Here’s a quandary: What do you do if you announce your candidacy for higher office, but nobody reports it? (Or at least nobody besides Juice?) If you’re Bob Smith, former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire now semi-retired in Sarasota, you sorta pretend you never made the first announcement, then… make…
You’ll have to pardon Florida’s Democratic voters if they’re not as eager about the attorney general’s race as Dan Gelber is. The state senator from Miami Beach announced his candidacy for attorney general yesterday. It followed the announced candidacy of another up-and-coming Democrat, Dave Aronberg, the state senator from Greenacres…
On the right, that’s Corrine Brown, the Democratic congresswoman from Jacksonville considering a bid for U.S. Senate against Kendrick Meek. Here at Juice, we’re worried she’s going to realize it’s an absurd idea, then disappear again. So for now, we’re going to bask in her relevance. Above, a funny video…
No true political wonk goes 24 hours without checking fivethirtyeight.com, except maybe the people in Congressman Kendrick Meek’s senatorial campaign, because seriously, campaigns run on hope.Last week, the site’s wunderkind blogger, Nate Silver, devised a new metric (always with the metrics, this one) for analyzing a governor’s popularity. Silver took…
Despite what you might have read in recent blog reports, it looks like we won’t get any official word on the candidates to be the region’s top prosecutor till next week. So say a couple of sources in the loop on this process.Here’s a document that lays out the rules…
For much of the past week since the May 27 meeting of the North Broward Hospital District Board of Commissioners, Juice has been trying to reach the doctor who offered that meeting’s most fascinating testimony.Dr. Richard Glick’s remarks seemed to illustrate exactly how entrenched is the local health care system’s…
Maybe there’s method in the seeming madness of Adam Hasner’s right-wing associations. The House majority leader from Boca Raton sparked controversy in late April when he took a break from the state budget to make public appearances with anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Based on exit polls from elections yesterday…
Last year, I wrote a feature story about three little boys who had been horribly abused in the state foster care system. They were eventually placed with an adoptive family — but the Department of Children and Families hid the boys’ case files and backgrounds from the adoptive parents. As…
Former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty showed up for federal court in West Palm this morning dressed as a repentant sinner, in a white jacket and pearls. She choked back tears when she addressed the judge charged with sentencing her for violating public corruption law, telling him and the…
Few politicians had as much stake during Barack Obama’s speech today in Cairo, than Palm Beach County-based U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, an early supporter of the president’s 2008 campaign and whose efforts to convince Jewish voters to cast votes for Obama helped deliver Florida to the Democrats.Wexler has tried to…
Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti held a news conference yesterday to show off his department’s newest and trendiest purchase: four tiny Smart cars that will zip around Fort Lauderdale International Airport and Port Everglades. TV stations and the Sun-Sentinel followed the announcement with stories about BSO’s new “European minicars” that…
Tomorrow at 2 p.m., the North Broward Hospital District will have an “emergency” meeting. According to the announcement the purpose is for “discussion and possible action regarding the report of Martin Goldberg,” the former assistant U.S. Attorney who was hired by the district to investigate possible ethics violations by Commissioner…
A tipster claiming knowledge of the North Broward Hospital District’s investigation of Commissioner Joseph Cobo recently suggested Juice take a closer look at one of the most damning passages in the report: that Cobo allegedly used his power as a commissioner to do favors for a prospective client of his…
Joe Truhe, former associate general counsel of the North Broward Hospital District, who was fired along with the district’s general counsel May 15, has sent a letter to hospital commissioners demanding that they investigate Sam Goren, the attorney who became the interim general counsel.In a letter dated June 1, Truhe…
If Jacksonville U.S. Rep Corrine Brown should become U.S. Sen. Corrine Brown, can we expect a whole crew of city (and state and possibly federal workers) to come to her home to stop the next tropical storm? After all, it’s pretty ridiculous that she had to call “several” times during…
Former mayoral candidate and compulsive activist Earl Rynerson has been looking for dirt in the office of new Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler. Who knew he’d find it in his own mailbox?Judging by his blog post yesterday, Rynerson can barely contain his excitement over having received a form letter from…
That’s video from Saturday’s Netroots Coalition meeting in Miami Beach, where State Sen. Dan Gelber acknowledged his intention to leave the U.S. Senate race. Miami-Dade Democratic activist Larry Thorson posted it last night on the Daily Kos, along with his congratulations for the Democrats avoiding a nasty primary battle, so…
Last week, the Hollywood Commission considered a measure that would have broadened the “cone of silence” rule for city officials. They rock the cone in Miami — click here and scroll down for a definition. Basically, when the city puts a project out for bid, the contenders and their supporters…
Beaches without life guards, higher bus fares, laid off county workers, a major tax hike. Such a dismal budget proposal is hardly shocking in a county that’s drowning in a housing bust. But Palm Beach County’s proposal–detailed in the Palm Beach Post this morning–is stomach- turning because it can’t entirely…
Specifically, Sen. Bill Nelson, Charlie Crist, Kendrick Meek and Republican fundraiser-slash-rodeo enthusiast Ron Bergeron. They were joined by a national political dignitary, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. They all hopped on airboats — Bergeron drove one of them, man’s man that he is — and went traipsing around the Great Swamp…
By the conclusion of yesterday’s long, rancor-filled meeting of the North Broward Hospital District’s Board of Commissioners, it seemed as though everybody just wanted to move on.Did Commissioner Joseph Cobo commit ethics violations? Well, gee, the district’s own investigator Martin Goldberg says — if I can paraphrase his 43-page report…
How corrupt is Palm Beach County government? A grand jury report released today counts the ways. From overpriced land deals to shady bond underwriting practices, to slush funds that allow public officials to spend millions on their pet projects, it paints a picture of government that would make Rod Blagojevich…
