshBritt Inc. overbilled and, at times, double-billed the School Board $765,000 during emergency work done in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma, according to a 48-page report obtained…
I want my half hour back. Or was it an eternity? Because it seemed like an eternity. I’m talking about the time spent watching the talk show CountyLine on the Broward School Board-funded cable station BECON. I opined on BECON last week and my opinion hasn’t changed. BECON must die. The fact that…
Al Malnik is doing some serious spinning in the world press right now in regard to Michael Jackson. He’s been quoted in several publications about regarding his “friendship” with Jackson, saying that he’s godfather to the pop king’s youngest son, Blanket, and that, last Malnik knew, he was executor of his estate. Yesterday, Malnik’s wife, Nancy, executed a photo dump on…
At The Forge (from left): Shareef Malnick, Al Malnick, Serena Williams, Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker, and Bret Ratner (front). [UPDATED: Holy shit. Jose Lambiet got Malnik on the phone, and he said Michael Jackson named him the executor of his will and godfather and guardian of Jackson’s youngest son, Prince…
Broward County’s Sheriff Al Lamberti and Mayor Stacy Ritter have been waging a high-profile public fight over who wastes the most taxpayer money. Maybe both should be paying more attention to their own campaign finances, though. Lamberti and Ritter, it turns out, are being investigated by the state for how…
Why do our politicians suck so bad? John de Groot doesn’t always try to answer that question, but he’s usually digging up evidence to prove the premise. What follows is his take on the a recent political trip to Haiti by some of our fearless leaders. You know, I always thought Lincoln Diaz-Balart…
Rob Kornahrens, the fellow with that big swinging patrol car for Sheriff Al Lamberti, is a major GOP donor, an ally of Gov. Charlie Crist, and apparently the favorite roofer of business mogul H. Wayne Huizenga. Kornahrens and interests related to his Advanced Roofing firm in Fort Lauderdale have contributed more than $75,000 to…
Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter isn’t the only official facing a state campaign investigation; so is her WWF-lik archrival on the budget front, Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti. Remember the patrol car that hung from a tall crane off Interstate 95 during the sheriff’s race? It was an eye-catching endorsement for Lamberti in his…
I’m on the beach this week and have Comcast instead of my usual satellite and have been exposed to BECON-TV, the Broward School Board’s channel. It stands for Broward Education Communications Network, and it’s bad education programming combined with county and School Board public relations tripe. It reeks of state-sponsored media (which it is,…
