Even by the raucous standards of the Hollywood City Commission, real-estate attorney David Mankuta’s bellicosity at the May 19 meeting was astonishing. Mankuta later apologized, but he may end up even sorrier yet. His behavior revived charges that, as a member of a powerful city real-estate board, he had a…
“Fuck Off New Times.” The headline in the June 4 edition of HOTspots! magazine is not only succinct, it perfectly sets up the name-calling that follows. In two different columns, the gay magazine, which tends to write positive things about its advertisers, went negative and unleashed a barrage of adolescent…
Hell Hath No Fury Congratulations, New Times! You got to experience the wrath of scorned Hollywood politicians! Your words were twisted into a Hollywood spin accusing you of being racist and anti-Semitic (Undercurrents, June 3). That’s a common tactic used by some of Hollywood’s leaders. Think about it, those comments…
Sean Anthony Cononie is dimly aware that other people often end up taking him the wrong way. He doesn’t know why that is exactly, but for some reason suspicion always seems to follow his good intentions around. For example: Three years ago he was carjacked in Overtown at two in…
We proved that it is possible to shop at six CocoWalk malls in one day and survive. As a corollary, we also wondered if someone can consume a frozen tropical drink in all seven BeachPlace bars — and still retain trivia acumen. As this kind of investigation is not terribly…
Future anthropologists chronicling the evolution of America’s consumer culture will remember April 1, 1999, as the end of an era. For on that day, in the Los Angeles suburb of Sherman Oaks, the Galleria closed forever. This mall not only starred in the movies Valley Girl and Fast Times at…
For most people who help kids entangled in the legal system, the only reward is the warm glow that comes from having done a good deed. For a lucky few, however, the payback is more pecuniary. Downright lucrative in some cases. How do you go from being a concerned citizen…
We’re usually just amazed when people contort information from this paper, take it out of context, and use it for their own devices. Now we’re angry. The afterlife of “Hooray For Hollywood!” (Harris Meyer, April 29) continues to evolve in mysterious ways. A reprinted passage has been circulating around Hollywood…
A Former Practitioner of Sexual Roulette I just finished reading your latest piece in the New Times (“Sexual Roulette,” Jay Cheshes, May 27) and all I can say is Wow! You really chose a topic loaded with political and social overtones that are being actively debated in the gay community…
By all accounts Greg Scott, a solid, 37-year-old “gym boy” with a dirty-blond tuft of hair under his lip and a stylized biohazard symbol tattooed on his midriff, should be dead. Twelve years ago, approaching graduation from nuclear-power school at the naval training center in Orlando, he found out he…
Assembled at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ hall on State Road 84 are the workers who keep Fort Lauderdale functioning. People who spend their days replacing the city’s pipes, balancing municipal checkbooks, manning forklifts, cleaning public pools, and keeping the beaches free of debris. The predominantly male crowd of…
Goodbye, grouchy observations about suburban fortresses and misguided drivers. Hello, invigorating world of pesticide-free produce and weed warriors. After six years at the Sun-Sentinel as a columnist, John Grogan is departing for greener pastures, literally. He’ll leave in June to become managing editor at Organic Gardening magazine. Huh? Was it…
Fireman Tom is a Friend, Not a Fiend The abuse of power by Sgt. Robert Artola of the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department cannot be tolerated in a civilized society (“Presumed Guilty,” Bob Whitby, May 13). His disregard for human rights and willingness to destroy innocent adult human beings in…
The objects that adorn Alberto Milian’s office in the Broward County courthouse in Fort Lauderdale tell more about the Cuban-born prosecutor than the words that pour forth from his mouth ever could. Behind Milian’s desk is a red, white, and blue United States Army banner. Taped to the door is…
By day Fran Klauber is the Broward County School Board’s full-time intergovernmental affairs specialist, a job that pays her $57,896 a year to build good relations with the many cities that deal with the board. During her spare time, she’s also a Sunrise city commissioner, paid $20,000-plus to steer that…
If we were working for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and we were a black sergeant about to take the test for lieutenant, we would be studying like a compulsive gambler who just got his hands on a racing form. Some lucky soul working for Sheriff Ken Jenne may not…
There’s a prescribed method to get into a Consulier, and it goes like this: Stand by the open door, turn 180 degrees away from the car, stick one leg behind you into the passenger compartment, crouch down and fall into the seat, haul your other leg in, and spin around…
Neither a Trench Coat Nor a Turncoat Be Travis would never do anything to hurt anybody (“Caught in a Web of His Own Design,” Harris Meyer and Brendan Kelley, May 6). It’s messed up that he is not at our school anymore. I have to say I’m pretty bored in…
Former Florida House Speaker Bolley “Bo” Johnson was portrayed by prosecutors in federal court last week as a crooked Florida politician profiting off his influence and the public trust. Prosecutors claim Johnson took more than $1 million from special interests in a four-year period, much of it while he was…
There’s a photo on Tom Tornatore’s desk of him and his two kids at Disney World. In the photo Tom is on the left, Katie, age 12, is in the middle, and Tommy Jr., 16, is on the right. They’re standing in front of Cinderella’s Castle, which is decorated in…
For more than six years, Marti Forman has been searching for a permanent home for Cooperative Feeding Program Inc., the nonprofit agency she heads up that provides hot meals to the needy. And for more than six years, she’s encountered nothing but resistance and frustration at every turn. This year…
For a man who was invited to offer spiritual advice to local Roman Catholic attorneys, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas gave a speech in Fort Lauderdale last week that was surprisingly full of bile and self-pity. His talk followed a special mass organized by the St. Thomas More Society of…
