The dozen shoes that protrude from beneath Clarence Kelley’s bed are neatly lined up, like cars at a dealership. First there are the patent-leather ones that cover his ankles, then the gray, plastic loafers with chrome buckles, then the aging blue sneakers with yellow stripes, and so on. Across the…
Kristi Posvar swings her hips through a tight space in an overstuffed warehouse before spotting a planter the color of overcooked peas. “Oh my God, there it is. I was afraid they sold it,” she says, sliding her fingertips along the crackled paint finish. “This is one of the last…
Never mind that Frank Lee Smith had done the time for his past crimes. Forget that he had lived three quiet, arrest-free years outside of prison before Broward County sheriff’s Det. Richard Scheff swept him up in a faulty investigative dragnet and charged him with the rape and murder of…
Bob tars Mahdi with the “F-word”: Labels are easily tossed off but often hard to substantiate. They depend far more on assumed shared emotional perceptions than on facts and reasoning. What makes one a “fundamentalist?” In the August 1 article, “The War Within,” Bob Norman adduces, as evidence of Rafiq…
A handful of cars dots the fast-food joints along University Drive in northern Davie — so few it’s almost not worth the eateries’ while staying open late this oppressively muggy Saturday night in July. Miami Subs, on the other hand, is bustling. Just a quarter-mile from the I-595 ramps, it…
Seated in a stuffed leather chair in her posh Tallahassee office, Dr. Flo Ridda flips open her notebook. She’s filled with a mix of nervousness and excitement. Kathleen Kearney, the patient reclined beside her, presents a once-in-a-career challenge. Rarely does a psychiatrist have the chance to treat multiple personality disorder…
When Pompano Beach Mayor Bill Griffin decided last November that he wanted a bigger job, he went to Bill Keith. The mayor couldn’t have picked a better-connected fellow for employment assistance, especially in Griffin’s field of construction. Keith’s engineering firm, after all, is aligned with numerous major developers and builders…
Please don’t shake the booty: Is Ashley Fantz kidding us? I believe the quote from her July 25 story,”Caged Swelter,” was: “We are real dancers. We put on a real show. Anyone who sees us knows that.” I’ve seen these girls perform. I may be an out-of-towner, but I didn’t…
Shafayat Mohamed has a dream. He dreams that one day, little Muslim boys and girls will join hands with Christian and Jewish boys and girls around the world and walk together as sisters and brothers. He really does. The mosque leader dreams that Palestinians and other predominantly poor and uneducated…
Kurt Klaus Jr. had good reason to get the hell out of West Palm Beach. On a blazing hot Tuesday, he tucked a modest stack of papers and folders under his left arm and bolted for his Toyota Tundra, which was parked under a tree across from the federal courthouse…
I reached Pompano Beach Mayor Bill Griffin on his Turner Construction Co.-issued cellular phone last week. “Hello,” the mayor answered. “Bill?” I queried. “Yes,” he obliged. “Hi, this is Bob Norman of the New Times calling to bother you again.” “Good,” he said with a note of… was it defiance?…
Only if you’re a professional: Reading Ashley Fantz’s July 25 article, “Caged Swelter,” I confirmed once again why the public has such a misconception of “dancers.” I belong to one of the top ten dance companies in the United States, New Century Dance Company, which is here in Miami; we…
There are two dollar bills tucked into Pamela Canellas’s cleavage. A flurry of boa feathers sprouting from the base of her ponytail and floating down half the length of her five-foot, three-inch body, Canellas is working her French manicure into the sides of her red-sequined Charo getup. Here, in the…
“Donate Your Wheels for Meals” read a recent advertisement wedged into the “Autos Wanted” section of the Sun-Sentinel’s classified ads. “Don’t let your neighbor go hungry.” As anyone who has watched an old car deteriorate into a pile of rust in the driveway knows, the idea of unloading that burden…
For a guy who claims that Saudi Arabia’s royal family has a contract on his life, Palm Beach Gardens resident Tim Hunter is remarkably calm. A heavyset, politically conservative baby boomer, he doesn’t look or sound nuts. In fact, with his round, steel-rimmed glasses and his face like a big…
This sparrow is the key to everything! In regard to Mike Clary’s July 11 feature story, “For the Birds,” the Cape Sable seaside sparrow in the Everglades is like a canary in a coal mine; if we lose the sparrow, Everglades restoration is sure to fail. The sparrow is the…
If only the endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow were a panda. Or had big mournful eyes, like Bambi. Or could project just a little more personality. “It’s not like they’re gorgeous,” field biologist Julie Lockwood concedes. “And they are not easy to see anyway, since they hardly come [up] above…
A young man in a Speedo slices through crystal-blue waters, a pyramid of bubbles escaping from his nose and trailing half the length of his toned, swimmer’s physique. Above his head, a prism of block printed letters reads “Rainbow Guide.” Issued in June, this is the first travel brochure distributed…
Luis Castillo is all alone again. Almost two weeks after his impressive run of registering at least one hit in 35 consecutive games came to an end and less than a week before his first All-Star Game appearance, he sits quietly in front of his locker at Pro Player Stadium…
Think his teacher noticed? In reference to Bob Norman’s July 11 column, “First Pledge”: Bravo! Amen! Congratulations on a gutsy, well-written piece. Finally, someone recognizes the rabid knee-jerking this country has been going through for what it is! Am I the only one who left out the “under God” part…
Erin Brown grew up in an Irish cop family. One brother, a sister, and three cousins all work for the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Her father, Don O’Brien, retired from BSO in 1995. And a career in law enforcement was all that the freckled redhead wanted for herself. Two years out…
About 11 a.m. this past Saturday, just as Serena Williams was burying Venus at Wimbledon, another little sister faced a dire situation in a world championship in Fort Lauderdale. Tied at three games with a far more experienced player and down by three points in the rubber match, 13-year-old Ai…
