Last week, Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter said she would be happy to field questions about the Mutual Benefits scandal on her weekend AM radio show on 850-WFTL. But Ritter wasn’t very pleased when a caller named John brought up the scandal involving both the mayor and her lobbyist husband Russ…
Fresh off the Pulp transom, a Tribune e-mail announcing a new online “entertainment bureau.” What strikes me about it: 9 million unique users. That is a lot. I can’t decide if this thing will go down in flames or, as Marc Chase puts it, “show the world the power of Tribune’s reach and content.”…
I’m going to try to resist the urge to summarize the following. Just read it. It’s from Alex Taylor, the new young go-getter publisher at the Palm Beach Post (who, completely coincidentally, is also the nephew of Cox Publishing owner James Cox Kennedy). Interesting, Taylor calls the Sun-Sentinel a “former competitor” that the Post wants…
Miami Herald Publisher David Landsberg informed all Herald employees this morning in an e-mail that newspaper would be laying off more employees in the coming weeks. “Unfortunately, it is already apparent there is no way to avoid the elimination of staff positions. We are exploring several alternatives to help limit the…
The full list of Bernie Madoff fraud victims has been released by the court and among them is St. Thomas Aquinas High, the football powerhouse private Catholic school in Fort Lauderdale. Listed as the representative for the St. Thomas account is Monsignor Vincent Kelly, who also is personally named as an investor…
The Palm Beach Daily News , or “Shiny Sheet,” as it is known on the island of filthy riches, may be the most influential small-town newspaper in the country. Millionaire socialites gauge their worth by their appearances in the newspaper, which has a circulation of about 7,000. Charities backed by…
Rejoice. The embattled Sun-Sentinel annual in-house award ceremony, the Pettijohns, will be held this year after all. The payments to the winners just have to be cleared by the bankruptcy court first, of course. Oh, and it won’t be at the upscale Signature Grand this year, more likely at the humbler Museum of Art. …
The Miami Herald broke a story Sunday on Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter’s alleged vote that favored the firm that runs BankAtlantic Center, Arena Operating Co., at the same time her husband was a paid lobbyist for the company. In the story, Ritter admits that she supported the move to shift insurance risk…
Well, I posted my thoughts on it Saturday and today we get confirmation: More layoffs coming to Tribune. From today’s AP article: [Tribune attorney Kevin] Lantry said the company anticipates “a number of layoffs” this year, but he did not provide a figure, or details on how much money the severance…
Good news: our prosecutors are back to work full-time. Broward State Attorney Michael Satz informed his minions yesterday via e-mail — which came across the Pulp transom — that the payroll should be good to the end of the year, thanks to “fiscal restraints” and a hiring freeze. Satz is also hoping the state legislature doesn’t gut his budget next…
The Palm Beach Daily News, or “Shiny Sheet” as it is known on the island of filthy riches, is one of the most influential small-town newspapers in the country. Millionaire socialites gauge their worth by their appearances in the newspaper, which has a circulation of about 7,000. Charities backed by…
If you haven’t checked it out, take a spin over to Norm Kent’s “Broward Law Blog” this morning. Yes, the “renowned criminal defense attorney,” as Kent refers to himself, and former Express Gay News publisher is giving the bliz a go. “I want to spark people’s conscience; to make them care…
After the Miami Herald over the weekend broke a story on yet another Stacy Ritter vote that benefitted the lobbying business of her husband, Russ Klenet, I think it’s time we had a one-stop shopping spot for all the alleged misdeeds of the Ritter-Klenets. Because of its length, the post jumps…
I’ve been so busy juggling about six hellacious stories that I’ve been neglecting the roots of this blog — coverage of the local media. I think another reason is that it’s just too damn depressing and it seems like Groundhog Day. More corporate idiocy and more layoffs all the time. …
So I got a call out of the blue from Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom yesterday. “So you’ve resorted to name calling?” he asked me. He wasn’t mad. Rodstrom, think of him what you will, is usually pretty cool. “Yes,” I answered. “Yes, I have.” “Whores?” he asked. “And scurrilous…
I’m on deadline and going to be giving some kind of talk about blogging this morning at Broward Community College’s “journalism bootcamp,” so I have little time for the Pulp. So I’ll link you to Scott Wyman’s latest on Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter. It’s a good one. Basically he found…
So Fort Lauderdale lawyer Jim Lewis, who is running commission, contacted the Pulp about the post below wherein I criticize him for his role in the Gina Marie Marks saga. “A lot of people read this and man, it’s like you’re trying to kill my campaign,” he said. “I’m one of the…
I’ve decided to go with more blunt and truthful headlines … can you tell? The inspiration for this one is the passing of lobbyist Ron Book’s initiative to bring more money to the county’s bail bondsmen at the expense of our tax dollars. Book, who represents the bondsmen, has been working on the…
Stacy Ritter was interviewed on WFTL 850-AM this morning about the Mutual Benefits scandal — and she took the time to take a shot at the Pulp host. (Quotes were typed fast, so forgive a typo or two). “The newspapers are in business to sell ink and if they don’t have anything…
Tribune Co. Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams struck again. In his latest think piece sent out to newsrooms across the county, this one titled “Celebrity Crimes Against Humanity,” he included a quote that has been attributed Mariah Carey: “When I watch TV and see those poor kids starving all over the world, I can’t help…
Jim Lewis wants to be a Fort Lauderdale commissioner and is running for a seat in the upcoming election. Lewis thinks he deserves your trust. He should think again — and so should you. Lewis is an attorney who I have seen undercut justice time and time again with one of his…
Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter should have just kept her mouth shut. The Miami Herald got a few words out of Ritter regarding her and her husband Russ Klenet’s Ponzi scheme/home renovation/voting scandal. And what does Ritter offer? Obfuscation and lies. From the article: Ritter, a Democratic lawmaker at the time, disputes media…
