Former Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino vice president Eric Lemerand told me today that he knew nothing about the thefts being committed by two casino employees under his watch (read background here). Lemerand acknolwedged that he was suspended shortly after the Florida Department of Investigation began investigating the theft, but…
What you’re looking at above is the five-year stock chart for the Tribune Co., which owns the Sun-Sentinel. Its stock is worth about $3.7 billion now, down about half from its high in 1999. They’re trying to complete a deal to go private with Chicago billionaire Sam Zell that I…
Broward County Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin used her public office to help her husband make big money. I know she did because I investigated it and broke the story that led to the ethics charges (thanks to a good citizen, Ray McKinney, who filed the complaint). And for this obvious violation…
The government portrays him as a cult leader and radical terrorist who dreamed of felling U.S. landmark buildings. But Narseal “Brother Naz” Batiste is a lot more interesting than that. Bred in religion, bound with discipline, and born to hustle, Batiste led his six “brothers” in a sect they called…
Well, I don’t believe Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker anymore than I do a dime-store detective. Parker announced yesterday that he believes the Sean Taylor shooting was random. Parker claims to endorse a botched burglary. But I’m not buying that theory anymore. I had read early reports that said Taylor…
The Sun-Sentinel’s Omar Kelly opens his defense of the dead football player this way: “Sean Taylor isn’t here to defend himself from those who choose to assassinate his character, connecting the dots from his past to his recent murder.” The Sentinel ran Kelly’s rather personal take on the front page…
The newest installment of the Sentinel’s Seminole series is about Tribal leaders living in huge houses while most members live in modest homes. They have aerial shots of the Cypress brothers’ mansions to bring it, uh, home to the reader. I liked it, but in the back of my mind…
The mysterious Ellen Dalton messaged the Pulp this morning with this missive about the Sun-Sentinel’s Seminole investigation: Well, well, well. The crowing from Las Olas Boulevard is that this week’s Seminole tribe story is their Pulitzer winner. Already, there are bold predictions of sweeping reforms and other corrective actions that…
Michael Berke’s story of gender crisis, church intervention, and transexual regret is a great one. It’s so good, in fact, that the Associated Press stole it. The AP’s Kelli Kennedy came out with the Berke story over the weekend and it’s been spreading across the world ever since. What she…
In light of John DeGroot’s essay-rant on Plight of the Poor stories yesterday, I must bring attention to the Miami Herald website this morning, where this “Miami Herald Wish Book” story is leading the page. The headline: “Readers Make Holiday Wishes Come True.” And the Herald’s photograph, reproduced above, not…
One extorted $7,000 from a friend who raped his girlfriend and then, after accepting the money, beat her up and went to jail. The other failed an FBI polygraph test while working on an undercover investigation, which one former FBI agent says should have disqualified him from ever working for…
John DeGroot used to make everyone read them and weep. Now he’s exposing the cottage industry of holiday weepers you’re going to come across this season in the South Florida media: It’s that time of year when the ghost of Tiny Tim will return as South Florida’s media launch their…
— CBS-Channel 4 reporter Brian Andrews is leaving South Florida for more southern climes to become a freelancer. He’s started a website about his ballsy move to Colombia that includes a blog and a plea to buy his house in Miami Shores. Dan Ricker’s Watchdog Report quotes an email from…
Everybody knows that newspapers have had a hell of a time “monetizing” the Internet. They are putting more and more resources into it because they know it’s the future, but damned if they’re making much money on it, which is one reason stock in the newspaper industry has plummeted in…
Earl Maucker’s Sunday column in the Sun-Sentinel begins with a letter from an angry British reader over the lack of international news in the Sentinel. Here’s Maucker’s answer: In the past couple of months, some readers have expressed concern that we’ve reduced the amount of national and world news, especially…
This morning we have a couple instances of wasteful and/or stupid government at work. From the Miami Herald’s Amy Sherman, we have the story of county hall west. It was supposed to be a “one-stop shop” for government permits and licenses in Plantation but instead is a ghost town, municipally…
I told Barry Epstein this morning on his radio show that Ken Jenne should get about a year in jail — and that’s just what he got. All the corrupt politicians in South Florida should get a good look at the former sheriff. It’s like a crystal ball. For those…
Palm Beach Post gossip columnist Jose Lambiet gives us the most predictable item of the year. She would have been perfect for Charlie, if not for that not-having-a-penis thing. Glad they indicted Barry Bonds. Everybody knows that people shouldn’t lie in court about cheating on baseball. The proper thing is…
Former Broward Public Defender Al Schreiber is leaving for the wild west. Schreiber had a long career that was neither terribly distinguished nor particularly dirty, at least by Broward standards. But he was was a consummate political player and big character who kept a daiquiri machine in his office and…
Well, the governor went off and did it. Signed a compact that gives the Seminoles a gambling monopoly and imperils the already struggling pari-mutuels — which actually pay taxes and are regulated by the state. Thankfully, it probably won’t go into effect for a while as the lawsuits roll in…
A criminal investigation into an alleged slots theft ring at Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino has led to the ousting of several employees, including the pari-mutuel’s vice president of gaming, according to sources. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is looking into allegations that at least two lower-level employees were…
This Broward Health email was sent to all media contacts from the Pulp’s favorite tax-assisted public health system. They must really hate that old name (and all the baggage that goes along with it). But their attempt at rebranding has clearly gone amok. “Broward Health Coral Springs Medical Center”? I…
