Citizen Fadgen

He’s a Plantation councilman, a right-wing Christian activist, an abortion protester, and a man who rails against the movie industry, which he believes is destroying the nation’s moral fiber. But now Jerry Fadgen is preparing for his Tinsel Town debut. The councilman warned September 27 of dire consequences following the…

Guardian Games

Kathleen Ulsrud was someone you could trust, according to those with whom she worked. That was important because, as a professional, court-appointed guardian for the elderly, trust was her stock-in-trade. When state workers came across seniors they deemed unable to care for themselves, Ulsrud often got the call. “She would…

The Best Shot at a Cure For Cancer

Temi Linzner wheels her sleek, cobalt blue Mercedes into a parking lot near Holy Cross Hospital. Dark glasses shroud her intense brown eyes; a round-brimmed straw hat covers her sparse crop of short, silver hair. When she first started chemotherapy for her lymphatic cancer in the late 1970s, all her…

Clif’s Carnival

While it storms outdoors, Clif Childree slathers white paint on the concrete walls of a Wilton Manors warehouse. His Converse sneakers are splattered, and his normally spiked hair is pasted to his head with sweat. Gone are the antique coffins, the handcrafted carnival rides, the smell of fresh-cut lumber, and…

Letters to the Editor

Lily-livered, liberal New Times coddles the bad guys: We read with disgust and despair “Crowded Cage” (Emma Trelles, September 21) and surely concur the atrocious conditions in the Broward County Juvenile Detention Center must be addressed and corrected. On the other hand, what alternative are you suggesting for those who…

A Most-Wanted Attorney

As the afternoon sun wanes, F. Lee Bailey squints his light blue eyes and peers from his back yard onto the dazzling Intracoastal Waterway. Seeing him there in his trademark cowboy boots, you understand why he is often described as a legal lion. A short, potbellied man with a large,…

A Homeless Homicide

Richard Courtney vividly remembers the day he met Christina Van Huffel, the day the stage was set for the homeless woman’s death. She was sitting in her usual spot on a bench outside Publix at the Ramblewood Square Shopping Center in Coral Springs. “She was filthy dirty, covered with grime,”…

Letters to the Editor

Jen’s mom is now safe at the River House: I am writing in regard to Jen Karetnick’s review of the River House (“Bringing Up the Rear,” September 21). First let me say there is never any excuse for poorly prepared or spoiled food being served in a restaurant. I have…

Mixing and Acting

Wayne Radomski sells confidence. A robust composite of Gordon Gekko and Dom DeLuise, he sits behind a sturdy marble desk the size of a pickup truck’s bed. His office on Oakland Park Boulevard, one mile west of I-95, is decorated with Greek statues, greenery, and gold light fixtures. His rapid-fire…

Crowded Cage

Last February, as Chris Hanley rode with his stepbrother to a neighborhood video store, Sunrise police pulled over their white Pontiac Grand Am. Hanley’s stepbrother had run a red light, and when the cops ran a background check on the two, they discovered that the 17-year-old Hanley not only had…

Hortt No More

Read Hortt No More 2 Early this year the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale hosted “Do It,” a traveling exhibition based on instructions from an artists’ collective. To create one piece, the staff was directed to issue a call for works illustrating a crime. One submission took curator Ginger…

Rats Indeed

Carol Labelle could not rely on beauty, youth, education, friends in high places, a stable family, the good will of strangers, or even a steady job. At 51 years of age, she lacked those advantages. But she figured at least Uncle Sam would be there for her, as he had…

Letters to the Editor

In which a heroic trailer park resident reports arboricide: I read with much interest Amy Roe’s feature story this week (“Branch Managers,” September 14). I live in a mobile home park in Davie, and just this week I came back from work and found an entire row of trees, which…

Branch Managers

Jack Martin’s foot presses down ever so slightly on the gas pedal, inching the white, government-issue Ford Ranger through the gentle curves of a cul-de-sac he’s come to know by heart. All around him the sun-warmed walls of pink stucco homes seem to stretch and melt into one another like…

Missing Moore

As lightning flashed across a purple sky on the evening of September 5, about 70 supporters of Broward County commission hopeful and current Fort Lauderdale city commissioner Carlton Moore cranked up the music at his West Oakland Park Boulevard campaign headquarters. Just call my name, and I’ll be there… poured…

Getting Sleeeepy…

Twenty people, eight men and twelve women, lie sprawled in a conference room tucked deep inside the tony Boca Raton Resort & Club. Some are in their mid twenties, others on the backside of sixty. Some are coiffed, perfumed, and sporting business casual wear; others look like hockey fans right…

Letters to the Editor

Just another club body-slammed by our mad-dog music maven: Jeff Stratton walks into our club on our only heavy-metal night at 8:15 and judges us. (Bandwidth, September 7). What in the world is he thinking? First of all we open at 8, and I don’t know many clubs that pack…

A Real Chip Shot

There’s David Lottes, the golf king, surrounded by Hollywood officials and politicians, with a shovel in his hand for an official groundbreaking. He smiles wide for the photographers. There’s Lottes, who has contributed thousands to city commission and mayoral campaigns, in Mexico, vacationing with his good friend Alan Koslow, the…

A Bully Market

Texas-based author Jim Schutze knew what he was looking for: a murder story involving affluent white people, the younger the better. The more sex in it, the merrier his contract would be. Shutze’s literary agent had said if he found a story with these elements, Hollywood would likely come knocking…

Letters to the Editor

The feds left this guy out to dry: I have just read Roger Williams’ story on the Social Security Administration (“Social Insecurity,” August 17). As a former SSA employee, I have seen firsthand similar disregard for employees’ health. On one occasion both myself and the claims representative sitting next to…

Greed Huber Alles

At 2:10 a.m. on July 12, 1995, 24-year-old Lee Crompton’s life changed forever and for the worse. Crompton was riding in the back seat of a rented 1995 Ford Taurus that sailed through a line of flashing markers denoting a road-construction site and crashed into the rear of a parked…