JAABlog, the popular and trenchant courthouse blog spearheaded by attorney Bill Gelin, is out of order. It’s been nearly a week since there’s been a new post. The troubles appear to have begun when the “moderators” of the blog changed a post written by Gelin about the inappropriate — and,…

As a bit of a Halloween experiment, the Miami Herald published a “ghost story” written by music writer Michael Hamersly that is now occupying prime real estate on the newspaper’s webpage. It’s a fictional story about a murderous — and quite insane — mother which includes this memorable paragraph: “Ve-ron-i-ca-a-a-a,…

Clients of Broward County lobbyist Judy Stern, who might be the most influential of all influence peddlers working at county hall, have gotten a strange letter in the mail during the past couple of days, according to sources. The letter appears to be from Stern — it even includes what…

I love the way Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti turns otherwise normal citizens into rabid activists. It may be the only benefit of the woman’s shameful career in public service. Take David Mach. He’s a member of the family that owns commercial property in downtown Hollywood that Giulianti tried to seize…

This is an email that just came across my transom from Nadine McCrea, president of the Washington Park Homeowners Association, to Hollywood Commissioner Peter Bober demanding that he remove her photo from his campaign website (the offending photo, I presume, is the Xmas shot). I’d like to say that there…

Click here at the WPLG site to see video of the arrest (and an accompanying blurb wherein the reporter’s own station misspells his name “Weisnier”). It’s several minutes long and quite interesting. Weinsier clearly knew he was going to be arrested. wanted it on tape, and refused to obey what…

To expound further on John DeGroot’s take on the yacht trade, I give you Martha Brannigan’s piece in the Miami Herald on megayachts. Basically, it backs up DeGroot’s finding that while the boat industry isn’t doing all that well as a whole, the megayacht business is going swimmingly. And yes,…

Judge Ana Gardiner gave the Broward County Commission some dire-sounding news. “Commissioners, we have run out of courtrooms,” warned the top judge in the criminal division at a September 25 workshop. “We have not one spare courtroom in the criminal divisions, felony divisions of Broward County; we don’t even have…

Feinberg And Penrod During Proverbial Happier Times Busy day on the Pulp. Now we hear that Joel Feinberg, the 30-year-old son of big money and owner of the 790-The Ticket radio station, has been arrested for allegedly beating up his fiance during a fight in California. A Monterey newspaper broke…

This from Jack Lessenberry of Detroit’s Metro Times: I had dinner the other night with a fine reporter and writer who works in another city where I was once a consultant. She loves what she does, and is good at it; she covers community news and sports. She has done…

Boynton Beach police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater is once again showing her unorthodox approach to dealing with the press. The former Palm Beach Post crime reporter — who created controversy in June with an ill-advised attempt to “call truth to the media” — sent out an email to several area reporters…

WPLG’s Jeff Weinsier was arrested yesterday for having a gun at a Miami high school where he was doing a piece on school violence. That’s a photo from WPLG above, though I couldn’t find the video footage. From WPLG’s account: “Kindly, go across the street now,” an officer is shown…

My question: Who’s embarrassing who here? And with knuckles like that, who needs a gavel? (Thanks to Ross Shulmister of The Sentry for the heads-up)…

Here’s the latest from John DeGroot, who uncovers some interesting data in time for Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. The numbers of yacht owners have boomed during the Bush presidency. And let me tell you, it’s a lot easier to stomach the disaster in Iraq, the erosion of civil liberties, and…

WFTV’s Robert Maxwell: Absolute Tool Rogue undercover agents manhandling strippers, having sex with informants, allowing an teenaged prostitute to ply her trade on their watch. Welcome to the world of the Orlando-based Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation. The weekly newspaper in Orlando (which is edited by former New Timeser Bob Whitby…

How easy is it for law enforcement agencies to find out who makes a comment on a blog? It’s a cinch, apparently, if they make like it involves child pornography. That’s a tactic the Broward Sheriff’s Office employed in its investigation of an incendiary comment made on the Deerfield Beach…

From my daughter’s mouth to God’s ears (damn, that’s blasphemous): — Washington (-8) over Arizona — Miami over New England (-17) — Tamba Bay over Detroit (-2) — Chicago over Philadelphia (-5) — Pittsburgh (-3.5) over Denver — Jacksonville over Indianapolis (-3)…

I’m traveling this long weekend, but had a moment to check in here to get some business done. First, Michael Lacey, the fearless leader of the Village Voice Media weekly empire (which includes this newspaper), and his long-time partner in crime (literally, if you believe the bastard authorities in Phoenix),…

Broward Sheriff’s Detective Jonathan Brown lets his suspect, a veteran City of Deerfield Beach employee, know that he has the goods: The detective has found out who left the comment on the blog. “We have forensics, all kinds of forensics — computer forensics, for example,” Brown tells his subject during…

First there was the infamous Keith Wasserstrom letter. Now “friends” of the convicted corrupto are throwing him a rally. In an email announcing the October 28 event, a group calling itself “Friends of Keith Wasserstrom” (you have to imagine that its president is “bobnormanisafool”) once again claimed the former Hollywood…

The latest from John DeGroot, who is now in the running for Broward sheriff. Hey, the guy has worked at BSO and the Attorney General’s Office and wrote a play about Hemingway called Papa. What else do you need? Seems he was spurred to join the wannabes by the news…

As the Inter American Press Association, which focuses on freedom of the press in South and Central America, holds its general assembly in Miami, the Sun-Sentinel takes the moment to … say to hell with national and international news. While the Miami Herald is focusing its coverage on the IAPA…