Vern Buchanan has been a name bandied about in discussions over those two big political job openings in 2010 — U.S. Senator and Florida Governor. But the Republican congressman from Sarasota is not very familiar to voters across the state, and for the last few months he’s looked a bit…
That’s what Charles Schulze said to his companion of 20 years, Helen Smith, a moment before he jumped into a churning ocean to save two boys, aged 9 and 12, in danger of drowning Saturday at Pompano Beach.Schulze, a personal injury lawyer who lived mostly in the Washington, D.C., area,…
Claire Elford, widow of Craig Elford, one of two British tourists killed in February after a Porsche lost control and struck them on Seabreeze Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, filed suit yesterday against the Porsche’s owner, Ryan LeVin, and his friend, Derek Cook, the Tamarac man who LeVin told police was…
When House Republicans caucus, I’ll bet it looks something like this: Star Wars-Imperial March – Click here for more amazing videosAmid all the other state budget crises, it’s not getting nearly enough attention, but the Florida Legislature is on the brink of giving the heave-ho to $444 million in federal…
Now I wish I hadn’t got my hopes up about these amazing Florida license plates. Here I was all ready to ask whether displayers of the crucified Christ plate would be forgiven for not obeying the new law for wearing one’s seat belt (because Jesus is riding shotgun, natch). But…
Via the Village Voice Media wire, here’s Ed Muscare, aka “Uncle Ed,” who according to our friends in Kansas City is a former children’s show host and current registered sex offender in Florida (correction: see update below). Where, exactly, in Florida? Well, God, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?…
Former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman was acquitted this afternoon by a Broward County jury of aggravated assault, a felony charge that would have meant a minimum three years in prison. He was convicted on the misdemeanor charge of improperly displaying a firearm.Tastes bittersweet to me. As I said yesterday, following…
Poor George Orwell, dying before blogs were born. He’d have had a field day with the folks behind the Free Speech Summit, who have proven themselves adept at silencing debate. That summit was staged last night, not at the Delray Beach Marriott as originally planned but at an undisclosed location…
Among the many and varied indulgences that South Floridians must forgo in this era of financial dieting, the least of them, I would guess, is junk mail. Like the piece pictured at the left from Congressman Ron Klein, the Fort Lauderdale Democrat.Not that people in Klein’s district aren’t interested in…
With a few days left before the state legislative session goes into OT, we are almost ready to pronounce its legacy: This year, 2009, was the one in which Florida slipped off an economic cliff, but not before saving us from our oversexed selves. Sunrise Sen. Nan Rich would slip…
That’s video from the scene of the worst police shooting in Florida this year. Now the governor-appointed Okaloosa County sheriff, Edward Spooner, is trying to defend his department’s decision to arrest a wife-beating weapons expert at a gun range. In an incident that appeared entirely avoidable, two deputies were killed…
This morning, I swung by the trial of ex-Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman. Based on what I’ve read about the guy, he sounds like a pretty lousy citizen. Drunk driving down the wrong side of the street, then asking the city to pay his legal bill. Before that, substitute teaching in…
At first, it seemed like Delray Beach Rep. Adam Hasner just had one of those typical, post-9/11 freakouts, panicking at the prospect of a Muslim group’s lobbying trip to Tallahassee. Then two weeks ago, we learned that Hasner had agreed to participate in the “Free Speech Summit” headlined by Geert…
Like any place else, Broward County has its share of conventional junkies, but our real addiction, it seems, is to the profits of the pain pill industry. If you have trouble wrangling a prescription in your home county or home state, Broward’s the place to go.The first article in the…
Halfway through this past week’s episode of NBC’s The Office, while the Michael Scott Paper Co.’s three employees sit on the floor of their closet turned headquarters, swapping stories of personal failure, the character Ryan offers:”I never went to Thailand.”It’s a reference to an earlier episode in which, during a…
Last month, when Florida Sen. Gary Siplin of Orlando proposed the “Trinity” automobile license plate to be draped with the crucified torso of Jesus Christ, it seemed worth filing in the old “Crazy Shit That Could Never Happen” file. After all, as FlaBlog points out, this idea never caught on…
Heads up, Broward County: Your ex-sheriff ex-con gave an interview to former Sun-Sentinel columnist Buddy Nevins that was posted on Broward Beat over the weekend. It’s a cream-puff interview, but whatever. Ken Jenne was convicted, served his time, and no one can doubt his regret is genuine. Besides, there’s enough…
That’s the just-released trailer for Outrage, by provocative documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick, which debuted this past week at the Tribeca Film Festival. We told you how outed Palm Beach Congressman Mark Foley was going to be a character in the film and hypothesized (without consulting Bob Norman, I swear) that…
When a crime happens, best to make a beeline for the motive. Who profited from the crime? Which is why, I fear, the Great Maracas Caper of 2009 may never be solved. It was a crime — fraud, I think — that seems to have had no motive. Maracas, the…
It’s Friday, and I can’t with a clear conscience inflict the kind of stress on you that will surely come with describing the current condition of the state budget — at least not without the proper caveat. So if you have high blood pressure, or if there’s a history of…
Tom Daley, the 14-year-old Olympic diver from the UK, has been bullied at school in his native Plymouth, a city on the country’s western peninsula. As a result, his father says the family is considering moving… somewhere. Nowhere in that article does it say the bullying has been related to…
