Earlier this week, Lake Park town commissioners struck down Earl Stewart Toyota’s proposal to erect a 340-foot flagpole along U.S. 1. What a bunch of babies. Among the reasons cited for denying the proposal were traffic and noise concerns. So instead of a hulking display of American awesomeness, the commissioners suggested the auto dealer install an…
It’s a hard conch life for Robert Fortunato. Federal prosecutors announced that the 55-year-old Palm Beach County resident has been sentenced to a year of probation and will give up his 15-foot Mako boat for illegally importing 1,500 pounds of queen conch from the Bahamas. …
Sturgeons are big, ugly fish that look like something a dinosaur crapped out a few million years ago that never properly evolved. Some can top 200 pounds and grow up to seven feet in length, yet they have no internal skeleton and are covered with razor-sharp scutes. And though they’re not known…
On Monday morning, while most of you were sucking down coffees and lamenting the Miami Heat’s near comeback, Hector Picard, a double-arm amputee, set out for a 103-mile bike ride from North Carolina to somewhere in Virginia. A few weeks back, we told you about Picard, a local legend who had the majority of both…
If you woke in the wee hours of Friday morning and saw a low-flying, two-engine plane blanketing the sky with an ominous mist, don’t worry. Skeeter season is upon us, and that was just Broward County Mosquito Control doing its job. While the fancy folks down in Key West are kicking around the idea…
South Florida is a grifter’s paradise. And the latest con to emerge in this skeezy swampland is as brazen as it is complex: staging car accidents. Earlier this week, the FBI announced that at least ten people have been sentenced in a West Palm Beach court for their role in the scheme. Oscar…
It’s a pristine spring morning on the remote tip of Big Pine Key, 30 miles north of Key West. The lone paved road is surrounded by dense brush and wetlands that give way to the Gulf of Mexico. On this particular Tuesday, though, the usually silent landscape is dominated by…
The latest battle over genetically modified organisms is brewing in Key West. On one side, a British biotechnology firm called Oxitec and a mild-mannered Midwesterner by the name of Michael Doyle, who heads mosquito control operations in the Keys. Together, they want to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in the heart of…
From Sombrero Reef down in the Keys to the waters of West Palm Beach, red barrel sponges are disintegrating at worrisome rates. The culprit is unknown, and state scientists are busy trying to figure out just how widespread the disease outbreak is.At the end of April, Ed Tichenor of Palm Beach…
Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF recently announced that its exploratory drilling efforts in “ultra-deep” waters off the coast of Cuba were unsuccessful. To drill the test well, Repsol leased the massive Chinese-built Scarabeo 9 drilling rig from Sapiem, an Italian company. The embargo has pretty much blocked U.S. companies from getting…
Hector Picard was making his rounds through Hollywood on a typical day of work in 1992 when something went terribly wrong. The then-25-year-old electrician stepped into a fenced-off area to inspect a substation transformer — a hulking, two-story-tall structure that processes electricity and distributes it to entire neighborhoods. Before Picard could…
In the world of reptiles, turtles have a certain reputation as shell-dwelling wimps that make nice pets for 8-year-old girls. They’re slow and passive and hardly what one would call intimidating. Sure, you can argue that the snapping turtles pack a mean bite, but who among us has actually been at the receiving end…
It didn’t take long for the business community to come running to the defense of Herschel Vinyard.Free Market Florida, a self-described “unapologetic advocate for the principles of the free market,” on Thursday issued a press release saying that the Environmental Protection Agency should look for conflicts of interest in its own building before…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether Herschel Vinyard, secretary of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, fabricated part of his resume and has asked Vinyard’s counsel to clarify various discrepancies surrounding his employment history.It seems like a lose-lose situation for Vinyard, who was appointed to the position by Gov. Rick Scott in…
Here’s a grim statistic: More than 5 million people around the world die from smoking-related illnesses each year. That’s roughly a quarter of Florida’s population. Dead. Each year. The financial burden that comes along with these deaths and all those who survive their various bouts of cancer and emphysema and similarly brutal ailments is more…
Last week, a committee of experts recommended that the Food and Drug Administration approve the first drug for protecting against HIV transmission.On the surface, it sounds like great news. But as The Pulp reported in January, some doctors have serious concerns that the pill is not as effective as it should be…
As far as mash-ups go, this is one for the books. Johnny Damon — the former long-haired, free-rocking, super-awesome Boston Red Sox outfielder turned short-haired, lame-o Yankee turned Cleveland Indian, ugh, Cleveland — has decided to donate a bunch of money through his foundation so that the University of Florida can set up a research station…
It seems every week a new invasive species tearing through Florida makes headlines. Maybe it’s because we’re home to some of the busiest ports in the world, maybe it’s due to our ostentatious exotic pet owners constantly trying to one-up one another, or maybe it’s just that the climate here…
Red barrel sponges from Delray Ledge north to Breakers Reef are being attacked and killed by a mysterious disease, according to divers with Palm Beach County Reef Rescue.Ed Tichenor, who first observed the problem, says what’s most alarming is the rate at which the disease is killing the sponges. On April…
If the decrepit, fictionalized methheads on Breaking Bad have taught us anything, it’s that stealing an entire ATM is a fruitless venture that will result in your skull getting crushed. In the wee hours of Monday morning, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office arrived at a Loxahatchee Walgreens to find a busted-up…
In last week’s cover story, we looked at why reef-building corals are being plundered from the South Pacific and sent to the shores of Florida. But the curio trade isn’t the only industry fueling the death of coral. For centuries, jewelry makers have harvested precious red and pink corals. These deep-water corals are cousins of…
This week’s New Times cover story looks at why coral reefs halfway around the world are being decimated for Florida’s curio trade. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at one group that’s working to reverse the trend. Ken Nedimyer looked up from his omelet and asked if I get seasick. “Never,” I answered…
