With Christmas still two days away, Micki Burton put on her best holiday dress and loaded her arms with presents. Waiting for her just seven miles away was her 47-year-old son, Jimmy Burgess, who lives in a group home in Plantation. Burton was excited, because, usually, she is allowed to…
The children’s section of Broward County’s main library occupies a corner of the second floor, and it’s here that Dr. Edward J. Reininger fought what’s being called the Borders War. Until that battle he could have been considered something of a literary flake, South Florida style. He is colorful, a…
As the Broward County Commission inches toward perhaps, maybe, televising its meetings, bureaucrats are hard at work determining how much it will cost to make commissioners look good. (We’re talking image, not substance, of course.) The county is trying to pressure Comcast into donating production staff to televise meetings, but…
It was just eleven days after Princess Diana tragically died while fleeing the paparazzi in Paris that news photographer Brent Strange found himself alone in a jail cell at the Coral Springs Police Department. He believes the two events, occurring on separate continents, are connected. The 41-year-old veteran TV news…
Up Against the Wall, Sir In response to your article, “Conspiracy, She Wrote” (January 15), I was completely unaware of Virginia Snyder’s existence, but I am certainly glad there’s someone out there taking on the cops, as difficult a responsibility as that is to have! I’m no private investigator, and…
Being a Native American, I was wondering why people and cartoon characters yell “Geronimo!” when they parachute from an airplane. To the best of my knowledge Geronimo never skydived. — Michael, southeast Texas As it turns out, this isn’t far from the real answer. The custom of yelling “Geronimo!” is…
On the evening of his retirement party, October 31, 1990, Delray Beach Police Chief Charles L. Kilgore pulled out a pistol, and without much forethought, took aim and pulled the trigger. The result: a direct hit on the forehead of 69-year-old Virginia Snyder. But the shot produced no blood, no…
If eyes are indeed windows to the soul, Websites are becoming windows to a politician’s personality. As Broward County taxpayers seek Internet insight from their elected officials — and watch their tax money at work in cyberspace — they might start with the County Commission. Predictably, Scott Cowan offers nothing…
In the world of religious radio, WAFG-FM (90.3) is the voice of mighty Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, a “friend of the family,” the station proclaims, existing “to glorify God and to further His purposes.” “Isn’t it wonderful to live in a country where Christians are freely allowed to worship, speak…
A grouper zinc is a lump of metal shaped like a fish. Boaters attach them to propeller shafts and other underwater fittings so that corrosion will eat the zinc instead of the boat components. A grouper zinc can also be used to fracture someone’s skull. That may or may not…
Parent Activism Is Not a Disability Three cheers for Frank and Nicol Shulman and their daughter Rachel, who was featured in Paul Belden’s article, “Islands in the Mainstream” (January 1). How many people do you know who, in the face of today’s society, are willing to put it all on…
I’m one very disgruntled and estranged member of the Catholic Church — so disgruntled, in fact, that I really don’t want to be counted as a member. How can I get excommunicated? I assume it’s not as simple as writing a letter (though this probably only means the Church is…
The limo driver straightened his tux and scratched his head. To the east the giant glow of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach urban corridor was clearly visible, a comforting sign of modernity. But brighter still and directly overhead lay Orion, the hunter’s constellation. The air was unseasonably cold, there was blood…
Leading a guest through the headquarters of the radio station known throughout Broward County as the Pipeline, owner and manager Jerry Lyddane sounds like a successful media entrepreneur trying to impress an investor with a can’t-miss business prospectus. “Now look at this,” he gushes, striding over to what appears to…
Privacy alert at BCC! Security-conscious operatives on the South Campus of Broward Community College have passed along to New Times a package of sensitive student documents — including social security numbers — they claim were pulled from trash cans in the financial aid, registration, and student advisement offices. The documents…
Rick Kiluk drinks a lot of cheap beer. He also smokes cheap cigarettes, sleeps where he can, and makes money at odd jobs. He used to pal around with a black Labrador retriever named Three, sharing a sleeping bag with the dog under the 17th Street Causeway and teaching her…
Bureau of Consumer Distress My wife and I found Dan Lovely’s article on Aaron Travis’ problems with Armstrong Ford (“Taken for a Ride and Left Stranded,” January 1) especially meaningful, given the situation’s symbolism when it comes to consumers and business, especially in Broward County. We find it interesting that…
I have received a question pertaining to the Beatles from a friend. I have no idea what the answer is. What do all four Beatles hold on the cover of the Beatles ’65 album? — Lee, via AOL I have the album right here. You forget how big these things…
In a conference room buried deep amid the sprawling halls and cubicles of Ely High School in Pompano Beach, a recent discussion of the proper role of education in a child’s life is beginning to fray around the edges. Spurred perhaps by the continual blatting of the fax machine in…
He sits at a small table in the Wild Oats Community Market, amid the muffins and the hazelnut coffee, waiting for his ride as Christmas carols float from speakers above. “I’m your natural-living super friend,” Aaron Travis says with a smile. “I assumed everybody was going to do right. See…
For those who question whether Fort Lauderdale has the visionary leadership to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, consider the results when the city’s finest minds, its boldest thinkers, gathered to discuss the future of Fort Lauderdale beach. In November the city convened a “Vision Workshop” where 130 “invited…
Joe Hessman walks across the rundown parking lot, a symbol of governmental trust betrayed, and tells the story of how it was supposed to be: The year was 1958, and Gov. LeRoy Collins, sitting behind a large mahogany desk, scribbled his name across the bottom of a deed giving Fort…
