Our most recently hired New Times staff writer, Tom Francis, recently got a crash course in the weirdness of committing journalism in South Florida. Francis was working on a story in Sunrise regarding politicians’ ties to the city-contracted garbage hauler, All Service Refuse. He wanted to talk to city commissioner…

Mattes I don’t go outside South Florida often, but this definitely warrants an out-of-state trip. You’ve got to see the savage beating this investigative TV reporter in San Diego took on video. John Mattes seriously almost had his face ripped off. And his trusty partner got it all on Fox…

Sun-Sentinel/Michael Laughlin I’m glad I wasn’t alone. The Marlins game was on my TV last night, but the sound was down low and I was helping my son with a school project. You knew rookie Anibal Sanchez was pitching a great game by the way announcers Tommy Hutton and Rich…

Judith Regan Regan Books HarperCollins Dear Judith, I hope you don’t mind the public nature of this correspondence. I’ve never written one of these “open letter” things before, mainly because they’re usually hackneyed and pretentious. But in this case, I think it’s necessary. So let’s get right to the point…

My sister newspaper’s own Jean Carey, author of The Bitch column, and new mystery blog thedirtmiami.com are in a bit of a spat over coke arrestee (and Herald advice diva Tara Solomon’s fiance) Nick D’Annunzio. I’m not taking sides here (hell, I’m partial to the Miami New Times, so whatever…

Guillen Janice Guillen in happier days. I’m 99 percent sure it’s the Myspace page of the 18-year-old girl who was arrested along with her boyfriend and two other guys for beating the homeless man in Little Havana to death. Some of the other pictures look more like her mug shot…

Alright, do it once, shame on you, do it twice, double-shame on you. I let Sun-Sentinel reporter Ihosvani “Gia” “Geo” Rodriguez misspelling of Hollywood activist Howard Sher’s name (he spelled it “Sheer”) in an August 27 article go without mention the first time he did it. Everybody makes an occasional…

Alright, Davis beats Smith in a close race (which I thought would be even closer). That’s what Smith gets for selling his soul to Big Sugar (B.S.) and using dirty political ploys to try to fool voters into thinking Davis was anti-Semitic and racist. The victory sets up what I…

The PBS show about the Sun-Sentinel’s award-winning FEMA investigation wasn’t exactly great TV, but it wasn’t bad either. Doesn’t matter much, since nobody saw it (c’mon, 11 a.m. on Labor Day Weekend Sunday?). But there were a few revelations in the documentary: — John Maines started the investigation simply by…

Sun-Sentinel Help Team columnist Steve Svekis warned us this weekend about … killer candles. That’s right. After expounding on the rampant dangers of pool drains and contact lenses, after telling us before the little storm Ernesto to get up on our roofs and remove the wind turbines, the Help Team…

It’s Election Day. Here’s a quick rundown of the races the Pulp is sort of interested in. I don’t know if these are endorsements or predictions or a bit of both: — Jim Davis over Rod Smith (stick it to Big Sugar). — Jeremy Ring over Graber in Florida Senate…

Nadia, Robson, and Sarah Kellen Okay, time for a little real Friday Pulp. You’ve prbably all read about Boca billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s penchant for young prostitutes. Everybody has by now. But, unless you live in New York or visit an NYCentric blog, you probably don’t know the whole sordid story…

A few of you might be wondering why I didn’t say anything about this week’s episode of “The Hill,” the Sundance reality TV show following Rep. Robert Wexler and his staff. Well, it’s because it was crap. Nothing more to say. If the next episode is worth 12 cents, I…

Beth Reinhard and Marc Caputo keep chugging on the Davis-Smith race. Mary Barley, whose bid to become agriculture commissioner in 2002 was slammed by Big Sugar, is the new Tom Joad of Florida. She’s going after Smith, who is getting a million-dollar-plus assist from the industry, which is bankrolling a…

Okay, somebody calling themselves “Sentinel Chicken” has asked that I look into Mike Clary’s front-page Sun-Sentinel story (in today’s Palm Beach County edition) on the closing of a shelter in Belle Glade. Seems Palm Beach County and Red Cross officials are up in arms about it, saying it’s a crock,…

I didn’t even think twice about it. But then someone told me they were pretty much stunned that I had used the word “wetback” in a joke on the Pulp yesterday. “Do you even know how many Hispanic journalists read your blog?” this person said. “I cringed for you.” This…

I was a little late coming to the party on the Sun-Sentinel re-design. I didn’t realize when it was done last year that it would relegate reporters and their stories to third-rate status behind giant graphics and stupid little blurbs. I didn’t know that it would turn national news stories…

A Real Front Page Okay, the newspapers had some ‘splaining to do this morning for overhyping Ernesto — and the Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald had exactly the same idea. Blame the science — and don’t even mention that the newspapers and TV stations and governments behaved like this was a…

In the crowded field of political candidates in this electoral season, there are four who have emerged as great hopes for our democracy. They have overcome character issues and moral deficiencies that would have crippled ordinary people. They have shown, in heroic fashion, that they aren’t encumbered with — and…

First alligators, now dogs. Evan S. Benn and Breanne Gilpatrick report on a fatal attack on a 56-year-old man by a boxer in southwest Miami-Dade. A boxer. Those are great dogs. I gotta think the dog had been mistreated or cooped up in some awful way. The dog killed the…

Third-Place Finisher Here’s the thing with the Big Three newspapers this morning: After all the hype of Ernesto, they had to come up with a giant front-page headline about how nothing really happened. And that’s all that was really important, since the stories, well, they were all just filler crap,…

It’s a good soak anyway. Forty hours of solid pre-storm coverage and Channel 10 was off the air just about ten minutes after the storm began affecting Lauderdale, in time for Wheel of Fucking Fortune. The TV guys just looked at each other and started stammering. One on Channel 6…