-- So the parimutuels are getting together to try to get some parity with the Seminole Hard Rock. In short, they want to be able to offer table games like blackjack -- or have those games taken from the Seminoles. Mardi Gras Gaming's Dan Adkins tells the Sun-Sentinel's Josh Hafenbrack that the economic situation for the four parimutuels in Broward is "dire." I don't believe Adkins is crying wolf -- the double whammy of the sinking economy and Charlie Crist's idiotic pact with the Seminole Tribe has to be putting a serious hurt on these businesses. I remind you that the Sun-Sentinel blindly backed the pact. While I believe people should have the right to lose their money at a casino, I've never been a big backer of them. Now, though, I'm 100 percent behind the parimutuels, who deserve to be able to offer table games to compete with the Seminole monopoly.
-- Calling all environmentalists: A developer and its lobbyist are pushing to build a giant hotel-office-commercial monstrosity on the Everglades west of the Sawgrass Expressway in Sunrise. Do you care? I know the established practice in Broward County is to do nothing until it's too late, but this is ridiculous. Is the Everglades preservation squad so busy pushing for the terrible deal to buy U.S. Sugar that it doesn't have time to tackle this precedent-setting threat?
-- It's time for the Society of Professional Journalists' "holiday cheer" party. The info:
Come join the Society of Professional Journalists this holiday season for some holiday cheer. The group is throwing its holiday party on Friday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. at Hollywood Vine. The event includes free appetizers and a cash bar. Hollywood Vine is located at 2035 Harrison Street in Hollywood. We'll even have a couple door prizes so you can start out the holiday right.
