Nan Rich’s long shot campaign for governor keeps piling up points by the abuse it suffers. First the state GOP decides to take shots at her for her history as a defender of women’s reproductive rights. Now she makes headlines when her own party denies her the right to speak…

“The present day composer refuses to die!” – Edgar Varese, by way of Frank Zappa Quirky little Lake Worth’s irrepressible alternative community has a signature new meetup space, the product of do-it-yourself grit and off-the-grid thinking. In a ragamuffin industrial building in a faded immigrant neighborhood southeast of downtown, the…

Our favorite reformed pot smuggler and marijuana legalization activist, Bobby Platshorn, is at it again, with an ingenious scheme to bring the good word on maryjane to the attention of legislators and the general public. And once again he’s drawing on support from an unexpected quarter of the population –…

In an emblematic victory for clear thinking and common decency, the Boy Scouts of America yesterday voted an end to their long-running policy that denied membership to openly gay youth. Meeting in suburban Dallas, the 1,400 members of the group’s national council enacted new standards, including this statement: No youth…

The Boy Scouts of America vote tomorrow on a proposal that would end the organization’s long-running ban on openly gay scouts. Predictably, traditional values types favor keeping the ban. Just as predictably, Florida Christian conservatives are in the forefront of the reaction, rallying to stem the tide of time. The…

Republicans and Tea Party types say they respect the men and women of the military. If respect means wrapping yourself in the flag and sending young people off to die, so it is. Back home again, it’s another story. Conservatives cracking down on social welfare spending hits veterans especially hard,…

It started out in Florida in 2010, born out of revulsion at the prospect of oil rigs in the near offshore. That February, more than 10,000 concerned citizens just said “no,” linking hands on dozens of beaches across the state, drawing a literal line in the sand. Mere months later,…

A hard-nosed journalist and a hard-boiled author are teaming up Tuesday to talk about newspapering and crime fiction; to eat, drink and be merry; and to raise a few bucks for innovative local investigative news organ the Broward Bulldog. The evening’s featured guest is Michael Connelly, a Broward boy whose…

“Can’t anybody here play this game?” — Baseball manager Casey Stengel, about the 1962 New York Mets, whose 120 losses are the most by any MLB team in one season in the 20th century. See also: – Chick-fil-A Stadium: FAU Considered Homophobic Firm Hapless Florida Atlantic University president Mary Jane…

A Texas-based Tea Party organization and the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections have agreed on a plan to provide the group access to county voting records from the 2012 federal election and voter registration and other records going back to 2009. Planning an audit “unprecedented in that it will…

That GOP need to build bridges to the nation’s Hispanic community? The need party elders have talked so much about since Barack Obama was re-elected largely due to Hispanic support? The need that’s propelled Florida’s own Marco Rubio to preeminence in the early scouting reports on the GOP 2016 presdential…

Working class. What a concept. A shameful secret, even, in a world where we’re all supposed to be either “upwardly mobile” or eternally grateful for the crumbs from the tables of the “job creators.” Bullshit. Stuff don’t happen — and bosses don’t get rich — unless ordinary people put their…

Ever see that photo of the python that tried to swallow an alligator– and the gator explodes out the python’s side as it’s being digested? Or watch animal combat videos on YouTube, with great predators of the planet going at it tooth and claw? That’s how we feel reading about…

A Texas-based Tea Party organization and the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections have agreed on a plan to provide the group access to county voting records from the 2012 federal election and voter registration and other records going back to 2009. See also: – Allen West Will Soon Be…

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s counter-terror tattletale program C-PAT (Community Partners Against Terrorism) first drew widespread attention in late April, with news of a $1 million grant of state money for “Prevention Intervention” units to act preemptively on tips gathered from the program. C-PAT’s soft opening was in mid-April,…

Ain’t no free lunch in this country. Ain’t no bargain prices either, unless someone’s cutting costs. Globalization lets corporations ship jobs from countries with high labor costs (like decent wages and working conditions) to countries with low ones so Walmart shoppers get blue-light specials while workers in Bangladesh get crushed…

A defining moment of Rick Scott’s political career is at hand, in a form no one would have predicted. New legislation concerning the death penalty is on its way to his desk. If he signs it, the Sunshine State may embark on an official killing spree. Florida has long stood…

Could the Occupy movement get a shot of reinvigoration today? Adbusters, the Canadian magazine that initiated the Occupy Wall Street movement, and its related network of activists (or “culture jammers,” as they call themselves) are calling on people to gather outside of Goldman Sachs offices around the world and “shut…

Name yer poison. Especially if you’re messing with chemicals that have the potential to contaminate Florida’s groundwater supply. That’s the intent of legislation filed by State Sen. Jeff Clemens, which would create a registry of chemicals used by companies fracking for oil in the Sunshine State. See also: – America’s…