With its 150,000 population, Pembroke Pines stands to get a nice, fat slice of the $10-12 billion coming to Florida from the economic stimulus package Obama will sign into law today. How will Mayor Frank Ortis spend his Obama bills? Not on hookers nor cocaine. Not on a U2 performance…
It looks like Fort Lauderdale Mayor Elect Jack Seiler is enjoying his honeymoon. Five days after routing three other candidates in the municipal elections, he paid a Sunday morning visit to This Week in South Florida on WPLG Local 10. An unpugnacious and downright avuncular Michael Putney asked Seiler about…
If baseball players like South Florida homeboy ARod can use banned substances to gain supernatural powers, it seems only fair that I should be able to call upon supernatural powers to reincarnate a group of the 20th Century’s best: players who managed to post their sensational statistics in an era…
Of all the golfers at this weekend’s Allianz Championship in Boca Raton, Jim Thorpe is going to lug around the most baggage. The 60-year-old who won three PGA Tour tournaments and four since he’s joined the Champions Tour, for golfers over 50, was charged Wednesday with cheating on his taxes…
From the start of the campaign for Fort Lauderdale mayor, Jack Seiler had a residency problem. He lived in Wilton Manors. But in the context of campaign obstacles, this was a fairly easy, if expensive, fix. He put his Wilton Manors home(s) up for sale, and rented a place in…
The International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association is glad for the bloodless coup (term limits) that brought about the end of the reign of Mayor Jim Naugle, a foe to the gays. Also, it must be glad for the election of former Wilton Manors mayor and friend to the gays,…
A “double” what? Sorry, I don’t speak French. Just check out the Strategic Vision poll released yesterday on Florida’s 2010 U.S. Senate race. It attaches numbers to some obvious truths, such as Gov. Charlie Crist getting 54 percent of the votes against other prospective candidates in a Republican primary. The…
You don’t really have to beat the Chicago Bulls. Just let them stand at the perimeter and launch low-percentage shots or make impossible passes. If that doesn’t work, just wait. Eventually, their imbecile coach — named Vinny of the Black — will summon from the bench an Argentine madman named…
Here is a video of a UFO, courtesy Paul. Who knows whether Paul shot the original video — which would have required the purchase of a remote-controlled flying saucer, or at least some nifty special effects. Or whether he deserves credit for time-stamping it February 9, 2009, and indexing it…
Granted, “stimulus packages” sound a lot more telegenic than they actually are. But one would think that a desperate, trillion-dollar attempt to save the American economy would be a sure thing for the top spot on TV newscast. And it might have been until fire struck in Plantation (pictured).Nobody was…
OK, so that faith in mankind thing lasted almost an hour. Meet the Marc family of North Miami. Mom’s stepping out on Dad, but in what might be the most twisted way of atoning for sins in the history of extra-marital affairs, she allegedly lures her lover into a trap,…
Well, here’s a story that pretty much restores one’s faith in mankind. It’s the story of two cystic fibrosis patients at opposite sides of Florida trying to make a go at love — despite the fact they were each trying to break in a new set of lungs. Samantha Peterson…
A few hours before the corporate Christmas party in December 2005, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office came to collect Cliff Berry II. They hauled him off on six felony counts, including fraud, racketeering, and grand theft. Another blow to the Yuletide cheer: The company itself, Cliff Berry Inc., would also…
Howard Dean was the first darling of the “netroots” — the progressive and liberal blogs which were a wailing wall and fundraising catalyst during the Bush years. Then Dean folded. Barack Obama was their next crush, and that turned out pretty well.Will the netroots have as much power as they…
Check it out. Buddy Nevins reports that Sunrise City Attorney Stuart Michelson is actually saving the city legal fees, possibly even justifying his $432,000 contract.You may remember that Michelson took lots of flak en route to his new position, and deservedly so. Here’s a guy who had represented two commissioners…
Early next month public schools across Florida will have to swallow yet another budget cut, state school officials announced. It’ll be two percent, but that’s just a warm-up for the 15 percent public schools can expect next year.So, Broward Teachers Union, keep those pigs handy. By 2010 you just might…
So what’s the over/under on turnout for today’s Fort Lauderdale muni elections? Tim Smith seems to think it’s 10 percent, and that sounds about right. I suspect there’s some voter fatigue from the two-year presidential campaign that ended last November. I’ll bet voters — especially the elderly ones who turn…
Barbaro Montesdoeca (pictured) and his daughter were just taking the old dump truck out for a spin recently. After they’d gone some 100 miles north, Montesdoeca allegedly decided it was time to lighten his load a bit — dumping about 2.6 tons of garbage right there. Seems he wasn’t expecting…
Barack went to the wrong Fort, obviously, but whatever. Here’s live video of him telling Floridians how much he hopes to stimulate them. .msnbcLinks {font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 425px;} .msnbcLinks a {text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height:…
This past weekend, the Los Angeles Times landed the first interview with All-Star slugger Manny Ramirez, currently enjoying his status as the most sought-after free agent in baseball. Ramirez is training in Pensacola Beach while his superagent Scott Boras handles the negotiations with the Giants and Dodgers. In the meantime,…
Remember Katherine Evans, the Pembroke Pines high school senior who got branded a “cyberbully” after she made a Facebook post about how her teacher Ms. Phelps was The Worst? The New York Times caught up with Evans at the University of Florida and published this story. And why not? It’s…
I got a robo-call yesterday afternoon from Jack Seiler’s mayoral campaign instructing me to please ignore an 11th hour smear, or something like that. (I was driving when the call came so I couldn’t jot notes.)Seiler’s clearly the frontrunner, and so he’s smart to keep his guard up, I suppose…
