Last September, Bruce Udolf and his wife, Sheryl, were in the living room of their Southwest Ranches home watching the news. A report came on about disgraced Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne, who had just resigned after entering a guilty plea to mail fraud and tax evasion based on pocketing…

It’s crunch time in the Republican VP sweepstakes. If Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wants to win, he has to outrun the rumor that he’s light in the loafers. Getting engaged was a good start, but he needs an extreme makeover to be straight enough for the family values crew. Refer…

On April 1, as dusk settled on Bal Harbour, Dr. David Goroway parked his white Toyota Tundra on Collins Avenue. Only a few years ago, when he lived with his wife, a former model, in a mansion in Southwest Ranches, a trip to Bal Harbour might have meant a day…

Theresa Gerstner can recall how suspicion crept slowly into her mind. It was peculiar to see boys climbing into Rev. Neil Doherty’s car for a trip to the movies. Then she learned the St. Vincent Catholic Church pastor took boys to his mother’s house in West Palm Beach and even…

Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s political acumen has never been in doubt. Nor has her ambition. At 26, she became the youngest woman ever elected to the Florida Legislature. A decade later, she decided to run for U.S. Congress representing the district around her Weston home — despite having just given birth…

It’s May 21, and residents of Sunrise Lakes condos are getting a fresh lesson in the virtues of punctuality. Stragglers who arrive at the Hillary Clinton campaign stop three hours early sit in an overflow room. Others turn back toward home. They are late for the candidate but early for…

For all the talk of political revolution, Hollywood’s April 2 city commission was heading in the same direction as during the glory days of deposed Mayor Mara Giulianti: toward giving a developer a boatload of incentives and zoning concessions, despite a slew of unresolved problems. The project is ArtsPark Village,…

Around the age of 8, a boy we’ll call Sam made a new friend. He was a man in his early 50s, the Rev. Neil Doherty, pastor at St. Vincent Catholic parish across the street from Sam’s Margate home. Sam’s family was not religious, and as the boy spent more…

It was still dark when Patrick Neptune arrived at Fort Lauderdale Beach, just before 5 a.m. on Friday, February 22. Neptune, who had come from his home in Plantation, steered his black minivan onto A1A, parked along the sidewalk, and got out. He peered at the night sky, where the…

Part of the appeal of 999 Riviera Isle is privacy. Outsiders can hardly see this vast villa from the road — even if they manage to get past the security gate that lies a block south of the street’s intersection with Las Olas. That’s because there’s another, more imposing gate…

On his last day as a free man, in the spring of 2006, Pablo Rayo Montaño probably didn’t venture far from his home in São Paulo, Brazil. It was too dangerous, even for a man like Rayo. São Paulo was virtually under siege: Inmates had rioted at 70 prisons across…

With just days remaining before Floridians vote on January 29, beachfront development is the hottest issue in South Florida’s fiercest political race — that is, if the flow of campaign dollars is any measure. Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti, buoyed by well-funded allies, is running for reelection as a champion of…

For regulars at the Sunday service of Fort Lauderdale’s New Mount Olive Baptist Church, the spiritual journey of Pastor Mack King Carter is as familiar as that of any biblical figure. It begins in Ocala, Florida, in 1953, when, at the age of five, Carter says he became “a slave…

Six days a week, the curse follows Rick Stembridge. On any one of those days, he’s liable to receive a nasty letter demanding payment or else. He may be compelled to appear at a hearing or sit for a deposition across a table from a snarling attorney. And one of…

It’s got the makings of another TV crime drama, with Eric Augustus as the no-nonsense, hard-assed veteran police sergeant and Det. Michael Verdugo as the dashing, hot-shot rookie. They’ve got nothing in common except their love of catching bad guys. There’s just one catch: This is the Hollywood Police Department,…

The body of Anna Nicole Smith lies beneath ten feet of Bahamian dirt. But eight months after her death, her ghost still stalks South Florida, thanks to a case filed last April in Fort Lauderdale’s U.S. District Court. Though it caused barely a ripple in the otherwise-vigilant tabloid press, Stern…

Pembroke Park seems too small for scandal. A south Broward County town with fewer than 6,000 inhabitants and a median income around $25,000, it has few things worth stealing. This tends to ward off corruption. At the monthly commission meetings — held in a Town Hall chamber that Pembroke Park…

George Theodore was not expecting me. Judging by his what’s-your-angle expression, this is not a pleasant surprise for the CEO of a Boca Raton company called University Lab Technologies. Before he will answer one of my questions, he has a few of his own. “Who are you?” is the first…

Clint Bridges wrestles 13-foot alligators. He also builds airboats and drives them deep into the flat, featureless expanse of the Florida Everglades without ever getting lost. But to make a living through these talents, Bridges needs about 30 acres of marshy wilderness. He could count on that for the past…

Bryan Hoisington always wanted to work in law enforcement, and he knew the people who could make that happen in Hollywood — starting with his father. Larry Hoisington retired in 2005 from the Hollywood Police Department after 30 years as a model officer. He was the department’s Officer of the…

¨What´s the score?¨ is how Vincent Bell greets his cell phone on the afternoon of June 30. The Palm Beach County firefighter is mired in another 24-hour shift, to pay for the world-class tennis education of his 12-year-old daughter, Dominique Henry. He´s been waiting to hear about the match´s first…

The buses were supposed to be here by 6. It’s 8. No buses — and no one is surprised. No one is even complaining. “Welcome to the Special Olympics,” says a volunteer, grinning. Spread across this north Fort Lauderdale parking lot is a group of 150 Special Olympics athletes and…