Talk about scary politics. Republicans are throwing a Halloween party in Pembroke Pines next Friday night. As part of the festivities, they will be holding a U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz look-alike contest that the invitation says “could scare the devil himself.” The winner gets $100. Wasserman Schultz Wasserman Schultz is, of course, the Democratic…
This is a good shot of some of the alleged co-conspirators in the Scott Rothstein fiasco. Russ Adler and Steve Lippman were knee-deep in the mess. Grant Smith, who stands next to Rothstein, seems to have kept his hands relatively clean, however. Unlike Adler and Lippman, Smith was one of the RRA attorneys cleared…
Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom’s attempt to kill term limits (chiefly for himself) is going to court tomorrow, where a judge is expected to rule on it up or down. Rodstrom, plain and simple, is trying to overturn the will of the people for his own selfish reason — namely staying in a…
Time to talk about Amendment 8 real quick. Vote for it. Amendment 8 is the one that is going to give Florida school boards a little more flexibility on class sizes that were mandated by the 2002 class-size amendment. Since then, the Legislature has appropriated about $18 billion to fund…
The apparently illegal leak of classified FBI information regarding Broward County School Board member Phyllis Hope isn’t the first time the school district has been caught in a political mess involving confidential information. The last time it happened, it cost taxpayers a protracted legal battle and an $850,000 verdict in court. That’s how much a…
[UPDATED: Just received word from Broward School Board governmental affairs specialist Requel Bell that the sensitive school board background check document being used in the smear campaign against School Board Member Phyllis Hope is indeed exempt from public record disclosure. That means its release from the board’s Special Investigative Unit was illegal. Still trying to…
Another crazy day following shadowy leads on the political backstreets of Broward Town. Here’s something interesting that a reader was kind enough to send me: Have you ever heard of a PAC called the “The Ritter Committee for Florida’s Future”? Yes, it’s that Ritter, the one who missed the budget meeting and is apparently up in Tallahassee…
UPDATED: I have received word that Stacy Ritter is fine and dandy and ready to return next week. So let’s go to an interesting email. It comes from Broward School Board member Maureen Dinnen back in April 2009, before the FBI sting brought down Beverly Gallagher and the State Attorney’s Office charged…
— It was only the most important commission meeting of the year, the budget hearing where the already short-handed board voted on how to spend $4 billion of your money. So the fact that Stacy Ritter was absent was a little conspicuous. She didn’t do the call-in thing either. You know, considering that she’s making upwards…
[UPDATE: I told you a top building official was about to be arrested yesterday, and it should happen any time: Ron Morgan, the number-two Broward County School Board construction official, is wanted on a warrant for allegedly violating his probation, according to the Sun-Sentinel. Morgan was convicted last year of practicing without…
Who has a rally for “sensible marijuana policy” at 8:30 in the morning, when no respectable pothead is out of bed yet? Here’s who: That’s no-party Florida attorney general candidate Jim Lewis, a lawyer who has only two “campaign pictures” of himself on his website, both of them involving a moped and…
[Pulp Note: At long last, here’s the next installment in the Mitch Ceasar series based almost entirely on interviews with former Democartic Party executive directors who worked directly under him. Ceasar refused comment. Here are links to Part I, Part II on his lobbying, and Part III regarding his “hands-on” management style.]…
Well, we now have photographic proof that Stephanie and Mitch Kraft, fresh out of jail after being booked on corruption charges, went to the candidates’ forum the next night. It’s slightly more grainy than the Zapruder film, but it’s them all right. The photo comes courtesy of Broward Cleansweep, the anonymous…
All right, I planned to put up the next installment in the Mitch Ceasar series today and still might do it, but in the meantime, and in honor of the baseball playoffs, and as a comment cleaner, here’s something that maybe three or four of you haven’t yet seen. …
During her sentencing hearing today, Debra Villegas referred to the fraudulent documents being used in Scott Rothstein’s $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, saying that Rothstein and “another gentleman” prepared them. Her job, she said, was to dream up new names to put on the documents as fictitious defendants and plaintiffs in…
Debra Villegas, left, appealed for leniency because her children were already traumatized by the murder charge their father is facing in the death of Melissa Britt Lewis, at right. Debra Villegas received the maximum sentence of ten years in prison this morning for her role in the massive Scott Rothstein…
Might as well start this up now. Scott Rothstein’s right-hand woman, Debra Villegas, is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse. This post will be updated, certainly after the sentencing. Incidentally, her estranged husband, Tony Villegas, accused of murdering her best friend and former Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler attorney…
Nancy Grace claims to be all about victims, but last night, the HLN crime-show host did the victimizing. And who was there to add fuel to her idiotic fire? None other than Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper, who is still out hawking his Anna Nicole Smith on the news…
So let’s get this straight: The Broward County Commission, at the same time that it is demanding major cuts in Sheriff Al Lamberti’s budget, ordered him to give jail deputies $10 million in retroactive raises? Lamberti railed at the commission, calling them, memorably, “whining, complaining, and moaning.” On this issue, Lamberti, while totally in…
Well, the story about the Miramar boy who was expelled for bringing a toy gun to school was picked up by CNN today, adding national disrepute on top of all the local disrepute that is falling on the the Broward County School Board. Isn’t it enough that we’ve had two School Board members…
Remember the patrol car that hung from a tall crane off Interstate 95 during the sheriff’s race? It was a gaudy endorsement for Sheriff Al Lamberti during his heated 2008 campaign. On the side of the car were the words “Keep Al Lamberti Our Sheriff.” Under it was the disclaimer, “Political advertisement…
