The Andre Johnson cheating case remains a subject of discussion at the University of Miami. Seven members of UM’s faculty senate are investigating the case, in which the star football player was caught cheating on his classwork, but will still be allowed to play this fall. “I have asked the…
No evidence: In regard to Steve Ellman’s March 14 story, “Making Airwaves,” there can be little doubt that “The Dick” Farrel will lose his court case against the former schoolteacher, Larry Ferrara. After all, Farrel, according to New Times, has offered no proof Ferrara is a pedophile or a threat…
If the Rev. Avis Hill had any trepidation about standing in a synagogue to deliver a sermon on the evening of Friday, March 8, he didn’t show any sign of it. A short man wearing a blue sport coat and an American-flag tie, Hill exhibited a nuclear smile that radiated…
Hundreds of Pompano Beach residents are swarming to fight the proposed International Swimming Hall of Fame deal between the city and controversial developer Michael Swerdlow. About a half dozen civic groups have banded together to stop Mayor Bill Griffin, who is spearheading the deal. They’ve gone so far as to…
“America to me should be shouting all the time, a bunch of shouting voices, most of them wrong, some of them nuts, but, please, not just one droning glamorous reasonable voice.”– George Saunders, My Flamboyant Grandson By night, WPBR broadcasts Creole-language programming for Palm Beach County’s Haitian community. Most of…
Take notice, Tally! Thank you for publishing “You Can’t Handle the Truth!” (Strouse, March 7). I think everyone assumes that if public officials don’t want us to know what they are doing, they should not be doing it. With that in mind, please keep up the good work. It would…
It’s 7:06 a.m. on Wednesday, February 6, and Palm Beach County’s last outpost of locally produced talk radio, WPBR-AM (1340) is on the air. The station’s disclaimer has run — “The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of the host, guests, and callers and do not necessarily…
As Sgt. Scott Russell eases the police van into the parking lot of St. Andrews United Methodist Church, a ragtag throng quickly surrounds it. Each Thursday evening, the Fort Lauderdale church, just a half mile north of City Hall, serves a meatloaf dinner for the city’s poor and homeless. Many…
Attention, fellow animal lovers: With our unelected president pushing for more tax cuts, even in the face of $1.3 trillion in deficits projected between 2002 and 2012 (call it Reaganomics 2: Electric Boogaloo), we should all take a moment to thank the powers that be for maintaining the federal government’s…
MEMORANDUM March 7, 2002 To: Michael Satz, Kathy Rundle, South Florida prosecutors, police officers From: CES Re: Misplaced priorities It has come to my attention recently that you law-enforcement types have lost respect for a little something called the truth. No, this isn’t 9/11-related. Cops have been hassling reporters and…
…makes Sherri look good: Do Chuck Strouse’s knuckles scrape the ground when he walks? Just wondering. Because the last Undercurrents penned by him (February 14) about the janitor named “Mike” is such a low, juvenile attempt at journalism that I can only imagine Strouse is a slack-jawed, gap-toothed, suspendered hillbilly…
It’s hard to operate a steering wheel when your hands don’t work, but years of practice let John Garon turn his ten-year-old white Ford van by shoving on an attached knob. He presses on an array of levers to work the gas, brakes, and signals as he slowly circles Tri-County…
The brothers Cosinero Cux have to make a tough decision. Deadline: today. The options: Scrape together $1800 to pay off a Miami shipping company. Hope the state steps in. Pray for last-minute divine intervention. Or say good-bye to 90 pairs of cowboy boots, 210 women’s blouses, 102 pairs of men’s…
Tom Johnston is a big man who, but for his prominent, parted mane of white hair, looks like a middle-aged Orson Welles, just pre-Touch of Evil. Under the hair is a large, bald, moon face, often partially obscured by eyeglasses. On his six-foot-plus frame, he carries his round, prominent belly…
She’s not trying to put words in our mouths, but…: In her February 14 article belittling the journalistic ethics of the Broward Times (“Print and Politics”), Ashley Fantz exposed some shortcomings of her own. Interviewing me, she repeatedly had occasion to say, “I’m not trying to put words in your…
Rosa is crying.She is wearing a stretchy, blue-striped T-top, a stretchy skirt with blue stripes colliding in clashing patterns, and a wide, stretchy red headband. The jumble of stripes and the headband looked jaunty on the pretty 19-year-old when she answered the door on a late January afternoon, but now…
A tiny clump of mascara has gathered in the corner of Kara Lucas’s eye. She blinks once, then again, her gaze fixed. The browned skin of her oval face shines with sweat. Her fists are raised, turning the red punching bag into a snare drum. Lips pursed in concentration, she…
History relived, not relieved: I want to thank you for Jeff Stratton’s excellent article, “A House Surrounded” (February 7). The history of Fort Lauderdale has been decimated by the developers who come and leave our county with barrels full of money. Our historical buildings and houses are all but gone…
The second wave of worshipers pushes through the heavy doors of Mount Hermon Church. The echo of an organ’s final note follows them out into the muggy sun and onto NW Seventh Terrace this morning before Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday. Charles Wilkenson, standing next to his green truck across…
David Pecker’s had a rough time of it since last October, when an anthrax-laden envelope arrived in the offices of his Boca Raton tabloid empire, American Media Inc. He’s seen one senior employee die of the disease, several become infected, and many more panic. He’s absorbed an estimated $10 million…
Broward County School Board Chairperson Bob Parks, head man at the nation’s fifth-largest district, last week offered a novel solution to the old problem of classroom slovenliness: hire a private firm to train janitors. It’s not union busting, says Parks. Just a way to make the schools work better. Right…
Ready for reportage: Why is it always a fear of something? Why not title Jeff Stratton’s January 24 Bandwidth column “Disgust of a Black Chili Pepper?” Stratton is the one afraid to tell the truth. I suppose he worries about job security in times like these. Let me enlighten you…
