First came the ads touting plastic surgery financing for anyone with a checking account. Now they’re targeting patients with bad credit. If the owners of Strax Rejuvenation and Aesthetics Institute are trying to compete with used-car salesmen, they’re doing an excellent job.See also: Strax Rejuvenation CEO Jeffry Davis Has Criminal Record “Strax…
Sitting in his Palm Beach mansion, a storm-weary South Floridian, Rush Limbaugh is right to scoff at the nation’s reaction to Hurricane Irene. He contends President Obama wanted the storm to be worse than it was, and he has a point.Fears about the storm were way overblown. Who cares about…
U.S. Rep. Allen West returned yesterday from his whirlwind tour of Israel, and it’s clear the Holy Land had a profound impact on him. I mean, they had a really, really deep connection. Like, soul mates, dude.”Israel… is my spiritual homeland,” West wrote in his weekly note to constituents. “It…
Say what you will about Rep. Allen West, but the man is consistent. His visit to Israel this week has been a live-action tour of his hardline beliefs about Islam and the Jewish state. He visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, and compared “the mad ideology of Islamic totalitarianism” to…
Skip to minute 2:30, and you’ll see the white-haired, 71-year-old Bill Koch place the winning, $2 million bid for the only known photo of Billy the Kid earlier this summer. The crowd at the Denver Merchandise Mart stands up and cheers, and Koch, after a moment of indecision, grins and…
Two mansions, two miles apart, spark intrigue on the island of Palm Beach. The first, on the northern end of the oceanfront street nicknamed “Billionaire’s Row,” is 30,000 square feet of arched windows and red, Spanish-tile roof, a villa that includes a ballroom where flappers danced and sipped moonshine in…
Billionaire oil barons Charles and David Koch are the sugar daddies behind the Tea Party. They have given at least $100 million to right-wing causes over the years and are alternately reviled and admired for their enormous web of influence in Washington, D.C. But why should you care about David’s…
Strax Rejuvenation and Aesthetics Institute in Lauderhill prides itself on making plastic surgery available to the masses. Owners of the high-volume surgery office say their nips and tucks are less expensive than other doctors’ because they buy surgical supplies, such as breast implants and sutures, in bulk.But Strax also offers…
Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge, Lou Dobbs, Dick Morris — a cornucopia of right-wing talking heads call South Florida home. According to today’s New York Times, this makes the area “A Conservative Beachhead in the Sunshine.” The Times notes that after Limbaugh moved to Palm Beach in the mid-’90s,…
One of the great mysteries about businesses such as the 1-800-411-PAIN Referral Service is whether the lawyers and doctors involved in the network have a financial incentive to refer car accident victims to one another.Now, a state lawmaker is trying to force medical and legal referral services to reveal any…
Some attorneys aren’t happy with the Florida Bar’s oversight of for-profit referral services that direct car accident victims to networks of doctors and lawyers. But public records show the bar is regulating ads for those services — just in a meek, lawyerly kind of way.For example, dressing an actor in…
The Florida Bar is finally paying attention to the 1-800-411-PAIN Referral Service, in part because other lawyers have been complaining.411-PAIN is a Broward-based network of chiropractors and lawyers that solicits clients who have been in car accidents. Although many of its ads have been approved by the Florida Bar, some…
Rick Scott’s decision to appoint a pro-business corporate executive to the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board is not exactly stunning. This is the governor, after all, who declared Florida “open for business.” But Timothy Sargent, an at-large member who now represents Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and three other…
Several months after New Times raised questions about the 1-800-411-PAIN Referral Service, the Florida Bar is taking a closer look at the local company and its competitors.At its annual convention this summer, the bar held a public hearing on for-profit lawyer referral services. The bar has received written criticism about…
When one arm of the government fails to speak to another, bizarre things occur. For example, a reporter might write a lengthy critique of Florida’s governor and his legislative accomplishments, including a cover illustration of him as the evil emperor from Star Wars. For weeks before the story is published,…
This summer’s sweltering conference season is upon us, and Gov. Rick Scott has been making the rounds. First there was the secret Koch brothers soiree in Colorado, then the video chat with the devoted crowds at Gov. Rick Perry’s prayer rally in Texas.This Friday, Scott is scheduled to speak at…
More than 3,600 Floridians are on a government waiting list for AIDS medicine — the longest list in the country, according to the national nonprofit the AIDS Institute. Of the needy patients, 886 live in Palm Beach and Broward counties.The medicine, which keeps patients healthier and living longer, costs $12,000…
Ginger didn’t recognize the party of six when they sat down at a tiki table and pulled the curtains around them. The Lake Worth waitress was slammed last Wednesday around 9:30 p.m., and she was the only server working. Immediately, the “group of kids” started giving Ginger trouble. They ordered…
Convincing college kids to bare their naughty bits doesn’t sound like a tough sell. But Daniel Phillips, 25, says some youngsters must be persuaded that nudists are “not just old hippies.” That’s why Phillips is helping to organize the Streak Sunsport Gardens 5K, a clothing-optional run/walk at the Sunsport Gardens…
Not so long ago, LeBron James could sell anything from Vitamin Water to Nike sneakers simply by treading water in a swimming pool.Now, the Miami Heat star’s popularity has declined so drastically that he’s no longer one of the top ten most marketable players in the NBA, according to the…
Guerdwich Montimere, the former Dillard High School basketball player who moved to Texas when he was 22 and reinvented himself as a 16-year-old, came clean in the legal sense yesterday.He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a child — for having sex with a 15-year-old girl he…
There’s never a dull moment with U.S. Rep. Allen West on Capitol Hill. This week, as he drew kudos for abandoning Tea Party hard-liners and backing House Speaker’s John Boehner’s debt plan — a compromise that temporarily raises the nation’s borrowing limit while also cutting spending — West still made…
