Just cuz he deserves it: Thank you for Wyatt Olson’s effort and research in reporting the Bush brothers’ greening of Jeb for his reelection (“Big Cypress Buyout,” September 12). It is more than commendable that Olson spotted and had the guts to report about the monumental overcharging of the public…
It’s rush hour in South Florida, and reports of car accidents, nasty traffic jams, and petty crimes blast at boom-box strength in John Wolmer’s Oakland Park home office. Surrounding him on a u-shaped desk are 40 noisy scanners spitting out police chatter picked up from West Palm Beach to Miami…
“This was worse than the 2000 election,” Cathleen Horton says of the problems she and other poll workers faced September 10. “If they’re gonna use those machines, they should have made sure they was working properly. Somebody should have been there at 6 o’clock to make sure the machines were…
Daily newspapers in America have been hemorrhaging readers for decades — nothin’ new about that. And for just about as long, head honchos have searched for ways to stem the flow and win back subscribers. Take, for example, The Miami Herald. Its weekday circulation of about 326,000 is roughly 100,000…
Cast a ballot, catch anthrax: Kudos on discovering some early Al Qaeda plots to destroy the American way of life (“The Terrorists’ Real Plan,” September 12). However, you forgot the one where they sabotage South Florida ballots and voting machines to create chaos, make us look foolish, and undermine our…
Alvin Keel headed out to a desolate stretch of Singer Island beach at 3 a.m. on May 29, 1998, with a plan to make enough money to feed his crack addiction for a week. The moon had set two hours earlier, leaving clear skies as black as the ocean. The…
Standing in a dark suit during an Oval Office ceremony this past May 29 with his brother Jeb at his side, President George Bush announced that the federal government would rescue Big Cypress National Preserve from ruin by buying private mineral rights for $120 million from the majority owner of…
Tracking new Florida child welfare chief Jerry Regier’s past has led to some pretty disturbing things: radical Christian groups, papers on parental discipline that condone bruises and welts, and a drive to give tax dollars to churches. Now, welcome to the prayer closet. Inside a converted 300-room hotel, the prayer…
By now, you have had enough September 11-inspired drivel. There’ve been too many tributes, too much memoriam, and far too little news, even here in the onetime home of at least 15 of the 19 terrorists. So this week, New Times offers something more. In a Hollywood apartment set for…
He’s a heckuva nice and responsible guy: This letter is in reply to Bob Norman’s September 5 article on former state Sen. John Grant, “Lapsed Ethics.” First, I am a liberal Democrat in Broward County. Second, I have never met or spoken with Sen. Grant, or any of his staff…
The cop in the white polo shirt and black dress pants halted suddenly and took a step back, apparently shocked to see a white guy in the crowd. The officer leaned awkwardly on a banister just out of earshot. “You see that? The only reason he didn’t come over and…
I shouldn’t be talking to you,” came a voice from the shadows. “Anybody figures out who I am and I’ll be in a world of shit. But frankly, I’m pissed off. I put in a ton of work on this stuff, and I’ve got nothing to show for it.” We…
When Gov. Jeb Bush took office in 1999, he promised to clean up our singularly seedy state with tougher anticorruption laws. The new administration created a special task force that made recommendations in early 2000 to free up the Florida Commission on Ethics to investigate politicians of its own volition…
Call your governor, then, Steve-o: Thank you for Bob Norman’s August 29 article, “De Regier.” Now more than ever, every voice needs to speak out against this kind of lunacy before it is too late. Steve Gonzales Fort Lauderdale Suuuuppperrr Bob! Just wanted to say that I love to read…
Religious fanatics are threatening to take away our peace and our freedom. They hate our open society and want to send us back to the Stone Age, where we’d be forced to live strictly by the rules of an outdated religious text. Even as I write this, they are planning…
They meet at a modest Unitarian church tucked away on a Fort Lauderdale side street. Their conversation sounds like that of any PTA committee or female support group. Ladies’ laughter and gossip flood the tiny lobby, and the aromas of a potluck supper beckon in an adjacent meeting room. You…
Shine on: I love reading features in New Times and other alternative newspapers, and I found Eric Alan Barton’s August 15 story, “So Long, Skid Row,” particularly interesting. I would like to know if y’all think that shining a light on social issues has helped alleviate the problems that you…
On a steamy Manhattan day in August 1977, a 36-year-old business wunderkind arrived at the liquidation auction of Robert Hall clothing stores defiantly mod in his lemon-yellow suit and open-necked, black shirt. At his side was a bodyguard whose wrist was chained to a briefcase. As onlookers gawked, Steven West…
This is a story about people who drive hundreds of miles in blazing heat to walk along dirt roads ragged with wildflowers and weeds, who swat helplessly at the hordes of bloodthirsty mosquitoes, who completely upturn their lives, their lawns, the interiors of their homes, who even change their paths…
One year ago this month, Florida House of Representatives minority leader Lois Frankel, a Democrat from West Palm Beach, announced her bid for governor. An outspoken and respected seven-term liberal lawmaker who gained fame for blasting the Bushes during the 2000 election, she told New Times last year (see “Long…
Frank Lee Smith died in prison two and a half years ago, wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl. He never found justice in courtrooms. But now, in the name of justice, Smith lives on in them. During just the past two weeks, Smith’s name has been invoked…
Let’s get together and feel all right: I found Bob Norman’s August 1 article, “The War Within,” very interesting. The Muslim fundamentalists are in the majority in backward Arabic countries. I spent two years listening to the ranting in mosques in Cairo, and before then in Qatar. You didn’t need…
