by Lisa RabThe vegan restaurant is locked and shuttered.It’s been a rough year for the vegan/raw food Soma Center Café. First, a newly opened West Palm Beach location closed its doors after just two months. Now the original Lake Worth hangout for yogis and raw foodies has been padlocked and…
Professor Jill Levenson says not all sex offenders are alike.In a world where residency restrictions exile convicted sex offenders to live under bridges and on park benches, a glimmer of sanity has emerged. Working with psychology professors at Lynn University, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has launched a new…
Debra Villegas relied on Melissa Lewis (right) to help care for her family.At Debra Villegas’ dramatic sentencing hearing last week, her psychologist argued against sending Scott Rothstein’s former right-hand woman to prison for ten years, saying the separation would crush Villegas’ two young sons. “They wouldn’t survive,” psychologist Lori Butts…
Come out, come out wherever you are, Charlie. It’s National Coming Out Day, and a mere three weeks before Election Day. Rumors have been swirling for years, but only you have the power to spin them into reality. Here’s why you should seize the moment:1. You’d win even more Democratic…
Villegas has been in jail for more than two years.Tony Villegas’ mental health is a moving target, according to his attorney, and the fluctuating opinions of psychologists have stalled his trial for the killing of Melissa Britt Lewis indefinitely.In March 2008, Villegas was arrested for allegedly strangling Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler…
Tribune CEO Randy Michaels.Sun-Sentinel staffers are buzzing this morning about a New York Times article that makes their corporate bosses look like overgrown extras from Anchorman.The Tribune Co., which is headquartered in Chicago and owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune as well as the Sentinel, is run…
flickr user: sskennelLike a train wreck, you can’t look away.I have a confession to make about Sarah Palin. It’s not an easy thing to admit, especially from this side of the liberal-elite media establishment. Every fiber of my journalistic being urges me to ignore her, to block out the gleaming,…
We’ve got a stack of wine-and-gold jerseys ready to clothe the homeless, and we’re looking for more.As we mentioned last week, Miami New Times is giving away a pair of Miami Heat tickets to the person who donates the most LeBron James jerseys, shoes, and other goodies from the King’s…
Calvin Williams was killed May 14.This week’s New Times feature story focuses on the murder of Calvin Williams, 41, a special-ed teacher at L.C. Swain Middle School in Greenacres. In May, a lover allegedly shot and killed Williams in his Riviera Beach apartment.Lawrence Hunt, 20, told police that he shot…
In the Riviera Beach neighborhood where Calvin Williams lived, the houses are plain, single-story concrete blocks painted in drab greens and tans. Air-conditioning units poke out of windows, satellite dishes dot the roofs, and flannel sheets serve as window shades. Nine miles away, Donald Trump and Rod Stewart have built…
Tony Villegas arrived in Broward County Court this morning looking weary after more than two years in jail, his thin face hidden by a scruffy brown beard. He sat quietly, cuffed hands in his lap, wearing a black-and-white striped shirt that set him apart from the drab blue uniforms of…
Debra Villegas, left, says she was both powerful and ignorant.Debra Villegas has long presented herself as woman with dual lives: A terrified wife with an abusive husband at home, and a “cold-hearted bitch” in her day job as chief operating officer at the 70-person Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm.But in…
”Liberals want soldiers to die,” blares the pop-up quote from Allen West. At first blush, the ad looks like it’s touting West’s congressional campaign. But read a little closer, and you’ll see it’s intended to attack him. Read the fine print, and you’ll discover the ad is paid for by…
Debra Villegas, left, implicated others in the scheme.We’ll be posting the entire 50-page transcript from Debra Villegas’ confession hearing soon. But until then, here are the most intriguing moments from the June 11 hearing in front of U.S. District Judge William Zloch. Villegas, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of…
Debra Villegas and Melissa Lewis.Three months after Debra Villegas pleaded guilty to aiding in Scott Rothstein’s massive Ponzi scheme, there’s still plenty of mystery surrounding her relationship with the disgraced lawyer. How much did she know, and when did she know it? Did her best friend’s death have anything to…
Flickr user: injuThings just got more stressful at the Herald.The Daily Newspaper Death March continued with yesterday’s announcement of 49 jobs cut from the Miami Herald. Of those, nine positions were eliminated in the Herald newsroom, and six were sliced from the Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald.This is worrisome on a…
Koretzky, still a rebel.When last we left the South Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, members were reeling from a coup staged by Florida Atlantic University student newspaper adviser Michael Koretzky and a band of young whippersnapper journos.Old-guard board members of the venerable group were aghast at Koretzky’s…
PBSOLawrence Hunt has been charged with second-degree murder.The murder of Riviera Beach middle school teacher Calvin Williams this spring raised a tangle of legal and ethical questions. One of the most troubling: Does the threat of contracting HIV justify killing someone?Lawrence Hunt, 20, told police that he shot Williams, 41,…
As Election Day approaches, the three-way U.S. Senate race between Independent Charlie Crist, Republican Marco Rubio, and Democrat Kendrick Meek gets stranger by the minute. In today’s installment, Crist and Meek both canceled a scheduled talk at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, because neither wanted to cross a…
Rubio, a darling of Big Oil.Four months ago, as oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster gushed into the Gulf of Mexico and threatened Panhandle beaches, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio stubbornly defended his support for offshore drilling.”The issue of offshore drilling is not going away, because America and the…
Guess Where I’m Peeing is toilet humor, plain and simple, set in the scenic restrooms of South Florida. We post ’em, you name ’em.Today’s episode features a taste of Key West, way up in Palm Beach County where the suburbanites roam. There’s sand beneath the tables, and many flavors of…
Palm Beach State Attorney Michael McAuliffe has attracted plenty of attention lately for his efforts to bust public corruption. He recently forced the resignation of the fourth county commissioner in four years to face criminal charges and created a Public Corruption Task Force to hound elected officials in Corruption County.So…
