Obamas: We’d Rather Be in Cleveland

Anyone else a little miffed that Barack and Michelle have chosen to go campaigning for health-care reform in Cleveland instead of South Florida? Is our health care not bad enough for you?Even the Plain Dealer acknowledges that the president is  “us[ing] Cleveland as a backdrop to flog Congress into action.”…

Ex-Husband Maligns Crist Donors

Charlie Crist and wife Carole Rome are recently returned from a star-studded fundraising trip to the Hamptons. Rome’s ex, Todd Rome, was not invited, probably because he was a threat to give a toast like the one he gave to the New York Post:”THEY figure they might as well come…

Uh-Oh! Nut-Stomping Deerfield Blogger Laces Up a Steel-Toed Boot…

Marty Popelsky is the latest Deerfield Beach commissioner to wander into the crosshairs of the city’s ethics-obsessed blogger, Chaz Stevens. The man behind Acts of Sedition tells Juice that later today, he’ll publish a post that details a flagrant abuse of power by Popelsky. He’ll then blast that post across…

Cash Dries Up in Key Races for Dems

On paper, the congressional district of Rep. Bill Young of St. Petersburg would seem to be one of the best chances for the Democratic Party to pick up a seat. Although Young has kept that district Republican for almost 30 years, it went for Obama last November, and at 78…

Will Crist Respond to Scandal in Broward Hospital District?

We should know the answer to that question in about an hour. Yesterday I sent an email to the governor’s press secretary with a link to the post I made Wednesday. That post told of how the North Broward Hospital District Chairman Mike Fernandez demanded that an ethics investigation be…

Hospital District Attorney Hit With Bar Complaint

“I didn’t come here looking for a job,” attorney Sam Goren said May 14 at an emergency meeting of the North Broward Hospital District’s Board of Commissioners. In the moments before, commissioners had relied upon Goren’s legal counsel in determining that their general counsel, Marc Goldstone, should be fired. Now…

State Sen. Aronberg Going After Contractors’ Salaries

It could be a well-timed move to make him look like a crime-fighting hero (it comes conveniently at the very same time that he’s running for state attorney general), but regardless, it’s pretty cool that State Sen. Dave Aronberg (D-Greenacres) is taking public officials to task for letting private contractors…

The Islamicist in the Room

Fort Lauderdale’s WFTL-AM (850) talk-radio host Joyce Kaufman is smelling conspiracy everywhere lately. She has hooked up with those zany folks over at the Florida Security Council and believes that there’s a radical Muslim hiding under every rock. “I am obsessed with exposing radical Islam,” Kaufman told us by phone…

A Maverick Match Made in Republican Heaven

After Charlie Crist annihilated Marco Rubio in the most recent round of fundraising for the U.S. Senate campaign, the boyish former House Speaker needs a game-changer. You know, someone who can bolster his maverick persona. Maybe someone who, like Rubio, gives Republicans hope that there’s a younger, more attractive generation…

Trump and Real Housewife Host Fundraiser for Crist

Speaking of Gov. Charlie Crist’s fundraising skills…This weekend for $1,000 a pop, Crist fans in Sag Harbor, New York, can attend a party hosted by his celebrity pals: Jill Zarin, one of The Real Housewives of New York City, and Donald Trump.  Zarin is close friends with Crist’s wife, Carole…

Even in Turbulent Times, State Digs Deep for Crist

In an era of unprecedented financial insecurity for the state that Charlie Crist governs, the aspiring U.S. senator achieved an unprecedented financial windfall. During his campaign’s most recent quarter, he raised $4.3 million.That combination isn’t lost on Adam Smith, political editor of the St. Petersburg Times. He muses:Just think what…

Comcast to Air Pro-Israel TV Show to Counter Al Jazeera

Beginning Sunday, August 30, at 7 a.m., Comcast will air a half-hour TV program devoted to news about the Middle East. The show, run by the so-called Israel News Network (INN), will be unabashedly pro-Israel and makes no secret of its aim: to counter the growing influence of Al Jazeera,…

Palm Beach Airport Consultant Tied to Cleveland Bribery Scheme

Now that three former Palm Beach County commissioners have gone to prison on federal corruption charges, it’s tempting believe that local government has been reborn in a cleaner, more-efficient fashion. But of course, the cynics among us are still trying to sort out the damage that ex-commissioners Mary McCarty, Warren…

Rep. Hastings’ Amendment a “Disturbing Piece of Legislation”?

Approximately two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed an amendment, introduced by Congressman Alcee Hastings, that would prohibit people affiliated with hate groups from joining the military. The amendment is one of dozens tacked on to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010 — the bill that OKs money…

Incoming PBAU President Leaves Legal/Ethical Problems in Arkansas

When the Sun-Sentinel announced that Arkansas transplant Lu Hardin would take the helm of Palm Beach Atlantic University July 1, the newspaper quoted  R. Marshall Jones, chairman of the presidential search committee, who called Hardin “a person of great character and ability as well as a man of great faith.” …

Tea Party Team Fights Obama, MoveOn on Health Care

If the website NoGovernmentHealthcare.com is any indication, the group of conservative folks who organized the local version of the nationwide “tea parties” have become emboldened by the turnouts they’ve drawn. Now they are fighting Obama’s plan to move toward nationalized health care. If they have their way, they’ll become the…

Golf Course Developers Unworried About Honduras Coup

Pete Dye has modestly dismissed his own career as “digging up other people’s property,” but in truth, he elevated the act of golf course design from a mere landscaping job into an art form.  When Dye was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame in November, Greg Norman introduced him,…

Conflicts Loom Large for Current Hospital District Attorney

Sam Goren, acting general counsel for the $1 billion North Broward Hospital District, took that job despite having conflicts of interest, according to statements Goren himself made to a district investigator months before Goren assumed his new position.The investigator, Miami attorney Martin Goldberg, was hired by the board to look…