Ritter Campaign: Receipts Tell More of Story

​I’m digging into the Florida Elections Commission reports on Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter’s campaign case, and a few things quite literally don’t add up. Then again, nothing about Ritter’s campaign makes sense. It appears to have been a big-spending free-for-all.   When examining the actual receipts for the roughly $15,000…

More Ritter-Klenet Campaign Expenses: $2,189 at Diplomat Hotel

More than $1,000 was spent during four shopping trips at the Fresh Market, an upscale grocer that happens to have a notably fine wine and meat selection.   Curiously, the couple like to have alleged “campaign dinners” in Boca Raton in Palm Beach County. A visit to Chop’s Lobster Bar in Boca Raton ran…

Swimming With Sharks: Rising GOP Blogger Is Funded by Campaign Cash

Last year, Javier Manjarres was a landscape designer who’d had a couple of “chainsaw incidents” — one of which severely gashed a leg — and was thinking that maybe fate was telling him to change occupations. That’s when Manjarres — a 37-year-old first-generation Colombian-American who lives in Fort Lauderdale — started getting serious…

Stacy Ritter Received Thousands in Dubious Campaign Reimbursements Too

Here’s what I don’t understand about the Florida Elections Commission investigation of Stacy Ritter: Why weren’t there more charges? As I reported yesterday, four of the charges against Ritter pertain to reimbursements made by her 2008 campaign to her lobbyist husband, Russ Klenet, for expensive dinners at fancy restaurants and trips to…

Michelson Talks of Leaving Controversial Sunrise Job

Stuart Michelson, husband of investigated Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman, is expected to leave his controversial job as city attorney for the City of Sunrise. After criticism here and elsewhere regarding his no-bid appointment to the job — which has paid him more than half a million dollars in the…

Interview With Chef Daniel Ramos of Market 17 (Part 2)

Today we have the rest of our Q&A with chef Daniel Ramos, of the newly opened farm-to-table restaurant Market 17 in Fort Lauderdale. To read the first half of our interview, click here. Sounds like it’s quite a project to source food locally. In New York, it is hard not…

Interview With Chef Daniel Ramos of Market 17 (Part 1)

After months of anticipation (and a few delays), the new farm-to-table eatery Market 17 is now open on 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale. The restaurant is no small undertaking. All dishes are prepared from scratch. It serves ostrich. It makes ceviche tableside. The owners, brother and sister Aaron and Kirsta…

RIP, Leslie Nielsen

Some of the best moments from one of Fort Lauderdale’s finest.   — Stephanie Kraft’s path: Lawyer. PTA mom. School Board member. Tool for special interests. Corrupt tool for special interests. Scandalous politician. Criminally charged politician. Jailbird for a day. Suspended School Board member. Blogger. Sounds about right. Yes, Stephanie Kraft has started a…

The LeBron James Bump Heard ‘Round the NBA

​Well, I guess we know where Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter was on Black Friday: in a line with 500 people at Kohl’s at 3 in the morning. On her Facebook page seen above, Ritter wrote of standing in line at the sales-mad store. Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon, who…

A Thanksgiving Mystery

My favorite Thanksgiving song. Have a happy one. Now quickly onto a topic much more suited for Halloween than Thanksgiving — the cat killings case. Let’s start with the numbers. There were 33 cats killed in the Cutler Bay area of Miami in a short period of time back in the summer…

UPDATED: Schools Threat Suspect Is Green Party Member

The woman charged by the FBI with making a threat that led to the lockdown of more than 300 Broward County schools after hearing the words of right-wing talker Joyce Kaufman isn’t a member of the Tea Party — she’s a member of the Green Party. Ellisa Martinez was arrested yesterday for…

Talking with Chef Carlos Jorge, Part 2

Yesterday we started our interview with Chef Carlos Jorge of the W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Today, he tells specifics of how he’ll change the menu at Steak 954, the signature restaurant at the hotel.New Times: You spoke of recharging the seafood menu. Will you be using any new fishes?I…

Stacy Ritter Vid: Like Obama, I Must Withstand “Hammering”

Stacy Ritter just can’t stop herself. It seems that everything the Broward County commissioner does sends a stench heavenward. One reason for that may be that she doesn’t do anything at all unless it is to benefit her; her lobbyist husband, Russ Klenet; or the people who helped get her elected — namely,…

UPDATED: Longtime Clerk of Court Employee Sentenced for Fraud

Sentenced this morning was Cathy Hamilton, a 54-year-old Clerk of Courts veteran who allegedly scammed the public out of $36,000 in a scheme in which she stole filing fees from civil court cases. This one hit a little surprisingly, since I don’t believe her arrest was publicized. Hamilton pleaded guilty this morning…

Talking to Chef Carlos Jorge at W Hotel and Steak 954, Part 1

Chef Carlos Jorge, who gained fame for his tropical-inspired menu at Solu in The Resort on Singer Island in 2006, has taken over as executive chef at the W Hotel on Fort Lauderdale beach, where Steak 954 is the signature restaurant. We chatted with him for the Verbal Nosh, and…

Jim Leyritz Acquitted

The jury came back today after complaining that it was hopelessly deadlocked last night and acquitted Jim Leyritz of manslaughter. he holdout(s) succumbed after less than an hour of deliberation on this Saturday. The jury did, however, convict the former Yankee star of DUI, and he faces up to six months in…

Deadlocked Jury in Leyritz Trial

UPDATE: This just in: The jury is deadlocked in the Leyritz trial. They’re apparently ready to call it a hung jury, but Judge Marc Gold is trying to get them back in there to try again. That’s right, we’re looking at a probable ‘nother go-round. Call it: Leyritz Trial II, The State…

UPDATED: Leyritz Acquitted of DUI Manslaughter

UPDATED: Judge Marc Gold just issued a directed verdict in the former baseball star’s favor on the DUI manslaughter charge, a reliable courthouse source tells me. But Leyritz may still be convicted of a second manslaughter charge, however, along with DUI. Still, the case against the former New York Yankee is in tatters. The dropped count is a victory…