Ten eight-week-old bloodhound puppies — hyped up as only puppies can be — surround Debbie Roknich as she enters her Wellington yard. Sinking to the ground, she lets the dogs bury her with love. They plant wet licks on her face and gently nip on her clothes. “I love this,”…
Allen Smith’s home of eight years is a pop-up trailer that no longer pops — and hasn’t for a long time. It’s the kind of contraption you drag behind the family station wagon on trips to Yellowstone or Disney World. Allen Smith cannot even stand in the trailer. There is…
Into the boiling cauldron that is politics in Hollywood we throw two new ingredients. One is sure to raise the level of bitterness, and the other should add a touch of much-needed sweetness. Betrayal. This comes in the form of a new attack on Mara Giulianti’s campaign for mayor (nothing…
Walking into Maurice Connell’s office at Hollywood’s Oakwood Plaza is like flipping through a book entitled Who’s Who of Local, State, and National Politics and looking at the photos. Every inch of the walls is covered with framed pictures of Connell with political heavyweights. Look, there are Jack and Bobby…
Warning to a county official in charge of Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport: Woe unto you who hurt the tender feelings of small airlines under the protection of Broward County commissioner Lori Parrish — especially those represented by lobbyists who contribute to her election campaigns. Parrish anointed herself the patron saint…
Inside room 347 at the Broward County courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Vicki Lynch curls her arm around her husband Kenny’s shoulders, smoothes his blond ponytail, then wipes the puffy skin beneath her eyes with the tips of her fingers. They wait for their names to be called. This particular…
We felt the surge of the water float our car sideways before fully realizing that this was no outer band of a hurricane sweeping over the area on Friday evening. As the rainwater seeped though the doors, the abandoned cars came into view with alarming regularity. Once at home, we…
On February 8, 1999, Kathryn Malie traveled to Fort Lauderdale City Hall to clear her name. The 14-year veteran bureaucrat was armed with a three-volume, 200-page-plus report, complete with receipts, city memos, and intraoffice e-mails. Also in tow was her lawyer. Her audience in the sterile conference room was Pete…
For the past six years, Bobby Zapata has suffered from frequent seizures, possibly due to a childhood head injury, and can’t work or drive. Even walking around the block is chancy. Depressed about his condition and inability to work, the stocky, wiry-haired 37-year-old recently started going for weekly counseling. Zapata,…
Tom Driscoll, the man in charge of building the $600 million Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, told the news media two months ago that he would wait until after the February election “when [Commissioner] John Coleman is out of office” to bring back a controversial proposal for a 600-room hotel. The…
Every Sunday at noon, WPBT-TV (Channel 2) in Miami airs Issues, one of those earnest public-affairs talk shows that you know you should probably watch but never do. One Sunday last month, moderator Helen Ferré presented a panel of two freshly coifed journalists, a toothy young politician, and a bespectacled…
When a golfer pulls up to the Orangebrook Country Club in Hollywood, he can go first class for a buck. The dollar gives him access to the preferred-parking lot, which is the closest lot to the clubhouse and comes with an attendant who dutifully ferries golf clubs to the first…
If there’s a lesson to be gleaned from Gloria Thomas’ two-year wrangle with Fort Lauderdale’s code-enforcement department, it’s that having your heart in the right place isn’t enough. Even if you want to help others, you’ll still have to navigate the morass of city bureaucracy. Thomas had good intentions when…
Call it the Thai wars. The slogan of the newest restaurant coming to downtown Hollywood has some folks there hotter than a dish of Penang curry. “Time to Change Your Thai,” reads the huge sign posted outside the soon-to-open eatery. “Get Excited! Authentic Thai Food is Coming to Hollywood,” claims…
At first glance a trawler doesn’t look like anything to get excited about. It’s not one of those monolithic, 80-foot-plus motor yachts that ooze and burble down the New River all sleek lines, glistening white hulls, and black-tinted windows. Nor is it a sublime, multimasted sailboat, the kind that appears…
Penned in 1892 by a socialist minister turned journalist named Francis Bellamy, the Pledge of Allegiance originally read: “I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands — one nation, indivisible — with liberty, and justice for all.” But Broward County’s public schoolchildren — who…
Seven months pregnant and clutching her belly, Kelly O’Connor is halfway across an intersection at Young Circle when the cars that had been stopped at a red light abruptly start moving. She raises her hand in a plea to stop them and scurries to the sidewalk. “I feel like I’m…
The already crowded field of glossy magazines aimed at gay men in South Florida is about to get a new competitor. Muchacho magazine will join David, Scoop, and HOTspots! next month in vying for the attention of barflies and club hoppers across South Florida. As the name implies, Muchacho will…
Last December 4 began as a typical day in the short life of Dawnia Hope Dacosta. By 10 a.m. that Friday, the 21-year-old choir singer was at Broward Community College studying to become a pediatric nurse. That afternoon she worked at American Express as a customer service representative. After punching…
David Heilman is making the most of happy hour. A slow but steady stream of Bacardi rum and Cokes, interspersed with glasses of Budweiser, appear and disappear in front of him on the bar at Gatsby’s in West Palm Beach. The small Tuesday-evening crowd consists mainly of middle-aged men dressed…
You may believe South Floridians were spared the wrath of Hurricane Floyd. If you watch a lot of TV news and therefore tend to think in clichés and mixed metaphors, you may be “thanking your lucky stars that we dodged this bullet.” Perhaps you joined the entire South Florida “community”…
After the Canadian snowbirds flew north for the summer, the dailies scaled back their Canada coverage. But even when they were publishing dispatches on Canadian hockey and politics, the papers failed to pick up on an intriguing story with an actual connection to South Florida. It seems that, over the…
